HUBBARD HALL PROJECTS INC
Making Art and Community Happen
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Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Hubbard Hall just celebrated it's 45th anniversary! Hubbard Hall has successfully weathered the global pandemic. Since the pandemic began, our annual budget has reduced from $450K to approximately $350K. We, like many arts organizations, are still figuring out the right balance of growth and mission delivery in this new era. While our staff is smaller than it was pre-pandemic, we are engaging more vendors, especially for facilities. We are working diligently to ensure the Hall continues to be healthy and robust in our offerings. We are also better balancing our resources and efforts than before the pandemic. We are lucky that we own our facilities, do not carry major debt, and now maintain an endowment in support of scholarships and fellowships. Like most arts organizations, we are still experiencing lower levels of earned income from lower box office and class enrollments. We therefore need grants and donations now more than ever.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Hubard Hall Theater
Since 1878 Hubbard Hall has developed, produced, and presented theater, music, opera, dance, and the visual arts and in recent years has become a world-class development center for new work. Since 1977, Hubbard Hall’s current nonprofit has engaged thousands of artists, students, and audience members. As a training ground for both young and seasoned artists, Hubbard Hall continues to develop a new generation of artists and audiences while providing opportunities for individuals to take new risks and stretch beyond their comfort zone. Through classes in dance, theater, music, movement, visual arts, puppetry, creative writing, martial arts, yoga, and even gardening, Hubbard Hall gives students of all ages an opportunity to train, collaborate, and thrive.
Hubbard Hall Opera
Since 1878 Hubbard Hall has developed, produced, and presented theater, music, opera, dance, and the visual arts and in recent years has become a world-class development center for new work. Since 1977, Hubbard Hall’s current nonprofit has engaged thousands of artists, students, and audience members. As a training ground for both young and seasoned artists, Hubbard Hall continues to develop a new generation of artists and audiences while providing opportunities for individuals to take new risks and stretch beyond their comfort zone. Through classes in dance, theater, music, movement, visual arts, puppetry, creative writing, martial arts, yoga, and even gardening, Hubbard Hall gives students of all ages an opportunity to train, collaborate, and thrive.
Hubbard Hall Workshop and Classes
Hubbard Hall classes start new terms in September, February and June. Patrons can drop-in to try a class for just $15!
Hubbard Hall is committed to making the arts accessible to all. We have an active work-study scholarship program where students in our dance, movement arts, music, theater and visual arts programs can volunteer time in a variety of ways in exchange for partial-tuition or full-tuition support for classes, workshops and intensives. Work-Study Scholars (or their parents) help with a variety of tasks, from class registration to building maintenance, from sewing costumes to outreach & marketing.
Hubbard Hall Dance
Hubbard Hall offers the graceful forms of Ballet and Lyrical, the fun moves of hip hop and jazz, and the classical styles of Bollywood and Irish Step!
Music From Salem
Music from Salem brings together musicians of international reputation to prepare and perform chamber music in the peace and beauty of rural Washington County, New York, and environs. Chamber music is classical music written for a small group of performers, and includes a range of styles, from the 18th century to today.
Where we work
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Our Sustainable Development Goals
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Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Hubbard Hall is again thriving and offering services to our community in multiple ways across multiple historic buildings. Maintaining and improving these buildings, so they’re available for our community, is a big part of what we do. Prior to the pandemic we had already shifted Hubbard Hall’s model to more presenting than producing, artist residencies, and a cadre of free offerings for the community. Our financial model began to rely less on earned income and more on government grants, for a healthier financial balance. Moving forward, we will focus on a mix of artist residencies, classes, local programs, and presenting of professional artists. We will continue to develop our faculty and classes, improve our facilities, and develop artist housing so we can increase our focus on residencies. Growing our reputation as a place for world-class artist residencies.
Since 2014 we’ve been developing artist residencies as another key part of our programming, as a means of bringing new voices, viewpoints, and artistry to our community while serving artists and the field at large, while also raising the Hall’s profile and opportunities for new fundraising. In 2019 we established a partnership with The Bushwick Starr in Brooklyn, NY and in 2023 we developed another partnership with The Drama League in Manhattan.
Over the past three years we have made great improvements to our facilities, including new restrooms in the Hall, a new HVAC system in the Hall and additional heating and cooling in two of our other buildings. These were supported by major state grants coupled with individual and foundation donations raised via successful matching campaigns.
