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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Damian Bazadona, Founder of Situation Project, on Arts Access and Untapped Cultural Resources
3:00:28
ยท
3 min
Damian Bazadona, founder of Situation Project, testified about the untapped potential in New York City's arts and cultural sector, highlighting millions of empty seats in venues annually while many students lack access to arts education. He described his organization's efforts to connect students with these opportunities and emphasized the need for public-private partnerships to utilize this untapped equity.
- Situation Project has reached over 100,000 students since its founding in 2011, providing access to live shows, career opportunities, and educational tours.
- Bazadona estimates 3-5 million empty seats annually in NYC's cultural venues, representing hundreds of millions of dollars in untapped equity.
- He advocates for discussions on public-private partnerships to leverage these resources for expanding arts access and education.
Damian Bazadona
3:00:28
Hi.
3:00:29
I'm Damian Bazadonna.
3:00:30
I'm founder of Situation Project, and thank you for having me.
3:00:34
This has just been a remarkable experience surrounding myself around all the amazing work that's happening in the arts and culture community.
3:00:40
It's a little bit of impostor syndrome for me because this is a little bit outside of my normal lane of work.
3:00:45
The last twenty years I've spent running a marketing agency where my job is to bring audiences in to arts and cultural experiences.
3:00:54
We're in the cultural capital of the world.
3:00:55
There's some remarkable cultural experiences, and my entire job is about filling those seats.
3:01:01
One of the truths that happened that I've recognized over the past twenty years is that there is consistently, year after year, millions of seats that go empty.
3:01:11
And that's millions every single year predictably.
3:01:15
Broadway alone, just for example, these are public numbers, about 1,500,000 seats go empty every single year.
3:01:22
And at the same time, I think we've learned all today, we've talked about it, kids in this city are not getting adequate access to the arts.
3:01:30
Arts exposure, arts education, arts are missing from a significant number of kids' lives.
3:01:35
I believe, as I know everyone else in this room does, that arts are important.
3:01:38
I look at it I think of arts as avocado for the soul.
3:01:42
It is a nourishment that is critical to the growth and support of our children and our communities.
3:01:48
And so when I look at the millions of empty seats that are happening throughout the year in the cultural capital of the world, I wanted to do something about it.
3:01:57
So in 2011, I founded Situation Project, which was my for profit company creating a nonprofit institution that enabled us to open doors to live shows where we saw open inventory.
3:02:10
In addition, we opened up career opportunities so for the kids to realize all the amazing jobs they're in the arts and culture community, which I don't think gets talked about enough.
3:02:19
High paying jobs in the arts and culture community that we're going to need for this city to thrive.
3:02:24
In addition, taking them on school tours to understand higher education and how you can continue to advance your career in the arts if you choose to do so.
3:02:32
We've done a lot with a little.
3:02:35
My for profit company where I've made personal investments in this, we cover the overhead and the operating costs.
3:02:41
Every money, any ounce of money that comes in goes 100% to programming.
3:02:45
Since we've launched the organization, we've reached over 100,000 students.
3:02:50
That's a number that we've broken recently that I'm extremely proud of.
3:02:53
My executive director Samara Berger is here.
3:02:55
Eliza Poulter.
3:02:56
A lot of other people are a big part of this.
3:02:58
But this is truly a project of passion, money that I've personally put in and we've raised by private donations of people who support this.
3:03:06
But as proud as we are of 100,000 students, I think that's just a small dent over the thirteen years we've been doing it.
3:03:12
It's like skimming rocks in the ocean.
3:03:14
One of the primary reasons I wanted to come today is provide testimony that I think that there is hundreds of millions of dollars of untapped equity right around us right now.
3:03:22
There will be three to 5,000,000 empty seats this year in the cultural capital of the world.
3:03:28
And if you put a value on those tickets, it comes out to a significant number.
3:03:32
I think there is an opportunity for private and public partnerships to be discussed, move forward.
3:03:37
At Situation Project, we are committed to continue to do that and I personally will do whatever I can to help support that.
3:03:43
Thank you for having me.