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Charting a new course for Hancher in Iowa City
5-year plan restores UI financial support, looks to arts presenter’s role on campus and widespread community
IOWA CITY — Collaboration and commitment aren’t new concepts for Hancher, but they are key concepts as the University of Iowa’s premier arts facility evolves into its next 50 years.
After rewinding from an earlier plan to make Hancher self-supporting by 2024, the UI has renewed its financial commitment as part of a five-year strategy recently announced by Andre Perry, Hancher’s executive director.
He’s entering his second season in his two-pronged position: executive director of the UI’s Office of Performing Arts and Engagement and Hancher’s Chuck Swanson Executive Director — a position named for his predecessor who retired in 2022 after 37 years in various Hancher roles, including two decades as executive director.
Five-year plan
“Our vision of building a first-choice, destination performing arts campus for our students, faculty, staff, wider community and artists from around the world drives all our work,” Perry, 46, of Iowa City, said in announcing the five-year plan.
To that end, he worked closely with UI Executive Vice President and Provost Kevin Kregel to develop a Hancher strategy that aligns with the university’s Strategic Plan 2022-27.
The Hancher component includes the UI budgeting $1.3 million annually for Hancher’s strategic and salary support, as well as continued dollars for facility costs and maintenance to keep the building up to date, estimated at $750,000 to $800,000 in fiscal 2024, Perry said.
“Together, that constitutes about $2.2 million a year, depending on the year,” he told The Gazette. “The support is significant from the university, but it's only part of what we do.”
Hancher also targets goals for ticket sales. Those sales, along with donations, are expected to account for 73 percent of Hancher’s $7.8 million budget in fiscal 2024. Perry said Hancher is privileged to have donors who support the arts institution and its programming, in addition to the other revenue streams.
“We really need it all in order for the whole pie to come together and work out on an annual basis,” he said.
In July 2020, then-UI President Bruce Harreld announced an incremental reduction in the UI’s $1.5 million funding for Hancher salaries and benefits, while continuing the $750,000 for facilities and maintenance costs. The restoration of $1.3 million brings the UI’s annual support nearly back to the original $1.5 million mark.
That reversal was part of a yearlong conversation with the university’s new administration, which is led by President Barbara Wilson, and Hancher’s new role in the Office of Performing Arts and Engagement.
“A new president has to figure out how she wants to lead the distribution (of funds) and what the overall plan is,” Perry said. “So much of last year was us learning what it meant to operate in our new units — we’re part of the Office of the Provost now … and the Provost Office was learning how we operate (and) learning what's important to us.
“We were involved in a very collaborative conversation about how does the work that Hancher is doing, the work that the Office of Performing Arts and Engagement is doing … align with the University of Iowa strategic plan, and push the overall effort forward. … What kind of budget do we need in order to make that happen? As it stands now, we have a five-year plan.”
Its initiatives include:
- Nurturing community and belonging for students, faculty and staff across the UI’s performing arts units.
- Aligning visiting artist work with the student classroom experience.
- Creating a partnership between Hancher, the Department of Dance, the School of Music, the Performing Arts Production Unit and the Department of Theatre Arts to develop student-driven creative productions.
- Further evolving Hancher’s world-class performing arts series to serve a range of campus and community members — focusing on access and outreach for both new and seasoned patrons of the arts.
- Developing the performing arts at Iowa brand.
“The creativity and growth of this initiative on campus and in the greater community is exciting,” Kregel said in announcing the five-year plan. “The university has a wealth of talent and resources related to the arts, and I look forward to seeing how we will continue to build upon the momentum of this past year.”
Community collaboration
Nowhere was community collaboration more evident than during the inaugural Infinite Dream multidisciplinary festival that wrapped up Saturday. The 11-day event brought together performers and presenters from home and abroad, meeting audiences inside the Hancher footprint, as well as in venues around Iowa City. It overlapped and coordinated events with FilmScene’s Refocus Film Festival and the Iowa City Book Festival.
It signified the epitome of collaboration, which has been the cornerstone of Perry’s 20-year career, including bringing the Mission Creek Festival to Iowa City in 2006, shortly after moving from San Francisco to the UI for grad school. He continued to grow the three-day multidisciplinary festival during his years as executive director at the Englert Theatre in downtown Iowa City, and remains as Mission Creek’s artistic director.
Planning 15 Infinite Dream events “takes a lot of energy, a lot of collaborating, a lot of people coming to the table, getting some things right, maybe not getting some things right, and continuing to build on a pretty inspiring and daunting foundation from the last year,” Perry said.
