And that wasn’t all. A real, bona fide Equity Theater was making a go of it on Main Street. A real, bona fide opera company was about to mount “Die Fledermaus.” Meanwhile, the Peoria Ballet was building up a resident corp of dancers and staging work by George Balanchine.<\/p>\n
Hmmm. Ballet, symphony, professional theater, 20th century art and opera – this wasn’t the Peoria that outsiders typically think of, where heavy equipment reigns and everyone bleeds yellow.<\/p>\n
Every boom is followed by a bust, and that’s what has happened since 2004: A slow but so far inexorable diminution of the local arts scene brought on by the economy, long-term demographic trends and leadership that in some cases has been less than constructive.<\/p>\n
Only last week, for instance, the Peoria Art Guild said it would temporarily suspend classes, exhibitions and its retail store at 203 Harrison starting April 1 while it figures out how to continue operating in a recession-bound economy where fewer people are willing to give money.<\/p>\n
“We had a 50 percent cut in grant funding from both private foundation grants and Illinois Arts Council grants,” said Sheryl Cohen, Art Guild board member. “We had corporate donations that were reduced. We had individual contributions that were reduced. This is what all the nonprofit world is going through.”<\/p>\n
Just ask the leaders of the not-for-profit Peoria Ballet, which only a few weeks ago had to let go of its well-thought-of artistic director. For the first time, in this venerable organization’s 40-plus-year existence, the Peoria Ballet is without artistic leadership entirely, and it may not get any new leadership soon.<\/p>\n
Of course, in the case of the ballet, the difficulty isn’t merely financial: It’s also a question of butts in the seats – specifically the 2,200 seats that make up the Civic Center Theater and which the Peoria Ballet traditionally has trouble filling.<\/p>\n
As was the case with Opera Illinois, which also struggled for an audience and which eventually folded – but not without an unnecessarily divisive and bitter backstage struggle that alienated long-term supporters. A similar self-defeating scenario unfortunately repeated itself at the Peoria Symphony Orchestra last year. On the plus side, the Peoria Symphony continues to do better than Opera Illinois ever did in terms of attracting audiences. However, like orchestras across the nation, its subscriber base is getting older. As these older patrons die, will they be replaced by younger people?<\/p>\n
That’s the question that’s also confronting community theater – which is why organizers there have tried a newly revamped winter season of so-called “edgy” new work in an attempt to go beyond its traditionally older base. And whatever happened to that Equity Theatre on Main Street? It’s gone with the wind.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, several arts leaders are looking for ways to move ahead: A new creative co-op of sorts called CI Creative and the city-supported ArtsPartners – which has somehow survived the slash-and-burn era – are trying to encourage arts groups to start talking and working with one another. Let’s hope something comes of it. In the current climate, arts leaders can hang together or hang separately. The time for turf battles is over.<\/p>\n
Gary Panetta is the fine arts columnist and a critic for the Journal Star. He can be reached at 686-3132 or gpanetta@pjstar.com. Write to him at 1 News Plaza, Peoria, IL 61643.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Read the original article from Journal Star<\/a>.<\/p>\n Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services<\/a><\/p>\n What a difference a few years make. I still remember that stellar January 2004 weekend on the local arts scene. Friday: At the Peoria Art Guild, an opening of modern art by Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Arshile Gorky and a host of other 20th luminaries. Saturday: A concert of Mozart at the Peoria Symphony Orchestra. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-347140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347140\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/img><\/a>
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