After nearly nine decades of contributions to Wilmington’s cultural life, the Wilmington Concert Association has decided to dissolve.
 
A news release from the organization Monday stated that the concert association’s board of directors made the decision Sunday to disband officially as of May 31.
 
“The decision was made reluctantly, but due to the number of competing organizations that have formed since the beginning of the Wilmington Concert Association it has been difficult to raise funds and attract audiences -- despite the high-quality of concerts presented,” the release stated.
 
Formed in 1929, the Wilmington Concert Association produced several concerts each year, featuring luminaries like pianist Emanuel Ax, the Martha Graham Dance Company, the Russian Ballet, the Bulgarian State Opera and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. Its most recent event was a concert by jazz pianist Mary Louise Knutson on March 27.
 
“We’ve sort of been on life support for most of this past year,” organization president Dean Gattone said Monday. “We put together a plan last June to do two concerts during the year this year and to do some fundraising and hopefully raise $40,000 to have a full season this coming year at the new [Cape Fear Community College] Humanities and Fine Arts Center. Neither concert was fully attended, and we didn’t raise more money than our normal amount.”
 
Times have changed, and Wilmington has certainly changed, since the concert association’s early years, Gattone said, noting that when he moved to Wilmington in 1989 there was very little going on in town. But the area has such a lively arts scene now that most people “don’t see bringing artists from outside, who normally wouldn’t come to Wilmington, as a priority,” Gattone said.
 
Another problem has been facility limitations: both the size and the design of University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Kenan Auditorium, the concert association’s primary venue, have made it difficult or impossible to attract certain kinds of performances, according to Gattone. He said a performance space of at least 1,500 seats is necessary to bring in some performers.
 
“We’ve had some really wonderful turnouts too -- for example, the Canadian Brass and the Soweto Choir,” Gattone said. “We gave it our best shot. There was either going to be community support for [the Wilmington Concert Association] or there was not. I’m certainly disappointed that things turned out this way, but there will still be great fine arts programming in Wilmington.”
 
Remaining monies will be donated to the Cape Fear Community College Foundation in support of the Humanities and Fine Arts Center, according to the release, which added, “an appropriate naming opportunity will be chosen in honor of the Wilmington Concert Association’s 86 years of service to the arts community.”