The Kansas City Ballet received $1.3 million from the SVOG. “My point is these losses are going to continue until we can get audiences back into the venues feeling safe and in a healthier environment.” “So it was basically cut in half.”īentley estimates that the ballet lost about $4 million in ticket revenue and tuition. “The budget overall was about $4.5 million,” Bentley said. The pandemic changed that - from March 2020 to June 2021, the Kansas City Ballet hosted zero performances.Ĭontracts were reduced to 28 weeks, Bentley said. Contracts with dancers typically run for 35 weeks in a year. Jeff Bentley, executive director of the Kansas City Ballet, said the organization runs on a budget of $9.5 million to $10 million in a normal, nonpandemic year. The Shuttered Venue Operators Grant helped other local attractions ease pandemic worries and losses. Though it shut down to the public last spring, staff members continued caring for the 1,700 animals at the zoo. Kansas City Beacon Visitors pass by the elephant exhibit at the Kansas City Zoo. “The SVOG allowed us to come back and get back as close to full staff as we could possibly get,” Wisthoff said. Among other things, it allowed the management to start hiring employees to fill positions that went vacant through attrition during the pandemic. The Kansas City Zoo received almost $4.6 million from the program. Out of the 48 businesses, 12 received grants over $1 million. A Kansas City Beacon analysis of SVOG data found that 48 businesses in Kansas City, Missouri, and Kansas City, Kansas, received grants, for a collective total of nearly $51.2 million. Some of those funds came to Kansas City establishments. The maximum grant amount allowed was $10 million. The SVOG, which stopped accepting applications in August, had $16 billion available to distribute. The Small Business Administration opened up SVOG applications in April. Created via federal legislation passed in late 2020, the program helped venues like the Kansas City Zoo, theaters and concert venues recover from the economic losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the federal grants was the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant. Not losing your job and not having your salary affected has really, really, really been very much appreciated by the workforce.” “These funds that are coming to us, especially over here on the nonprofit side, they’ve just been a godsend to our business and to our employees,” Wisthoff said. The reason? Grants from the federal government. Still, the zoo was able to maintain staff salaries and avoid the layoffs that plagued so many other businesses. It recorded 537,000 visitors in 2020 compared to prepandemic projections of 935,000 to 950,000, Wisthoff said. The building itself has largely remained unaltered aside from a few changes including the construction of a projection booth and the removal of separate access to the second balcony, which was designated for African-American patrons before desegregation.About 125 employees, from animal keepers to the facilities crew, continued working through the shutdown.īut while upkeep costs remained about the same, the zoo’s attendance dropped sharply. The Springfield Little Theatre, which was established in 1934, bought it 1970. After a short period when it operated as a theatrical venue, it became a movie house again. Beginning in 1912, the theater began to offer vaudeville acts, tabloids, and movies, which became the main draw in 1919.įrom 1940 to 1959, it was leased to Fox-Midwest Theatres. Well known artists of the time also performed here including John Philip Sousa. During its early years, the Landers not only offered theatrical and musical performances but other kinds of entertainment as well such as wrestling matches. It opened on Septemwith a performance of a musical comedy called The Golden Girl. Kansas City architect Carl Boller designed the theater for builders John and D.J Landers and R.W.
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