Aid to CT’s shuttered venues tops $100 million, data shows
The first rehearsals for the Goodspeed Opera House’s 2020 season were just a week away when the staff received the news last March that the historic theater would delay its upcoming productions in hopes of riding out the emergent threat from the coronavirus.
“Like most folks at the time, we didn't know what was ahead of us,” said David Byrd, the theater’s managing director. “We all maybe naively now thought at that moment that it was going to be maybe a couple of weeks.”
Instead the “Home of the American Musical” on the banks of the Connecticut River closed its doors for over a year and a half, hemorrhaging $11 million in lost revenues and reducing its workforce by more than two-thirds during the worst of the pandemic, according to Byrd.
Now, more than 21 months since the theater last welcomed guests indoors, Byrd and the staff are planning a September comeback with the aid of $2 million from the federal government’s relief program for the country’s shuttered theaters, cinemas, museums, zoos and concert venues.
More than $100 million from the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program has flowed into Connecticut in recent months, according to data analyzed by Hearst Connecticut Media, aiding businesses and nonprofits in every corner of the state with grants ranging from several thousand dollars to a few million.
A total of 140 applicants in Connecticut have received shuttered venue grants, according to the data from the Small Business Administration, which administers the program. The SBA closed applications for grants on Friday, so even more money could be allotted to the state in the near future.
While the state’s heavily populated southeastern corridor received the bulk of the shuttered venue grants, an out-sized portion of the funding also flowed to the shoreline and lower Connecticut River Valley regions, where popular attractions such as the Mystic Aquarium, Mystic Seaport and the Goodspeed Opera House received millions in aid.
“For Goodspeed and so many other institutions, we’re not just producing art, we're economic drivers,” Byrd said in an interview last week. “So when Goodspeed is shuttered, so are the restaurants, so are the boutiques, so are the hotels. So it’s really been important for theaters like ours that are in more rural areas, but also in more metropolitan centers to get back up and running when we can.”
More rural and less-traveled areas in Connecticut’s northeast corner received the smallest portion of funding from the program, even when accounting for population.
Tolland and Windham counties together received three grants worth $1.4 million, compared with the 48 grants worth $41.7 million that went to applicants in Fairfield County.
Among the state’s notable venues to receive relief from SVOG grants were Bridgeport’s Downtown Cabaret, Toad’s Place in New Haven and the Wall Street Theater in Norwalk.
“I literally think the Shuttered Venue Operator Grants saved the venues in the state,” said Allison Stockel, the executive director of the Ridgefield Playhouse for Movies and the Performing Arts, which received a $2.7 million grant. “It was an absolute game changer.”
‘A long road to recovery’
Eligible applicants for the shuttered venue grants program included theaters, museums and concert venues as well as related entities such as producers, promoters and talent representatives that were operating as of Feb 29, 2020, according to the program guidelines . The amount of aid that applicants received was based on a portion of their gross revenues in 2019, up to $10 million.
The only grant recipient in Connecticut to receive the maximum $10 million amount was Ridgefieldbased Bow Tie Cinemas, a chain of movie theaters with operations in six states. The smallest recipient was Artist Magnet, a talent representation firm based in Southbury that received $1,807.
Movie theaters were “simply devastated” by forced closures and falling attendance during the pandemic, and as of July 27 roughly one-fifth of the screens in the state remained dark, according to Connecticut Association of Theatre Owners Executive Director Doug Murdoch, though he said it was unclear how many had closed for good or were waiting to reopen.
“It will be a long road to recovery,” Murdoch said. “We need all the help we can get.”
The chief operating officer of Bow Tie Cinemas, Joseph Masher, did not respond to requests for comment.
According to the SBA guidance, recipients of SVOG grants can use the funds to pay rent, utilities, payroll or other debts incurred during the pandemic, as well as advertising and capital costs related to producing live shows. Applicants who also received Payment Protection Plan loans from the federal government after Dec. 27, 2020 had their awards from the SVOG program reduced by the amount of the loan.
