Eleanor Stacey
Many of you will remember when you signed the petition to reopen The Civic Theatre back in 2011, or when you purchased your first membership in 2012, when Nelson Civic Theatre Society started. As a legacy of that first membership campaign, June and July are still The Civic Theatre’s biggest months for membership renewal, and we continue to rely on this support from our local community. As a non-profit single-screen theatre, members are still the lifeblood of our organization, and the income we receive annually through membership is an important part of our financial picture.
While The Civic Theatre is a unique organization with a visionary mission (as Brian May mentioned in his column last week, we are committed to “programming that entertains, educates and inspires”), we are part of a small community of independent cinemas in Canada and the United States that look to their memberships for collaboration and sustenance. For example, members of the Revue Cinema in Toronto “help to maintain the heritage building in which the Revue is located, fund innovative, high-quality programming and preserve a beloved, cultural, community space.”
At the Winnipeg Film Group, members back “the ongoing growth of our organization and is required to access services from our three wings: Cinematheque, Distribution and Production.” The California Film Centre’s members support their vision “to advance the expression of independent voices from individuals, peoples and cultures from around the globe.” Like us, these organizations look to include a membership of people from their respective local communities to celebrate film and build their organizations together.
Independent cinemas have another thing in common: they often rely on charitable giving to make ends meet and realize their ambitions for new programs, services and capital expansions. The Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago fundraises annually for their operations, as ticket and membership sales only cover half of their operating costs and “annual fund support is critical to maintaining the Film Center’s mission to present innovative film programming that is unparalleled in Chicago.” The Winnipeg Film Group sees only 43 per cent of their budget paid for through earned income like ticket and concession sales — the rest comes from contributions and grants.
There is a good reason that the independent cinema business model needs these support systems. As Martin McCaffrey of the Capri Theatre in Montgomery, Ala., so eloquently put it in a January/February 2015 filmcomment.com article about independent theatres: “Every art house is different, but we all show the movies that the mass audience doesn’t want to see. If everyone wanted to see them, they’d be selling out at the multiplexes and there would be no art-house theaters. We walk a fine line, mixing programming like metaphors, hoping to present a successful blend of artistic obscurities and rent-paying pop. If we’re lucky, we get enough of the latter to show more of the former.” At The Civic, we couldn’t have said it better (especially this week as we transition from our two-week run of The Incredibles 2 to a diverse lineup of Sundance Film Festival selections, beginning on Friday, July 20).
When we finally complete our renovation to add two more theatre spaces, our financial model is projected to be self-funding, but until then The Civic Theatre also depends on charitable gifts to close our year in the black. With our year end coming up on July 31, if you haven’t renewed your membership yet this is the time to do it. If you’ve never been a member, we hope you’ll consider joining NCTS now (and enjoying some great benefits too!).
And if you are able, this is a great time to make a gift to our annual fund. For membership or to donate, please visit civictheatre.ca (or come by the theatre during box office hours). Community support ensures that we can continue to operate seven days a week, keep our ticket and concession prices low, and work towards our vision for a thriving cultural media arts centre in Nelson (while still mixing programming like metaphors!).
And to the 1,099 members and current donors to NCTS, thank you! You mean the world to us.
Eleanor Stacey is the Executive Director of the Nelson Civic Theatre Society.