Photo by Wyatt Kostygan

Spoleto Festival USA runs for just 17 days, this year from May 27 through June 12. But it takes a hard-working staff all year to make sure the event goes right. That work is important to everyone in Charleston, S.C., a community that enjoys an annual economic impact of about $70 million from Spoleto alone. Julia Forster, director of development for the festival, served as keynote speaker at SRQ Media Group’s most recent SB2  event, Investing in the Arts: The Finance of Culture. Afterward, she spoke with us about the challenges and successes in keeping the organization properly supported over the course of decades.

You have been part of Spoleto for 20 years, half the lifespan of the festival. How have you seen its stature grow over time? Our festival is really the model for festivals around the world. The Melbourne Festival is modeled after Spoleto. The New Haven International Festival of Arts and Ideas was created after our festival. We are in talks now with the Chinese government about creating a sort of Spoleto in China, where they have built all these beautiful theaters and facilities but have no programming. So we get calls all the time for advice.

You mentioned at our event that individual donors provide far more financial support than corporate donors. Are you guys exploring ways to change that or is that an optimal condition for you? Back when times were very different, around 2000, we had over $1 million in corporate support, but a lot changed in the impending decade. Now we are at half that, a little over $500,000. Foundations used to be the core of support in the '90s. That’s gone by the wayside because foundations want to do their own programming. We used to get a lot of government help, but like everywhere in the country, we don’t get as much now. We get very generous city support, but very little from the state. Thankfully as the funding structure has changed, Charleston has changed, and that is why we have been able to thrive. That’s reflective of what's happening here in Sarasota, too.

Photo by Wyatt Kostygan