When someone sits back to tell you about the show they saw at Cal Poly Humboldt’s Van Duzer Theatre — whether it was a ballet company, a house-shaking hip hop duo, comedy (Shakespearean or otherwise), an iconic singer/songwriter or a touring string quartet — there is nearly always a moment of wonder that it happened here at all. We shrug at our luck, that the big-name artists should stop in our remote county to perform at the university between larger gigs. Seldom does anyone disagree.
Center Arts, founded in 1980 and molded under the direction of Roy Furshpan, has made the Van Duzer Theatre an anchor venue in Humboldt County, bringing world-class acts to our remote area. Its shift to the state-administered Cal Poly Humboldt Presents caused some concern on and off campus for fear of losing the steady source of performing arts from beyond the Redwood Curtain. Now, amid serious budget cuts, the university’s announcement that it will scale back the upcoming 2025-2026 season and shift to more student-focused programming has some worried the changes will result in a cultural loss for both students and the community.
We shrug at our luck, that the big-name artists should stop in our remote county to perform at the university between larger gigs.
According to the March 12 press release, “While performances have generally been well attended, ticket sales alone do not cover the cost of programming for our performing arts series, and the gap between costs and ticket revenue is widening.” Making up the difference with state funding and student fees, it states, is not sustainable. And while there are no planned layoffs and the Van Duzer Theatre will still host performances, “in light of ongoing state budget challenges, the University is refocusing the 2025-26 season to more student-centered programming,” including “student-centered concerts and events, featuring recording artists, DJs and entertainment.”
Asked to clarify what counts as student-centered, CPH spokesperson Aileen Yoo says, “It’s less about the genre and more about choosing what most likely appeals to students. Emo Night Tour, which will stay in the programming lineup, is a good example of acts that tend to draw students. In fact, we have students who advise us on what their peers want and their feedback helps inform our choices.” The community is, as it has always been, welcome to attend the shows, she notes, stressing that “the shift in programming focus is for the upcoming year only, and the future could look very different.”
Wendy Sotomayor, executive director of the Gutswurrak Student Activities Center, has been at the university for 30 years, and managed the accounting for Center Arts in 2021 as it moved to operate within the Student Activities Center and under state purview as CPH Presents. While she says the upcoming season will be reduced due to finances, “There will still be some community shows,” meaning those primarily geared toward an off-campus audience, like the sold-out Elle King show in August, which was attended by only 21 CPH students.
Back in January, Michael Moore Jr., associate director of the Gutswurrak Student Activities Center, who directs programming for Cal Poly Humboldt Presents and previously served as coordinator for Center Arts, said, “Membership is up and it’s based on the events that we present.” (Financials provided by the university show revenue from membership, grants and donations was $27,621 in 2024, less than half of what it had been a decade earlier.) Months before the March 12 announcement, he noted that big draws over the last year have included a range of entertainment. “Gregory Alan Isakov sold out. People like comedy, E-40 was big, Celtic Christmas, Pink Martini, Frog and Toad, acrobats.”
On the other hand, he told the Journal, “Classical and jazz aren’t the biggest sellers, but they’re a way for community on and off campus to see these cultural touchstones.” Theater and dance similarly may not always be the most popular events in terms of ticket sales, he said, but they are still considered some of our highest art forms and justify space on the marquee. After all, “It is a performing arts series.” Still, he conceded, “The numbers are important for us, as well. … You’re always looking at the bottom line.”
Center Arts’ bottom line included subsidized net losses covered by the University Center and, after its transition to CPH Presents, the Student Activities Center. According to data provided by CPH, from 2013 through 2024, those losses averaged $144,748. Total revenue from the shows (including ticket sales, membership fees, donations, grants and other sources) averaged $996,554, but that haul was outmatched by average expenses of $1.1 million.
