By: Diane Benjamin
I don’t track every artist fee anymore. At some point I might just FOIA all them. If people only look at event reports they would think the BCPA makes money. Listing actual expenses must be too difficult and too transparent.
The first payment was a deposit, total artist fees for this show were $39,800. https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/31609/638888700513370000
Below is the event recap, note the cost of electricity etc aren’t included in expenses. Air conditioning on 7/18 wasn’t cheap. Evidently free tickets were handed out and not used or people bought tickets and didn’t attend. https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/government/advanced-components/documents/-folder-2185#docfold_2735_6873_64_2185
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This one show lost $9,722.61. Bloomington evidently wants to be the entertainment capital of central Illinois and make residents pay for it. I’m sure the economic benefits will be claimed as success though.
Tickets started at $36 for this event. Obviously most were more expensive in order to generate $32,091.00 in ticket sales. https://www.artsblooming.org/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/19031/762?toggle=allpast
My one semester high school business class would have flunked this project for including the opening act/pre-show at $500 but ignoring the biggest expense of all, the $39K for the main show. Absolute incompetence! Fire the entire staff for consistently losing money. Stop the bleeding.
It’s expanding instead