Disaster Recovery Assistance for Performing Arts Organizations

ACTION NEEDED
We urge Congress to support an amendment to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) statute to specify that America's non-profit performing arts organizations are eligible to receive FEMA support.

TALKING POINTS

• There is a misconception that federal resources are readily available for the non-profit performing arts to recover and rebuild from natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina. At this time, performing arts organizations are ineligible for FEMA assistance.
  
  
• As with other sectors of the economy, the destruction of physical property and resources can be devastating for performing arts organizations. After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, artists, arts administrators, educators and donors were dislocated and left without the space or equipment needed to work. Facilities such as theaters, concert halls and studios were severely damaged or destroyed.
  
  
• Performing arts organizations are an important component of a community's economy and cultural identity and must be rebuilt alongside other essential institutions and services. A robust performing arts presence attracts cultural tourism. For a community to completely recover following a disaster, performing arts organizations must be restored.
  
  
• Performing arts organizations provide critical community services in times of disaster. Even in the wake of disaster, America's non-profit performing arts organizations remain committed to serving their communities by providing performances, workshops, and educational programs that help affected communities come together to heal through a common creative and expressive experience.
  
  
• Major disasters can destroy an entire region, including the traditional sources of funding and resources for recovery. Federal assistance is particularly critical as the audiences, donors, corporations and government agencies that traditionally support the arts in the community are in need of help themselves.
  

BACKGROUND
FEMA's Public Assistance Program accounts for the bulk of federal disaster relief expenditures. State and local governments and certain non-profit organizations can be reimbursed for the costs to repair facilities to their pre-disaster condition, as well as for costs associated with debris removal and emergency protective measures. Current FEMA policy states that performing arts facilities are not eligible to receive FEMA relief as a private non-profit (PNP) facility. Eligible PNP facilities include educational facilities, community centers, museums, libraries and zoos.

The definition of PNP which excludes performing arts organizations is a matter of FEMA policy, not law. While current statute broadly defines a private nonprofit facility as "educational, utility, emergency, medical, rehabilitational, and temporary or permanent custodial care facilities (including those for the aged and disabled), other private non-profit facilities which provide essential services of a governmental nature to the general public," current FEMA policy lists performing arts facilities as ineligible for FEMA support. FEMA has been unwilling to correct this policy.

The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (known as the Stafford Act) governs FEMA. As Congress considers updating the Stafford Act, the definition of private nonprofit facility should be amended to explicitly include performing arts organizations in the list of those currently eligible for FEMA support- museums, zoos, community centers, libraries, homeless shelters, senior citizen centers, shelter workshops, and health and safety services.

PERFORMING ARTS ORGANIZATIONS SERVING THEIR COMMUNITIES
The Columbia Theatre/FANFARE (Hammond, LA)
Southeastern Louisiana University's Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts is located 50 miles from New Orleans in Hammond, Louisiana, and was among the many organizations affected on August 29th, when Hurricane Katrina and its damaging winds hit. Despite the damage, Columbia Theatre forged ahead with its month-long arts festival, FANFARE, in October 2005. With no phone service or mail and no hotel rooms for the guest artists, the determined Columbia Theatre purchased beds and asked its board members to buy pillows and blankets. FANFARE operated a hotel within the theatre's auxiliary spaces, with a men's dorm downstairs in the conference center and a women's dorm upstairs in the dance studio and presented approximately 55 events.

The Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra (Biloxi, MS)
Despite the loss of instruments and homes, the musicians and staff of the Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra continue to bring quality music to the people of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The Orchestra's venue, the Biloxi Saenger Theater, is located just one block from the edge of the tidal surge. On November 19th, the Orchestra held its first concert since the hurricanes destroyed the entrance to the theatre. Displaced musicians and patrons used a back street approach through heavily damaged areas to perform in and attend one of the first cultural events to occur on the Mississippi Gulf Coast following the hurricanes. In January, the Orchestra held a classical concert with more than 200 volunteer emergency workers from across the country in the audience. The Orchestra was forced to cancel most of the remainder of the concert season. The Orchestra regards itself as an integral part of the recovery and rebuilding effort, providing healing for the minds and spirits of musicians and audience members.

New Orleans Ballet Association (New Orleans, LA)
Among the hundreds of thousands affected by Hurricane Katrina were the students, faculty and staff of the New Orleans Ballet Association (NOBA), an award-winning community school providing free arts instruction to 1,200 inner-city children at three schools and 14 after-school sites. All but two of the schools and after-school centers with which NOBA worked were completely flooded. 100% of NOBA's students were displaced, along with the school's staff and faculty. Just one month after the disaster, NOBA held free dance classes at three satellite locations--Lafayette, Baton Rouge, and Metairie. NOBA also partnered with two Baton Rouge based dance companies--Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre and Of Moving Colors--to raise money to support local teaching artists and to give them performance opportunities.

Southern Rep (New Orleans, LA)
The Southern Rep is a non-profit professional theatre in New Orleans. The theatre was broken into by looters during the storm and the building in which the theatre is housed, The Shops at Canal Place, suffered major damage. They estimate that 25% of their audience lost their homes. Southern Rep's office and rehearsal space is being used by the Small Business Association's Disaster Relief Program. Southern Rep had to cancel the first four shows of its season. They reopened in May 2006 with a production of Kimberly Akimbo. In the spring of 2007 they will offer the first of two plays they have commissioned about Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, Rising Water by novelist and playwright John Biguenet. They also plan to start offering acting classes again in the summer. All of this will be done with a drastically reduced staff of one full-time and two part time employees down from a staff of 50 before Katrina.

The New Orleans Opera Association (New Orleans, LA)
The New Orleans Opera Association (NOOA) is the leading producer of opera in Louisiana. NOOA's primary theater, the Mahalia Jackson Theatre of the Performing Arts, was completely flooded in September 2005 forcing the cancellation of their entire fall season.  Despite the devastation, NOOA continues to thrive and delight audiences with a sold out spring season in which it utilized Tulane University's theater and Loyola University's parking facilities. In March 2006, NOOA hosted a month long series of musical performances to encourage cultural tourism to New Orleans. On March 4th, NOAA hosted a gala benefit featuring Placido Domingo that raised half a million dollars for local music schools and performing arts organizations.