In this episode of Artscape:
Mark Allan, interim executive director of WaterFire Providence.
Margo Saulnier, of New Bedford Creative and Tracy Silva Barbosa, executive director of the Fall River Arts & Culture Coalition. Both are organizers of ArtWeek SouthCoast
Transcript
This Transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Luis Hernandez: As we move closer to summer, we edge closer to the first WaterFire lighting ceremony of the year. It will take place at the end of the month. WaterFire Providence is going through some changes. This year they named Mark Allan as the interim Executive Director. You have a lot of experience leading local non-profit organizations. How does this job compare to some of the work you’ve done before?
Mark Allan:  Well, everything I’ve done has been with mission driven organizations with a purpose that that’s what I’ve sort of spent my life doing. But this, this is a different product. I’ve worked with organizations that have helped people who are low income and helped towns be more effective. But this is an art based and a unique artistic creation that brings many things together. It brings together the artistic experience itself and it brings the involvement of a whole community and it brings together economic impact, for the city of Providence and its region. So it really stands unique in anything I’ve worked with and what I’ve seen before.
Hernandez: What I’d like to know is, what is your assessment of the challenges this non-profit is facing and what are a couple of the big things you need to tackle immediately?
Allan:  There are two or three challenges. One is financial. Money has been very tight. There were some substantial losses in 2023 that put it in an extremely tight position. So for any nonprofit, that’s a critical matter. But also it’s fairly modest in size. But what it does is extremely complex. There are many organizations of this size that get steady funding from one or two sources. They deliver a service, like a residential program for people or something like that. This is very complex. Its funding sources are multiple, none of which are fully reliable year to year. And what it does is create a public event on a waterway with fire using wooden boats and metal braziers in a way that’s extremely challenging physically. And does it using perhaps 1200 volunteers in the course of a year. So the complexity of it is massive and the tendency of an organization of this size is to be very informal in the way it operates and work with a lot of heart and not as much organization and WaterFire needs to be sophisticated and, if you will, punch above its weight organizationally to really effectively deliver this going forward.
Hernandez:  We spoke with Barnaby Evans, the executive artistic director last year, and we asked him about the financial situation. I’m wondering, how do you see it? Because you talked about that, that was the first thing you mentioned. That was the big challenge. But he’s optimistic, but he also says there’s a realism we gotta deal with. I’m wondering again, after five months, what do you see?
Allan:  this was built around corporate support initially, I think sponsorships, large corporations, and that was the heart of it way back. And you, you’re going back almost 30 years, right? And that is still present, but it’s much diminished because of the changes in Providence and its region itself. And the corporations that were here, some have moved away, many have been acquired. And that kind of local corporate support, which I’ve worked with in other settings, not for WaterFire as a product, is very powerful when it exists. And as it starts to break up, it no longer has that strength. And we’ve been riding that for a long time. It still exists, but it’s in decline and I think there’s a tendency for an organization when things have worked to sort of continue down that path. So we actually are redoubling our efforts with corporations, but that clearly isn’t the core future for us. We’re looking at all the methods of support and becoming more sophisticated. And then a particular area that surprisingly we haven’t done much with at all is support from large donors, from wealthy individuals, either as gifts or as bequests. You’d expect that we’d be doing that, and that hasn’t been part of the repertoire. So we are starting that up quite substantially. It takes time obviously to develop that, but that’ll be a new area that we add to what we need.
Hernandez:  a lot of groups obviously are feeling the pinch as politics have gotten involved and we’re seeing cuts to arts across the board. And I’m wondering how, how is that affecting you?
Allan:  Well, a couple things. The most immediate is at the national level, and we get no money nationally through the arts. So that has no direct effect. The only thing, we do have a grant, for,one a program working with kids around education and support. That seems to be intact, but that’s not core to what we deliver. It’s something we’re very committed to. So the funding we get at the state level doesn’t go through the normal sort of formal arts pathways. So we’re less vulnerable. Everyone is vulnerable because everyone’s gonna be hit, the states are all gonna be hit through Medicaid and that kind of thing. But in a direct sense, we’re sitting in a relatively good place. The other thing is, is we’re not just an arts creation. The art is front and center. The art is where it started with Barnaby, but we have tremendous positive economic impact. And that continues and that drives revenues, tax,revenues for the state. And the state provides us support and we are very profitable for the state. The comparison between what we generate in tax revenues and what they give us, they make out very well. So that kind of transaction has a different flavor than support, just as a gift for the arts.
Hernandez: You’re the interim executive director, correct?
Allan: Yes.
Hernandez: Are you interested in becoming the full time director?