Hancher’s annual Patron Party took on a festive flair Oct. 10 as guests gathered in the building’s second-floor Stanley Cafe for hors d'oeuvres and a preview concert by nine members of Sphinx Virtuosi, a vibrant orchestra based in Detroit. With members from across the country, the young adult ensemble is leading the way for Black and Latinx performers and composers. The musicians spent several days visiting Iowa City high schools, middle schools and several elementaries.
Hancher strives to offer that kind of educational and community outreach whenever possible, Perry said, citing a planned April 29, 2024, event in which 20 UI dance students will perform with the century-old Martha Graham Dance Company on the Hancher stage.
Sphinx Virtuosi violinist Clayton Penrose-Whitmore of Chicago embraces outreach opportunities, especially with students.
“It's important for people to get introduced to classrooms at an early age,” he said. “We all got started in an early age. … If you’re not introduced in an early age, you have a disadvantage with everyone else. Also, it's important just for the community to see people.
“We like to go to schools that are in underprivileged communities, to plant that seed. A lot of the times, they've never even seen a classical concert, where their first introduction to that is really rewarding.
“But here, it's been great,” Penrose-Whitmore said. “I feel like it's fun for the students to see people close to their age who are living a life like this and making a career in music, and maybe that might spark an inspiration for them to want to do the same thing. And, it's just cool to hear the questions they have and be able to relate to them or whatever they want to do.”
Bill Neri, violist and director of ensemble advancement for Sphinx Virtuosi, addressed the patron party audience, singing the praises of the ensemble’s reception in Iowa City.
“We've just been amazed with the support and the optimism, the open eyes and open minds that we've encountered in the schools and university, with the students that we've been interacting with,” he said. “So from the bottom my heart, I want to thank all of you for making this possible. It’s really a treat for us to share music with an audience that is so receptive and open to it.”
Hancher evolution
Among the patrons, Barbara McFadden of Iowa City echoes Neri’s observations, and is especially pleased with the direction Hancher is headed, building on its past.
“This is extraordinary — this community and the way they support the arts is quite unique,” she said. “And (Hancher) has been a cornerstone of the university for many years. It has a great foundation, but I just think they're taking it to the next level, and really transforming the way we think about the arts in this city, and the way all of the community is involved in what's going on here. So like tonight's performance — I don't think we would have seen something like that 10 years ago.”
McFadden has been in Iowa City for seven years and said she’s been “a faithful attender ever since I moved here.” Now retired and married to Tom Rocklin, retired UI vice president for Student Life, McFadden also is well acquainted with the Big Ten schools from her years as executive director of the Big Ten Academic Alliance.
“On our first date, Barb told me that there were three favorite Big Ten cities — Madison, Bloomington, Ind., and Iowa City,” Rocklin said.
“(Iowa City) was third, but now it's top,” McFadden said. “We are so lucky — the university leadership and these facilities — we’re very lucky.”
She also is heartened by seeing younger people in the Hancher audiences, and by seeing “a more diverse set of offerings.”
McFadden said that each season, they choose a couple of unfamiliar events to attend.
“Some things, we're not sure what they’re going to be like, but we want to go and have an experience that kind of stretches us,” she said. “ … And those are hitting now.”
Rocklin, who moved to Iowa City in 1986, added that when talking to people from the coasts, he used to say: “ ‘Iowa City’s not New York, there's not a million things to do every night, but there's something good every night.’ And I think that was true. Now, there are several really good things every night.”
For Hancher, it’s a dance to program premiere artists, which Perry said is “a massive privilege,” as well as up-and-coming artists who may appeal to a different audience. It’s a matter of cost and nurturing the next wave of audience members and artists.
“We have to make sure that we're doing things for a range of interests,” Perry said, noting that some of the artists who are household names now weren’t that well-known when they first appeared on the Hancher stage.
“And so we also have to be discovering people as much as we are bringing in folks that we really know well. And we have to find ways to encourage our audience to come along with us and say, ‘Yes, we're going to have some real bigshots here, and we're also going to be finding the next bigshots. We encourage you to take a chance with us.’
“And sometimes it happens, and sometimes it doesn't, but that's part of what this is about — this performing arts adventure. It's just trying to find the right balance. I don't think we ever get it perfect, but we try to get as close to perfect as possible in every season.”
Comments: (319) 368-8508; diana.nollen@thegazette.com
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