The untold failure of the Liceu foundation in the United States

The reception was at the Reina Sofía Institute of New York. On June 2, 2014, about 200 guests attended the presentation in society of the brand new foundation launched months before by the Gran Teatre del Liceu on USA to raise funds from American patrons and promote cultural exchange with the North American institutions of the field. The then Queen Sofia, honorary president of the foundation, led the cocktail party that afternoon with the minister Ana Mat, while philanthropists like Nancy Kissinger and Sharon Bush they rubbed shoulders with the attendees. The project was born with the intention of emulating the collection success of other European operas in the US, but it was closed five years later in the red and having raised very little money.

For some of its protagonists the memory of those days still stings. “It was a very unpleasant experience, both on a personal and professional level & rdquor ;, says one of them. “It was a complicated and difficult stageI’d rather not talk about it & rdquor ;, says another. Although the Spanish press covered the launch of the Liceu Barcelona Opera House US FoundationAs the non-profit organization was called, little else was known about its future. And still less of his formal dissolution in October 2017, sealed by the US authorities in February 2018, after two fiscal years without a single dollar collected and the foundation technically dismantled. “There was always a lot of good will among those involved, but reality showed that the project had not been set up well nor was there enough money to raise it & rdquor ;, he says Roger guasch, General Director of the Liceu (2013-2018) at the time of dissolution.

On 2013 the foundation brought in $ 309,000 in donations, as stated in his tax declaration before the US authorities obtained by EL PERIÓDICO. But almost all of those contributions responded to the initial investment of the project sponsor, the Catalan investor Antoni Renom, at that time in charge of the family fund Levante Capital Partners, and payments in kind of Baker McKenzie, the law firm that donated its legal services to the foundation. That first exercise closed with a $ 37,600 surplus, a balance that would not be repeated. On 2014 donations were cut almost in half, $ 178,000but again the bulk came out of Renom’s pocket again. The year closed with a $ 30,000 deficit. In 2015 and 2016 already nothing was collected and the exercises surfaced some red numbers of 6,600 and 409 dollars respectively.

A colosseum with empty coffers

The idea of ​​launching the foundation had something of desperate gesture. “We had a urgent need to seek resources because the contribution of the public administrations dropped a lot since the crisis of 2008 & rdquor ;, assures a source close to the management of the Liceu during the gestation of the project. 2012 was a traumatic year for the institution. With a bank debt of 16 million euros and 12 million in deferred payments to suppliers, the risk of insolvency hovered over their dressing rooms, forcing 17 shows to be suspended and an erection that left more than a hundred workers on the streets.

It was then that a 25-year-old music loverWith no ties to the Liceu other than his passion for lyrical poetry, he knocked on the doors of the theater to offer its leaders the idea of ​​opening a foundation in the United States. That young man, Marc Busquets, had just finished a master’s degree in cultural management in New York, where he collaborated with the American foundation of the Salzburg Festival. “There you see things that seem impossible here & rdquor ;, says Busquets now. “He knew about the financial problems of the Liceu and also that other European operas, such as the Covent Garden to Paris Opera, they were raising a lot of money in the US, so I passed on the proposal & rdquor ;. Cultural donations in the US are fully deduct, unlike what happens in Spain.

The idea was well received by Joan Francesc Marco, then director general of the institution. But a crucial element was missing: the funds to start it up, because the Liceu barely had to pay the payroll of its staff. A casual conversation on the beach I would do the rest. Busquets tells Renom his intentions and the financier does not take long to get on the boat with an initial investment that was around between 75,000 and 175,000 euros, according to sources. Renom did not want to participate in the report.

Right from the start, there is a rush to launch the foundation. Before Busquets has even presented the strategic plan, interviews are granted and press conferences are called. The first tensions also arise. “It gave the impression that this was a project of Raise Capital when it was a project of the Liceu & rdquor ;, assures a source close to the protagonists. “It was a little ‘Welcome Mr. Marshall’: we will sit with the rich US and the money will start to rain. The reality is that it had to be a medium-term company. The patronage requires a lot of planting, you have to do events, co-productions, agreements & mldr; & rdquor; In its five years of existence, the foundation would only organize one public event with familiar faces: the presentation at the Reina Sofía.

Relay at the head of the foundation

In such a rush to get results, it didn’t take long for heads to roll. Three months after taking over the reins of the Liceu in October 2013 with the intention of cleaning up its accounts, Guasch dismisses Busquets, the architect of the foundation and its first CEO, who was looking for an apartment in New York at the time and had installed his command center on a table provided by the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in New York in a corner of their offices. That was all the muscle that the foundation initially deployed to conquer the world of New York cultural patronage: an employee with a salary close to 1,500 euros per month and a table in some borrowed offices.

“We did without him because he didn’t have enough seniority to knock on doors in New York,” Guasch now recalls. “You had to look for an American profile or someone with some influence in New York society & rdquor ;. The person chosen was Bisila Bokoko, a Valencian with roots in Equatorial Guinea who came recommended by no one knows who. The Renom family paid the $ 115,000 what it cost to hire the agency’s services during 2014 BBES International of Bokoko, dedicated to the promotion of brands and companies.

Bokoko had come to New York with an IVEX scholarship and ended up as director of the Spain-US Chamber of Commerce, from which she was fired two years before taking over the foundation. “I rubbed shoulders with the CEOs of large companies and it went to my head& rdquor ;, she told the Canary newspaper ‘La Provincia’ herself. Two years later she would be hired by the Liceu, despite having hardly any experience in cultural patronage. The foundation that she herself opened to promote literacy in Africa It did not raise more than $ 21,000 between 2011 and 2014, according to its tax returns. The consultancy also has a video blog with titles such as “How to be a more interesting person” or “How to fall in love with you.”

Excess amateurism

The trading card did not work either. Bokoko, who has declined to answer questions in this newspaper, managed to do nothing more than “Four or five patrons & rdquor; who made discreet contributions. And those patrons had to be accompanied and hosted when they traveled to Barcelona, ​​expenses that the Liceu could not afford. The year ended with losses. “We had no money in the short or medium term to manage this. Payroll payment and social peace they were more important, “says Guasch, who piloted that time of cuts before joining Espanyol as a manager. Shortly after, the Liceu executive committee decided to abandon the project, even though its formal dissolution was not certified until three years later .

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The conclusion is that the foundation, chaired by Francisco Gaudier, had gotten up with minimal resources, a notable ignorance of the North American market and a excess of amateurism. “If it were to be done again, we would have to hire American professionals who specialize in raising cultural funds. They are expensive firms, but that’s how things are done there & rdquor ;, Guasch points out. The new management of the Liceu does not contemplate, however, reactivating the foundation in the US. He prefers not to look back and forget that fiasco. “It was a nice idea, but when it came to managing it, there was a lot of ego and little ability to do well& rdquor ;, says a source close to the board of the defunct foundation.