Several beneficiaries of the program described the stability provided by the grants as they return staff to work and navigate the lingering uncertainty toward crowded venues and the recent uptick in COVID cases caused by the delta variant.
Stockel said that the Ridgefield Playhouse was using its grant money to help offset nearly $4 million in losses from 300 performances that were cancelled or rescheduled during the pandemic, even as staff continued working to produce online content, limited-capacity movie screenings and outdoor shows.
“We were the epitome of pivoting and adapting to whatever we were allowed to do,” Stockel said.
At the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center in Old Saybrook, Executive Director Brett Elliott said when the venue attempted its first return to a limited-capacity concert series in March, ticket sales over three nights still did not amount to a single sold-out show prior to the pandemic.
Attendance eventually picked up between May and July, Elliott said, before concerns over the delta variant caused “The Kate” to update its mask wearing guidance this week. Earlier this month, The Kate announced its award of $691,756 during a press event with U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
“Now that things are taking a little bit of a turn, people may not be buying tickets the way they were, but shows are still happening,” Elliott said “It’s helping us ensure that we can continue to do what we do in a time when things are not normal.”
Nationwide, the SBA has reached a decision on 97 percent of applicants to the program as of last Tuesday, and disbursed $8.2 billion of the $16 billion allotted to the program.
With nearly half of the money in the program yet to be disbursed ahead of Friday’s deadline, the SBA said last week that it would open applications for “supplemental” grants later this month, though full details on that process have yet to be announced.
Catherine Marx, director of the SBA’s Connecticut District Office, said her office did not have information to provide on rejected applicants for the program in Connecticut, pointing to an ongoing appeals and reconsideration process. According to nationally published data, nearly one-third of applicants that have received word of the SBA’s decision have been rejected.
“The appeals process is a rare opportunity to give applicants a chance to prove their eligibility and reverse a prior decision,” Marx said in an email. She added there is no “definitive” timeline for the length of the appeals process.
In New London, Susan Tamulevich described her efforts to make the most of the $7,139 grant received by the town’s Maritime Society, one of the smallest awards in the state.
Tamulevich, who is the executive director and only employee at the Maritime Society, said she relied on the non-profit’s coterie of docents, volunteers and trustees for support during the 63 weeks that the small museum — along with its “cherished” exhibit on New London’s role in the story of the slave ship Amistad — were closed to the public.
Even with that help and financial support from donors, Tamulevich said the society incurred debts during the pandemic, and the help it received from the SVOG program went to paying utility bills, restocking the museum’s gift shop and making needed repairs to the 19thcentury customs house in which the museum is located.
“It’s no sooner here than it’s gone,” Tamulevich said, who later added, “I see the other amounts that other organizations get and I think, ‘Golly, what a difference that would make to us ... but we’re happy with the seven [thousand dollars].”
Elliott, the executive director of The Kate, said industry groups such as the National Independent Venue Association helped lobby congress to pass the SVOG program and provided updates to its members throughout the process.
Connecticut’s congressional delegation voted unanimously in favor of the legislation, authorizing the program in December 2020.
Despite some well-documented problems with the online rollout of the application process the following spring, some venue operators said they viewed the program as a success in allowing them to resume operations and return artists, backstage crews and other support staff to work.
“There would be a significant amount of arts organizations that would not be here,” without the grants, Elliott said. “Nonprofits, many of us can continue to raise funds from our donors, but if you were a commercial venue and you were just hard closed, where was your money coming from, where was support coming from? It just wasn’t there, there wasn’t any.”
At the Goodspeed, Byrd said his team was still taking a wary approach to the recovery, re-hiring some of its previous staff in preparation for next month’s opening of the Rogers and Hammerstein musical revue “A Grand Night for Singing.”
“It’s slow, we’re having to be very, very thoughtful because there’s so much uncertainty still,” Byrd said. “We don't want to be put in a position where we welcome everybody back and then we have to go through it again.”