Welcome, everyone, to Midday Magazine for this February 9th, 2024.
Have your host, James J. Mailoff here, and welcoming into the studio, our great friend,
Sally Kissner, executive director over the Arts Council.
Sally, good to see you.
Good afternoon.
Thanks for being here. Appreciate the time.
Sally, you and I get together quite a bit, at least once a month.
And we always take time highlighting the upcoming show with the Arts Council.
We have a lot of fun doing that.
You do an amazing job bringing on a guest with us, usually from the act.
And we appreciate that so much and all you do for our community with the Arts.
But we don't ever get a chance to really, it seems like to really just sit back and talk about
the Arts Council and talk about the great work that you guys do.
So for one, I want to thank you for being in.
And I really want to send a big thank you to Meredith and our friends over at the Wisconsin
Rapids Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, giving the time to the Arts Council today.
Absolutely.
Big shout out to them and the great work they do.
Sally, before we get into the history of the Arts Council,
how did you get involved with the Arts Council?
Well, I had heard about the opening for an executive director at some point.
And I knew the president of the board at that time, just asked a few questions about it.
I've always been interested in the performing Arts.
My daughter was involved in performing Arts.
Still is, she's a choreographer, she's a great singer.
But I found it very interesting and I just threw my hat in the ring and got lucky.
It's interesting to hear you always had a love of the Arts and it kind of,
it feels like in talking to you over the years and stuff that this job is something you were
kind of building up towards whether you knew it or not.
Exactly.
And looking back, I can see a lot of things that I did in my work life that really
pointed toward this and I'm using a lot of those skills now.
So it's cool.
The universe always puts us where we need to be.
Exactly.
You know, it always does.
That's very cool.
Thank you for sharing that.
You got it.
About the, how about the history of the Arts Council in Southwood County?
So it was incorporated on January 23rd, 1976,
as a 501C3 nonprofit dedicated to educational purposes.
The first name was actually Community Arts Council of Southwood County,
Inc. and we've since dropped that to just Arts Council of Southwood County.
They've had several physical office locations starting out in the lower level of McMillan Library
and then moving to the Central Wisconsin Cultural Center when it was over on Johnson Street.
And then in 2009, we moved to our current location in the North Central real estate office
building on 8th Street South.
And been going strong ever since?
Yes.
You've touched on this a little, oh, did you have more history?
I'm sorry.
Um, just a little bit.
The performance locations have changed also.
We started at McMillan Library.
Then moved to East Junior High when it had a stage.
You were right.
Then West Junior High, which is now Rams.
And since 2000, we've been in the beautiful performing arts center.
Yeah, great facility.
Love that building.
There are two stages in this, in this state that I want to perform on.
It's the Rams one and it's that performing arts center.
Oh, love that place.
Are the acoustics in that building are so beautiful.
Yeah, you've touched on this a little bit, Sally.
Can we get into depth about what the Arts Council mission is?
Sure.
The mission is really to promote enjoyment and appreciation of a variety of performing art forms
among area residents of all ages connected with that.
We also provide and fund artists in education programs
that allows professional artists to enrich the lives of area students
through performances, workshops, and master classes.
So basically, we offer these classes when we bring groups in.
We offer them to homeschool students as well as students in Wisconsin Rapids Public Schools.
Assumption Catholic Schools.
Pacheli, Port Edwards, Nakusa, Pittsville, Amherst, and Adams friendship.
And we've even reached out to DC Everest.
Last year, they brought a group in too.
Awesome.
Very cool.
You know, it is great to be able to bring these acts into town.
The economy that that brings adults having something to do, especially in our winter months
when there's not as much and everything.
And all those things, none of us take lightly.
But that mission statement is so important and so vital to our community, to our youth.
We do, we don't blink an eye at sports and the idea of putting into youth sports.
And I applaud that.
I agree with that.
There's so much, you know, one, two percent of kids are going to make it and go on
to do professional sports.
But the life lessons you can learn from sports are lifetime.
It's no different than entertainment.
And arts are, give these same exact things.
They give opportunities for children to build confidence,
to learn more of their skillset, to understand maybe spark something in them.
And they want to take it and run with it, whatever that might mean.
About the same percentage of kids that are in shows or learn about these shows or
attend these workshops may turn into entertainers.
Right.
But the life lessons they learn, they can apply to whatever field they go into,
whatever they do.
Tell me there's a field out there that a kid couldn't be more confident,
or it couldn't be more benefited from some confidence,
or more people's skills, or communication skills, or anything.
That's the arts.
That's what they give.
And having these workshops where it's not just, you know, not to make light of any of our
teachers or anything, they all are very good at what they do.
And we appreciate that work.
