Volunteers, grants and the Music Festival, Oh my!

On Tuesday, April 25, we celebrated our wonderful pool of hundreds of volunteers, citing some 75 of those for extraordinary service in 2022. As I said at the appreciation reception, held at the Inn of Cape May, we could not produce the number of tours and events that we do on an annual basis with full time and seasonal staff alone. And considering how much we do, as pointed out in our Board of Trustees President Brian Groetsch’s report in our Spring Newsletter citing that Cape May MAC is responsible for infusing upwards of some $200 million annually into the local economy, the region benefits greatly from their volunteerism, as well.

Cape May MAC will have at least 8,786 programs on our public and private calendar in 2023. This number comprises all our tours and events, those with which we partner-- other non-profits and local businesses (including us selling tickets on their behalf)and our private programming. The latter includes our Group Tour Marketing initiative, which last year brought bus groups from 24 different states to Cape May.

Another key component for us to continue to have such a profound impact is grants. Each year we rely on the New Jersey State Council on the Arts for a grant that we

Jody

Alessandrine, Director & CEO

apply to the Cape May Music Festival. This year, the 34th annual program featured 15 performances from May 25 to June 22, concluding with a 37-piece orchestra performance at the Cape May Convention Hall. Another grant we rely on to help fund our aforementioned Group Tour Division is a marketing grant from the NJ Division of Travel and Tourism.

Between March 17 and April 15, Cape May MAC applied for seven different grants or funding programs. Two of these were to the New Jersey Historic Trust - the first a capital grant to begin the environmental control/HVAC installation in the 1879 Physick House Museum, and the second for miscellaneous restoration projects in the house museum. We applied for a New Jersey Cultural Trust capital grant to help offset the HVAC project, too. For the second year in a row, we applied for Congressionally Directed Spending, one to each of our US Senators, Menendez and Booker, and to our Congressman, Jeff Van Drew. The seventh application, a general operating support grant to the New Jersey Historical Commission, is the only operations funding source for which Cape May MAC is eligible. You may recall, over 80-percent of our income is earned, mostly through various ticket sales and paid programming. Which means, should there be a spell of bad weather, another pandemic, or some other act of God, our projection of $4.6 million in income would be in serious jeopardy. During the time period noted, we also submitted a final grant report, closing out our 2022 Diversity, Equity, Accessibility and Inclusion (DEAI) grant from the NJ Historical Commission. Here again, volunteer members joined board and staff members to draft a DEAI mission statement and goals that our Board of Trustees passed by resolution at its April 20th meeting. We’re incredibly proud to be one of just 15 non-profits in the state to be selected as part of the program, and already are planning ways to address other DEAI learning opportunities, such as understanding unconscious bias, in both our ongoing staff and board training.

Karen Liebowitz, of Perry Hall, Md., has been a Cape May MAC member since October 2020, and has been an active participant in tours, activities and events for close to 15 years. She has been a fan of outdoor crafts shows, festivals and music events, and has especially enjoyed house tours. What clinched becoming a member, she said, was when she received an offer of a ride back to her hotel from a staff member in the final few minutes of a Designer House Tour. “I was tickled pink to have someone offer to do that,” she said. “It endeared me to you all, and that is one of those kindnesses you just don’t forget. I’m so enamored, I said, this is dumb, I should be joining!” Shown here, Karen with Visitor Service Associate Brian McGrath

Lastly, since I mentioned the Music Festival grant, I’d be remiss if I didn’t further note how important the festival is to our region. Considering the incredible quality of musicianship within the 15 different performances, and the rather shoestring budget on which it is produced (again, how important the Arts Council grant truly is), we should all take pride in our festival and what it adds to Cape May culturally. Just as last year, this year’s festival included diversity in both our performers and the composers of the various pieces selected, illustrating our on-going commitment to DEAI.

-- JAA