The numbers have a nice symmetry. In 1997, when the Suncoast Blues Society came into being, the organization had exactly zero in its bank account. Founders Ken Torvik and Larry Lisk financed the printing of newsletters and other expenses on their personal credit cards, hoping to recoup the money later. As of last week, Torvik told me, the SBS has about $10,000 in reserves. Ten grand in 10 years.
SBS is coming off its most successful event ever: the Battle of the B3s concert featuring organ showdowns between blues and jazz players. Nine hundred people packed The Palladium in St. Pete, a sellout. The concert grossed around $10,000, but after paying the musicians, and splitting with co-presenters The Palladium and the Al Downing Tampa Bay Jazz Association, SBS banked $1,800. Not that good a return, but that's pretty much the way it goes for arts nonprofits.
And like nearly all arts nonprofits, Suncoast Blues Society fights the constant fight for recognition.
"Several people at that show came up to me and said, 'I didn't know about you guys, and I've lived here like 10 years,'" Torvik, SBS's current president, says. "That still blows me away. We're not as well-known as we should be."
Not that they're exactly unknown. In 2004, SBS was named the top blues organization in the country by the Memphis-based Blues Foundation. Over the years, Torvik and company have put on a succession of events — ranging from major successes to busts and lots in between — that have introduced mostly lesser-known national blues talent to a market that might never have seen them otherwise. Bobby Rush, John Mooney, Johnny Bassett and others have graced local stages under the SBS banner.
Like most arts nonprofits, a handful of folks do almost all the work for the 860-member organization (dues are $20 a year). Lisk left the board a couple of years ago but is still active. Torvik says that board members George Willett, Diane Pritchett and Tom Press are regulars in the trenches.
Even with sidekicks, though, Torvik characterizes running SBS as "a second job" — and a nonpaying one at that. He's not planning to run for re-election in December. "For the first time in 10 and a half years, I won't be on the blues society board," he says resolutely.
What if the organization flags without his stewardship? "We'll see what happens," he says, "but I think it'll be fine."
This article appears in Aug 29 – Sep 4, 2007.