For example, the Springfield Symphony Orchestra found the pandemic affected its audience even after restrictions had been lifted. Most of the symphony patrons are older, so the board approved a bold move by music director and conductor Peter Stafford Wilson: spend more to attract bigger names and programs, drawing a new and larger audience.
The symphony started one of its biggest seasons yet in October with Itzhak Perlman, considered the world’s leading violinist.
“We’re seeing new faces, and people are leaving excited and surprised with how good our symphony and the (Clark State) Performing Arts Center were,” Lou Ross, the symphony’s executive director, said.
The Springfield Museum of Art used the pandemic as a time to reinstall art in new thematic displays, enhancing the museum experience, and have developed ideas for new partnerships and events to engage a larger audience, according to Jessimi Jones, executive director.
“We believe art belongs to all people,” Jones said.
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
And live performances will go on for years to come, predicted Dan Hunt, Clark State Performing Arts Center’s general manager, venue operations.
“It has always been in our nature as humans to want to experience events as a group. We need that community experience,” Hunt said.
The pandemic threatened the local groups when, in mid-March 2020, seasons abruptly ended and venue doors closed as lockdowns began. Through lifting of some restrictions, virtual shows and socially distanced events, they persevered.
Here’s a look at each group’s pandemic experience of the last three years and hopes for 2023 and beyond:
Springfield Symphony Orchestra
Ross recounted the Springfield Symphony Orchestra journey through the pandemic.
“We couldn’t perform live and even when we were virtual, it meant masking and social distancing and taking COVID tests,” said Ross, who has been with the symphony since 2015.
Even when the SSO restarted, officials “were still cautious about our audiences.”
The SSO was actually the first local arts group to return to an in-person event at the Clark State Performing Arts Center in October 2020 with its “Welcome Home” concert, limited to 225 people. The musicians socially distanced, most wore masks and were separated by partitions. The audience was also required to be masked throughout.
It would be the only such live show at the PAC for nearly a year due to restrictions on gatherings.
The organization stayed afloat through Payroll Protection loans, federal, state and local aid.
“We were fortunate,” Ross said. “It helped us pull out of debt with our credit line and helped us get our footing for 2021-22 and stay pretty much in the black.”
The silver lining in the pandemic was the camaraderie formed as the symphony managed to pay the musicians. The SSO also managed fundraisers virtually and some in person, with the staff appreciating patron support.
“They were having tough times, too, but thought it was worth their supporting the symphony,” said Ross.
The organization scheduled a full 2021-22 season but discovered the pandemic affected its attendance. Then came the decision to seek bigger names and shows to interest non-subscribers to subscribe to the entire season and draw new crowds.
The SSP found about 60 percent of the audience for the Perlman show came from Clark County, but acknowledged it was more expensive show requiring higher ticket prices. The recent show that saw the SSO play live along to the movie “Home Alone” also had extra costs to show the film and pay a guest conductor and technical help.
A patron fund is being used to bring in higher-profile talent.
Ross said upcoming shows have a family feel and hopes it will lead to more discovering, with things like the Springfield Symphony Jazz Orchestra and the first Springfield Jazz and Blues Festival, which drew a strong response in 2022 and will return in 2023.
He admits classical and jazz music can be hard to sell, but the quality of product helps.
Springfield Arts Council
The Springfield Arts Council had two shows left to go on its Showtime! winter series and had just announced the lineup for the Summer Arts Festival when initial lockdowns occurred. Executive director Tim Rowe was still talking with agents for shows going forward because people speculated restrictions soon would be lifted.
As the lockdown lingered, the Arts Festival was canceled and the Arts Coucil turned to virtual shows, including several starring its Youth Arts Ambassadors. They used local talent for a live entertainment program, Downtown Sounds, at COHatch in the winter of 2021 to satisfy demand.
“We needed to let people know we’re still here, trying to do something as we waited this out,” Rowe said. “We’re a nonprofit, and we have a business to run. We were worried if we can’t do the festival in 2021, then what?”
In late April, an abbreviated three-week Summer Arts Festival was announced. Audiences were enthusiastic, and a new winter season at the Performing Arts Center occurred in December 2021, but with caution.
“We were constantly discussing things with (Clark County Health Commissioner) Charlie Patterson, trying to get back to normal but constantly keeping an eye on health,” he said.
Rowe said he felt better booking shows for 2022-23, although the season subscriber base had dropped by 40 percent, largely due to aging, a trend over the past decade nationwide.
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
Organizers felt confident enough to make up for the previous two years by booking a six-week Summer Arts Festival this year.
