Anniversary Special: The Phil

There's a reason why the term "starving artist" has been around so long. Those who make art and market it aren't always able to make it pay. Look at Vincent van Gogh, for example, mooching off his brother all those years, or the many present-day arts organizations perennially teetering on the brink of financial ruin.

But do not look at the Philharmonic Center for the Arts for an illustration of the stereotype. As it marks its 25th year in 2007, that organization has shattered every preconceived notion about struggling arts groups. It opened its $19.8 million doors 95 percent debt-free in 1989 and has operated far from the edge of disaster ever since.

This year is a special one for the Phil. The 85-member orchestra, which took shape from the idea to create a

world-class chamber orchestra in

Naples, celebrates its 25th anniversary.

"It was built step-by-step," says Myra Janco Daniels, the Phil's CEO.

Right time, right place

By the early 1980s, the level of sophistication in Naples and Marco Island had surpassed the days when beach bonfires and swamp buggy races were popular community entertainment. Port Royal was well established, and Park Shore and Pelican Bay were attracting new residents committed to the arts and accustomed to enjoying them in first-class venues.

The Naples area was ripe for a performance hall and rich with the kind of donors who could make it happen. It was a bit off the beaten track, but that was changing, thanks to the opening of Southwest Florida Regional Airport in 1983, the extension of I-75 to Naples and the imminent widening of Alligator Alley. When Westinghouse Communities Inc. donated land for the Phil right off U.S. 41 North in its upscale Pelican Bay community, the arts were suddenly very accessible.

Although scores of volunteers and donors have filled the Phil's history, two women were key. Sun Oil Co. heiress Frances Pew Hayes provided the first major funding, and a diminutive ex-advertising executive from Chicago named Myra Janco Daniels lit the torch that ignited the creation. She's still running with it.

Daniels, the Phil's CEO, is a soft-spoken, trim woman whose low-key demeanor masks fierce determination and a savvy approach to the business operation of an arts hall. A lover of the arts since her doting grandmother introduced them to the young girl, Daniel recalls how she, as a Marco Islander, lent support to the nascent symphony orchestra in 1982.

The orchestra was performing in Marco Island churches and Naples high school auditoriums, she recalls. "I was feeding them sometimes and asking my friends to put them up."

Those friends urged Daniels to help establish a permanent home for the orchestra. "I had just lost the love of my life, my husband," Daniels explains. "I felt as though I had lost my life, but when I started to work on this project, I gained another one."

Daniels says she and some friends put up some of their own money and started fundraising. Coming from a family of art lovers, the veteran advertising professional and former educator took to her task with zeal.

"I guess I knew how to package a product," she says.

Eschewing expensive professional fundraisers, she bought advertising spots on TV stations that ran stock-market tickers to reach the right audience of potential donors, and she embarked on a telemarketing campaign.

When she phoned Hayes with her fundraising pitch, however, she was initially disappointed.

"She said she'd give 25, and I thought she meant $25," she recounts. When Daniels went to collect it, she discovered Hayes meant $25,000.

The donor did more than that. Hayes, now deceased, whisked Daniels off to her native Philadelphia and plunked her down before the board of the Pew Foundation. The result: a $2 million grant.

"I called Gene Aubrey, the architect who had drawn up an initial plan, and told him he'd better get going on a model," Daniels recounts, still savoring the moment.

Meeting a need

The Philharmonic Center for the Arts opened its two-auditorium concert hall in 1989, a product not only of love but of sound business practice.

Daniels articulated her methodology in an essay that appeared in Newsweek magazine in May 1990.

"We started in Naples with a feasibility study," she wrote. "Everyone is for the arts, but would they support them on a long-term basis?"

After that came a budget that she termed "a realistic, honest appraisal of costs versus income, earned and unearned, plus contingencies," as well as "a strategic plan as objective and restrained as any new-business plan."

