By: Diane Benjamin
I filed a FOIA request for all the event reports missing from the BCPA site. I actually found this earlier Friday, the FOIA denying my request was finally received at 4:45 pm Friday. It’s pretty clear why event reports weren’t on the website.
http://www.cityblm.org/government/advanced-components/documents/-folder-1702
I recapped the events for you:
How can anybody support this?
Salaries alone for the BCPA are budgeted at $741,000: https://blnnews.com/2018/11/28/the-budgeted-bcpa-loss-and-more/
A VERY small number of people ever attend events, many of them aren’t Bloomington residents. The Bloomington taxpayers foot the bill.
The BCPA staff offices aren’t in the BCPA, they are down the street at the Creativity Center.
This is another reason your roads will never get fixed! Spending priorities have nothing to do with what the majority of citizens want or need.
It might get worse. The calendar of events if still on the website. ALL events are not on the website.
Calendar: http://www.artsblooming.org/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/9775/710
Examples: Kinky Boot in May, Kansas in April, and Holiday Pops in December. I’m pretty sure there are more that weren’t included, not worth my time to find them all and I don’t plan to file another FOIA. If the City believed in transparency I wouldn’t have to ask for the reports.
The building and the Creativity Center should be given to the Friends of the BCPA. Let them pay the bills – along with the mortgage. They need to pay their fair share instead of sticking taxpayers with this loser.
Maybe somebody should ask the candidates about this before the election.
Something does’t pass the “Smell Test”–Naked Magicians was far from the largest ticket sales, many of which were sold on the well advertised half price sale, but somehow it was the highest profit show? Did they pay us to come here and “perform”? (Or maybe it was from beverage sales–any thinking person would have to be drunk to sit through that crap.)
Somebody is lying……..as usual.
Maggie, you made it sound like you went to see them.
So, you mean to tell me the most profitable act at the BCPA is the Naked Magicians???? Tax payer subsidized porn is not only what this community considers entertainment, but the one thing that could actually make a profit for the BCPA. Sad! But, before I draw that conclusion about its profitability I’d have to agree with Maggie. Somebody’s lying…. as usual.
I don’t think that’s the BARE facts! Elf didn’t do as well as necked idiots but more then TWICE then number of people attended?? Looks like some numbers juggling here. I think I have to agree with Maggie on this one.
How about just plain ole GOOD rabbit up my sleeve magicians? Even stunt animals would be better!
Ever been Fox hunting? Friends of the BCPA = Mafia. Sometimes the truth doesn’t set you free, it tries to kill you.
It’s REALLY sad that the BCPA CANNOT turn a profit, especially with the “high powered” management WE are paying for. The Masons had the place for MANY years, and they ran it OK! There’s a nonprofit? This is a LOSS! WHY don’t they have trade shows, local events, banquets, etc there like they USED to have! It’s those small events that add up. NOT the big expensive mega huge extravaganzas!! Of which they have had ZILCH!
For $750 K a year in SALARIES, WE ought be be getting some GOOD numbers!!
I wonder how much they make on weddings, special events, and city employee holiday parties. I also wonder how that money is accounted for….when it’s rented out for weddings or special events like Mid Central Community Action’s Seeds of Change Event, who gets the money? Is it a loss? Does that money just disappear into the down town launder.ing…erg…wash machine? I have often wondered how many events were catered by Kelly’s when “Mathey’s Wife” owned it? I brought that up to Jamie once. He threatened to sue me and then a month or so later he sold the Resturaunt. Which was oddly headline news in the Pantagraph. As a good friend has told me many times…follow the money. Someone is making a profit or the BCPA would be gone.
I don’t see how these reports can be accurate when they do not include the cost of the “act” themselves. I am sure all of these groups did not come here for free.
Some were co-produced which means we wouldn’t see the act of the cost. Everything was likely split.