Scott Levy, producing artistic director of Penobscot Theatre for the past four years, calls it “imperative” the arts not diminish in an area like Bangor.

“The arts contribute to the sense of place. I’m not an outdoorsman, but imagine, what if Cadillac Mountain went away? It’s the same thing,” said Levy, 33, of Bangor.

Community support is high, but at this time, “the arts are not first on anybody’s mind,” said David Whitehill, the BSO’s executive director for the last year and a half. Whitehill, 30, of Bangor, said nonprofits such as health and human services are more popular for donations than arts at this time. “I can absolutely understand that, but that doesn’t mean that arts and culture shouldn’t be considered in the same breath. We do a lot for this community as far as quality of life.”

George Kinghorn, 41, of Bangor, director of UMMA since June 2008, feels similarly: “It’s important that the arts hold their strength in the state. We’re in an economic downturn at the moment, but it isn’t always going to be like that. We have to hold the boat steady. The arts are typically always the first to get cut, but they’re the most lasting bits of civilization, really.”

Practical corners were the first to be trimmed for these three Bangor bastions of “the most lasting bits of civilization.”

To save on expensive heating oil costs, the Penobscot Theatre did not perform in January and February. Levy worries the coming fiscal year will be tough. The theater will need to create a budget with 20 percent less expenses, a task he calls difficult but not impossible. The nonprofit theater employs a 10 to 12 person staff year-round and roughly 100 employees through the year. Everyone is paid. Penobscot Theatre has not closed any existing programming but has postponed new ideas. The theater puts on eight productions per season.

“How the organization operates will change. It has to change. We can’t sit back and wait for the economy to turn around. That’s ludicrous,” Levy said. “The productions next year are all smaller. One of the shows we did this year had 14 actors in it and five sets. That’s just too much.”

Levy’s plan echoes the attitude across the nation. According to a National Public Radio report last week, the Theater Communications Group surveyed 200 theaters and found 30 percent said they planned to produce plays with smaller casts.

Kinghorn said UMMA’s budget impact has not been dramatic this year. The museum’s only tangible cut thus far is four to five summer teaching positions. Kinghorn said the elimination will mean more work for the museum’s five-person staff. He continues to pursue earned income work to bring money into the museum, speaking with corporations about the benefits of supporting the museum.

To “slim down to where we become as efficient as possible,” internal overhead costs for the BSO were the first to go, according to Whitehill. Four years ago, the BSO paid five salaried employees and three contracted employees, a number that has reduced to two salaried employees, with only one working full-time, and two contracted employees. The orchestra transferred its box office responsibilities to the Collins Center for the Arts at the University of Maine and moved its office from a visible presence on Main Street in Bangor to Husson College.

“I don’t have a photocopier anymore. We use Husson’s,” Whitehill said. “We have to balance the budget every year now, and we’ll have to make some sacrifices. But mostly we’ve taken out some of the overhead and administrative expense.”

He doesn’t think the BSO has seen the worst of the recession.

“We are not in an economic crisis,” said Whitehill, formerly an Orange County director who worked multiple Southern California orchestras. “A crisis has an end. I think this is a condition we’re going to be in for some time. I think we have to brace ourselves.”

To combat a potentially dragging Bangor arts scene, Kinghorn, Levy and Whitehill meet regularly to discuss their situations and share ideas, often with executives from Bangor’s Maine Discovery Museum and the Bangor Public Library.

“We’re not in competition. We realize there’s a lot to be had by sitting around a table and talking, because each of us might have a different perspective,” Whitehill said. They can openly discuss their revenues – as long as they’re trend together in success or lack thereof, there is solace.

“I think it’s important to be in the company of other good colleagues who are trying to do really good things for the community,” Kinghorn said. The group recently proposed a project to the Cultural Arts Commission for the City of Bangor to help package and promote all Bangor’s cultural organizations with arts district signs and an “annual printed marketing rack card so that visitors can know what is going on at the various cultural venues,” Kinghorn said.

The BSO will collaborate with UMaine’s Collins Center for the Arts to bring two artists – violinist Chee-Yun and cellist Alisa Weilerstein – next season, something neither organization could afford solo.

“We have done everything we can to not take away from any bit of our artistic product. The art is the core of our organization,” Whitehill said. “We haven’t brought the economy into the artistic discussion.

“We still should be moving forward. We’re investing more in the artistic product because that’s what we’re about. Sometimes that’s where people cut first, and that,” he said, banging his hand on the table, “is not an option, as far as I’m concerned.”

While pulling through the recession may be taxing, Kinghorn intends for the audiences to be exempt from the troubles.

“Even in this economic climate, our supporters see the value in the arts as playing a big role in the vibrancy of a city,” Kinghorn said. “We will continue to provide a really quality product. The impact on our audience is not going to be noticeable.”

“We still look as strong as ever,” Whitehill said. He referred to the cross-organizational idea of a “sacred cow” – a cherished tradition or program organizations continue to support every year, although it may not be well-funded or well-supported.

“We never question it, we just do it,” he said. The symphony’s sacred cow was a sixth classical performance in its season, which has been nixed for an easier-to-manage pops concert.

Several musicians have returned paychecks or offered their services for free, fostering a “What can we do to help?” attitude, Whitehill said.

Levy, who lived in New York City and produced on Broadway prior to coming to Maine, is on alert but not in despair for the future of the 35-year-old Penobscot Theatre.

“We have to be cautious in this time, absolutely. Do I think Penobscot Theatre is ever really going to go away? No. I’m not convinced the community would allow that to happen,” Levy said. “I’m more concerned for communities that house more than one professional theater company.”

