EASTHAMPTON — Until Monday, Luthier’s Co-op was unable to operate its bar or host live music since COVID-19 restrictions went into place beginning in March 2020.
The Cottage Street business continued offering its daytime music store business shortly after the state shutdown, but rent and utility expenses piled up with two major revenue sources gone.
As a result of public health and safety regulations, many arts organizations and businesses faced similar struggles. This week, Luthier’s was one of several local businesses to receive a $134,398 Shuttered Venues Operation Grant (SVOG) to help with these expenses.
Awarded by U.S. Small Business Administration, the grants are intended to assist businesses that rely heavily on activities that were prohibited or significantly limited by COVID-19 restrictions, such as live performance venues, movie theaters, museums and theatrical producers.
In Hampshire County and Holyoke, businesses received more than $2.53 million total in SVOG funding.
For almost a year and a half, owner Steven Baer said Luthier’s was “just paying rent and utility for space that I couldn’t use — or not paying rent and utilities and just having the debts build up,” he said.
Luthier’s will use the majority of its funding to pay off these past debts, Baer said, and towards rent, utilities and payroll expenses as the business starts up its bar and live performances once again.
Community members also came together to support Luthier’s during the shutdown: One GoFundMe drive raised nearly $23,000 to help keep the business afloat, while another fundraiser garnered around $6,000 to assist employees who were laid off due to the business’s partial closure.
The business has just started booking acts to perform Thursdays through Saturdays and expects the schedule to be back “at full throttle” by August. The kitchen, which operates as a separate business, will reopen in September.
Staffing is now “close to what it was,” according to Baer, who hopes to bring payroll up to pre-pandemic levels by September and to see the business regain its “community hub” aspects.
“We’re excited to be firing that part of the business back up,” Baer said. “We’re nervous as well, but there’s more excitement than nerves.”
The business is currently requiring only unvaccinated patrons to wear masks inside, though Baer said this requirement is hard to regulate.
“I hope we don’t get to a spot where we’re checking vaccination cards to come in,” Baer said, “but the long story short is we’ll do whatever we have to do to stay open and not close again.”
Amherst Cinema, which shut its doors to the public for a year, netted a $583,735 grant as it continues with its phased-in plan to return to full capacity.
“This industry is still recovering and has a long way to go,” said Executive Director Yasmin Chin Eisenhauer, “so we know that it will take time to reach that pre-pandemic level of activity, and this funding helps carry us again until we can be whole.”
The cinema closed to in-person attendance in March 2020 and reopened at limited capacity a full year later in March 2021. On Friday, the cinema will increase its current capacity limitation from 50% to 75%.
“The cinema employs a lot of people in our community, and we also service thousands of people who walk through our doors,” Eisenhauer said. “We have been a business in operation for 15 years, and to have to close was difficult. 2020 was heart-wrenching.”
Amherst Cinema is also continuing to accommodate members of the public who aren’t comfortable with the most recent reopening measures, offering “masked mornings” during the first screenings of the day on Saturdays and Sundays. During these screenings, all patrons must wear masks, audience capacity is capped at 25%, and the cinema does not sell concessions.
Additionally, Amherst Cinema will continue to offer its virtual cinema platform.
While the cinema is grateful and excited to receive the funding, Eisenhauer said, its long-term success will also require community support through donations and membership. So far, the public has answered that call, according to Eisenhauer.
Community members “sent notes of encouragement, they supported our virtual cinema programming,” Eisenhauer said. “Many of them continued to renew their memberships at a time when members’ benefits could not be realized.
“They hung in there with us,” she continued, “and it demonstrated the role of the cinema in the greater arts and culture economy and community.”
In Holyoke, the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts was awarded a $491,035 SVOG grant.
The millions of dollars in funding awarded to western Massachusetts businesses and organizations provides a huge boost to the arts community, said Donald Sanders, executive artistic director of MIFA.
“We’ve all been in the same boat for almost two years,” Sanders said, “and this is just such a tremendous lifesaver.”
When the pandemic struck in March 2020, MIFA was heading into its main season, with four major events and several smaller events that the organization sponsors on the horizon.
Like other organizations, MIFA had to quickly adapt to offer virtual programming, Sanders said.
“It’s actually amazing how resourceful everyone became,” Sanders said, “but there’s nothing like live performance.”
The grant funding is also exciting “not only for the actual fact of the help that it’s giving us and other colleagues,” Sanders said, “but the fact that it actually happened through our government is incredible.”
Across the state, 244 SVOG grants totaling $193.4 million were awarded, according to U.S. Rep. Richard Neal’s office. Neal was at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield earlier this week to announce a $3.7 million grant for the venue.
“For the safety of the American people, the government forced these agencies to close their doors. And now, it is the government again stepping in to make sure that they are able to get back on their feet,” Neal said in a statement.
The following Hampshire County arts organizations and businesses also received SVOG funding:
â University of Massachusetts Amherst — $332,575
â Bold New Directions, Southampton — $287,040
â The Academy of Music, Northampton — $196,011
â The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Amherst — $184,794
â Tower Theaters, South Hadley — $167,865
â Young at Heart Chorus, Florence — $91,894
â Happier Valley Comedy, Hadley — $63,586
Jacquelyn Voghel can be reached at jvoghel@gazettenet.com.