Arts groups report strong sales despite recession fears

Many arts groups across the country are reporting strong ticket sales for the holiday season despite fears that Canada is sliding into an economic recession.

Kevin Garland, executive director of the National Ballet of Canada, says sales took a dive in the fall after a series of bad financial events but things are now looking up.

"It's been fairly substantial [the drop in sales in the fall], but we're relieved that our Nutcracker is tracking ahead of last year," Garland said.The National Ballet of Canada, seen here performing The Nutcracker, says sales for its annual Christmas performance are 'tracking ahead' of 2007.(Bruce Zinger/National Ballet of Canada)

"In the arts, we've all been through tough times before and we're in the process of looking at everything."

The news is also good at the Toronto Symphony, the Canadian Opera Company, Theatre Calgary and Ballet Jorgen. Across Canada, many organizations say they are seeing sales on par or even stronger than previous years.

At the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, ticket sales for November and December are about average, said Jayne Watson, who notes that concertgoers seem to be waiting until the last minute these days to buy their tickets.

"After 9/11, ticket sales went up — there was kind of a spike in people wanting to go and be together," Watson said in reference to the attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., in 2001.

Cluster factor seen

"I'm not saying this is analogous to that, but people — certainly people who are passionate about the arts and know the difference it can make — are still going to come."

That has not been the case, though, at Ballet BC, which laid off all of its 17 dancers and most of its office staff within the past week.

Officials at the 22-year-old dance company blamed tough economic times for the lack of sales and said the company could fold if the visiting Moscow Classical Ballet's Christmas performance of The Nutcracker doesn't sell out.

Even if ticket sales hold strong, arts groups are still bracing for other effects of the economic downturn. Poor returns from their endowment funds are in the offing, while sponsorships from the private sector are likely to be cut.

"Every sector of the economy is going to be affected, and the arts are not immune," said Prof. Catherine Murray of Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. Murray is co-director of the university's Centre for Policy Studies on Culture and Communities.

"We definitely have to take a look at what it would take to sustain [arts groups]."

With files from the Canadian Press