Allan:  Well, what I’d say is in a formal sense, no, I’m not a filler. I consider myself a bridge to the future. So I’ll be here for a while until this is strong and stable, and we have clarity for a long-term strategy in a way that allows us to recruit a permanent executive director.
Hernandez:  How long does that last? I mean, are they in the process of looking for a permanent director or let’s see how we go forward and then decide later?
Allan:   Yes, we are not searching now. They focused on bringing me on to have things be stable and clarity of purpose and direction. And what I’m counseling them is this is not the time to do a search. We need a strong financial situation, and we need clarity about direction and strategy and how we’ll operate to know who we’re looking for and to be able to recruit the strongest possible person.
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ArtWeek Southcoast runs from May 8th to May 18th and offers more than 50 different experiences all over Bristol County, Massachusetts. Joining me now to tell me all about the events are Margo Saulnier, one of the leaders of New Bedford Creative and Tracy Silva Barbosa, the executive director of the Fall River Arts & Culture Coalition.
Hernandez: This looks like several different events and festivals rolled into one. Margo, what’s the big picture, what are some of the different events nested into ArtWeek SouthCoast? Paint that picture for me.
Margo Saulnier:  Well, I would say that it’s an 11 day celebration of creativity across New Bedford and Fall River and the surrounding towns of Dartmouth, Marion, Westport, Fairhaven, Mattepoisett, Somerset and Wareham. And you said in the intro that it’s over 50 events. I checked this morning we’re at over a hundred.
Hernandez:  Over a hundred already, okay. And so, is it one of those where you’re inviting people to basically start at one point, make their way through and see all of them, as many of them as they can?
Saulnier:  This is definitely a choose your own adventure. There are multiple events and concerts and exhibits and gallery shows and participatory events happening throughout those 11 days and people can choose their own adventure.
Hernandez:  Alright, I’m gonna put you on the spot. Tell me about one big one you’re excited about.
Saulnier:  Well, one big one is opening night, AHA New Bedford, AHA stands for Art History Architecture and it is in New Bedford and they’re celebrating National Preservation Month. And if you want an introduction to Arts and Culture in New Bedford, this is a fabulous way to start. There are over 30 events happening in one night, and they just started a tour program. So if you want to get a personalized tour by an artist Kat Knutson, you can show up at 6:00 PM in Custom House Square and she will show you around to all of the gems of downtown New Bedford. That’s Thursday, May 8th.
Hernandez: Tracy, what’s on your list?
Tracy Silva Barbosa:  I’ve got two that are highlighted on my list. This Saturday, May 10th is We Heart Fall River, which is a free arts event that’s been happening for five years now in downtown Fall River, right near the city hall. And it’s a collaboration between FRAC, my organization, Fall River Arts and Culture, Viva Fall River, The City of Fall River, the Narrows, I’m sure many people know that wonderful venue, the Narrows. There’s a Maker’s market. There’s food trucks, there’s live entertainment, music, there’s children’s activities. And also on May 17th  there’s the echoes of the Pocasset and the Falling River Tour, which is a highlight from the Wampanoag tribe. It’s a walking tour of the river way in Fall River. There’s a trolley ride but also you can self-guide the tour at any time.
Hernandez: Tracy, you’re an artist.
Barbosa: I am.
Hernandez:  I’m wondering, what’s it like right now? I think about everything that’s happened since the pandemic, but also the world that we are living in. What’s it like for an artist right now?
Barbosa:  Not surprisingly, it’s a little scary, right? I think that we’re seeing, you know, lots of information that’s coming out, day by day that’s meant to confuse and scare and frustrate, especially those of us in the creative community. But having conversations with my fellow artists, we are resilient and dedicated to the work that we do. So we’ll find a way.
Hernandez:  And the biggest thing is all these cuts to funding for a lot of different arts organizations. Margo, you mentioned Dartmouth. I wanted to ask you about. We’ve done talked about this story so much. The UMass Dartmouth Arts Department left the Star Store in New Bedford, and I’m wondering what’s that done to the arts community and how they kind of kept going.
Saulnier:  Well, as Tracy said, the arts community is resilient and the College of Visual and Performing Arts at UMass Dartmouth, their staff, faculty, and students are committed to maintaining a relationship with New Bedford. So we will bring in groups of new students every semester to participate in an AHA night to experience downtown New Bedford where Star Store was and learn about the artistic legacy of the city of New Bedford. And there’s lots of other programs that we are working on with UMass Dartmouth, CVPA so that we can maintain those ties.
Hernandez:  A lot to do. As you mentioned, there’s over a hundred events, so there’s plenty to do again. ArtWeek SouthCoast runs from May 8th to May 18th.
