As we approach our fifth anniversary of the opening of the Niswonger Performing Arts Center of Northwest Ohio, it is a good time to see where we have come from and try to determine where we are headed in the future.\u00a0 At our recent Van Wert Area Performing Arts Foundation board meeting, we had a good discussion about where we currently are as a performing arts organization.\u00a0 We also discussed perceptions and realities about the NPAC.<\/p>\n
I have been writing this column since my hiring at The Van Wert County Foundation in 2002.\u00a0 At that time, the idea of a performing arts center like we now have wasn\u2019t even a dream in most of our minds, and certainly not mine.\u00a0 I had a dream of making music more prevalent in our area, but not to the magnitude of what we currently have facility-wise.<\/p>\n
When I look back at other writings of \u201cMusic in Van Wert\u201d before the NPAC was built, I see a lot of issues that were bantered about throughout the community.\u00a0I tried to address some of them occasionally.\u00a0 Now, in retrospect, many of the things I wrote about have come true.\u00a0 That is exciting!<\/p>\n
We are now approaching five years of presenting concerts and events at the NPAC.\u00a0 The VWAPAF has been in existence for nearly 6\u00bd years.\u00a0 Since then, many things have evolved.\u00a0 We have forged a relationship with the Van Wert City Schools through a lease agreement.\u00a0 What began as a miniscule $1,200 per year we were paying the schools has now grown to a full 50\/50 split where we now reimburse the schools over $30,000 per year in utilities and supplies.\u00a0 That is a huge increase in less than five years, but one we have thankfully been able to deal with.<\/p>\n
Many people have told us they cannot believe the artists and concerts we have been able to bring to Van Wert.\u00a0 Another comment we frequently hear is that our prices are much less than larger surrounding areas.\u00a0 This is intentional.\u00a0 We realize that many things (with the possible exception of gasoline!) are less expensive in Van Wert.\u00a0 With this in mind, we try very hard to broker great deals for our patrons, knowing that we just don\u2019t expect to pay as much.\u00a0 We look for quality at a great price.<\/p>\n
I realize that the perception is that the NPAC is doing a fairly good job.\u00a0We have been the recipients of some very nice awards, for which we are grateful.\u00a0 You should know, however, that the VWAPAF is a non-profit organization and our mission is not to make a lot of money, but to hopefully break even.\u00a0That being said, we do have thousands of dollars that are needed to cover expenses beyond paying our concert fees.\u00a0 With the support of ticket buyers, underwriters, grants, in-kind contributions, memberships and many other various resources, we have been able to operate a successful venue.\u00a0Ticket sales generate 74 percent of our revenue.\u00a0 This is a very high number.\u00a0 The remaining 26 percent comes from all the aforementioned sources.<\/p>\n
Some concerts make money, which provides the needed financial resources; however, some concerts do not.\u00a0 This could be because of lower ticket sales or maybe high production costs.\u00a0 We have paid nearly $10,000 above concert fees just for production costs.<\/p>\n
So in summation, we have expenses just like every other business.\u00a0 The more we can control costs and the more support we can receive, the better the product we can offer everyone.\u00a0 It is a tight line we walk many days, but one we as a board and staff are determined to work hard at so we can deliver a great product of entertainment for the region.<\/p>\n
We are currently working on a spectacular fifth anniversary season we hope everyone can enjoy.\u00a0 In the meantime, we have many great opportunities left this season\u2026 and they will start coming in rapid fire soon: The Women of Ireland this Saturday, followed by Fiddler on the Roof<\/em> on March 3 (two shows!), then the Navy Sea Chanters (to which tickets are being released today!), followed by three more in the month of March.<\/p>\n Thank you for your continued support.\u00a0 We hope to be around for another five years as we look and plan into the future.<\/p>\n FIN\u00c9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As we approach our fifth anniversary of the opening of the Niswonger Performing Arts Center of Northwest Ohio, it is a good time to see where we have come from and try to determine where we are headed in the future.\u00a0 At our recent Van Wert Area Performing Arts Foundation board meeting, we had a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-05 01:59:51","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20912\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}