Detroit’s cultural gems face multiple challenges

Arts&Life culture

the Keeping Arts Alive Detroit’s cultural gems face multiple challenges during the pandemic.

SHARI S. COHEN CONTRIBUTING WRITER T he lights may be dim and reduced revenues. The DIA, the microphones disconDSO and MOT all received nected, but leading local loans through the Paycheck cultural organizations are workProtection Program — part of ing hard to provide art, music the Federal CARES Act. and education to their followers and the general public. LET THE MUSIC PLAY

The COVID-19 pandemic When the pandemic hit and Michigan’s “stay-at-home” Michigan, the Detroit order meant that concerts Symphony Orchestra had a were canceled by the Detroit crisis plan in place and had Symphony Orchestra (DSO), reviewed its protocols through Michigan Opera Theater a risk management study a few (MOT) and the Chamber Music years earlier, according to Anne Society of Detroit (CMSD), Parsons, DSO president and among other local performing CEO. arts organizations. The Detroit “We preempted the governor’s Institute of Arts (DIA) closed its declaration and made changes building and collections to visiin stages as things unfolded,” she tors and canceled its educational said. “The immediate impact and other programs. was disappointment, because

However, the pandemic has sold-out performances of spurred all four nonprofit orgaCarmina Burana were canceled nizations to develop new ways for the weekend of March 13. of reaching their audiences. At Decision-making was in place the same time, they are being with a focus on health and challenged to maintain finansafety.” cial stability despite drastically Subsequently all concerts DONALD DIETZ were canceled through Aug. 31.

DSO board chair Mark Davidoff says the organization benefited from a unique governance model in which the board usually operates collectively to make decisions, rather than relying on its executive committee. “We’ve all rallied to the moment — across the landscape,” he says, referring to

DSO President and

CEO Anne Parsons and Chairman Mark Davidoff Metro Detroit. Davidoff cites increased involvement of DSO board members with almost

DIA CEO Salvador Salort-Pons

100 percent participation on conference calls. He is CEO of the Fisher Group and formerly served as executive director of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit.

DSO staff quickly started to project the organization’s financial status without concert revenue. Fortunately, the DSO’s balance sheet was solid, the debt on its building was settled in 2012 and an adjacent office building owned by the DSO had been sold.

However, the DSO’s June fundraising gala was canceled, and DSO leaders recognized the potential limitations for donations since many individuals’ investment portfolios had declined due to the pandemic and there was great financial need throughout the community. DSO staff, musicians and stagehands all took pay cuts, but there have been no layoffs for full-time staff.

A plan for a “Resilience Fund” was developed with active involvement by the board and musicians. An immediate goal of $1 million was quickly met with 100 percent board participation. The fundraising effort will go public soon with a goal of raising another $1 million.

The DSO has been streaming concerts online since 2011, so it was able to quickly expand its offerings, including a live chatroom on Facebook with

DIA

comments from some musicians. The DSO also has an Innovation Committee with significant musician involvement and is regularly adding new programs, which Parsons says are creating “a deep connective tissue between musicians and audiences.” She anticipates that they will continue even when live concerts return.

TAKING ART ONLINE

The Detroit Institute of Arts closed to the public on March 13 and, since then, only essential staff remain on site to safeguard the building and its collection. According to Salvador SalortPons, director, president and CEO, the DIA has instituted a hiring and salary freeze and significantly cut expenses, including a 20 percent salary reduction for those at the vice president level and above.

The DIA has established a Sustainability Fund to help compensate for revenues lost from being closed. “Our volunteers and donors continue to be incredibly supportive of the museum and our efforts,” Salort-Pons says.

“When we shifted our programming online in March, we committed to continuing to serve the residents of Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties with the benefits they receive from the DIA — free access to our world-class collection, field

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trips from home, activities for seniors and highlighting our community partners. In many cases, our online engagement is higher than what we experience for in-person programs, and I foresee offering both options to our community in the future,” Salort-Pons says.

Recognizing that not everyone has internet access, the DIA has distributed printed art-making project instructions in Forgotten Harvest’s food distribution boxes, which reach 18,000 residents of the tri-county area weekly.