Daniels also drew on the area's vast pool of working and retired CEOs to people the organization's board and bring their corporate expertise to the endeavor. The sizable pool of talent now numbers 42.

The nonprofit entity, fortified with what is now a $30 million endowment fund, has barreled along, expanding with an adjacent, 30,000-square-foot art museum in 2000 and the purchase in 2001 of the nearby 38,000-square-foot office building, now called the Toni Stabile Building.

Daniels says many factors set the Phil apart from struggling counterparts elsewhere in the United States.

"First and foremost, this is a very giving community," she states, "and we are one of the very few communities in the country that has everything under one roof-performance hall and visual arts center together, learning center/small performance center just behind us."

Such proximity not only makes for efficient management, but promotes the likelihood of people who come for one reason and return for other aspects of the complex.

She credits the professionalism of the staff, now numbering 450 full- and part-time workers, as another secret weapon, and a commitment to serve the needs of the entire community has had positive results.

That effort is articulated in the programming, which she says is constructed to appeal to many sectors. Although she concedes to having some "soft" shows, Daniels says many performances are 90 to 95 percent sold out.

The Side by Side program pairs talented young musicians with orchestra members. (One set of parents pleased with their child's participation made a seven-figure donation to the museum construction fund.) The Phil also offers 180 adult-education classes and has had opportunities for the public to tour the facilities free of charge.

She says the staff seeks out the best marketing tools, pointing out the effectiveness of the Phil's Web site and new business coming from Wow, a monthly program advertiser that is mailed to 200,000 residents. It has netted 10,000 new subscribers, she says.

About 54 percent of the income currently comes from ticket sales. Donations, corporate funding and advertising income make up the rest, says Daniels. The Phil benefits from ads in playbills as well as concession income from its bars, restaurant and gift shops.

Health Management Associates (HMA) has been a corporate sponsor from the start.

"The original concept conceived by Myra Daniels was unique in its time," states HMA chairman Bill Schoen. "The Phil has brought an unprecedented influx of cultural venues and opportunities, not only to Naples but to all of Southwest Florida. From the very beginning, the Naples Philharmonic has been an outstanding contributor to the betterment of the local community, providing exceptional cultural opportunities to local residents and visitors alike. HMA is proud to be a continuing sponsor."

What's in the future for the arts center? Daniels gets a wary look in her eye when she says, "We prefer not to announce advance plans."

Not that competition is a big issue. Although she concedes more arts venues bring more need to share patronage, Daniels notes that additional halls can actually enhance the Phil's chances of snagging good shows. "They can go to Miami and come through here, too," she declares. Networking throughout the arts community helps maintain the luster of the Phil, she reveals, as does the knack for attracting top-flight artists and experts.

The opening budget in 1989 was almost $2 million, and the current one is $27 million. The Phil booked 100 events in its debut season and now hosts 400 events that showcase not only the 85-piece symphony orchestra but pops concerts, doo-wop revivals, Broadway productions and one-man shows.

Does that make the balancing act harder? Daniels says her grandmother taught her an important lesson about running a business when she was four. "She gave me red and black crayons and a notebook," recalls Daniels. "'When you make a penny, put a black mark on one page. When you spend a penny, put a red mark on the next page. Make sure there are always more black marks than red.'"

Can a not-for-profit organization that has spiraled almost effortlessly upward for the past 25 years expect an equally smooth ascent in the next quarter-century?

Southwest Florida is still expanding with a well-heeled population and tourist presence that support the arts. The leadership has never indulged in the self-destructive squabbling that has doomed other arts organizations. The excellence of the venue continues to attract the type of talent that results in ticket sales.

Nevertheless, management is not ready to coast on past success. CEO Myra Daniels sees several challenges to sustaining the organization's momentum.

The first, she says, is to never lose sight of the Phil's mission to serve the entire community. That means presenting programs that appeal to many segments of the population, including a variety of shows and exhibits and education courses.