“I’m pleased we were able to negotiate the pandemic and that we’re rebounding.” he said.
Rowe noticed agents are working harder to make sure their acts are booked, approaching 2019 levels, but the cost in presenting them is different.
“That’s a definitive comment on 2020-21, when acts weren’t working,” he said. “I may be able to get an act for the same price, but some of the better acts are also charging more, and prices go up.”
As acts generally perform several shows in a region, it means Rowe is booking hotels for an average two or three nights for most artists. Acts might include about six people and a technician, and some fly in, which also adds to the cost.
“People still want to go out and attend live entertainment and use a little more discretion, and we’re always mindful of what works best for our community when we’re presenting it,” said Rowe.
“We try to make sure what we are doing is of high quality that people want to see and, when they tell us afterward they enjoyed it, that’s what we like.”
Springfield Museum of Art
Jones took her role at the Springfield Museum of Art in January 2020, full of ideas and excitement and prepared for the challenges. A couple months later, the pandemic shut down the facility for several months.
The lull caused Jones and her staff to get creative, taking advantage of social media to display work, creating cards for nursing home residents, and creating a trail gallery, displaying art in the museum windows for those using the running or biking trails to see.
The art museum reopened briefly in June, bringing in a piece by a world-renowned artist, before closing again in fall and reopening in the winter.
“During 2020, visitors dropped by approximately 70 percent,” said Jones.
Visitors were slow to return.
“We haven’t quite returned to pre-pandemic levels, but are nearing them,” Jones said. “This is common at museums around the country.”
The closure offered opportunities, including a reinstalled installation celebrating women artists, and it helped the staff think differently about exhibitions and bigger themes.
Fall of 2021 brought a high-profile exhibit, “Black Life as Subject Matter II,” that earned a Best Exhibition in Ohio award from the Ohio Museums Association and had several themed events surrounding it.
The museum explored other ways to engage a larger audience. It offered its first Holiday at the Museum event, expanded its free Come Find Art events for families and used partnerships in the community including with the Springfield Arts Council to renew the KidsFest event that is part of the Summer Arts Festival for the first time since 2019, drawing more than 1,000 people.
Jones said the museum’s mission includes programs showing how art can enhance wellbeing and contribute to a community’s vitality, from preschool students to those with Alzheimer’s and dementia to those recovering from substance abuse.
“Partnerships, increased access to art and expanded engagement with the Museum have become integral to our organizational DNA,” Jones said. “These are things you will continue to see more of in 2023 and beyond.”
Clark State Performing Arts Center
It was the day after presenting a concert by the Blue Man Group that the Clark State Performing Arts Center (PAC) got the lockdown order that would last the better part of 18 months. While social distancing and rules on public gatherings limited live entertainment, it meant getting creative, according to Hunt, who took over as Clark State’s general manager, venue operations this past summer after working there in other capacities for several years.
“Just like every other live performance venue in the area and country, we did what we could to bring arts to the community,” he said. “We had a drive-in concert on the main campus of Clark State and small outdoor concerts at the Hollenbeck Bailey Center and PAC, and partnered with the symphony to stream a live concert in the Kuss Auditorium.”
Hunt credited Clark State for “keeping its family whole” by having the PAC staff reassigned to other departments such as the school library, IT and student affairs.
As restrictions on gatherings loosened, the PAC reopened with a “Welcome Home” event in September 2021. Despite uncertainty in the industry, Clark State slated a full season with Broadway tours, nationally recognized acts and a variety of other entertainment, following the guidelines set by the Clark County Combined Health District.
Last March the national revival tour of “Fiddler on the Roof” was postponed due to unforeseen circumstances, then moved to September to open the 2022-23 season.
The September Fiddler show became the kickoff of this leg of the tour, and the show’s production team spent two weeks here before doing tech work, preparing sets and perfecting sound for the entire tour.
Several shows, including “The Illusionists,” use the PAC to tech their shows, a point of pride for Hunt, who said the way the PAC is designed allows stage space and offers lodging close by, making it an ideal spot geographically in this part of the country.
The PAC’s season will continue with several shows in 2023, and Hunt said plans are shaping up to celebrate the venue’s 30th anniversary for the 2023-24 season.
“We have certainly learned that our community needs and wants live performances,” Hunt said. “In the months since the PAC reopened, we have heard audience members comment how happy they are to get out and see a live show.”
Hunt added: “Live performances started long before Netflix and Tik Tok, and they will be here for every community long after those streaming platforms are gone.”