OPERA AT HOME

Michigan Opera Theatre reports that like many other theaters, it is facing the financial challenges of lost ticket revenue, including ticket refunds for canceled performances. MOT had to cancel most of its spring season, which included three operas as well as dance performances by the Dance Theatre of Harlem and American Ballet Theatre, both of which were expected to sell out.

As a substitute for its planned live operas, dance and other musical concerts, MOT is offering MOT at Home — an extensive array of performances, interviews and educational programs for children and adults using Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Preview performance talks are offered before nightly livestreamed operas. “We hope that the digital performances and informative contact of ‘MOT at Home’ may be a source of inspiration, comfort and hope,” states Wayne Brown, MOT’s CEO, on its website.

AUDIENCE SUPPORT

Unlike the DIA, DSO and MOT, the Chamber Music Society of Detroit (CMSD) does not own a building, nor does it maintain an orchestra or large staff. As a chamber music presenter, it rents space for concerts at the Seligman Performing Arts Center, part of the Country Day School Campus in Beverly Hills, which closed in March.

The Chamber Music Society was established in 1944 by Dr. Karl Haas, a pianist and radio music educator whose family left Germany in 1936. Many CMSD subscribers and donors are members of the local Jewish community.

Audience support was quickly evident when CMSD’s concert series was canceled due to COVID-19; 60 percent of its subscribers donated the value of their tickets back to the organization. After the cancellations, a series of original online concerts was developed to connect with its audience and help musicians, explains Willa Walker, CMSD vice president. CMSD then recruited collaborating presenters at various levels of support for the live webcasts. Each participating musician receives an honorarium.

According to CMSD, the streamed series of seven concerts has attracted almost 40,000 views with an average concert audience of 5,700. Viewer contributions for the musicians, as of May 18, total $5,790.

While the CMSD doesn’t have the overhead of larger cultural institutions, the pandemic resulted in lost revenue and uncertainty about the future.

“To sustain our mission, we have applied for grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Community Fund for Southeast Michigan. We are looking at different scenarios for 2020-21,” Walker says.

The future holds many unknowns for these cultural institutions, as it does for other components of society during this pandemic.

“There is a great deal of uncertainty about what the future holds, and preparing for that wide range of possible scenarios, both from a financial standpoint and a staff and visitor health standpoint, is challenging,” Salort-Pons says.

The DIA has engaged NSF International (a nonprofit public health and safety organization based in Ann Arbor) to develop policies and operating procedures for staff and visitors when the museum can reopen and is coordinating its efforts with neighboring cultural institutions in Midtown.

DIA staff expects that when the museum is able to safely reopen, some elements may need to be changed, such as its interactive features that require personal touch. Also, the number of visitors at any one time will be limited.

The DSO hasn’t decided yet about its fall season. “There needs to be a feeling of security. A packed house seems unlikely,” Parsons says. “Uncertainties are something we will all have to get comfortable with — there are so many variables,” she adds.

MOT CEO Wayne Brown

CMSD Vice President Willa Walker

DSO Chairman Mark Davidoff, incoming Music Director Jader Bignamini and President and CEO Anne Parsons

DONATE OR FIND ONLINE PROGRAMMING

Chamber Music Society of Detroit: Chambermusicdetroit.org Detroit Institute of Art: DIA.org Detroit Symphony Orchestra: DSO.org, DSO.org/keepplaying and DSO.org/replay Michigan Opera Theater: Motopera.org

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NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

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In 1989, Betty Broderick entered the home of her ex-husband, Dr. Dan Broderick, and shot and killed Dan and his wife, Linda, in their bed. Broderick, the mother of Dan’s two children, claimed she had been the subject of various types of abuse by Dan. The prosecution said the murder was the culmination of years of bizarre and often violent behavior by Betty, directed at Dan, after he left her for a much younger woman. It took two trials to convict

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STAYING CONNECTED At this time of social distancing, the Jewish News will try to bring awareness to events/learning situations offered online by synagogues, temples and community organizations.

OPERA LOVERS Stream full-length Met operas online. The Metropolitan Opera is offering free, livestream presentations of its operas every evening during the coronavirus closure. The performances, “Nightly Opera Streams,” are encore presentations of its award-winning Live in HD series. The streams begin at 7:30 p.m. every evening and remain available on its homepage for 20 hours.

