“As the length of the pandemic and economic impact increases, the need for additional funding becomes really critical,” says Jeffrey Salzer, deputy district director of the Small Business Administration in Alaska.

“First and foremost, we’re trying to get capital in the hands of our hardest hit small businesses,” Salzer says, pointing to both the SVOG and the Restaurant Revitalization Fund.

SVOG applicants can qualify for up to 45 percent of their gross earned revenue, with the maximum amount available for a single grant award being $10 million.

Priority groups are set up for the SVOG based on entities’ needs, explains SBA regional communications officer Melanie Norton.

The first group are those that suffered 90 percent or greater gross revenue loss.

“We’re really trying to focus on those entities that had the greatest revenue loss due to the pandemic,” Norton says.

Both the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra and the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts applied for the grant, but, as of publication, didn’t know if they’d received the funding.

Initially, other organizations that might have applied thought that, if they’d received Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, they wouldn’t qualify for the SVOG grant.

While that was originally true, updates to the rules allow entities that received PPP money to be awarded the SVOG—though the money received in the form of PPP would be subtracted from the awarded grant.

“It was something that they had to weigh really heavily because the first news that we got was that if you’ve already gotten the PPP, you’re not going to qualify for Shuttered Venues Operator Grant,” says Kodiak Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Sarah Phillips. “And the rules keep changing, and businesses have to keep adapting. I think that’s been the hardest part of everything.”

To keep Kodiak businesses updated with what funding options were available to them, the Kodiak Chamber of Commerce took out weekly radio spots, provided interviews to the local newspaper, and even purchased ads to get the message out there, Phillips says.

“Kodiak is a small community, so we started doing individual outreach,” Phillips says. “We would just call the business.”

Usually business owners had heard about the opportunity, but just as often they had questions, Phillips says.

The SBA has also made a concerted effort to keep business owners updated about the possibilities available and changing guidelines.

With most small businesses busy with day-to-day operations, Salzer says the SBA has prioritized communication through Twitter, its website, and email updates, doing its best to get the right information into small business owners’ hands.

In addition to the SVOG, the Restaurant Revitalization program, and various other funding opportunities created to help businesses weather the pandemic, the SBA continues to offer its standard suite of services.

“We’ve got a legion of consultants to work with in small businesses,” Salzer says, noting that he doesn’t like to call the services “free” but rather pre-paid with tax dollars.

“For a lot of small business owners, whether the economy is doing great, or whether you’re coming out of a pandemic, like we are right now, there’s a sense of feeling alone.”

Salzer recognizes the pressures small businesses are under even when they aren’t facing a pandemic, from the future of their business to the care of their employees.

“What we found is, by working with these business advisors, it really helps alleviate that [feeling of isolation], because you have someone that you can talk to, someone that you can work through some of these issues,” Salzer says.

Codie Costello, the president and COO of the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts, says that the pandemic taught her to make the FAQ webpages for the various funding opportunities her best friend.

“It was very confusing at first, and there was a lot of folks that didn’t apply for PPP because they felt that the [SVOG] would be a greater opportunity,” Costello says.

With the SVOG rolling out later than most business owners had hoped, there was growing concern that they were going to miss out on the PPP opportunity if the SVOG didn’t come to fruition.

“It was a challenging set of circumstances to try to figure out how to evaluate what was the best way forward for your business,” Costello says.

The chance to receive 45 percent of earned revenue was a huge opportunity, especially for businesses that saw nearly their entire revenue stream cut off, Costello says.

“There was no way for us to generate revenue based on how our business model is set up, being solely dependent on large gatherings,” Costello says. “We were among the first to get shut down and will be the last to reopen in any kind of meaningful way.”

Permission to reopen at limited capacity had little impact on what venues—such as Alaska Center for the Performing Arts—were able to provide for the community.

Costello says that, even when organizations were allowed to open to 100 percent capacity with the physical distancing mandate in place, her venue could never get above 18 percent due to the need to create 6 feet of separation between patrons.

“The math problem never worked out—there was no way to make that a viable business model,” Costello says. “We didn’t have a way to create enough inventory from the seating side. I also have to mitigate the back of house, which is very complicated.”