Meanwhile, facing declining state support and a penalty for not meeting enrollment targets, the university is preparing for budget cuts of $13.3 million in 2025-2026, followed by projected cuts of $13.8 million over the ensuing two years. Administrators have asked the university’s various divisions to propose cuts of 7 percent across the board, which equates to a $5.9 million reduction to academic affairs.
Amid the dismal budget picture, Eugene Novotney, director of percussion studies in CPH’s School of Dance, Music, and Theatre, isn’t surprised by the announcement regarding CPH Presents.
“We’ve all seen the changes,” he says. “During COVID, there were no performances. As things started coming back, it became clear pretty quickly that it’s been a slow climb back.”
The Humboldt Calypso Band, which Novotney founded in 1985 when he first came to Humboldt State University and which he still directs, was the first show back on the Van Duzer’s stage, he recalls. That the steelpan group will carry out its scheduled performances for children as part of the continuing Artists and Schools program is heartening for him.
“That’s all super encouraging but … my hope is that we still provide the university and the community with those types of artistic events which go beyond the norm to still push the parameters of what artistic expression can be,” Novotney says.
The cost of shows, especially big ones with multiple performers — an orchestra, a dance troupe or a play — includes not only paying performers, but staffing events, setting up stages and maintaining venues. Ticket sales don’t always cover it. “Producing music events is expensive,” says Novotney. “I know that firsthand — but the positive effect of those events is vast. It takes a serious economic commitment to promote the arts but what you get back … exceeds anyone’s expectations.”
While Novotney recognizes the financial crunch ahead, he says he learned over his lifetime as an artist the cost of merging art and economics. “Hey, if I’m a sculptor and I’m basing my creative decisions on how I’m going to make my rent at the end of the month, then I’m gonna be making a lot of mugs and selling them at the craft fair,” he says. “But if I have another way to subsidize myself, I might push myself and create something beyond my expectation of myself.” Subsidizing artistic activity, at least at the university level, he says, is vital, especially if CPH intends to be a leader in the arts.
“You cannot be a leader in the arts while also devaluing them,” he says. “That’s the paradox of it all.”
It’s not lost on Sotomayor that the value of performances at CPH goes beyond ticket revenue. “This program is not only important to students, but so important to attracting faculty to the region,” she says. “We see it as important to the greater campus community.” And while performances at the Van Duzer Theatre have drawn crowds of off-campus community members, the Artists and Schools program, which will continue in the coming season, has garnered enormous positive feedback, she says, by bringing performances to children around the county.
It all comes down to budget cuts over the next two years, says Sotomayor. “Putting on this level of programming requires subsidizing from somewhere,” she says. “The university realizes they can’t subsidize it at the same level but that doesn’t mean they won’t subsidize at all.”
Center Arts was an auxiliary department under the University Center with a mission to serve students and the community, drawing from other means of revenue, like the university bookstore, dining services and equipment rentals that supported programming. The bookstore, which Sotomayor explains had been losing money, has since been taken over by an outside corporate operation, so those funds no longer go to programming. From 2013 to 2019, net losses for Center Arts averaged $72,880 per year, which was covered by University Center funds.
CPH Presents, now under state oversight and part of the Student Activities Center, has a narrower mission to serve students and its only revenue sources are from student fees and ticket revenue. Between 2021 and 2024, CPH Presents’ net losses per year averaged $230,592, with that money covered by the Student Activities Center.
“The students are paying fees and we need to make sure they are going to serve their needs,” says Sotomayor. “If a student is paying several hundred dollars a year, you want to make sure they are benefiting from those fees; they’re not going to want to be subsidizing the community events.”
Despite performances being free or between $10 and $25 for CPH students, so far in a report of 2024-2025 season attendance, approximately 8 percent of total tickets sold went to students, who filled an average of 59 seats per event. E-40 drew the largest number of students this season so far with 404, about 34 percent of those who came to hear the rapper. The popular Pink Martini show brought in only 51 students, while the sold-out Gregory Alan Isakov performance brought in 89 of the university’s approximately 6,000 students.