But they have a Larry Gatlin, like talking to you about something or something like that.
It adds a little more weight to it.
Right.
And funny you should mention that.
But this season with the Larry Gatlin songwriting workshop,
we actually had a student who was so greatly impacted.
His teacher came to me and said that he said this was one of the best days of his life.
He has had some things happen to him in the past.
And he's poured himself into writing music.
And at the end of the workshop, Larry Gatlin spent like 20 minutes with this kid.
And I mean, it touches my heart to know that our workshops are having this kind of an impact,
even on one student.
And I'm sure there are more we don't hear about.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, thank you for sharing that.
That is really, really cool.
How about the structure of the Outs Council?
Let's get into that a little bit.
Yeah, as I mentioned, we are a nonprofit with one paid employee.
That's me.
I'm the lucky one.
And I report to a board of directors,
which is comprised of nine to 12 members at any given time.
They serve three year rotating terms.
And there are officer positions of President, Vice President,
Treasurer, and Secretary, as most boards are set up.
We also have some volunteers who do ticket sales
and work sometimes the night of the show, maybe at the will call table or handing out programs
if we're shorthanded.
We hold monthly meetings to handle all of our business transactions.
And fortunately, we also communicate via email with important things that come up in between.
Our fiscal year runs July through June.
Thank you for that.
I sometimes think with, especially in an organization like this,
or something that's been around for a while,
there's going to be new people in town or people that may not know all that information.
And I think it's very impactful for businesses out there
that we want to advertise with us and work with the Outs Council and everything.
I understand that structure goes a long way, I think.
Speaking of those sources, what about revenue sources?
How does that work for you guys?
So our number one source of revenue is ticket sales.
So we love to see a packed house.
It's actually about 70% of our revenue.
The rest comes from donations, advertising for our programs and show sponsorships.
We also have some in-kind partnerships as far as sponsorships go.
For example, WFHR, they sponsor shows.
And in turn, give us free advertising for that particular show.
We've done some very creative things as well,
where we'll have a business purchase, a season ticket, for example,
and a pair of season tickets, and then give those away.
And so that's a sponsorship.
Yeah.
Donations are very critical as well.
And we have some wonderful donors who every single year donate to us.
And we absolutely appreciate that.
Grants are important.
That's a source of revenue.
And especially was important during COVID,
it kept us in business, basically.
Um, when it comes to that, those revenue sources and everything,
you mentioned some creative things that you guys have done,
we always want to encourage any new business to want to work with the Arts Council.
Always open to those things and open new ideas and you know what you're thinking
and how we can work together and everything.
I'm saying we, I don't work at the Arts Council,
but that's how much I care about what that you guys do over there.
So I don't mean to keep saying we and maybe...
Well, the community kind of owns us, I feel, you know.
No way to put it.
Yeah.
We do a service for them.
So I, um, I, I, I encourage people to look into other resources and other ways
that you can impact things with the Arts Council.
And as Sally told you right there, those ticket sales are everything.
They're so vital.
Spreading the word about these events and these shows,
it goes so much farther than we could really put in the words.
You could bring any act into town and you just don't know how the ticket sales
are going to go for that set act.
Exactly.
So we can guarantee certain things, uh, you know, we can't guarantee that,
but we can guarantee certain things.
And as far as grants or, uh, you know, donations and that,
that goes a lot farther than we'll ever be able to word.
So greatly appreciate this community supporting the arts like they do.
Right.
Um, as far as support efforts go, uh, let's dive into that a little bit, Sally.
We're touching out of the already kind of lean into it.
Yes, exactly.
Um, so I do an annual mailing to our individual donors who support us.
And, um, that's just an annual thing that they do.
Um, we are also going to be starting our business solicitation.
We do that in the spring and summer.
So that's when we start looking for sponsorships.
By that time, we will have identified our whole season so that we can actually have
someone choose a show they'd like to sponsor.
And there are various levels of sponsorship anywhere from $500 to $4,000 and up.
And as I mentioned, we're also looking for different ways to, um, work together.
So it doesn't necessarily have to be a monetary sponsorship.
Um, we also have advertising.
Our programs, we have a beautiful, uh, color program.
And then we have a black and white insert that we change.
So if someone wants to change up their ad, if they're in retail sales and they want to
make it a little bit different, we have a couple of businesses who do that, um,
every single show they change it up a little bit, um, and they have that option.
Um, so that's pretty much our support efforts.
When it comes to, uh, the way that, uh, the, the arts council supports the businesses that
advertise with them, uh, I think it's noteworthy as well because you're attaching your name,
not just to the arts council, but to the acts that are performing there.
So uptown, you know, has this great show last night and, and, and kills it.
