Raue Center For Arts Pushes Past Pandemic: What's Next?

NORTHERN ILLINOIS — The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way at least two suburban arts centers will be planning programming and connecting with their communities moving forward.

After a year of uncertainty, and as the possibility for a full reopening inches closer, those who oversee operations at the Raue Center for the Arts in Crystal Lake and Adler Center for Arts in Libertyville say they are eager to get music and art students back in their classrooms and a packed theater.

At the Raue, a downtown Crystal Lake theater that can seat 750 people at full capacity, only small shows are taking the stage right now.

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The Raue had to dip into its reserves to make it through, and also has fared OK overall with fund-raising. In a typical year, the Raue brings in $1 million. Currently, about $650,000 has been raised in this fiscal year, which ends in July, said Richard Kuranda, CEO for the Raue Center and founding artistic director for the Williams Street Reperatory.

But state restrictions are loosening, and the Raue is planning for its fall season.

"We are surviving, we will be much happier when we are up and running and welcome people back," he said. "But, we are nervous. We've been testing the waters with smaller shows ... but we won't have our major acts until fall. "

In recent months, state restrictions limited the number of people allowed into the Raue, on stage and in the audience, but as full reopening nears, Kuranda says the Raue is on track to host shows with 200 to 300 people in its theater.

Meanwhile, the Adler Center for Arts in Libertyville saw its main fundraiser, its Festival for the Arts, and other top moneymaker, its summer camp, shut down last year because of COVID-19.
Ellen Williams, program and marketing director for the Adler Arts Center, said shifting the majority of its music students online early on in the pandemic was the first hurdle cleared to inch Adler toward some financial security.

The center was able to move 92 percent of its music students online. The arts center also received a federal Payment Protection Program loan.

“It (transitioning students) really helped keep us alive on top of the fact that we did successfully get those payment protection loans," Williams said. "So, if we didn’t get those, I don’t know if we’d be able to be here just because of all the cancellations. We had to cancel all of our in-person exhibitions, all of our in-person art classes, all over our summer camp and our arts festival."

Keeping its music lessons alive, and shifting from in-person instruction to online, posed plenty of challenges, Williams said.

“We had a lot of email threads and a lot of chats with the faculty where they were able to share kind of the issues they were experiencing," Williams said. "They'd share certain ways of holding their device, whether it was the computer or iPad, or ways to kind of angle it toward the keyboard to make sure the students are able to see their hand position and placements. And it was just a lot of trial and error."

What came as a surprise to the Adler was that more new students enrolled than expected in the months following the state shutdown. Being stuck at home with few extracurricular options may have promoted parents and children to opt for music lessons.

Williams also credited the Adler's shift to more online engagement, including several popular Facebook Live concerts and interviews with prominent community members, as helping to get the word out about the Adler's offerings.

“Something really interesting and awesome that happened over COVID, we have this community partners program, where local businesses are able to sponsor free programming for the community. So, while we were in quarantine and weren’t able to have anyone at the center, we really explored a lot of options and collaborated with local businesses," Williams said. "We had really cool series on our Facebook Live where we worked with, talked to and interviewed prominent people in the community.”

Typically, the centers' videos would see a maximum of 500 viewers. A Facebook Live interview with Libertyville native and "Hamilton" star Phillipa Soo had more than 4,600 views, Williams said.

Looking Back: How The Raue Handled The COVID Shutdown

Last March, Kuranda says his staff was scrambling to figure out next steps amid show cancellations. While many non-profits, especially ones associated with the arts, were out asking for cash to stay afloat, the Raue did not.

"We had the blessing here that people were reaching out to us asking, 'what do you need?' And I do think that's rare. Because I know a lot of places were out there asking and asking and asking and we were, you know, for whatever reason, I think we were just so overwhelmed, we didn't have the forethought to get out there and start asking right off the bat," Kuranda said.

Staff did get on the phone, calling its 440 volunteers to see if they needed anything. At that time, supplies, like toilet paper and other common household goods, were scarce. Kuranda said the Raue wanted to make sure its volunteers, many who are younger, had everything they needed.

From there, the Raue began talking with donors and stakeholders, asking what they would like to see on stage, considering the COVID-19 restrictions.

