A quote from the AMS consultant study for the Shreveport Symphony.

AMS looked at five other local arts organizations for which information was available – the Opera, Metropolitan Ballet, Little Theatre, Red River Revel, and the Shreveport Regional Arts Council (SRAC). The Shreveport Symphony represents 16% of the total income of these six groups, and was the only organization to experience considerable decline in income from 2003 to 2006. Overall, contributed income to the six organizations grew 42% from 2002 to 2005; however, the Symphony’s proportional “share” shrank from 23% to 15%.

The Shreveport Symphony recently posted the AMS final study on the organization's website. While one can read many sections and interpret them in numerous ways, the above statement takes us to the heart of the matter. Clearly, support for the arts exists in our area and is healthy as contributed income has been on the rise. We maintain that the problem is that the Shreveport Symphony administration is doing a poor job of asking for its share. Also, while organizations such as the opera are doing a terrific job of increasing visiblity via more performances, the SSO has been drastically cutting back.