The Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra is negotiating with the city-parish to come up with a payment plan for some $50,000 it owes in back rent to the Raising Cane’s River Center Theatre for the 2016-2017 season.
BRSO Board President Mae Belton says she met earlier this fall with Mayor Sharon Weston Broome to see if the city-parish would be willing to either work out a payment plan or forgive the debt altogether. She says she’s waiting to hear back from the mayor.
The city, says Darryl Gissel, Broome’s chief administrative officer, is working with the organization towards a resolution but no formal arrangement has been made.
The negotiations come near the end of what has been a challenging year for the BRSO. Like all nonprofit arts organizations, it struggles to raise money from a limited pool of donors and to remain relevant to a younger, increasingly distracted audience.
But the BRSO has been experiencing even more acute financial troubles of late that its board is working hard to overcome. The exact source of the troubles is unclear, and BRSO officials won’t say. But Belton attributes them in part to the 2016 flood, which affected many musicians and their instruments while also causing donations and ticket sales to fall.
Sources familiar with the situation also said former executive director “Cary” Byrd Jr., who abruptly resigned from the organization in June, wasn’t great at managing BRSO’s financial resources. At the time, Belton said he was not fired but left to pursue other opportunities, declining to elaborate. Byrd, in an interview this summer, said he left to take care of his father.
Belton now says the organization and its board have been working nonstop since June to turn things around. She insists they are making “great progress.”
“We have let people know we have had some funding issues but we are working 100 percent to turn things around,” she says. “We’ve cut back on staff and done everything we can to cut back on our expenses without affecting our programming. We aren’t sitting back.”
Attendance was up at both BRSO’s September and October performances, Belton says. The organization is looking forward to a strong holiday season.
Meanwhile, SSA Consultants is leading a search for a new executive director to replace Byrd. The firm is working for the organization pro bono. Until a new director is found, the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge has offered to step in and help the BRSO with anything it needs, including running the organization.
“The offer is on the table,” Arts Council President and CEO Renee Chatelain says. “I see us as the official arts agency that can come in and act as a trustee if we need to and should they want that.”
Belton says the BRSO welcomes and appreciates the support but doesn’t need the Arts Council to take over administration of the BRSO.
One thing the BRSO does need help with is a temporary home for the 2018-2019 season. The Raising Cane’s River Center Theatre will go dark next year for long-awaited renovations. Several sites, says Belton, are under consideration—including Baton Rouge High School and LSU—but no plans have been finalized.
—Stephanie Riegel
