Kumu Kahua Theatre, Arts at Marks alliance benefits both groups

A rock band played and gallerygoers mingled in the mango light of sunset outside The Arts at Marks Garage, where flowering urns in the corner bulb-out were painted with ­Hawaii­an waterfowl. It was First Friday, Aug. 3, and the opening night of “Contemporary Photography in Hawaii 2018.” The spacious downtown loft was filled with a diverse, friendly crowd ranging in age from under-10 to over-80.

Clark Miyamoto, 18, chatted with other artists about “LOT 2018,” his mysterious photograph of the empty rooftop parking deck at Whole Foods in Kakaako that resembled an abstract painting. “This is the first time having my work in a public show,” he said with a ­euphoric smile as he and other young people circulated in a space that has long provided creative outlets for local youth and new artists.

It’s the nonprofit’s mission to engage the local community. “Some of the most important work we do is after-school opportunities, because that’s when teenagers find themselves with less than healthy habits developing, and if we can get them involved in the arts that’s a lifelong light,” said former executive director Rich Richardson. However, despite the popularity of its programs, which draw an average 45,000 attendees a year, the organization had accumulated about $74,000 in debt when Richardson resigned Aug. 1, 2017. He was replaced by Donna Blanchard, the rainmaking managing director of Kumu Kahua Theatre, a like-minded downtown nonprofit with a mission to produce local playwrights and cultivate audiences for their work.

In July, “38 Minutes,” a funny, searing play about Hawaii’s Jan. 13 false missile alert featured firsthand accounts by local residents who’d responded to the theater’s call for submissions.

Blanchard, a longtime Arts at Marks fan who had enrolled Kumu Kahua as a marketing sponsor two years before, had one condition: She wouldn’t step down from her current job. Instead, the Indiana native proposed formalizing an alliance between the two institutions. “I had the idea we could share resources — and share me,” she recalled. With the blessing of both boards of directors, she took the helm as half-time consulting director at Arts at Marks, while reducing her hours at Kumu Kahua by 50 percent.

A year later, things are looking up: “We have decreased our debt by nearly 85 percent,” Noelle Ka­hanu, president of the Arts at Marks board, announced in an email July 1. The gallery had even cleared a potential stumbling block halfway through the year: the sale, in June, of the building where it’s been a ground-floor tenant for 17 years. “We have just signed a new three-year lease, enabling us to remain at Marks Garage with the building’s new owners (a Las Vegas-based company that specializes in parking garages),” Kahanu announced. The rent will stay at its current $4,500 a month plus utilities.

Although Kahanu, Blanchard and Richardson, who joined the board when he left the staff, cautioned that Arts at Marks is not yet out of the woods — as of this writing, $14,000 in debt remained — its quick upturn shows that, in addition to creative vision, experienced business management and development are essential for small, independent nonprofits to survive.

SAGA OF A SAVE

“The business side of running a complicated nonprofit was difficult for me, with a degree in multidisciplinary art and no financial education to speak of,” Richardson reflected. After five years as executive director, he was facing mounting debts when he and Kahanu reached out to Blanchard, who “has a reputation for turning around nonprofit arts organizations,” he said.

In 2012, Kumu Kahua was in peril of going out of business when its board recruited Blanchard, who has a bachelor’s in fine arts in acting and had been recognized by the governor of Indiana for saving the fortunes of Chicago Street Theatre as managing director there. She brought financial stability to the ­Honolulu theater within a year. “(The board was) considering closure before it would have been closure and bankruptcy,” Blanchard said. “They had dipped into savings; we’ve been able to put it all back.”

At Arts at Marks, she went into nonprofit triage mode, beginning with fundraising: writing grant proposals and cultivating donors. “At Kumu Kahua, only one-third of revenue is earned income from ticket sales. Arts at Marks was trying to get by with 100 percent earned income.” That included fees and dues paid by partners such as Friends of the Library of Hawai‘i, the Hawaii Shakespeare Festival, Playbuilders of Hawai‘i Theatre Company, Hawaii Watercolor Society and the annual Contact and Maoli Arts shows centered on Native Hawaiian culture. The space is also rented out for private events.

The nonprofit’s own programs and events, such as annual interactive screenings of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” the Art Corps program for neighborhood youth and a monthly moolelo (talk story) series, are priced affordably (tickets average $20) or free.

FEAST, a new project of Arts at Marks, helps artists become entrepreneurs, extending the concept of the Chinatown Artists Lofts, founded by Richardson with the ­Hawaii Academy of Performing Arts and the owners of the Mendonca Building, which rents live-in studios at affordable rates. For $10, FEAST attendees enjoy a dinner at which they hear and vote for pitches from artists, one of whose ideas receives the evening’s take. (The painted planters outside the gallery are part of “Indigenous Birds,” a FEAST winner.)

Blanchard kicked off the alliance with a fundraising event for Arts at Marks: the interactive murder mystery “Who Killed Gilbert Botello?,” sited at both venues, in which members of both organizations’ boards performed and bonded. “It’s a natural alignment, a symbiotic relationship,” Kahanu said. And, “Donna’s attracted some really high-performing new board members,” Richardson said.

Armed with a fierce belief in the value of Arts at Marks to the community — and the winning smile with which she introduces performances at Kumu Kahua with a rollicking pitch for donations — Blanchard persuaded creditors, including former landlord Andy Friedlander, to forgive some debts. More painfully, Blanchard reduced the budget to $100,000 from $200,000 (with a goal of gradually regrowing to $150,000) by placing all workers, including herself, on part-time contracts, and relying more on volunteers; the two organizations also share an operating manager and a public relations consultant.

“Donna really threw us a lifeline,” Kahanu said.

FRIENDS NEEDED

As Blanchard revved up for the opening of Kumu Kahua’s 48th season this month, with Thursday’s debut of “Pakalolo Sweet,” a “cold-eyed look at that drug lifestyle,” she emphasized any lifeline that kept Arts at Marks afloat would also help Kumu Kahua survive by bringing in younger audiences and artists.

“Arts at Marks more readily draws a millennial crowd; when I got here, a survey showed the core of Kumu Kahua subscribers was in the PBS crowd, with an average age of 70, but we already see that changing,” she said, bringing to mind a May-­December marriage that rejuvenates the elder partner while supporting the younger. “Now, the age is in the 60s, and they’re sitting alongside 20-somethings.” A junior board to serve both organizations is in the works, she added.

Blanchard is also relaunching the $10 a month “1001 Friends of Arts at Marks” membership program that Richardson started in 2012, with perks including a free drink at the First Friday event each month. “We have to keep a positive traffic flow in downtown Honolulu,” she said. “When I was very new to the island, I could go there on a First Friday and meet new people in such a relaxed atmosphere. We can’t afford to lose that.”

Not bad: On an island filled with exclusive, expensive dining, networking and athletic clubs, you can, for the price of a cocktail a month, become a member of an inclusive creative space at the corner of Nuuanu and Pauahi streets that honors the tradition of Oahu as a gathering place.