The changing mandates have made it particularly difficult to create momentum as businesses continue to pivot to new strategies. However, with a grant from ConocoPhillips, the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts was able to shift to streaming and hybrid-style productions during the pandemic.

“The arts community has continued to produce a lot of content at no cost to the public to help support mental health for artists and patrons,” Costello says. “Anchorage Symphony Orchestra has been prolific in their output during COVID.”

Anchorage Symphony Orchestra, which also applied for the SVOG, produced more than 115 films that were combined into eight series.

“We became filmmakers, something that we were not anticipating we would do,” says Anchorage Symphony Orchestra Executive Director Sherri Reddick.

A difficult time was made more difficult for the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra when its music director, Randall Fleischer, passed away unexpectedly in August.

“Before Randy died, he said, ‘We are not going to go dormant. We are not going to be quiet. We are going to be active. We are here to serve our community and to provide music,’” Reddick says. “So he made the pronouncement, ‘We are now filmmakers.’”

While costs were much lower than during a usual season, the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra lacked revenue from ticket sales; however, the symphony was getting CARES Act funding, generous contributions from patrons, and other grants to help keep them performing throughout the pandemic.

“Private donations from our patrons exceeded what they had the year before,” Reddick says. “People were wanting to make sure we were okay.”

And, despite the herculean hurdles presented in 2020, the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra did manage to serve the community.

“I think all along we have felt we could adjust activities. And we have done that,” Reddick says. “But we always sort of felt that the challenging time was going to be the time that we’re now approaching: what would be a 2021/2022 season.”

The Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program was established to help organizations such the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts weather the pandemic by providing more than $16 billion in grants to qualifying applicants.

Ryan Black | Alaska Center for the Performing Arts

The significant increase in costs in putting on live performances means increased financial risks for venues still unsure of the public’s comfort levels with a return to normalcy.

“I think people are assuming that as soon as it’s ready, everybody’s going to be in the concert hall,” Reddick says. “Surveys nationally, and surveys locally, are not necessarily suggesting that that’s going to be the case, a lot have been indicating that they’re looking more towards maybe January.”

Phillips also voiced her concern about the timetable of consumer habits returning to normal.

“I would say the biggest challenge has been consumer habits have not yet changed,” Phillips says. “So it’s addressing more than the safety concerns—just how do you convince people to come back when they’ve transitioned to online entertainment options?”

Some see the SVOG money as a crucial opportunity to help fill in the gap created by consumer spending habits, allowing venues to make more ambitious, robust attempts at taking the arts back to normal.

“I think if groups get this SVOG funding, it will help us be able to bring back a season that starts to have some normalcy to it,” Reddick says. Without the funding, Reddick says that those involved with the performing arts would possibly have to bring back performances in a limited capacity to mitigate the financial risks.

“We will get to normalcy, in terms of what you see on stage, much quicker with SVOG money,” Reddick says.

While the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts, like the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra, has been able to make ends meet through various funding programs and opportunities, Costello says the SVOG could be a game changer. The grant could be exactly what the venue needs to keep highly qualified employees on the payroll as they prepare for a robust return.

“This [SVOG] support, it obviously is solving a very big short-term need, but it’s also allowing me to keep my eye on the long game, which is to be here for the next generation,” Costello says. “Because if we didn’t have that support right now, our future would be very different.”

The key is going to be to get an accurate understanding of what audiences are looking for, both Costello and Reddick say.

“We also have to meet the audience where they’re at: not all of them are ready to come back and sit shoulder to shoulder,” Costello says. “This grant, for some organizations, is going to be the difference between whether or not they’ll be here when we’re on the other side of this.”

Costello hopes that, when asked, the public will be responsive to inquiries about what sort of large group gatherings and live performance situations they are comfortable with and what opportunities they are enthusiastic about participating in, as such information can be key to planning a successful season.

However, even before grants were handed out, it was clear that demand for SVOG had outpaced the resources allocated.

“We knew that there was going to be a need that exceeded the appropriations,” Norton says. “But now, because we have all these applicants, we have that data available. So if Congress were to explore any of that information, we have the data available to share the demonstrated need.”