His concern is valid. The Christian Science Monitor reported in March that the National Endowment for the Arts researched to find the national unemployment rate of artists is roughly double that of other professionals. The Portland Symphony Orchestra cut jobs, reduced salaries and artist fees, canceled performances and scaled back educational programs to cope with a $220,000 deficit, according to a February article by the Portland Press Herald.

“We are doing more programming with less budget,” said Kinghorn, who has worked in the arts for 15 years, the last decade in museums, most recently as director and curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Jacksonville, Florida. UMMA now hosts events like a fashion show, a photography scavenger hunt in Bangor, and lunchtime talks.

“We’re doing a heck of a lot,” Kinghorn said. “It’s not good enough just to have the art on the wall. You have to find ways to connect with diverse audiences.”

Innovation, flexibility and “making the museum a more lively place” are key, Kinghorn said. Finding new audiences through community outreach is one of his priorities. UMMA hosted an evening “art walk” in the museum and welcomed more than 300 visitors – the most the museum has seen in a single day. Art walks will become a quarterly happening.

The BSO initiated a voucher program for students in March. Students with vouchers can attend for free, bring a sibling or friend for free, and buy tickets for any other family members for $10.

“You can’t tell me that’s not affordable,” Whitehill said. He strives for cost effectiveness and large attendances, but perhaps most important, as with Kinghorn, is a broad audience connection. Whitehill uses the symphony’s revamped image as an example: The logo change added more prominence to the word Bangor and less to Symphony Orchestra.

“It’s not necessarily about the symphony – it’s about our community,” he said.

Levy corroborated the need to broaden audience appeal for Penobscot Theatre. More well-known plays will be one strategy, although keeping the theater’s aesthetic mission intact is critical.

“Noting that discretionary income is less than it was, what is going to get people to say they need to come to the theater, as opposed to ‘I’d like to come to the theater’? It has a lot to do with name recognition. But that doesn’t mean I would ever do ‘Cats,’” Levy said.

The theater recently enjoyed success with “On Golden Pond” and “Little Shop of Horrors.”

Levy sees Bangor as full of opportunities, particularly for arts activities.

“If the people want all of the arts and cultural opportunities that are here to stay here, to help improve the quality of life in the area, they have to attend,” he said.

Whitehill said BSO attendance is a problem, and he is willing to do nearly anything, including dirt-cheap ticket prices, to fill the seats.

“Inflation goes up, the cost of what we do goes up, but ticket sales have stayed the same. Every year the gap gets bigger. But we have all these empty seats. Why don’t you put somebody in that seat? Sell it for $5, get them in. Would you rather have no money, or some money?” Whitehill said.

Machias Savings Bank sponsored UMMA in 2008 and 2009 to underwrite free admission. Kinghorn is hopeful the museum will remain free in 2010.

“That sends a particularly strong message in the current economic situation as people are looking for ways to spend their leisure time without spending a lot of money,” he said, adding the museum’s attendance has increased substantially in 2009.

Penobscot Theatre’s contributed income, which makes up for roughly half its annual budget, is down 20 percent to 30 percent, Levy said. Government, foundation and corporation support are the biggest drops, with severe declines Levy called troubling.

“Box office is down, but not as down as I would’ve expected,” he said. It’s dropped 5 percent after the company’s most successful year ever. Earned income for the Penobscot Theatre – the other half of its budget – comes from ticket and concession sales, educational programming and renting out the Bangor Opera House, which the organization owns.

After July 1, 2008, nonprofit organizations lost immunity from overtime and minimum wage labor laws. The law change was a major budgetary hit for the Penobscot Theatre.

“It’s long hours, long nights, a lot. And if you’re getting paid for that, it’s beyond our ability,” Levy said.

Whitehill recalled stories of organizations across America with endowments sinking 40 percent to 50 percent. The BSO draws 5 percent from its endowment each month, an amount that has lessened with a decreasing endowment. He called individuals the core of the donor base.

“The good news is people are giving. People are attending. People are still sticking by us and giving whatever they can afford to give,” Whitehill said. While foundation and corporate giving has plummeted, “endowments have been almost obliterated,” Whitehill said of the national scene. He said the BSO has more individual donors this year than last.

Nationally, museums are also hurting from anemic endowments. The Los Angeles Times reported in March that the J. Paul Getty Trust, “envied as the economic Goliath of the museum world,” would face a 25 percent budget cut amounting to $1.5 billion. The Times added this week that 205 jobs would be sliced as well.

“We don’t have that situation here,” Kinghorn said. Like the BSO, UMMA relies greatly on individual support. In this respect, UMMA benefits from its smaller size as a museum; larger institutions critically reliant on annual endowments have struggled. “This is a situation where small, like our museum, may be better. In this particular economy, big is not better. Running a lean and mean operation can be very beneficial.”

Until six months ago, Levy witnessed an economic growth in Bangor. Now he’s seeing it decline in the empty Main Street store fronts.

“That’s concerning to me. [Penobscot Theatre] operates as an anchor to downtown. So if downtown starts shrinking, then only in turn will our work shrink,” Levy said. He cited historical economic development of downtown districts thanks to entertainment venues.

“Every person who buys a ticket and comes to see a show of ours will probably spend an additional $24 in the community, via shopping or eating or drinking. That’s the actual figure from Americans for the Arts for every ticket sold,” Levy said, adding if there are less places to eat and shop, the entire experience is lessened. The economies of arts and business go hand in hand, Levy said.

“It’s all about the whole experience. The play in the theater is the main course, but we’ve got to have the appetizer and the dessert,” Levy said.