In 2022, Funding Hit an All-Time Low. What Now?

Grant Li and Felix Brem  

Funding for conservatories have always been in a precar- ious position, but this year seemed to be particularly bad. Students and conservatory teachers noticed a shift—shows canceled, events unrealized, and stressed- out directors—despite no official communications. They might feel vindicated to know that they weren’t going crazy. In the fall of 2022, funding was the lowest it had been for the past 10 years.

Money has always been a headache for the administration of a school that spends $30 million a year. During OCSA’s early days, there was a substantial gap be- tween state-provided funds and funds necessary to maintain the school curriculum. They relied on “PTA-style fundraisers”—walkathons and bake sales that barely covered the costs of operations each year. “The fundamental business model was flawed,” commented Steve Wagner, OCSA’s Chief Operations Officer and Vice President. “We were one payroll away from bankruptcy.” To solve the problem, they met with doz- ens of parents individually, asking for donations that would directly benefit their kids’ art experience. That year, they successfully raised one million dollars, and this year, on account of inflation and program expansion, they raised around eight million.

That still falls short of the $10.25 million that the school website reports is needed yearly to fund conservatories. Since the chaos of the pandemic, funding gradually waned to a new low in 2022. “Parents have always been willing to support us, but it’s with the understanding that we will provide value,” Wagner explained. With online learning, the perceived value and quality of classes decreased, and along with it, parents’ willingness to contribute financially. In addition, with the larger financial stagnation that COVID-19 caused, families may have had a more limited capability to donate than in previous years. Only about 70% of donations requested from Creative Writing families were fulfilled this year, says Joshua Wood, Director of CW. Other conservatory directors report similar funding percentiles.

As parent donations typically go towards their own kids’ arts education, financial experiences differ from conserva- tory to conservatory. Some, like Production and Design, have been mostly supported by this year’s funding, but have a reduced capability to supply additional, costly opportunities. Due to the dip in funding, director Kelly Marie Pate noted that “we may have felt less comfortable doing some bigger field trips or buying bigger pieces of equipment that we would have in past years.” However, as students outside of the conservatory may not know, P&D’s budget diverges from the norm--due to their in- volvement in productions across a range of conservatories, the cost of materials and supplies for a show is taken from the budget of the conservatory hosting it, not necessarily from P&D itself. Thus, financial situations differ from show to show. Assistant director Victoria Hoyt-Heydon is optimistic about funding as the economy recovers from the effects of the pandemic: “The further along we get, the more likely we are to have families who feel comfortable funding at a higher level.”

Some conservatories weren't so lucky. Ballet Folklórico has been severely impacted by the

drop in funding—but that’s not a new development for their conservatory. According to Director Marlene Peña-Marin, “We’ve been in the red for the past 20 years...It keeps me up at night.” In contrast with other performance conservatories, they hold one show a year, which only brings in enough money to cover its own production costs. And with the recent decline in funding, they’ve had to cut into even that budget. However, not everything is grim: BF also has the distinction of being one of the 1st- place winners of the Holiday Conservatory Challenge that took place in the winter of 2022. 100% of BF families donated to the fundrais- er, earning them an extra $10,000 from the OCSA Foundation. Even with the funding boost, however, the conservatory is just managing to stay afloat; Peña-Marin says that it’s only “guaranteed that we’ll make it past this year.” Still, she’s hopeful. “What really makes our conservatory are the families,” she says. “Even if they can’t donate, they volunteer their time—setting up our shows, making tamales for booster drives, even the younger siblings donate their pocket change... It makes me teary-eyed to see their donations on the register.” With the backing of a loyal community, she’s confident that BF will continue to provide a crucial curriculum to students interested in the art—“the classes and teachers,” she vows, “will never be cut.”

OCSA’s funding model has been in flux throughout over three decades of operation, and in its current iteration, conservatories rely heavily on the contributions of students and their families; the bulk of conservatory classes and teachers are paid for by voluntary donations, while many parents go above and beyond by volunteer- ing for conservatory events. Since families are so enmeshed in the funding process, it’s more im- portant than ever for Admin to be transparent, open, and informative about how funds are raised and what they are used for.