MUSICAL PERFORMANCES The Chamber Music Society of Detroit offers free, livestream performances. Currently at cmdetroit.org you can

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her of murder. I vividly recall a terrific 1991 Law and Order episode based on the Broderick case. Shirley Knight, a great actress who recently died, gave a powerhouse performance as the Betty Broderick-inspired character. The Broderick case is the subject of the second season of the crime anthology series Dirty John. Christian Slater plays Dan, and Amanda Peet, 48, plays Betty. If she can match Knight’s performance, Peet will win an Emmy. (The eight-episode series premiered June 2, USA Network. Many encores/also on-demand.) The season finale of ABC’s Who Wants to be a Millionaire (June 4, 8 p.m.) features Anderson Cooper and talk show host Andy Cohen, 51. They met many years ago when they were set up for a blind date. They didn’t go out on the date because in the first five minutes of talking, Cohen mentioned that Cooper’s mother was Gloria Vanderbilt. Cooper had a “rule” that he wouldn’t date any guy who did that. However, they went on, in their words, to be “best of friends.”

In other gay romance news, Ben Platt, 26, is reportedly dating Noah Galvin, also 26 (his mother is Jewish). This surely isn’t the first time that two gay, Jewish Broadway musical stars have dated. The novelty here is that they both played the title role in the mega-hit musical Dear Evan Hansen. I told an elderly relative about this. She thought and said: “It’s good they are dating a Jewish boy.”

Comic actress Esther Povitsky, 32, has a Comedy Central special that premieres June 5 at 10 p.m. It is a combination of stand-up bits and scenes filmed at her parents’ home in Skokie (the “very” Jewish suburb of Chicago). Her dad is Jewish; her mom is not. Povitsky has had had many TV guest shots and a Freeform cable series called Alone Together.

Very different is Lenox Hill, a Netflix documentary series about the famous Manhattan hospital. It follows four physicians as they balance their personal lives with their professional careers. Only two of the physicians have been identified in advance publicity. One is Dr. David Langer, 50ish, the head of neurosurgery. Langer has often appeared as a medical expert on shows like Good Morning, America. The series was filmed before the pandemic. Lenox Hill has been a “ground zero” hospital dealing with the worst of our modern plague (complete first season releases June 10).

view: Marc-Andre Hamelin (pianist), Schroder Umansky Duo, Third Coast Percussion and Curtis on Tour.

BUSINESS TIPS NOON, JUNE 5 “Tips for Managing Your Business During a Crisis,” presented by the Jewish Working Women’s Network. Join fellow Jewish Working Women for this special Lunch and Shmooze online event that begins at noon, with Leigh Dones Moss, attorney and founding member of Moss Law PLC. The discussion will include best practices and important factors to consider in a financial crisis that will help you keep your business doors open and running smoothly, such as the ability to obtain federal loans, making lease payments, paying the claims of vendors, as well as addressing employee needs. Questions? Contact Marianne at bloomberg@jfmd.org, or register online at jewishdetroit.org.

PRIDE KABBALAT SHABBAT 6 PM, JUNE 5 Join NEXTGen Detroit PRIDE and The Well in celebrating the first Shabbat of Pride Month with a virtual gathering of the Jewish young adult LGBTQ+ community for an online event at 6 p.m. Join together for Shabbat rituals, followed by some inclusive Jewish learning and discussion facilitated by three special guest rabbis: Rabbi Ari Witkin from the Jewish Federation, Rabbi Ariella Rosen from JTS and H.L. Miller Cantorial School and Rabbi Becca Walker from Beth David Synagogue in Toronto. This online event is intended for young adults ages 21 to 45. Allies are welcome. Register online at jewishdetroit.org/event/ pride-kabbalat-shabbat/ to receive the private Zoom link for this event. Questions? Contact Tomer Moked at moked@jfmd.org or Marisa Meyerson at marisa@meetyouatthewell.org.

FAMILY CONCERTS 8 PM, JUNE 5 The Ark in Ann Arbor presents a series of family concerts streaming on the Ark Facebook page; a Facebook account is not necessary to view them. June 5 is Natalia Zukerman, classical guitarist. Later this month, See Peter Mulevy, songwriter/guitarist 7:30 p.m., June 7, and John McCutcheon (pictured), classic American songster, 8 p.m., June 11.

Compiled by Sy Manello/Editorial Assistant. Send items at least 14 days in advance to calendar@thejewishnews. com.