The Lovejoy building on the Hubbard Hall campus is being restored and renovated to provide artist housing, while new sound equipment on the main stage will better support artists and audiences for years to come. The $279,000 received from NYSCA will be matched by Hubbard Hall existing funds as well as an additional $50,000 to be raised over a three-year period. The hope is to complete the artist housing portion of the project by July 2024, with new sound equipment to be implemented later that year. New artist housing will strengthen Hubbard Hall’s ability to support artist residencies, develop new work, and bring world-class artists to Cambridge, NY for a variety of presentations and productions.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Develop and promote our arts education programming online, outside and in our historic buildings to ensure we lower our overall environmental footprint when we can.
Better schedule our performances and classes to maximize usage of our campus spaces.
Continue our monthly LGBTQ events for an all inclusive safe environment for people to connect.
Continue to provide a diverse selection of classes and events to provide top notch educational experiences for all ages of students and artists.
Encourage new work that explores all aspects of our cultural world to enhance the overall experience of the arts. Including promoting opportunities to people of all races and ethnicity.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
We have over 45 years of history providing the arts & educational programs to the community. Since 1878 Hubbard Hall has developed, produced, & presented theater, music, dance, & the visual arts, & in recent years has become a world-class development center for new work. Since 1977, Hubbard Hall’s current 501c3 has engaged thousands of artists, students, and audience members in acclaimed productions. Our education programs are at the heart of our work, as we engage learners of all ages in hundreds of classes and workshops annually, both on campus and off.
Hubbard Hall operates four buildings, including the hall, dance, music, and visual arts studios, offices, arts exhibit spaces, and a black box theater. We also own and operate the Cambridge Community Garden.
Given that we are a small organization has allowed us to be nimble and flexible during these challenging times. We have a strong presence in our local community and will continue to engage people to support our mission with safe, interesting and smaller gatherings until such time as we can reopen to full capacity.
We have a staff of 2, with a full-time ED/Artist Director and Administrative & Artistic Associate. We also employ many part-time production and technical staff. We also have a hardworking board of directors, a large company of artists and teaching artists, hundreds of students, and an army of volunteers who make everything possible.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Our presented and produced events in the hall are still reduced to smaller events and audiences post pandemic but we are seeing an increase in in-person attendance. We continue to hold outdoor theater and concerts during the summer and early fall but move them indoors for the winter. Regardless of the challenges we successfully produced and presented many events over the last couple of years and retained the interest of theater and music lovers in the community in a safe environment.
Our classes are building back up and there is more interest for expansion of the types of classes we offer especially in theater and dance. We have successfully hired some new instructors to offer additional classes. By being creative and flexible, we have designed educational classes for smaller groups of all ages.
Our school contract for the fall and spring was restored and we successfully ran our Drama Club once again to local school students.
We continue to develop our marketing plan using even more social media, especially Constant Contact, Facebook, and Instagram. Our website is constantly updated to ensure current information and registering for classes and events is as user friendly as possible.
Over last several years we have been working on the Hubbard Hall History and are happy to announce the launch of a history page on our website representing history dating back to 1878 when the hall was opened.
And we will complete a capital project to repurpose and restore the LoveJoy building on our campus for artist residencies. This ties nicely into the partnership we have with the Bushwick Starr and Drama League.
All of these efforts have provided stability to the organization and the knowledge that it is possible to refine our business model, to be flexible and still be engaged with the community during difficult times.
We will continue to review and redesign our various fund raising campaigns to develop a more streamlined approach and focus on developing stronger relationships with our major donors. Although we could not hold our usual annual Gala again in 2021 where we honor a local person with the "Making Community Happen" award we did have a successful annual fund campaign by keeping the community up to date with our progress by connecting with social media. In 2020 we held a smaller gathering and unveiled a historical marker to honor Susan B. Anthony who spoke at Hubbard Hall back in 1894 regarding the suffrage movement supporting the right for women to vote. We also presented a play about Susan B. Anthony and Mary Hubbard.
We will continue to explore other funding opportunities outside the local area in hopes to encourage support from Foundations and Corporate entities to support the arts in rural Washington County.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time, It is difficult to get honest feedback from the people we serve
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
HUBBARD HALL PROJECTS INC
Board of directorsas of 01/24/2024
Ms. Margaret Surowka
Judith Pate
Andrew Pate
Alyson Slack
Elyssa Macura
Margaret Surowka
Nancy Clark-Krauss
Don Boyd
Mark Pritchard
Anne Villet
Alexandra Scoville
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
The organization's co-leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
We do not display disability information for organizations with fewer than 15 staff.
Equity strategies
Last updated: 02/04/2021GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.