Guild Hall Surplus Propels Initiatives

One gets the impression, as Guild Hall skips toward the millennium, that it has swapped its Mary Janes for a pair of Air Jordans.

With public funding for the arts diminished and arts institutions scrambling to replace it, the Hall is happy to report that 1996 was financially its best year ever.

"I've been through three cycles of programming," said Henry Korn, who is embarking on his fourth year as Guild Hall's director, "and there's no doubt, both in terms of audience response and financially, that last year was by far the most successful."

Attendance was up 25 percent - 35 percent for summer programs in the John Drew Theater - and the institution not only balanced its $1.5 million budget, but ended the year with a surplus.

Good Start

Further good news is that the 1997 fund-raising season got off to a good start, he said. The Academy of the Arts Awards dinner grossed $425,000, an increase of $100,000 over last year.

"Clearly the environment for nonprofit institutions has gone through some drastic changes," Mr. Korn said, "and Guild Hall has shown it has the flexibility to respond to this new environment."

Because it is financially secure, a long-term plan is under way to create administrative office space in the building's attics. This would free street-level space for such uses as a small performing facility for experimental theater and a high school theater program. There would also be space for activities for young people.

Grolsch Fallout

Some 4,000 theatergoers attended the popular Grolsch concerts last summer. They were organized by Delsener/Slater Enterprises and, for the most part, were attended by the younger crowd Guild Hall has been after for some time. Mr. Korn said the concerts had a spinoff effect in creating stronger audiences for the rest of the summer.

Ron Delsener, an East Hampton resident, will bring back the Grolsch concerts, Mr. Korn said, along the lines of last summer's offerings. Although there are no names yet, the challenge is to bring big stars here at small prices, he said.

Another challenge that Guild Hall is hoping to meet this summer is the co-production with a New England arts institution of an all-Equity original musical comedy.

A Premiere?

"That's going to be an adventure," said Mr. Korn, adding only that the book was about American political life and that the author and composer were "veterans." The Drew stage also will host a non-Equity performance of a contemporary comedy in the summer.

In the visual arts, "Women and Abstract Expressionism" will be the first major show of the season, curated by Joan Marder of Baruch College. The exhibit will try "to redress the neglect of some of the women artists" of the era. The following one-person shows, which remain to be formalized, also will feature controversial artists, Mr. Korn promised.

August will bring the big art show of the year and one that promises to be a crowd-puller: "Childe Hassam in East Hampton."

Hassam And Moran

The exhibit was planned partly in response to what Mr. Korn sees as an increasing interest in East Hampton's past, and a need to gather a sense of the history of a place that is changing rapidly. A little further into the future is an exhibit on the artwork of Thomas Moran and members of his family.

The literary front this year "will be as good as last, if not better," promised Mr. Korn, with some national and international writers cutting across the literary disciplines.

There also will be a French film series in August, children's programs, music, cabaret, and, it is hoped, appearances by former Academy of the Arts awards recipients.

Coming Up Soon

The first undertakings of the year will be the student arts festival, which this year will have more emphasis on the performing arts, and the annual members show, both popular community events.

The theater will see the remainder of CTC Theater Live's programming: Sam Shepard's "True West" and Cole Porter's "Anything Goes." The group's production of Irwin Shaw's "Bury the Dead" opens tomorrow for a three-weekend run.

"What a difference a year makes. This time last year the museum was closed as an austerity measure; yesterday the museum was full of children watching the wonderful Catskill Puppets and then pouring out into the galleries to see our Puppet Show," he said.

Mr. Korn hopes that eventually every major museum show will have a "discovery experience" for children. "We'd very much like to offer, especially to the very youngest, a hands-on experience in their own space," he said.

Abolish N.E.A.

Mr. Korn's thoughts then turned to public funding. Expressing concern that an economic downturn could cut off "the private sector support we've worked so hard to obtain," he said he thought the time had come to "give some serious thought to the abolition of the National Endowment for the Arts, since it has been successfully demonized. From my perspective, it would be preferable to begin again."

Mr. Korn had been among a coalition of East End arts leaders who lobbied last year to keep arts funding secure. The battle was ineffective. With the unstoppable momentum of any large bureaucratic institution, the N.E.A. keeps on churning out press releases, but as to its primary function of arts funding "it's become a question of triage. And just how many arms and legs can you cut off and still function effectively?" he asked.

The time had come, he said, for the profession to consider what might replace the N.E.A. as a more effective structure for the support of the arts.

"The leadership in Washington just hasn't got involved in the arts," he said, "but with the N.E.A. out of the way, the White House might become involved in the nation's cultural life again."