It does an amazing job.
I swear I could hear them from the other side of town.
They were sounded so good.
They were awesome.
Yeah.
And a great, great turnout and all that.
Well, you, if you are, if we're, uh, WFHR, we're advertising with you guys.
We're not just being sold along with the arts council.
We're being sold along with uptown.
We're being a soul with that.
You know, you're, you're attaching your name to something like that, which brings more eyeballs,
which is what every advertiser, every business is looking for.
So the opportunity, how many other opportunities you have in Wood County to be able to do something
like that, like that's a pretty darn good opportunity.
If I'm a business, I'm jumping on that.
I want to be a part of something like that.
Yep.
In addition to being mentioned several times in the program and, and getting an ad as part of your
sponsorship in the program, we mention them whenever we can.
We've got the business names on posters.
We mention them as an intro before the show starts.
It's all over the place.
When, um, as we mentioned before, we have a relationship WFHR in the arts council.
When we talk about these shows, we talk about the sponsors.
So you're getting heard on the radio as well.
There, there's so many avenues here and just word them out.
You're handing out these pamphlets and I see, oh, the WFHR is on the pamphlets.
Right.
So showing the community support as well, the PR of this is unparalleled.
Like every, every business worth their salt nowadays understands.
It's not just my business.
It's who I'm attaching myself to.
It's who I'm supporting.
Nike and McDonald's don't need money.
But you see them sponsoring things all the time because it matters.
People in our conscious, whether it's subconscious or not, it matters.
Oh, I see this, this business is putting back into our community.
This business cares about the arts.
That stuff goes a lot farther than we can put in the words.
You bet.
When it comes to the community involvement and how we can be more involved,
we've kind of touched on this a little bit too.
But are there other ways we can be involved with the Arts Council?
Well, or vice versa.
Sure.
We're trying to get visibility a little bit more to get the word out there
because you would be amazed at the number of people who are like, you know,
arts council.
What's that?
I've never heard of them.
And we've been around since 1976.
So we're doing some new things.
We've just started in the past year.
We did cranberry blossom fest parade that we're also going to do this year again.
At a rafters game, we did a 50-50 raffle last year.
And we're scheduled for the end of June again this year.
Oh, excellent.
We did the Christmas tree walk at the museum.
And we're going to do that again just to get the word out there.
But then we also like to do things for the community.
For example, the Aspirus Women's Cancer Patient Fund.
We are going to donate to that through our always Olivia performance.
That's beautiful.
Next month.
We're collaborating with Mid-State Tech with their culinary arts program.
We scheduled a reception that their students are going to be providing the appetizers for
before the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.
Oh, that's a great idea.
Oh, that's a good idea.
And we have a couple of restaurants that we are helping promote by doing dinners beforehand.
We had the last one last night.
So we'll probably continue doing things like this to just kind of get a little more
community involvement going on.
We're stronger together, you know, but we realize that in this community really well.
This, the rapids really gets that.
And when, you know, you've got a non-profit in an organization that could just
season, season opening like, hey, we could do something with this team or we could do something
with this restaurant or this organization or something.
And seeing that, those two working together or these organizations were together,
only benefits all of us.
It makes us all stronger.
It makes our economy stronger, all of the above.
When it comes to the cost of bringing these acts in,
I imagine that this varies from act to act and everything,
but it's also something that you don't have to understand this industry to understand that
this is probably one of the bigger, you know, budget things.
As far as your budget goes, this is one of the biggest things out of the pie that goes to
out of the budget, goes to these things.
They do these acts.
Right. And people are surprised.
New board members who come on board are amazed at what all is associated with a performance.
I know the general public doesn't have a clue.
So I just like to touch on that a little bit.
The performance fee, obviously, is going to be probably the highest.
Sure.
But then we pay for security.
That has become very important in the contracts.
They demand security now.
So we pay for security.
Some of these costs aren't huge, but they add up.
Everything adds up, yeah.
We have PAC rental.
We pay for the tech crews who work the shows.
And when that doesn't work, you know, it can make or break a show.
So we have janitorial crews that we pay for at the pack.
And then sometimes we have to get outside sound,
lighting, and equipment rental.
So those fees can add up.
We have ticketing system fees.
We have credit card fees that we pay.
Though being a nonprofit, we get decent fees for that.
So we are not at the point where we're going to charge those back to our patrons.
That's that.
And of course, marketing expenses.
Those can really add up.
And then there's just your general administrative and general operating costs,
you know, rent for our building, things like that.
And they all break down and kind of get divided among the number of shows that we do.
So we sort of calculate it that way and try and figure out
when we're scheduling shows, what kind of price to come up with for a ticket based on all this.
