MARCH 4, 2010 ISSUE
Hayes Center ‘Very Unlikely’ To Reopen Before Fall
Repositioning Team Issues Community Survey, Agrees To Rent Facility
The doors to the Hayes Center in Blowing Rock will stay closed longer than initially expected.
When the Hayes Performing Arts Center suspended operations early last fall, Ron Bryson, chair of the Blowing Rock Community Arts Center Foundation Board of Trustees, said the foundation intended to reopen the center in time for the 2010 summer season.
But Deidre Simmons, the arts consultant hired to guide the Hayes Center through its repositioning process, said it’s going to take more time.
“It’s very, very unlikely that you’re going to see anything even through the summer,” Simmons said. “Until we get through this process of building the business model and really kind of testing that, we don’t want to put a date out there.”
The multi-million dollar facility, which housed the 24-year-old Blowing Rock Stage Company, was forced to suspend operations because of financial hardship just three years after opening in August 2006. The Board of Trustees announced that it would work with a consultant to restructure and redefine the role of the Hayes Center, examining issues such as operations, staff, donors, partnerships and a sizeable debt in the millions of dollars.
Simmons, who has worked in nonprofit arts management for more than 25 years, began working for the Hayes Center in October.
“It was pretty clear to me that there were some significant financial challenges for the organization,” she said.
In November, the Hayes Center formed a Repositioning Team to work with Simmons to build a sustainable business model for the center. The team includes area residents, arts patrons, business representatives, directors of arts councils, tourism and marketing experts, arts professors from ASU and Lees-McRae College and other individuals.
The Repositioning Team created four task forces in January—Fundraising, Finance, Marketing and Programming—comprised of Repositioning Team members and additional volunteers.
“As a consultant I couldn’t ask for a better team,” Simmons said.
The Repositioning Team meets once a month, and each of the task forces meet at least once a month in between Repositioning Team meetings, Simmons noted.
“Then there are a flurry of emails that fly around constantly,” she added. “Everybody’s working on their own piece of it.”
Thus far, the team and its task forces have conducted interviews with past Hayes Center patrons, conducted research, spoken with other performing arts facilities staff and identified the costs of operating the facility.
“We’re at a gathering of information stage. We know a lot more than we did two months ago, or three months ago,” said Simmons.
Earlier this week, the Hayes Center issued a survey to past patrons of the Hayes Center. The survey asks if respondents are full-time or seasonal residents or visitors to the High Country, what might have prevented them from purchasing a ticket to a past Hayes Center event and what types of programming they would like to see.
In February, the Hayes Center announced that it would consider rentals of the facility for non-performance-related events, beginning with the Fire on the Rock Chef’s Competition in April. Details on rentals are still being finalized and will be available soon. Rentals of the Hayes Center will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Simmons said the Repositioning Team reviewed the overhead costs of opening the Hayes Center in its consideration of rentals.
“The way rentals are being approached now is very, very fact-based, based on data we have on what it costs to operate the facility,” she said. “Even though this is a not-for-profit organization, you can’t rent the facility and not cover your expenses.”
Funding for the repositioning process, including the salaries of Simmons and the Hayes Center’s two staff members, has come primarily from members of the Repositioning Team and the Board of Trustees.
“Before we went out to fundraise from anyone else, it was critical that we have that type of support,” Simmons said. “We all contributed; everybody has supported this effort, and it’s a real leap of faith—a strong statement.”
Simmons insists that the Blowing Rock Stage Company is still very much a part of the Hayes Center.
“We are the Blowing Rock Stage Company,” she said. “I think there’s still a little bit of confusion out there. The Hayes Center and the Stage Company merged; they’re one and the same.”
Considering the confusion about the two entities, however, Simmons said, “At some point and time, we will need to know what we’re going to be referred to.”
For more information about the Hayes Center, click to www.HayesCenter.org or contact Development Director Allison West at 828-295-0112 extension 6.
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