Most of the dozen or so students contacted by the Journal on campus to talk about the announced changes said they had not attended many — if any — shows and performances at the university. But most said it was not because of a lack of interest in the programming, but due to a lack of free time.
“I just don’t really have the spare time or the money,” said Sadi Finch, a junior arts major, who said he hasn’t attended a show in his two semesters on campus.
Toby Hetrick, a junior art and psychology major, said they have attended about 10 shows in their three years on campus. Emo Night, billed by the university as a tour in which “DJs will spin all the angst your teenage, dirtbag heart desires,” has been a highlight, Hetrick says, adding they were disappointed to see it move to an off-campus venue this year that doubled the door price. “I know a lot of people really, really enjoyed that,” they say.
Hetrick says they have also appreciated cultural dance performances, and generally the diversity of programming brought to campus, noting they have friends who have enjoyed attending some of the children’s performances. Hetrick describes some offerings as a bit “gaudy and obnoxious,” referencing a drone show and a performance by the Beach Boys that were part of Lumberjack Weekend in October, though they quickly concede they enjoyed the Beach Boys.
Jared Cruz, an environmental science major sitting next to Hetrick on a bench in front of the library, says they support using student fees to fund entertainment offerings on campus. “That’s a good use of those funds,” Cruz says. “The arts are critically underfunded.”
As to what types of entertainment they’d like to see on campus, Cruz and Hetrick say diversity is key, wanting a spectrum of shows and performances that both appeal across different student demographics and can introduce students to new experiences. Cruz says they think it’s important the schedule also keep drawing community members. “I’ve always liked that the shows they present bring people from the community onto campus and it integrates us a little bit,” Cruz says, noting some past points of conflict between the university and the community that surrounds it.
An advisory working group is “in the very beginning discussions for what it might look like for the coming years,” says Sotomayor, figuring out what to pay for and how to pay for it, focusing on “how we can fill the gap in the future without using that same level of state resources.” She estimates that gap at around $350,000 to $500,000. “The model could return to exactly the model we had this year if we find the revenue to sustain it,” she says.
The group includes: Moore, Sotomayor, Senior Executive Director for Enterprise Services Dining, Bookstores, Children’s Center, Student Activities and Events Todd Larsen, Associated Students President Eduardo Cruz, Linda Maxwell of the Department of Theatre, Film and Dance, Kevin Sharkey of the Eureka Chamber Music Series, Arcata City Councilmember Meredith Matthews, Executive Director of the Redwood Region Economic Development Commission Gregg Foster, owner and President of Lost Coast Communications Patrick Cleary and Julie Fulkerson, co-producer of the Trinidad Bay Art and Music Festival.
A common suggestion Sotomayor has heard is raising ticket prices. “We can only sell so many tickets and we can only raise the prices a certain amount to bridge that gap,” she says, noting market research has shown prices are at the upper limit of what will sell in the local market and the Van Duzer seats 750 to 850 people, depending on the stage setup for the event. “While we believe we could increase a little bit, we don’t see a path forward to close the gap.”
Sotomayor says the Student Activities Center is also looking at ways to link students and the surrounding community, like performances on the Arcata Plaza during farmers markets. Partnering with outside organizations might also mean different sources of revenue or sharing costs. CPH, for example, might cover paying the band while another group provides insurance.
There is also the option to outsource to a vendor that would run concerts and events in the university’s space.
Across the country, Sotomayor says, student unions are changing. At conferences attended by student union administrators, she says she’s seeing big events and shows at universities becoming a thing of the past after the upheaval of COVID, with students less interested in concerts and wanting basic needs met first. In terms of programming, other university centers, she says, are looking at comedians and events with social media interest, like Q&As with icons from students’ childhoods, both of which are popular and cheaper than big productions.
Whether these trends bear out among CPH students isn’t clear yet, she says, especially since they are in an isolated area without the same venues and opportunities to see performances as students in more metropolitan settings.
