"Keep calm," read the first slide of the Arkansas Arts Center's presentation, and "Happy fifth year in the black!"
The Arts Center's annual meeting is always an entertaining and, at least the last five years, happy recap of the year's activities.
Treasurer Bob Burnett went over the financials in the center's lecture hall. The center took in just under $6.4 million, $2.8 million of which was donor contributed (gifts) and $1.5 million earned. Of that earned income, the biggest revenue source wasn't any exhibit but the Children's Theatre, which took in more than half a million dollars.
Total revenue at the center was up roughly $140,000 (or more than 2 percent) from last year.
Perhaps the most encouraging number was 80,000 -- that's how many more people visited the center (338,776 total) than last year. "It's hard to tell" why, said executive director Todd Herman afterward, but positive media and "a very structured media plan" deserve some credit, as well as strong attendance at the Children's Theatre. Visitors to the ''30 Americans'' exhibit, which ran from April 10-June 21, also contributed.
"It's cumulative."
Along with Burnett and Herman, board of directors chairman Chucki Bradbury, foundation chairman Robert Tucker, outgoing president Mary Ellen Irons and incoming president Shep Russell took turns at the microphone.
Each year the Arts Center bestows its Winthrop Rockefeller Memorial Award on a person or organization that serves the arts "beyond the normal call of duty," and this year's award went to chef Paul Bash, who, among all his more illustrious credits, is also an Arts Center docent.
High Profile on 09/06/2015