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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Risa Shoup, Co-Executive Director of Alliance of Resident Theaters New York
5:07:29
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3 min
Risa Shoup, Co-Executive Director of ART New York, testified about the importance of theater in New York City and the need for increased public funding. She highlighted the challenges faced by the theater industry post-COVID and emphasized the critical role of public funding in supporting diverse programming.
- ART New York represents over 400 nonprofit theater companies and provides various services including subsidized workspace, financial resources, and educational programs.
- Research shows ticket sales are down 11% from 2019, but free programming and attendees have doubled, indicating public interest in theater despite financial constraints.
- Shoup joined other colleagues in requesting an additional $30 million in funding to continue offering important theater programming.
Risa Shoup
5:07:29
Hi.
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Thank you council member Brannan.
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Thank you council member Rivera, and everyone else who is here today.
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My name is Risa Shoup.
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I am a co executive director of the Alliance of Resident Theaters New York, also known as ART New York.
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We represent over 400 nonprofit theater companies throughout New York City and New York State, and we work across three facilities located both in Manhattan and in Brooklyn.
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We are a service provider.
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We offer subsidized workspace, including offices, rehearsal spaces, and two theaters.
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We offer financial resources, including three grant programs and a cash flow loan program that we administer in partnership with SeaChange Capital, and a wide array of educational programs, which include in person convenings in the fall and the spring, online roundtables and peer learning spaces, and expert led trainings and workshops.
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Workshops.
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And, of course, we are an advocate for our constituents and for the field.
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Thank you again for the opportunity to testify today.
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Theater is a big piece of why people love to live, work in, and visit New York City.
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Theater is a place where people feel safe and where stories are told and where empathy is built and where new worlds are imagined.
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And I can think of no greater opportunity before us right now than to imagine a more just, equitable, and inclusive world.
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And that's what we do in the theater every day.
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And we build those critical skills that everyone is going to need so much more of in the future.
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And yet despite the importance of theater, our field has not recovered since the COVID nineteen shutdowns, and you're probably tired of hearing it.
5:09:22
And I'm certainly tired of talking about it, But I just completed a two year research effort with A.
5:09:28
T./New York that shows that ticket sales are still down 11% from 2019.
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What we also learned that's huge that is as encouraging as that is discouraging is that free programming and the number of free attendees have both doubled since 2019.
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This shows us that people want to go to the theater.
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It also shows us that the cost of theater, just as the cost of everything, rent, food, childcare, is getting in their way.
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So public funding for arts and culture and for theater specifically is critical.
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Public funding is reliable.
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Public funding is available to the largest theaters and the smallest theater companies that are being, formed right now.
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And we need public funding to continue to offer a diverse array of programs and tell a diverse array of stories that reflects who New York City is and keeps people living here, working here, and visiting the city.
5:10:35
And so it is with all of that in mind that I join all of my colleagues who have testified before I have today in asking for that additional $30,000,000
UNKNOWN
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to be reached by.
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Time has expired.
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So
Risa Shoup
5:10:49
that we can continue to offer this instrumental important programming.
5:10:54
Thank you.