the nonprofit Arts
A REAL RETURN TO STRENGTH FOR THE ARTS IN 2024
It has now been five years since the pandemic brought life to a standstill in the northeast metro and around the world. Finally, things are starting to bounce back at Lakeshore Players Theatre, Children’ s Performing Arts and White Bear Center for the Arts.
“ People do value that in-person experience because that is essentially what was taken away during COVID. What we tend to see is that people are willing to come back. They are willing to come to theater, in particular, to support shows and titles they tend to know,” said Darby Lunceford, Executive Director, Lakeshore Players Theatre.
Sharon Hanifl-Lee, a current board member for Children’ s Performing Arts, agrees that patrons are returning, but says her organization is struggling with the rising costs associated with putting on a production.“ Going to the theater is a luxury and people don’ t have the disposable income, so it is
hard to increase our participation fees or ticket prices. We need to be able to continue to serve our families and communities,” she said.
“ The arts were one of the industries most heavily hit, understandably because so much of our work is in person, be that in theaters or our art studios and galleries. We all pivoted and were able to provide programming during the pandemic with social distancing,” said Christopher Scholl, Executive Director, White Bear Center for the Arts.
He is happy to share that the story in 2024 for the arts area was a return to strength following COVID.“ I think 2024 was the first year we were really able to lean in to the way things should be,” he said.
Here is a summary of each group’ s accomplishments in 2024, and what’ s ahead in 2025.
White Bear Center for the Arts
At White Bear Center for the Arts, there were a record 1,470 classes offered in 2024, a 24 percent increase over the 1,184 classes offered the previous year. In 2025, there will be even more classes offered that people have come to expect from the center, plus some new ones, like crop art, book making and stained glass.
“ Our goal is to win new patrons and new art students,” said Scholl.“ One
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