Congratulations to the Avalon Foundation, who this past weekend, in conjunction with Waterfowl Chesapeake, held a very successful Art for the Outdoors event as part of Easton’s CommUNITY Day.
EEDC: The Avalon is renowned, not only on the Easton Shore but beyond. Give us a brief history of how this came about.
Al Bond (AB): The Avalon was a movie theater for many years. When the age of the single-screen movie theater came to an end, the building went dark for some time. In the late 1980s, early 1990s, then Easton Mayor George Murphy, along with a group of private citizens, came together with the notion of redeveloping the theater as a performing arts space with a series of restaurants associated with it. A nonprofit was set up to run it, but unfortunately, they didn’t have the best business instincts. Within about 18 months of opening, it went dark again, although in much better physical condition. In 1994, Ellen Vatne General and John General formed the Avalon Foundation, entered a lease agreement with the town, and from there, it slowly but steadily grew. Ellen became the founding executive director.
EEDC: How did you get involved?
AB: In 2002, the town created the office of economic development, and I was the first director of that office. Besides the very traditional economic development work, I was also responsible for the revitalization efforts in the downtown area. Rather than setting up a committee or a workgroup that would be focused on creating lively activity, I looked to the Avalon as the people who were already in the business of fun but who weren’t doing it outside their four walls.
So, I brought some resources into the foundation and worked on developing content that would happen all year long. That’s where the outdoor summer concerts got started; we also raised the farmer’s market level of activity. We then added the 4th of July event, the multicultural festival, and what turned out to be by far the biggest one, Plein Aire, Easton.
That went on for several years, and then Ellen (Vatne) decided to retire. And at that point, I found myself essentially running 40% of the Avalon foundations operations for the town, and I decided to take over as the executive director. Gradually, the foundation got bigger and bigger and, at this point, is the largest arts organization on the Eastern shore of Maryland.
EEDC: Beyond all of these wonderful things, the Avalon is also well known for the really big acts you’ve been able to book throughout the years. There’s the yearly Monty Alexander Jazz Festival, and you’ve hosted Art Garfunkel, Judy Collins, and the free concert by Belinda Carlisle. You also have the upcoming Tom Rush concert. How have you been able to make this happen?
AB: The music business is really interesting in that for an industry where so many dollars change hands, it is incredibly decentralized and relationship-based. Every booker, every agent, every artist has slightly different ways that they put their deals together. It’s really about building trust, especially between the booking, the booker, and the agent. They tend to be very cautious about doing business with new folks. So, it is a history that has been built since 1994, and over time we developed relationships with a lot of agents. We also have the advantage of having an artistic director (Suzy Moore) that has been in the position for 17-18 years, and she knows the movers and shakers.
EEDC: The pandemic has had quite an impact. How do you even deal with the uncertainty?
AB: It’s a crazy time right now because the big agencies have laid off a lot of their employees. When you think about a restaurant that’s going to re-open after a shutdown, for instance, you can have your prep people come in one day and be serving people almost the next. When we order our inventory (artists), it will show up three to six months later, and that’s when things are going well. It’s been challenging to make the connections and figure out who is willing to go out, let alone go on tours, because the rules are different in every state.
EEDC: How did the idea for the Stoltz Pavilion come about?
The decision was that if we were going to be able to do any programs at all, we had to do it in a way that would substantially mitigate risk. Doing it outside is a 20-fold difference between being inside to the degree in which COVID is transmitted. It’s a huge, huge difference.
EEDC: How is the mitigation process working?
AB: We’re asking questions, taking temperature, and cleaning surfaces; it’s all simple stuff. We also require masks to be on the entire time, even outside, even distanced. If you’re using the facility, you’re signing up to wear a mask for that duration. Our policy is that if you take your mask off and you’re not just lowering it to sip a beverage, then we’re going to ask you to leave. There’re no strikes; first one, and you’ll be asked to leave. If you refuse to leave, we will call 911 and have you removed. It’s the only way it can work. I hate to do that, and I don’t want to kick anybody out for sure, but I’m totally willing to do it if it means the well-being and safety of everybody around them.
EEDC: You have to be very proud of the speed in which all this come together. I mean, this is something that would usually take months or even longer.
AB: The really critical change point was in September when the Governor allowed live music to happen at all. We had been thinking about it a little bit before that, but it wasn’t actionable until we went into Phase 3. And so, we were looking at where the need is. And it’s not just the Avalon. Every single organization that gathers people together is struggling with this same problem. When we looked at this, we looked at it as being a community resource. We haven’t put out rental rates, but they’re going to be as low as we can contrive them to be because we want this to be a resource that a group could use for their needs.
The Film Festival canceled this year because there’s no appropriate place to have it. Bible study groups and Boy Scouts–everybody has the same problem—needing a place to meet. We want our place to serve Avalon’s mission and all of the people out there who are doing good works in our community.
EEDC: Are you going to be keeping the Stoltz Pavilion after all this is over, do you think?
AB: I think the intent is to have a permanent outdoor live music venue. Whether that is the exact same structure currently up is something that is a question. Ultimately the structure that we’re putting up right now is not intended to be a permanent structure. It’s a tent, purpose-built tent and all, but to use it in a long-term way or not is something we’re trying to work our way through. What will fit a little over a 100/160 maximum people in COVID times could fit close to 800 people in normal times. The Avalon Theater holds 400, and essentially what this would give us is a venue that would get us to a different tier of artists and give them a new numbers guarantee that won’t work when we’re in the Avalon.
EEDC: Overall, this seems like such a great addition to Easton.
We located this pavilion as close to the downtown as possible because we thought about all the businesses that benefit from audiences at the Avalon. Hopefully, it will be good for the local restaurants or places of accommodations such as the Tidewater or B&Bs.
We looked all over downtown to find an appropriate spot that would also work for people who live in the area. This location happens to be at a real low point. So, it’s sort of in a huge urban bowl, which is incredibly beneficial in lessening the sound impact. Sound can go a very long distance if it doesn’t run into anything, but it reflects it as soon as it does. If the ground is going uphill in all directions, it bounces basically up into the sky rather than continuing to go forward when the sound hits it. So, we think that this is a pretty ideal spot in terms of not having negative impacts on residents and having positive ones that help downtown businesses.
EEDC: What’s next?
AB: We’re writing a holiday play that is in production. After that, we’re going to take it as it comes. Anybody who thinks they can make long-term plans right now is delusional. We don’t know what’s next. And we can’t know it until we see vaccines or treatments. So, we’re trying to do things that we can, and to make them happen safely, and in the end, that serve our mission. The Avalon is fortunate in that we went into this in a solid position. As long as our donor base remains stable, we can hunker down and operate at a much lower intensity level for a pretty long time.
EEDC: Any final words?
AB: It’s an interesting time to be thinking about arts programming, and Avalon’s mission is fundamentally about community strengthening and community development. And we use arts and culture to achieve that. But, when you think about where the needs are, I don’t know that there has ever been a time when our community needed strengthening more. I believe that we’re doing some important and good work and giving people a little bit of joy and hope, and I think that is good for all of us.