Online comedy acts and a Christmas concert, which was marketed as "a virtual holiday party" and showcased more than 50 Sage Studios students in "a fun-filled, family-friendly variety show," were among the Raue's most popular programs during COVID. The Raue also decided to shift its educational programs for children online.

"We knew three months into the pandemic that our strategic plan was really solid and that was really refreshing. That that fiscal responsibility was there, that the connection with the community, the engagement was very healthy," he said.

A June 6x6 project fundraiser, which is an online art auction and exhibition where artists of all ages and abilities can submit original works of art, ended up bringing $12,000 more than the prior year.

But during this time, the Raue also had to furlough 40 percent of its staff to keep things running. Now, Kuranda said. the Raue is slowly starting to bring staff back on.

This fall, Kuranda said, will be the true test for the Raue.

So far, 30 percent of the center's fall programming has been released. And the Raue is in talks with a couple major acts that, pre-pandemic, may not have considered a stop in Crystal Lake. An overall sense of uncertainty in the music industry as well as many theaters across the U.S. closing due to financial constraints could be fueling this interest.

The theater's schedule can be found online. More summer programs should be released by June 1 and the full fall program lineup should be in place by Aug. 15, Kuranda said.

Looking Back, Looking Forward: New Perspective

Having a more active role in providing community programming will be an important goal for both the Adler and the Raue moving forward.

At the Adler, its popular "community conversations" shared via Facebook Live during the pandemic has prompted the center to offer similar in-person conversations moving forward.
"It got people looking at our website and seeing what we do but also got people interested in their community. So, I think something we learned in regards to like, awareness, was that partnering and talking and collaborating with, you know, local businesses and people who support the arts is just a really awesome way to form community and get new people into the center.

"But then, moving forward, I think it somsething we want to do more of in person. Whether that's having more events here ... or partnering with a local business to spotlight them, I think we just want to be more community-minded."

The pandemic, she said, has shifted the Adler's perspective on this. Sponsoring events, including free events, will be a focus.

"It's really helped us kind of see that that is a role we want to take and be a part of in a more bigger form in the community," she said. "It's really important to us to have that community art center understanding and really serve the community the best we can. And even if that's just breaking even, that's one of our goals post-COVID goals."

Similarly, the Raue also wants to offer more community programs, in particular, that spark dialogue surrounding current events. Kuranda said the Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Crystal Lake last summer, which led many businesses to board up their shops amid tensions and riots across the U.S., prompted this.

At the time, some people pushed the Raue to board up, too.

"I received a call from a couple business people and they said, 'You should board up.' And I said, 'No, we're not going to board up.' We believe that everybody has rights and we are not experts on the subject by any stretch, we believe in humans first," he said.

The Raue also posted a message on its website in support of the protestors; they included a photo of the crowd laying down in the municipal parking lot during the protest.

Kuranda said the Raue wanted to let the community know they supported that form of free speech. The blowback the center received, he said, "was a learning experience."

"We had a couple of people write horrible letters to us revoking their financial support and revoking their associations with us," he said.

Prior to that, the Raue, he said, "was like Switzerland."

"We'd work with everyone," he said.

Moving forward, that won't be the case.

"I think coming out of this, it reaffirmed that we have to stand up for freedom of speech. We have to stand up for expression. As long as people are well meaning and it doesn't violate the law, we support them. Freedom of speech is the core tenant of the bond of trust we have as a society...with that bond of trust means that we have to care, too. And when 6,000 people protest on our streets that Black Lives Matter, we support those people because they are a part of our base. And we support them because we think it's the right thing to do," Kuranda said.

Kuranda says he thinks the Raue can play a role in encouraging dialogue on important issues.

"I think we will be providing and really offering more programming that directly speaks to more relevant social issues," he said.

As for when the Raue will feel like it's finally made it safely past the pandemic, Kuranda says he's waiting for one particular moment, which is currently in the works for next fall:

We're hopeful that we will welcome our school children back into the theater. This is a magical moment that I can describe. So, we will bus the kids in to see a school show. For many of them, it's the first time they've seen theater or been in a large theater." We have these twinkle lights in the ceiling. So, when you hear the hush of 750 children as the lights go down, but then the twinkle lights go on, you hear this, 'oooh, ahhh,' and it's genuinely, it gives me goosebumps, I don't know why. It's like this really cool, innocent thing that is so wonderful.

"That'll be the moment that we will know we are back," he said.

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