I'm with you on aging out of this business, Bob.  At 75, I'm about to hang 
up my presenting hat and get on with raising a few million $$$ for an art 
center in Crossville.

Judy

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "EPB Email" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2015 2:21 PM
Subject: And now from Chattanooga...


A few of you know of my dilemma with having to (suddenly) use 60% of my 
foundation support as seed money for a fundraising gala to support the Fine 
Arts Center here at the ol’ learning’ factory. And thanks to you with whom I’ve 
talked for providing some names for me to consider for an artist to help 
sell tickets to said fundraiser at our 1700 seat downtown venue, the Tivoli 
sometime next spring. What this means is that I have to pay for the artist, 
all rent, ticket fees (which are substantial), tech, advertising, etc., then 
generate the $35k that should have been going to our other artists and oh, 
by the way, can you make some money for scholarship funds in the departments 
of Music and Theatre?

This was dropped on me Monday. I’d been working under the assumption that 
“the Chancellor had $35,000 in seed funds for a gala next spring” as in, an 
additional $35k, not the series’ $35k.

Today, the other shoe drops. I get a note from the Dean which attaches a 
note from the Provost saying they want to transition the series to be fully 
self-sustaining and do we really need the $25,000 in UC Foundation money?

Couple this with the announcement today that the city has divested itself of 
the Tivoli and Memorial Auditoriums by setting up a non-profit to operate 
them. The idea is that the non-profit can hire AC Entertainment to bring in 
the acts to the spaces much like they do at The Bijou and the Tennessee 
Theatre in Knoxville, which is not something that a government-operated 
facility can do, apparently. Contrary to some of our won experience. Anyway, 
as everyone familiar with the Knoxville market knows, there will most likely 
be a fine art component to AC's programming, competing with mine.

So while I’m busy wrangling an advisory committee of well-heeled subscribers 
to help me with the transition, I thought I’d pass this along for your 
entertainment today. Three folks have already said yes to helping me on the 
steering committee and I’m hoping to have four or five more in place by the 
end of tomorrow. Honestly, I kind of like the idea of learning to be a 
concert promoter on UTC’s nickel, but as we all know, it’s a young person’s 
game and I’m not one of those anymore.

I’ll probably be seeking advice and thoughts going forward but thought it a 
good idea to let you know what’s going on.

Bob


Robert Boyer
Executive Director
Tennessee Presenters
www.tn-presenters.org