Alliance for Audience, the Phoenix nonprofit organization designed to support and create awareness of Arizona culture and arts, announced its official termination in late October.
Matt Lehrman, executive director of AFA, said the organization of almost 10 years will close due to a lack of funds, economic stress on investors and board members, and its inability to make technological advancements.
“It’s always tough for nonprofits to raise money,” Lehrman said. “We just ran out of operating capital.”
Lehrman said financial support became impossible to find, and last spring the organization began emergency fundraising. Board members realized how difficult it would be to maintain the AFA operation.
“We expected (the closure) probably in the last month or two,” Lehrman said.
Jim Ballinger, director of the Phoenix Art Museum, said he did not expect AFA to end so suddenly.
“It’s sad to see it happened so quickly,” he said.
Alliance for Audience was formed by Arizona art organizations across the Valley who wanted to work together for financial support, to increase the number of audience members and create artistic and cultural awareness.
“Those organizations are so strapped because of the economic stress,” Lehrman said.
Donations from companies and sponsors that supported the organization including the Arizona Community Foundation and Bank of America dwindled because of economic pressures and inability to maintain financial growth, he said.
These Phoenix companies and other sponsors became significant contributors and donors Lehrman said, but could no longer support AFA.
“The contributed revenue has dried up as the economy has worsened,” Lehrman said, “so there is no investment capital to stay operating.”
Lehrman said because of low funding, technological advancements for the organization and for one of its major programs, the website ShowUp.com, was near impossible.
“We were created when having a URL was such a new thing,” he said. Because of the financial stress, AFA kept using the same technology from when the organization began 10 years ago.
“(ShowUp.com) holds the most comprehensive calendar of the arts,” said Bob Booker, director of the Arizona Commission of the Arts.
AFA and ShowUp.com closing will “affect Arizona dramatically by not providing information directly to Arizona residents, and especially to tourists,” he said.
Ballinger said the AFA closure and termination of ShowUp.com will greatly affect the artistic community.
“The performing arts will take a big hit,” he said.
ShowUp.com provided event information and ticket purchase for the Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix Theatre, ASU Gammage, Herberger Theatre, and various other artistic and cultural facilities and programs.
“(The closure of ShowUp.com) is going to make it harder for people to find out what is going on around them,” Lehrman said.
The Phoenix Art Museum will temporarily have control of AFA’s culture passes, which allow Arizona residents and students to attend artistic and cultural events for free, he said.
Ballinger said that the decision for who will officially provide the public with the passes will be determined next year.
Homes for various other AFA programs have not yet been decided, Lehrman said.
Contact the reporter at whitney.ogden@asu.edu
