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Writer and editor Home > Blogs > Brain Droppings > Archives > 2009 > June > 13 > Entry
Keeping the dream alive in Piqua
Anna Baumeister took her new job, one might think, at the worst possible time. It says something about her that she doesn’t see it that way.
“Sure, it’s a very tough time,” she says, in a soft accect that betrays a Kentucky upbringing of which she’s quite proud. “But I think we’re doing really well. It’s just great to have a creative team all working together, getting the ideas flowing — it’s exciting.”
The problem, though, is figuring out how to pay for all the great ideas.
Baumeister is the executive director of the Piqua Arts Council, a small and hard-working community organization whose mission is simple: Enhance and promote the arts in any way that makes the Miami County city a better place to live. She took the 20-hour-a-week job in February, right in the thick of an economic meltdown that has humbled mighty corporations and major arts groups alike.
Last week in this space, we looked at how the recession was affecting one of the largest arts organizations in the Miami Valley, the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra. With a budget of nearly $4.8 million and a round of recent cuts, it still must raise $600,000 in new donations next year to balance its books.
It made sense to also take a look this week at how arts groups at the other end of the size spectrum are faring, and I chose the Piqua Arts Council at random. There are grassroots groups like it all over, comprised of active boards and dues-paying members.
The arts council is 18 years old and has been building slowly, so that today it presents a mixture of programs including in-school events, music performances and art shows in local parks, festivals, workshops and such (visit www.piquaartscouncil.com). They’re good programs, if only because if the Piqua Arts Council doesn’t do them, nobody will.
Baumeister and her board president, Mary Frances Rodriguez, keep that well in mind.
“There’s no other organization that promotes the arts in Piqua the way we do,” Rodriguez said. “I have a real passion for bringing the arts to Piqua, and I think we need it probably more than many towns. We are rural, and we’re somewhat (economically) depressed — and to bring some arts and cultural things into the schools and the kids is really exciting. If we can get children to a Dayton Philharmonic concert, that’s something they wouldn’t get to experience otherwise.
“It’s been said that communities thrive where the arts are alive, and that’s absolutely true.”
“Mary Frances always has us pushing this idea that the arts for everyone,” Baumeister says, “and that’s so true.” Especially if they get a little help from groups like this one.
They get a lot done on a $58,900 budget, and Baumeister does a lot more than her 20 paid hours, from a passion for the work. And fundraising is a constant concern.
They’re trying for Ohio Arts Council and National Endowment for the Arts grants they’ve never sought before, but found they were ineligible for federal stimulus money recently made available for arts job retention because they hadn’t been funded before — a bureaucratic Catch-22 they could’ve done without.
“We’re not the only ones knocking at the door for money,” Baumeister said. “There’s an eagerness to help, but everybody’s in the same situation.”
So they’re juggling — trying to do events that will boost awareness and enthusiasm, in the hopes that will lead to more paid membership and more local financial support. At the same time, they’ve “taken a look at all our assets — what projects we absolutely want to complete because our community will benefit from them. We’re deciding how we would go from rock bottom, and start from there.” Interestingly, her words came very close to the “mission-critical” language the leaders at the Dayton Philharmonic recently used to describe where they go from here, too.
Baumeister and Rodriguez remain upbeat. They think they’ve managed the budget to get through this year in decent shape, but always worry. Baumeister, though, looks ahead to larger goals that include being able to afford a building some day that provides gallery and workshop space. “Think of the artists we could bring in,” she says excitedly.
“If we can pull out of this, we can really start to grow. If we can just keep that vision in front of us, instead of going, ‘Oh, gosh, we aren’t going to make it.’ But we have such great people here, and this great town, and a fantastic opportunity.
“Look at how big we could actually get.”
Note to struggling arts groups everywhere: Don’t get so mired in the muck that you forget how to dream. Up in Piqua, they haven’t.
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