Arts gArage Arts Garage Keeps the Arts Alive in the Time of Covid Arts Garage believes that the arts are transformative – and research supports this belief - that Art and Music and Theater make us better people, bring us together, relieve us of our anxieties, and so much more. Photos by Dangerwing Photography The economic impact for our community is important too. The Arts & Prosperity V Calculator shows that our little not-forprofit venue created 34 FTE Jobs, added $48,264 in Local Government Revenue and another $66,028 in State Government Revenue. There are so many reasons to support the Arts in our community. When the pandemic closed our doors mid-March this year, we immediately strategized. How could we continue to provide the beauty and passion of the Arts to everyone without producing the nearly 250 events we promote in our venue annually? With little to no revenue since the beginning of March, we knew we had to work with a zero budget. We reached out to local and regional performers, musicians, and artists and asked for their help. Everyone donated their time to the series – yes, EVERYONE - and by the end of July, we had given our audience nearly 60 professionally produced events at no cost to the viewer with our “From Our HeARTs to Your Home” series. By July, we reluctantly and realistically accepted that Covid-19 was not going away and we could not just pivot – we needed to strategize how to purposefully persevere until we could get back to a semblance of normal which was taking a lot longer than we had hoped. By mid-August we launched a monetized livestream series, “Music at Home: Live from Arts Garage.” And by mid-September we opened the doors to a masked and live audience (at less than 50% capacity with social distancing). We have focused on equity and community too. Our most recent Gallery art exhibit, “The Right Side of History: Black American Artists in 2020” was powerful – so much so that we extended the exhibit two months. We hosted Palm Beach County’s Community Policing Forum in October. We established two advisory committees focusing on race and the LGBTQ community so that we can continue to serve as allies to everyone in our community. Now eight months into what has been a terrible nightmare for so many people and businesses, we are more determined than ever to outlast coronavirus. 60 | DecEMber 2020 | www.AtlanticAveMagazine.com We are small, but we are mighty. The team that is Arts Garage consists of talented, creative, and passionate people. This team, which includes our board and volunteers, continues to pour its heart into our work, and each person is committed to keeping the Arts and Arts Garage alive. Board members are raising much needed funds and helping strategize for our future. Volunteers are giving their time to open our Gallery to the public and handling administrative tasks to lighten the load for the team. Because of the many furloughs, our staff is now tiny, requiring everyone to work overtime to keep up. Every staff member happily carries a larger share of the workload pre-Covid, and our community continues to support us with donations and kind words. The CRA and the City of Delray Beach have been unwavering in their support of us as well – both stakeholders willing to think out of the box to find ways to help. And the Angels in our Band of Angels continue to make their annual $10,000 donations and more. Even with such amazing support, this pivot is not an easy one. Our monthly ticket revenues are now equal to those of a slow day during the high season of last year. The National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) surveyed their members and 90% of small, independent music venues anticipate closing permanently over the coming months if we do not see some relief soon. We remain determined, and we fundraise especially now with our Annual Campaign “Give your HeART to Save the ARTs” at Arts Garage. We had a soft launch of our GoFundMe page in the last days of October, and before we could even market the campaign, the donations started to trickle in. Our hope is that we will exceed the conservative goal of $25,000 for this campaign and that it buys us time as we wait out the pandemic. The Arts Garage family continues to rally, finding new ways to live our vision of connecting our community to the world through the Arts. What a gift to be a part of the magic at Arts Garage! COPYRIGHTED
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