BY MONICA ANKE HAHN-KOENIG
Illustration by Peggy Honeywell

“I think we should have go-go dancers in the windows!” says Claudia Gould, director of the Institute of Contemporary Art. She’s only half kidding. Spaces like the ICA, the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, the Arthur Ross Gallery and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, among several others, face difficult challenges in attracting visitors. They’ve also recently come up with some creative ways—short of hiring exotic dancers—to draw audiences from the Penn campus, Philadelphia and beyond.
    What’s keeping people away from Penn’s undeniably rich and varied cultural opportunities? “Unfortunately, there’s one common denominator: money—which we don’t have,” laments Gould. Funding is a major stumbling block for cultural institutions everywhere, of course, not just those at Penn. All do receive support from the University, but it’s never enough. Says Gould, “The University wants not to give us any money except for the building. That’s their goal. That’s not my goal. I’d like them to give us more money.” As it stands, the ICA has to raise $1 million of its own each year to stay within budget.
    Besides supporting things like programming, operating expenses and employee salaries, money is also critical for advertising and promotion. Without a healthy publicity budget, it’s difficult to get the word out about the resources at Penn, especially in Philadelphia’s high-priced advertising market, one of the most expensive in the country.
    Both ICA and the Annenberg Center are feeling the pinch. In recent years, efforts to bring their budgets out of the red reportedly played a role in the departure of longtime directors Patrick Murphy at ICA and Stephen Goff Ar’62 at Annenberg. Their successors—Gould, formerly executive director of Artists Space in Manhattan, at ICA, and Michael Rose, who had directed the Glassboro Center for the Performing Arts at Rowan University for 10 years, at Annenberg—were touted as much for their business and marketing acumen as for their artistic credentials when they were hired, in September 1999 and March 1998, respectively. In one economizing move, the two institutions currently share a marketing director, Roy Wilbur. Naturally, leaders at both institutions wish they could have him full time.
    Some organizations lack even a part-time marketing staff. “We don’t have a publicity budget,” says Dr. Dilys Winegrad Gr’70, director and curator of the Arthur Ross Gallery, the University’s official art gallery, located in the Fisher Fine Arts Library. They are left to publicize on an ad hoc basis, whenever a curator or other staff member gets a chance, or to rely on the University to make people aware of their centers. Even given the best of intentions, this is a recipe for inconsistent and often ineffective publicity.
    At Annenberg, the size of the operating budget is tied directly to ticket sales. This makes good, effective marketing of the utmost importance. “The University needs to find a more focused way in terms of advertising what’s available on a weekly basis in the arts so that it’s not a scattershot approach,” says Rose.
    Even students are often unaware of the cultural opportunities Penn institutions have to offer. “I don’t think students see museums as part of what we [as Penn] do,” says Winegrad. She tells a story about encountering a student peering curiously through the gallery doors. When she invited him in, he said he really needed to study instead.
    The Morris Arboretum in Chestnut Hill has an even harder time making students aware of its existence. “Sometimes we feel like this lonely planet out here by ourselves,” says Kate Sullivan, director of marketing. Students make up a very small percentage of its annual visitors, despite the arboretum having repeatedly been named “Best Cheap Date” in Philadelphia by Philadelphia Weekly.

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Campus Culture, A to U

Annenberg Center
The Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts opened in the spring of 1970 as a producing theater, and in the 30 years since has grown to be a major performing-arts presenter and producer in the Delaware Valley. The Annenberg Center features three theaters: The Zellerbach, seating 970, named for the late Harold Zellerbach W’17 Hon’74, a University trustee and patron of the arts; the Harold Prince Theatre, seating 220, named for director/producer Harold Prince C’48 Hon’71, an alumnus, donor and member of the Penn Players; and the Studio Theatre, seating 120, used primarily for film screenings, small recitals and student productions. 3680 Walnut Street, (215) 898-3900, (www.PENNpresents.org).