The program offers "free and confidential counsel in fundraising, building more effective boards of trustees, budgeting, marketing, and other areas pertinent to maintaining a vital performing arts organization during a troubled economy." In addition to direct help from senior staffers, the initiative is coordinating a mentoring program with arts management mentors from around the country who are volunteering their services.
There have been 50 requests for mentors so far, along with 110 requests for the services of Kennedy Center staff, press office chief John Dow told me today. "Michael has read every single one," Dow says, "and he's sorting them to which staff member is most likely to provide assistance."
Kaiser's expertise in this field -- he is credited with rescuing such famed institutions as the American Ballet Theatre, Alvin Ailey Dance Theater and London's Royal Opera House from perilous financial situations -- should prove invaluable as this initiative proceeds. Although his familiar don't-cut-the-art-while-cutting-costs philosophy may seem impossible to follow now, it's more essential than ever.
One thing that might help things is the relatively paltry $50 million targeted for the NEA in some versions of the massive bailout bill painfully taking shape on the Hill. But, naturally, some myopic congressmen have assailed that possibility, apparently unable to notice the positive and multi-faceted economic impact the arts can make in every community in every state. Eliminating support for the arts in the stimulus package is a sure way to guarantee that the Kennedy Center initiative will not run out of needy clients.
BALTIMORE SUN STAFF PHOTO OF MICHAEL KAISER