Up on the university quad, Kieran Edward James Specht has his metallic green electric guitar plugged into a small amplifier and is strumming it gently. Specht says he’s been on campus a few years and is employed at Cal Poly Humboldt Presents, saying he does sound for shows, adding that it’s been good experience. Generally, Specht says, he really likes entertainment offerings on campus, noting Lumberjack Weekend usually has a strong lineup and he enjoyed bluegrass guitarist Molly Tuttle’s show at the Van Duzer in 2023.
“They have a pretty good variety of things,” he says.
Specht says he’d be sad to see the university pivot away from shows that appeal to the larger community to be more student focused. Humboldt County has limited venue space, he says, noting that some of the big names CPH brings to campus draw attendees from as far off as Redding. He worries that if the university stops bringing in larger acts the community will miss out on them entirely.
That said, Specht says he sees lots of room to get students more involved in guiding campus programming, saying he’d like to see more coordination between the university, the Music Department and student groups. His hair tucked underneath a rainbow, tie-dye headband, Specht says he’d like to see more small shows on the University Quad — just community and student bands playing for an hour or so around lunchtime.
Ben Hernandez, the life and arts editor at bilingual student newspaper El Leñador, says he’s enjoyed the few shows he’s attended over the last couple of years but concedes the schedule doesn’t have a lot his “peers would be interested in.” But Hernandez says he hopes CPH focuses on bringing acts to campus that students can’t find elsewhere, noting that DJs and electronic music are frequent at house parties and off-campus venues.
“In order to differentiate itself, the Van Duzer needs to focus on something that students can’t find elsewhere,” Hernandez says, adding that he’d like to see a focus on performances featuring live bands. “Anything that encompasses bands.”
As to seeing student fees used to pay for on-campus entertainment, Hernandez says it’s a good use of the funding. “I don’t have any gripes with it,” he says.
Cindy Moyer, chair of the Department of Dance, Music and Theatre, isn’t optimistic about the upcoming changes. “I’m quite confident that a statement that says we’re going to focus on things students are interested in means popular rock bands that we can afford to bring,” she says, adding that she worries about what’s lost in gearing programming toward “the most common denominator” instead of the diversity of student interests. She expects it means the end of shows like the Mark Morris Dance Co. or other big ensembles coming to Humboldt, as they might cost tens of thousands of dollars to mount a show. “It’s going to be bad for the students’ education in that there will be fewer professional performers in the area that they can see,” she says. “It’s particularly bad for the dancers because seeing performance requires going to San Francisco.”
Local organizations bring in smaller newer musical performers, says Moyer, but limited budgets mean they can’t bring the big-name acts. “We’re lucky to have them,” she says, adding,
“Both Redwood Jazz Alliance and the Eureka Chamber Music Series do a great job. And that may be all we’ve got. And if you want to dance, you’re just kind of doomed.”
Considering his students’ varied tastes and interests, Novotney says he isn’t sure exactly what a “student-centered” program would look like. Leaning toward popular music and performances, and away from experimental and community-based ones, would be, he feels, a loss. “It is the responsibility of things like universities to challenge students with progressive programming that might take them outside of their own expectations of what they like or enjoy, or even want to be in the presence of,” he says. Looking back, he recalls performances he didn’t know would move him as they did. “Not all of those concerts were well attended,” he says with a wry laugh, “but the effect that they had on me is immeasurable.”
Funding the arts is “one of the best ways that we can spend our money as a people. I don’t want to get too political and bring the whole country into this, but this is a microcosm of everything and who knows what it will yield,” Novotney says.
“The university is absolutely one of the last [remaining] places where we need to push the boundaries of creativity and artistic expression,” says Novotney, even if it doesn’t always produce profit. “I hope we’re still willing to take some risks.”
Journal news editor Thadeus Greenson contributed to this report.
Jennifer Fumiko Cahill (she/her) is the Journal’s arts and features editor. Reach her at (707) 442-1400, extension 320, or jennifer@northcoastjournal.com.
This article appears in Cal Poly Presents’ Season of Change.
