Plight of Intermedia Arts underscores need for community support

Earlier this week Intermedia Arts, the renowned local institution that has fostered multidisciplinary and multicultural arts in the Twin Cities since 1973, announced that an economic crisis was threatening the group’s survival. Citing a “sharp reduction and significant delays in funding” the press release detailed a daunting challenge for Intermedia – reduce costs and increase revenue until they reach a sustainable level. Initiatives toward that end include full-time staff members being reduced to hourly or contract status, the discontinuation of all presentations other than those already funded, and an increased drive toward renting their various facilities.

The news comes as the latest distressing indicator of the economic downturn and its potentially dire consequences for the local arts scene. No discipline is immune from this issue. No venue impervious to the threat. When Theatre de la Jeune Lune was shuttered last July, all hoped that the closing was an isolated event, not indicative of an across the board danger to the larger arts community. And yet production after production in venues across the Twin Cities are finding more and more empty seats while funding sources continue to diminish.