Economic Evolution

Sculpture Tour management deal could be sign of things to come for arts council

Tom Giffey, photos by Andrea Paulseth |

STATE OF CHANGE. The Eau Claire Regional Arts Center will have to alter course if the State Theatre is supplanted by the proposed Confluence Project.
STATE OF CHANGE. The Eau Claire Regional Arts Council will have to alter course if the State Theatre is supplanted by the proposed Confluence Project.

What do the Sculpture Tour Eau Claire and the State Theatre have in common? Yes, both are staples of Eau Claire’s cultural scene, but a more specific thread ties the two together: Both are now administered by the Eau Claire Regional Arts Council.

For most of us, the Eau Claire Regional Arts Center is synonymous with the State Theatre – so synonymous, in fact, that it’s easy to forget that the two actually are separate entities. The arts center is governed by the Eau Claire Regional Arts Council (ECRAC for short), a nonprofit group that owns and operates the historic downtown Eau Claire theater. But, as the name indicates, the group is also a regional arts center that runs an art gallery and rents space to other arts organizations. And, under an agreement announced in mid-July, it will be running some of the day-to-day operations of the Sculpture Tour, which is now in its third season of beautifying Eau Claire’s streets with dozens of large-scale sculptural works.

“I see part of their role in the community as facilitating success for arts organizations.” – James Hanke, Sculpture Tour Eau Claire board member, on his group’s agreement with the Eau Claire Regional Arts Council

The Sculpture Tour had been searching, without success, for a part-time executive director, while ECRAC has been contemplating a future in which the proposed multimillion-dollar, multiuse Confluence Center replaces the State Theatre, a future in which ECRAC’s role in the arts scene would have to evolve. ECRAC wouldn’t operate the Confluence Center – that role would be in the hands of an outside management firm – so much of the work it does today would evaporate (or at least be shifted elsewhere). That scenario could be either seen as a challenge or an opportunity; ECRAC prefers the latter view – which is why the agreement with the Sculpture Tour could be a sign of things to come.

PURPOSE OF PARTNERSHIP

“I see part of (ECRAC’s) role in the community as facilitating success for arts organizations,” says James Hanke, a Sculpture Tour board member who helped negotiate the deal. Hanke is also a board member for the Chippewa Valley Jazz Orchestra, which became a member of ECRAC last year and tapped the organization for assistance with functions like ticketing and marketing. “If the model worked for the Chippewa Valley Jazz Orchestra, and if ECRAC successfully runs a gallery adjacent to the State Theatre, why wouldn’t that organization work successfully with Sculpture Tour?” Hanke says. “I think the answer is it can and it will, so we went ahead and pulled the trigger on the contact.” Susan Larson, the chairwoman of the Sculpture Tour board who served as the group’s interim executive director, calls ECRAC “a cornerstone of the Chippewa Valley arts community” and said the tour “looks forward to growing together.”

Like many small nonprofit groups, within the arts or otherwise, the Sculpture Tour was seeking someone with a broad and deep range of skills but could only offer a part-time salary. Those on both ends of the deal describe is as a proverbial win-win: The Sculpture Tour gets to access to a variety of professional services for the cost of a part-time employee, while ECRAC is able to use the income (as well as funds freed up when another part-time staffer left) to create a new position focused on fundraising. Gary Schuster, who led a major capital campaign to restore the historic Mabel Tainter Theater in Menomonie, began as ECRAC’s development director July 1.

The two nonprofit groups are fairly similar in infrastructure, says Ben Richgruber, ECRAC’s executive director. For example, the Sculpture Tour was looking for help with tasks such as coordinating volunteers and fundraising, two things vital to ECRAC. “Everything they were looking for had a position in our office,” Richgruber says.

“They wanted the stability that ECRAC could bring,” he adds, “and really to build the stability that they could grow from.” The Sculpture Tour will retain its volunteer board to oversee the organization. And, while those involved say the Sculpture Tour’s needs won’t play second fiddle to ECRAC’s other functions, they acknowledge the contract is contingent on ECRAC providing specific services. “We’re essentially an employee of the organization,” Richgruber says.

CONFLUENCE WOULD CHANGE EVERYTHING

Both groups say the agreement will help the Sculpture Tour continue to grow and strengthen with the help of ECRAC’s professional staff. But the deal may also be the first step in ECRAC’s preparation for a world where the Confluence Center replaces the State Theatre as downtown’s major arts venue. ECRAC would be forced to evolve anyway: Under the current Confluence plan – which, considering the project’s drawing-board status, is subject to change – ECRAC wouldn’t manage the shared facility’s day-to-day operations, as it does with the State Theatre. Maintenance, food service, event management, human resources, and similar services at the Confluence Center would be in the hands of a management company contracted for that purpose. As Richgruber notes, this means that his organization would no longer be in charge of fixing the roof or the boiler – management tasks he’d be happy for someone to take off ECRAC’s hands.

“If this works, we’d like to help other organizations in town that are growing and need an executive director.” – Ben Richgruber, Eau Claire Regional Arts Center, on ECRAC’s partnership with Sculpture Tour Eau Claire

So what would ECRAC do if the Confluence coalesces? It’s likely that an ECRAC subsidiary and UWEC would co-own the arts center via a condominium-style organization. ECRAC would also be part of the Confluence Council, the facility’s governing body (which would include representatives from the university, the city, the county, Visit Eau Claire, and a rotating stable of local arts groups). And ECRAC would remain the conduit through which local arts groups – such as the Eau Claire Children’s Theatre and the Chippewa Valley Theatre Guild – rent the theater at a discounted rate.

SMALL FIGURE, BIG POTENTIAL

The contract between the Sculpture Tour and ECRAC is worth less than $25,000, so it’s only a small part of ECRAC’s $750,000 annual budget (a budget that typically grows to more than $1 million because some major outside events book the State Theatre on short notice after the budget is adopted). However, it could be representative of ECRAC’s future, and Richgruber says that could include providing services to music groups, festivals, or art fairs.

Hanke, the Sculpture Tour board member, says other arts nonprofits should study the collaboration. He points out that similar models have worked in other nonprofit realms. The United Way, for example, is an umbrella organization that helps many nonprofits raise money. And economic development entities – including Momentum West, which serves 10 counties in western Wisconsin – have turned to management firms to conduct many of their operations as an alternative to hiring a single, jack-of-all-trades staff member.

“If this works, we’d like to help other organizations in town that are growing and need an executive director,” Richgruber says.