News
July 13, 2021Federal Shuttered Venue Operating Grant Awards More Than $10 million to Proctors Collaborative
To our many supporters,
We have great news to share with you.
You know that since March 2020, we have been closed to performances and audiences due to Covid-19. You know we have used our properties to support our communities as best we could from our Theater Technology program to hosting blood drives, but we still were unable to do what we were built to do: host live events.
You may not know that to be CLOSED has cost us about $330,000 per month for minimal staffing, heating, cooling, insurance, and the continuous repairs of our historic properties. In other words, our 16-month closure has cost us about $5,300,000!
Many months ago, we estimated it would take a minimum of $14,000,000 to Restart Proctors Collaborative. This included money to reimburse our used funds from the costs of closure, as well as the money needed to rehire people and to restock our buildings so we may begin to have an audience and earn revenue again.
Over 2,100 of you have contributed over $3,000,000 to this enormous effort.
So, the great news?
On Friday, we learned that Proctors and Capital Repertory Theatre will receive funding from the federal government’s Shuttered Venue Operating Grant (SVOG) program administered by the Small Business Administration (SBA). This program was possible due in large part to Sen. Chuck Schumer’s efforts to support the Arts, not only in New York State, but around the country.
While we are still awaiting word for Universal Preservation Hall in Saratoga, Proctors will receive $9,423,671.85 and theRep will receive $709,169.86. While both are somewhat below what we expected, they are significant recovery dollars that together with what many of you have donated brings us to within $870,000 of our original goal!
Almost more importantly, it guarantees that we will not just Restart but be able to do so with enough resources to prime the pump of the entire Proctors Collaborative.
Our Summer Schools have already started and are going incredibly well. August will see performances and exhibits at theREP, on the Proctors MainStage and at UPH. The fall will bring even more to the stages of theREP and Proctors. It will take us some time to look like we looked in 2019, but we now know that we will get there.
If you have helped us already, thank you. If you plan to help in the future, thank you. If you are holding tickets awaiting our returned and rescheduled program, thank you.
Thank you for keeping the faith with us. We wanted to make sure you were the first to know of our support from SVOG and we will tell you as soon as we know about UPH. We look forward to seeing you in our historic buildings very, very soon!
