🔒International Festival of Arts & Ideas welcomes back indoor shows, but keeps some virtual entertainment

New Haven’s International Festival of Arts & Ideas is heading indoors again.

In 2019 the annual two-week June festival had all of its events presented live in venues across the city. The following year the pandemic forced the festival to move its content online. Last year there were some in-person shows — but only on the New Haven Green with socially-distanced seating — as well as virtual content.

This year live festival shows will return to the Shubert, University and Iseman theaters, College Street Music Hall and other venues — but virtual add-ons will remain for the many free outdoor events.

Financially speaking

Thanks to $500,000 in funding from the federal Paycheck Protection Program during the pandemic, the festival was able to keep its staff, report a surplus and maintain financial stability so it could return to a more normal program this year.

“That [funding] allowed arts organizations like ours to not have to worry about relying on earned income — which was not possible given the fact that indoor venues were shut down [during the peak of the pandemic in 2020],” said Shelley Quiala, executive director of the festival for the past three years. “We didn’t let anyone go. We actually added positions that the organization needed, like a new director of development.”

In 2020, when there was only virtual programming, the festival was $500,000 in the black, since much of its budget is for the infrastructure it uses during in-person events at various indoor and outdoor venues. (Like most non-for-profit arts organizations, it actually loses money when it produces events because the box office does not fully cover the costs — and 80 percent of the festival’s shows are free. Contributed income fills the gap.)

The previous year — when it was a typical in-person performance festival — the nonprofit reported a surplus of $126,000, according to tax filings. In 2018 it reported a $60,000 surplus and in 2017 a $52,000 surplus.

Because so much of the festival is free, it relies mostly on contributed, rather than earned income for its budget.

Quiala notes the festival did not receive funding from the federal Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program that served as an additional financial lifeline to many theaters and other arts venues.

She also addressed what she calls the “misconception that we’re mostly funded by the city and the state, and that’s not true at all. We have to make our case every year to the state, which traditionally gives us around $400,000. Our annual budget this year is about $3 million. The vast majority comes from individual donors.”

Corporate funding plummets

Quiala said individual donor contributions remain paramount for the festival “and the biggest challenge over the last three years has been the face-to-face engagement to stay connected to people.

“Our donor level stayed pretty consistent, and though we did dip a little bit, we didn't lose a large number of relationships,” she said.

More troubling was the decline in corporate giving, which is rooted in branding at live events.

“Corporations didn’t see the value return that they wanted in terms of our digital engagement,” Quiala said. “Our corporate sponsorships over the last two years were down by 50 percent. Building that back up has been the biggest lift.”

Quiala said she sees some opportunity in the city›s growth from the explosion of new housing developments and businesses.

“But relationship-building takes time and it’s easier to maintain in development than to build it,” she said. “But I think we will see growth over the course of the next five to 10 years.”

This year’s offerings

This year will be the first festival since 2019 where there will be earned income through paid ticketed events at indoor venues.

Among the acts for the neighborhood events in May and the main festival June 11 to 24, are the Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Octavia Butler’s “Parable of the Sower,” the Guy Mintus Trio, singer Thibisa, and a fashion show and expo.

Though the number of high-profile offerings have been diminished over the years and its international scope lessened due to budget limitations and visa issues, the festival still has a wide-ranging lineup of performances, talks and tours. High-profile free events on the New Haven Green will include Tony Award-winner Brian Stokes Mitchell; soprano Harolyn Blackwell and opera singer Albert R. Lee performing with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra; the musical group Las Cafeteras; Latin Grammy award-winner Alex Cuba; salsa band Orquesta Afinke; Grammy winner Gregory Porter; rocker Carrie Ashton; and singer Evelyn “Champagne” King.

“Whatever’s on the Green will be streamed,” said Malakhi RL Eason II, the festival’s director of programming and community impact.

The “ideas” talks will also be both live and streamed — and there will be some idea events that will be only virtual.

“But ticketed events such as the comedy shows and the Dallas Dance Theatre will not be virtual,” Eason said.

Might there be income opportunities for paid virtual events at future festivals?

“We’re trying things out this year to see what it might look like,” said Eason, adding that it depends on if the indoor venues and artists allow for it. “But logging in to an indoor event at a lower price point is something to think about in the future.”

Quiala said she sees the virtual component not as a significant revenue stream but a way to increase the festival’s audience, reach and perhaps even its donor base.

“Through that access people will begin to become familiar with the festival and might become donors,” she said. “That’s more likely than an earned revenue philosophy.”