WILMINGTON – OperaDelaware is singing a new tune as the artists themselves start leading the organization through a new employment model that offers a sustainability that has not been seen before in the arts.
With support from the Longwood Foundation and other donors, Wilmington-based OperaDelaware now can pay up to 12 artists a $50,000 per year salary, along with health benefits and a housing stipend with flexibility so they can also find other gigs outside of the Grand Opera House.
OperaDelaware Vice President of Engagement KerriAnn Otaño said the new model offers the organization and its artists alike the chance to grow and prosper while continuing to offer their craft to the masses in the First State.
“We’re still in the process of piloting this artist model – it’s revolutionary for the opera industry,” Otaño told the Delaware Business Times.
With personal experience under her belt from her own work as an artist, she said most artists fall in the “starving artists” category – struggling to make enough to pay rent or find health care with no real long-term plans for further development or retention.
“That’s how the industry operates. 95% of working artists, of working opera singers, are doing something in addition to working their art full-time or they’re working in between gigs, so they can’t even get a full-time job,” she said. “By accepting that this is the best that the arts can be, we’re accepting that these artists are really pouring from an empty cup. For me, that’s not a plan for long-term success. That’s a plan for the exploitation of young talent.”
While the pilot program will support 12 artists for two years, up to six artists can be employed by OperaDelaware through the program each year. It doesn’t stop with just the financial benefits, she added.
“This has allowed us to increase programming and offer housing and a salary. Usually, these artists are a mouthpiece for the opera without having a voice. But this program also allows them to have a voice in the day-to-day operations in the programming, development and administration of OperaDelaware,” she said.
To date, the nonprofit organization has hired four of its allotted six artists for the year, to include a baritone, tenor and two sopranos. All artists in the program have worked with the organization for shows prior to full-time employment.
Now, Otaño said those four artists can use the skills they’ve learned over the years beyond singing for the benefit of the whole organization in a way that is unmatched by other artist residency programs across the country.
Industry-veteran soprano Toni Marie Palmertree now supports development opportunities for OperaDelaware, as well as her work as an artist and other administrative duties as necessary.
“It’s really exciting to be a part of something from the ground level like this as an artist. It’s sort of rare that artists are asked about how we would see our careers and how the industry operates,” she told DBT. “It’s hard for an artist to advocate for yourself to say, ‘I deserve a seat at the table, center stage.’ That can feel really icky. This job, for me, has given me more confidence to advocate for myself. It’s needed.”
Fellow company artist soprano Emily Margevich now helps run programming for children and seniors, including programs that bring opera to homebound residents in the heart of Wilmington.
She also lauded the efforts of OperaDelaware to bring revolutionary sustainability to the industry, saying that it not only has the ability to change the way singers are employed around the country, but it saved her career in the process.
Margevich had recently graduated from college and had been attempting to find her way in the arts industry. She told DBT she was losing money while pursuing her career goals and had to perform other gigs to pay the bills.
“This position at OperaDelaware has completely saved my soul this year and my career – no exaggeration,” she said.
Without the sustainability of full-time employment at Delaware’s only opera company, she said she would still be living at home with her parents attempting to pay off the debt that is often acquired by artists as they move from gig to gig.
“It might look glamorous. It never is,” she said. She pointed to cost of makeup, costume and lodging bills artists often find themselves handling three weeks at a time for the opportunity to sing in the spotlight.
“In many cases, artists are, at any given time, floating $10,000 in credit card debt until they get to the next job. Makeup, dresses, hair and stuff like that, that’s all a business expense. People want to look at their ideal imagine in an artist, car rentals, Air B&Bs… by no fault of an artist, they’re just constantly cycling around debts for their business,” Palmertree told DBT.
To make it worse, she added, arts companies were forced to add artists on as employees instead of freelancers through recent federal tax changes, changing the way artists can, or can’t, address business-related deductions throughout the year.
Artists have long been relying on their passion to drive them, rather than focusing on basis needs, Otaño said. But she said that instead of asking singers to find part-time work, OperaDelaware will be able to hire them.
“I believe they make better art as a result. They have community and stability,” she added. “They’re helping create programs, recitals and events. We’re able to say yes for so many more opportunities. It’s so Delaware, isn’t it?”
