The Southern Theater posted another letter to its website Thursday warning that its financial difficulties have reached "a state of emergency."
That emergency, the letter says, "now threatens the very existence of the Southern and we must raise $400,000 by April 30, 2011 to keep the doors open."
The letter, signed by board chair Anne Baker and executive director Gary Peterson, refers to "the financial mire in which [the theater] has been sinking for the past decade."
As reported last Friday by the Star Tribune, the theater recently was hit by the pullout of major funder the McKnight Foundation as well as a board shake-up, the ouster of the former board chair, and the denial of a request for a $90,000 bridge loan.The Southern has an annual budget of $1 miliion.
The McKnight was told that the Southern had not been able to disburse all the money owed to individual artists who won McKnight fellowships in choreography and dance. The McKnight asked the Southern to return more than $300,000 in previously granted funds.
In the open letter, the Southern says that if it can raise $400,000 soon, it can institute a "sustainable operating model" that would include the hiring of a development director, "a position sorely lacking in the last few years." It solicits donations large and small.
The Southern presents dance, music and theater throughout the year. Last weekend it coordinated the String Theory music festival over several days in partnership with other Twin Cities presenters. This weekend it will stage dance by Twin Cities and out-of-state troupes in a program called Scuba Network.
In a letter posted Wednesday, the Southern said that future programs that could not be justified financially would have to be canceled.
