Performing arts campaign aims to get butts back in seats

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This article was published 03/10/2024 (710 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Performing arts groups in Manitoba and the Canadian Prairies are banding together to launch a half-million-dollar “Got Milk?”-style campaign to bring buzz to their struggling industry.

With sweeping odes to the thrills of live theatre, opera, dance and orchestras, the Prairie Live Arts campaign puts billboards, TV commercials, posters and digital ads in front of consumers who have been slow to return to concert halls and theatres in the wake of the pandemic.

In the 1990s, California dairy processors tackled an industry slump through a barrage of milk ads so hyperactive they practically came with a Ritalin prescription.

Unsurprisingly, the 13 arts groups — from five cities and three provinces — leading Prairie Live Arts have opted for a more earnest and classy tone in their joint campaign.

The campaign’s creatives bear the slogan “Come to Life” and the PrairiesCan logo (a reminder that the federal government is funding this initiative) alongside diverse faces emoting passionately to scenes of high art.

And like the famous “Got Milk?” stunt, the Prairie Live Arts campaign brings together groups that may, in fact, be competitors to market their industry as a whole.

Larry Desrochers, Manitoba Opera’s executive director and a regional spokesperson for Prairie Live Arts, points to the serious challenges facing Manitoba arts organizations right now that serve as the backdrop for this co-operation.

“There’s some research that (Canadian pollster Nik Nanos) had done that sort of showed that return for audiences for performing arts in the Prairies were lagging behind some other areas of the country,” he says.

“And so collectively, we started to work together to share information and then advocated to the federal government in the last budget that was just approved in April for some support to extend the runway to help us recover.”

The 2024 federal budget has complex implications for the performing arts sector and it further sets the stage for this unusual marketing initiative. The federal budget proposes $31 million over two years to the Canada Arts Presentation Fund, nearly doubling its funding. This is good news for the festivals and performing arts series exclusively eligible for this fund.

But there’s more cause for concern. The federal budget also announced incremental budgetary cuts over the next three years to the Canada Council for the Arts, including by $9.88 million in 2026-27. Instead of scrounging for capital project-to-project, performing arts groups often seek multi-year operational funding — and for this they usually look to the federal, provincial and municipal arts councils.

As far and away the flushest of the arts councils, the Canada Council’s hard-won favour, when it comes to operating funds, is seen as a golden ticket: an assurance of stability for years to come.

Performing arts groups, particularly legacy institutions, are therefore primed to experience rollbacks in the Canada Council’s budget as threats to the sector itself.

Even a loss of $9.88 million represents only 2.7 per cent of the council’s current government funding. But with costs up, and ticket revenue down for so many performing arts groups, this cut may intensify the sense for many arts administrators that their sector is suffering from long COVID.

The 2024 federal budget nevertheless opens doors to more unexpected sources of arts funding.

The Prairie Live Arts Campaign is, however, bankrolled by a department less often on the lips of arts fundraisers: PrairiesCan. The federal body, whose purpose is supporting economic diversification and growth on the Prairies, is supposed to provide $20 million over three years to performing arts organizations based in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

While a separate initiative, Prairie Live Arts emerged out of conversations between key Prairie performing arts groups and PrairiesCan about this initial stimulus.

Is there a catch? Sort of.

“PrairiesCan doesn’t fund any operating initiatives,” says Desrochers. “As a federal agency, they want to make sure they have a distinct relationship from what the Canada Council does.”

In other words: the department wouldn’t divvy out a half-million dollars to individual arts groups to boost their marketing budgets; yet, PrairiesCan can back a cross-promotional effort such as Prairie Live Arts, which seeks to promote general economic growth.

It’s notable that Prairie arts groups are experimenting with more novel approaches to promotion. But it’s difficult to gauge if AI-flavoured images of audiences and generic ad copy about “the connection of artist and audience” will compel people to click on an Instagram ad and navigate an online portal highlighting dozens of performing arts groups to buy a ticket.

The creatives from Winnipeg’s Show and Tell Agency are relatively safe, especially compared with Michael Bay’s bonkers original “Got Milk?” commercial. But there’s a wholesome, even urgent, spirit to this campaign.

With the future of both government and audience support still uncertain, arts organizations are working together with a common goal: restoring a civic life that, at times, feels almost as fragile as in 2020.

conrad.sweatman@freepress.mb.ca