Arts Center Gets Record Donations

The Orange County Performing Arts Center had a banner fund-raising year in fiscal 1997 but the lowest paid attendance ever, officials of the county’s largest cultural institution reported Thursday.

Total paid attendance at center-presented programs averaged 69.5% of capacity for 2,994-seat Segerstrom Hall and 300-seat Founders Hall combined, down from 74.3% in fiscal 1996 and considerably lower than the overall average of 86.5% since the nonprofit, privately funded center opened 11 years ago.

A center spokesman attributed the decline in attendance to several major factors, including price and programming resistance and cancellations of highly anticipated Broadway shows.

The center’s dance series dragged down the figures in large measure because subscribers did not respond to last season’s offerings of contemporary companies, he said.

Merce Cunningham’s modern dance troupe filled a mere 24% of Segerstrom Hall. The Netherlands Dance Theatre, which had previously done well there, drew only 49% of capacity.

Even the center’s Broadway series, a perennial moneymaker, experienced a slight decline in attendance, it was reported. The number of Broadway subscribers hit a historic low of 13,304, moreover, down from a one-time high of 17,000 during the center’s early years.

Cancellations of “Sunset Boulevard,” “Applause” and “Funny Girl”--all road shows from Pace Theatricals, the center’s Broadway provider--undermined subscriber confidence in the series, a spokesman said. Pace pulled the plug on the shows before they got to the center, forcing it to substitute others.

The center has restructured its subscription packages for next season, emphasizing the more popular story ballets, such as “Cinderella,” and greater flexibility for dance subscribers in ticket prices and choice of programming.

The annual operating budget for fiscal 1997, which ended June 30, came to $18.3 million. Ticket sales and other earned income of $12.9 million comprised 70% of total revenue, it was reported at the center’s annual meeting Thursday.

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Donations of $5.4 million made up the rest of the operating budget. “That is a record,” center spokesman Greg Patterson said. (The previous high was $4.8 million, in 1991.)

With cash contributions of $2.8 million to the center’s endowment fund, in addition to a special gift of $700,000 from an undisclosed donor for building maintenance, overall donations to the center totaled $8.9 million, also exceeding the previous high of $6.7 million in 1995.

Donations for the endowment, combined with investment income of $2.3 million, brought the endowment fund to $17.9 million.

Center officials have projected a $21-million annual budget for fiscal 1998. Donations to the annual fund are expected to come to $5.4 million again. The increased budget projection derives from more performances and hopes for better attendance. (“Showboat,” opening in August for five weeks, is expected to add about $5 million to the budget.) There were 293 performances last season--250 in Segerstrom and 43 in Founders Hall.

Paid attendance for all averaged 72.6%, including those by the five regional groups--Pacific Symphony, the Philharmonic Society, Opera Pacific, the Pacific Chorale and the William Hall Master Chorale--that perform or produce programs there.

Last year’s average, although lower than the 75.8% in fiscal 1996, means the regionals tended to buoy overall attendance, drawing better on average than center-sponsored events.