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December 16, 2020

Bushnell chief tells U.S. Senate that arts struggles may doom urban downtowns like Hartford’s 

The Bushnell’s CEO David Fay is leading the Hartford theater through perhaps its most challenging year ever.
By Liese Klein

Performing arts venues are crucial to sustaining urban downtowns like Hartford’s and those venues are in danger of extinction,  David Fay, president of The Bushnell Center for Performing Arts in Hartford, told the U.S. Senate this week. 

“We are now approaching a critical point when we must save our stages and our small businesses that are hanging by a thread,” Fay told the senators via video-conference.

Fay added that the Bushnell and other venues support an ecosystem of restaurants, bars and other businesses, all suffering greatly due to the pandemic. 

“Without your help, this ecosystem is in grave danger of collapsing and taking with it the pulse of our city centers,” Fay said.

Fay testified at a hearing on Tuesday on the Save Our Stages Act, an addition to a proposed federal stimulus package that would allocate $15 billion in grants to support theaters and other venues hit by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Connecticut U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, ranking member of the Senate Subcommittee on Manufacturing, Trade and Consumer Protection, invited Fay to speak at the hearing. Blumenthal hosted a virtual town hall Dec. 10 with Connecticut arts professionals on their struggles. 

Stages, movie theaters, music venues and other arts businesses nationwide have been working with lawmakers to pass Save Our Stages, which has secured a majority of senators as sponsors. But the arts relief act has been stalled along with talks on a larger pandemic stimulus package.  

Fay said he feared that the loss of arts venues could doom recently revitalized cities like Hartford.

“I feel like I am in a pandemic-induced time warp,” he said. “Our downtown like so many has suddenly become a ghost town.”
 

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