“IT IS WITH great sadness that we inform you that the CCA has ceased operations and closed the building due to financial hardship effective immediately. All camps and lessons are suspended due to an inability to make staff and instructor payroll. We are unable to grant tuition refunds due to lack of funds. Those of you currently enrolled in the summer term have likely heard this news from your instructors. We want you to hear from us, too.”
So began a lengthy letter from the Board of Directors of the Chelsea Center for the Arts, released on July 16.
The organization’s most recent 990 income tax form showed a dwindling fund balance and revenues of about $530,000. Executive Director Lisa Baylis-Gonzalez, together with a nine member board of directors, was ultimately unable to keep the nonprofit afloat. In the letter to the community, they write:
“If heart, passion and talent were enough to keep this organization afloat, we would not have to take these very difficult steps. As with most non-profits, some operating funds were generated through fees, but the bulk of the necessary operating expenses came from donations within the community and grants. With the increasingly difficult economic realities of recent years, those community donations and grants have become scarce. This scarcity has resulted in an increasingly precarious financial picture for the CCA.
“For the past several months, we have been sounding the alarm- making our case for the importance of the work being done at the CCA and asking for support. In our community, those who are in a position to give gave generously, but there are many organizations competing for those resources. A strong, small group of loyal supporters have done all they can to keep the CCA afloat. It simply wasn’t enough.”
The CCA officials described “scraping by for several months,” and then finally reaching “the tipping point.”
CCA has served Chelsea for two decades, offering programming in both musical and visual arts. The organization sponsored an annual Autumn Jubilee, which was very popular among that city’s residents.
The letter ends with a sad but hopeful farewell:
“For 20 years, the CCA has been a hub of creative energy and engaged learning in Chelsea. As we move through this painful loss, we are hopeful that in time there will be a new and improved avenue for this sort of artistic energy in our town.”
@Paula,
Sorry to hear you lost that money!
The performance Network Theater did the same thing in Ann Arbor. There were people who had tickets to an evening performance the day the announcement was made. The PNT is back under new management and making every effort to compensate ticket holders and renew trust. Perhaps the Chelsea Center for the Arts Board will do something similar.
As a parent who had children enrolled in 4 CCA camps, totaling tuition of $800.00, I am appalled that the CCA knowingly took our tuition when their closure was imminent. If anyone else has lost tuition and is interested in pursuing a class action suit or other legal action, please contact me. The CCA will have to sell it’s assets, so some money may become available.