Dried up grass. Dried up funds. These are the givens as the summer months approach in Gainesville, and for William Eyerly, this is both unfortunate and totally expected.
Eyerly is the executive director of the Gainesville Association for the Creative Arts (GACA), and as the final days of this fiscal year near, he’s stuck with the task of parsing scholarship funds much like a gardener would ration the final drops from a watering can.
Some of his drama workshop students — students whose families have paid full tuition in the past — have already asked for aid.
“I’ll be honest with you, this summer I’m going to have to say, ‘OK, you’ve asked for two classes. Can you just take one so I can give a class to somebody else?’” Eyerly said.
GACA, a nonprofit specializing in extracurricular performing arts, is just one of the handful of youth-focused arts organizations straining to make offerings affordable while still covering operating costs as the economy continues to stagnate.
The Hippodrome State Theatre is in a similar fix, tiptoeing the line between compassion and practicality as it signs up children for summer camp.
Starting June 14, the theater will open its doors to three groups of young thespians for an immersive two- to four-week acting camp. The session costs $650 for campers older than 6, a price kept level despite rising expenses.
“In order for our programs to succeed, we have to adapt to what’s going on financially,” said Gabrielle Byam, camp director for the Hippodrome. “If we were able to do them for free, we would.”
The camp runs for eight hours a day and would require about six instructors if enrollment reaches its ideal number of 75.
“If you were breaking down an hourly wage of what somebody made, it would be criminal,” Byam said. “We realize that it’s a hard time to come up with money. We don’t want people to suffer, and we don’t want to make it elitist.”
For Gainesville Creative Kids, a 2-year-old multi-disciplined arts foundation, this means stretching a $35 enrollment charge to cover six 45-minute classes – among them, hip-hop, sculpture and theater. It also means relying heavily on donations and unpaid labor.
“If a parent can’t afford to pay for their child to have class, we try to make an arrangement where the parent can volunteer for our organization and the child can come to the classes at no cost,” said Heddy Vernon, co-director of Gainesville Creative Kids.
As the state confronts a financial shortfall, competition has spiked to land grants.
Gainesville Creative Kids is new to the process. It became a nonprofit in September and has applied for six grants this year, five of which are pending. The other was denied.
GACA’s track record suggests that this is a common response. Fruitless trips to the capital and pessimistic near-term prospects have Eyerly considering bypassing state grants altogether. He’s prepping for a large community fundraising campaign, which he said he hopes will secure funds to preserve the arts in the Gainesville community.
“All of these things are going to benefit these kids regardless of where they go in life,” Eyerly said. “We’re really looking at the rise of the creative class. That’s where we really need to start to focus. Unfortunately, I think we’re losing that.”
