TPAC's 2013-14 Season Has Record Impact on Nashville Economy

Nashville's non-profit Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC) created a record-breaking economic impact of more than $64 million during its 2013-14 season. The impact, based on the nationally accepted formula from Americans for the Arts, is one of four records broken by the organization during the banner year, according to its annual report released today at a partnership event.

In all, TPAC reports the following record-breaking details from 2013-14:

• A new record of $64.1 million in economic impact, including an estimated $19 million in economic impact created by the Broadway musical Wicked, which TPAC brought to Nashville for a third multi-week engagement
• A new record of $20 million in ticket sales, including tickets to the 2013-14 HCA/TriStar Health Broadway at TPAC season, Broadway specials, TPAC Presents, rentals, and performances of three resident companies: Nashville Ballet, Nashville Opera and Nashville Repertory Theatre.
• A new record of $1,080,590 in fundraising, including contributions from sponsors, government agencies, corporations, foundations, and individual donors.

Further, TPAC set a new record for food and beverage sales for the year and saw measured growth in other areas, including audience engagement on 13 social media platforms, volunteer participation, and outreach efforts to the area's Hispanic and Latin American communities.

"Like any non-profit charged with delivering mission-based programs, such as arts education and cultural programs, we deal with a fragile financial structure. We strive to manage within our resources, including outside funding and support, to provide exceptional programs and offerings," said Kathleen O'Brien, TPAC President and Chief Executive Officer.

"Sometimes the challenges are great, and we are mindful that not all years deliver this kind of financial result. That is why we're especially excited to celebrate this record-breaking success which ultimately benefits the arts and entertainment industry, the state and local economies, education, and communities."

While record-breaking economic impact is worth celebrating, the true measure of TPAC's success is another type of impact - the positive impact the non-profit makes each year in communities, in schools, and in the individual lives of those it reaches through its five arts education programs.

With curriculum-based education programs, free resources for teachers, and behind the scenes access for adults, TPAC Education continues to bring learning to life, connecting great works of art to classroom learning goals and serving patrons from pre-school through adulthood. Together in 2013-14, these programs engaged 36,201 children and adults and provided more than 82,105 hours of learning activities in direct contact with teachers, teaching artists, and children in classrooms. Here's how that breaks down:

Disney Musicals in Schools enjoyed a third consecutive year of smashing success, with generous support from the CMA Foundation for the partnership between TPAC Education, Metro Nashville Public Schools, and Disney Theatrical Group. Currently, TPAC Education is participating in its fourth year of DMIS, quadrupling its total reach.

IMPACT: TPAC's local program, the first outside New York City, has tripled its impact since 2011-12, engaging 839 students, 480 community volunteers, and 114 educators in 15 Metro schools.

Nashville Wolf Trap partnered eight professional performing artists with 123 educators to target early childhood development and curriculum goals. The local program for early childhood is an affiliate of the internationally respected Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning through the Arts, created to provide arts-integrated teaching strategies to educators and direct services to children.

IMPACT: Specially-trained teaching artists brought dance, puppetry, music, storytelling, and theatre into classrooms to energize learning for 1,089 preschoolers in 56 Metro Head Start Centers.

TPAC Education's signature program, the Humanities Outreach in Tennessee (HOT) Season for Young People, brings learning to life with a culturally diverse blend of classics and contemporary work. Also in 2013-14, TPAC Education participated in a unique artistic exchange with the Montreal-based Théâtre Tout a Trac and helped translate a French-language version of Pinocchio into English. TPAC invested in the mounting of the production's North American tour and launched it from Nashville.

IMPACT: TPAC involved 25,466 children and educators from 243 schools in 27 counties in the HOT Season. TPAC provided more than $63,512 in free and reduced admission subsidies.

ArtSmart, which designs project-based learning units for the classroom around select performances in the HOT Season, totaled 9,734 contact hours in which teaching artists helped provide hands-on lesson plans that meet learning standards across curriculum. TPAC provided professional workshops for educators to assist them in integrating the arts into classroom activities.

IMPACT: Teaching artists provided project-based learning units for 2,937 students in 128 classrooms at 22 schools.

To engage older children and adults, TPAC InsideOut brings audience members backstage and behind the scenes through panel discussions, rehearsal visits, and conversations with artists. LookIn takes adults into the studios of Nashville Ballet, Nashville Opera, and Nashville Repertory Theatre, TPAC's three resident companies. Arts Appetizer pairs touring artists with community experts for lively conversations before the Wednesday performance of a visiting Broadway production. InsideOut of the Lunch Box, presented in partnership with Vanderbilt University, features panel discussions over lunch on works of art and contemporary issues.

IMPACT: In 2013-14, TPAC worked with 21 community partners to engage 3,371 participants in 29 events.

"With this educational outreach and 392,557 audience members seated, TPAC engaged more than 400,000 people last year through our nationally recognized arts education programs and our captivating performances," said O'Brien. "Our deepest aspiration is that each one of those individuals was inspired or entertained in a meaningful way and that they will continue to make art a part of their lives."

Performance venues managed by TPAC include Andrew Jackson Hall (2,472 seats), James K. Polk Theater (1,075), Andrew Johnson Theater (288) and War Memorial Auditorium (2,044), the historic landmark located across Sixth Avenue from the center.

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