And we've got a cool spreadsheet that somebody before me made.
And we can just plug numbers in and kind of make adjustments as necessary.
And, you know, if you are like myself and you could, you know, I think that
there's such affordable tickets I've never seen a show in the years we've been talking.
I've never seen a show that I looked at and I was like, well, that's a high price or anything
like that. I've always, it's always the opposite.
I'm always like, wow, that is great that they can offer something like this for that price.
Yes, our goal is to break even.
We are a nonprofit.
So our goal is to break even.
And sometimes some of the tickets we could be charging a lot more for,
but we want to fill the house and we want to make it affordable.
So we kind of make some adjustments for the whole season that way.
We've done a, you've done a great job of giving us history of breaking down the arts council,
showing us how the arts council has our community back and does things for our community.
Let's show the arts council we have their back.
Let's show them that we support them.
Let's put into the arts council, put into the arts in any of these different ways you can do that.
And if you can't do any of some of these financial ways or anything,
all of us can spread the word about these shows.
Absolutely.
And can always use volunteers.
Can always use people like that, people that care like Sally did before she started working
at the arts council had a passion for this.
Maybe you're somebody like that.
We can always look, could always use good people.
Absolutely.
As we're wrapping up with our last couple of minutes here,
Sally, I want to talk about the upcoming productions as a shout out to uptown,
great work, the other nights, great work by them.
Big thank you to them for coming to town and talking with us on the air.
It was a really good meeting them, having them on the air with us.
Got a really great show coming right up to Sally.
My mom is dying to go see this.
We've actually got two in March.
So it's going to be a very busy weekend.
The first one is how sweet it is.
It's Steve Leslie singing James Taylor.
This guy is phenomenal.
He looks and sounds just like James Taylor.
It's like, it really is.
I grew up at a James Taylor house that I've heard a lot of Mr. Taylor over the years.
I, again, wasn't looking at the screen when I played it.
And I'm like, whoa, he's really good.
Right.
He's also a Grammy award-winning songwriter.
And we're going to be doing a workshop with him with students that day at 10 o'clock.
Wow, that's cool.
Oh, that's cool.
And you mentioned this a little bit already.
On March 10th, I'm another great show coming up.
Yes, always Olivia.
It's an Olivia Newton John tribute.
It's on a Sunday afternoon.
So we're trying an afternoon show once.
See how that goes.
And as I mentioned, we're not only doing donations
for the Aspirus Women's Cancer Patient Fund,
but $3 from each ticket, adult ticket sale,
is going to be donated there.
Annie Ayello, I believe, is her name?
Yes, I believe she's from the, at least either she's not from there.
She performed in Chicago area last year.
She is from there.
So I've heard her name before when she was doing kind of solo stuff.
Okay.
And she's got a pretty good name in that city.
Yes.
To take, I really think it's pretty cool to, like she could be doing her own thing,
but this is how much Olivia meant to her and how much she cares like about this.
And all of that being said, we love Olivia Newton John, love her and the memory of her.
It's great.
The impact this can make on the research and raising awareness and stuff cannot be taken lightly.
It's just as important as taking in a great show.
And she also donates a portion of her performance fee,
goes to the Olivia Newton John Cancer Fund.
Now, that is something unique to this particular show,
but don't lose sight of this, everybody.
Every one of these shows make an impact in your art community.
Every one of these shows add to our economy, add to our youth,
add to our, just fun, just in general, just great and fun in this area and stuff.
Not everybody's got something like this and not everybody has a Sally Kissner care
and so much about our community and adding to it like you do.
I appreciate your Sally.
Appreciate your board and the team over there at the Arts Council, all the volunteers.
We certainly send a shout out to Eric and the team at the pack that join us too.
We are so much better of a community for having you and having this team in these things in
place. And you would certainly notice if you didn't have them.
So let's appreciate what we have and let's make sure that we keep it around.
Add to the Arts Council as much as you can in any of the ways that Sally and I have talked
about today. You can find out more and get your tickets at saverthearts.com.
That's saverthearts.com. Be sure to get those tickets.
Don't wait. You don't want to wait.
Don't wait.
No, get them right away.
And I got more great shows coming up.
Sally will join us to talk about some of those later next month probably.
Thanks for the time, Sally.
Oh, thank you. I appreciate it.
And a big thank you again to Meredith and our friends over at the Wisconsin
Rapids Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Visit them and find out ways that you can put back into your community.
We'll have more midday magazine for you next week.
Shout out to our Pam Hilke for doing an amazing job scheduling week and a week out.
We appreciate you, Pam.
We'll talk to you soon and later right here at WFHR, locally grown radio.
