How is a contemporary arts center like a hockey team?

Eleanor Kennedy Jun 2, 2017, 10:11am CDT Updated Jun 2, 2017, 10:13am CDT

It’s more than just civic pride that has Tim Ozgener enthused about the Nashville Predators’ playoff run, and the scores of fans who’ve clogged the streets, sidewalks and parks of downtown Nashville to cheer on the team.

For the CEO of contemporary arts center OZ Arts Nashville, the Predators are an example of how people can gain enthusiasm for a new form of entertainment they might not have even known they needed.

Tim and Cano Ozgener are the father/son team and founders of OZ Nashville. 

“I can really relate to the Predators,” said Ozgener, who launched OZ with his father, Cano Ozgener.“When they first came here, they had to educate people.”

Likewise, Ozgener said, OZ is “still in the mode of building our audience.”

Educating the market is a big focus these days for Ozgener and his team, who just announced the fifth season for the West Nashville space, tucked away in the former home of the family’s former C.A.O. cigar empire. OZ’s upcoming seasonincludes major names like Renee Flemming and Bassem Youssef, whom you may know as Egypt’s equivalent to Jon Stewart.

But the space will also host more unusual performances, like dance group STREB Extreme Action, known for acrobatic and unusual choreography, as well as a multimedia documentary, complete with live performance, taped interviews and more, called “Wilderness.”

That focus on a wide variety of programming, much of it with interactive, innovative components, is key to the center’s focus on “brave new art.” But the genre-bending programming can pose a challenge for audience-building, Ozgener said, because you have to determine what type of program would most enthrall a potential supporter or audience member.

OZ is a nonprofit and uses fundraising to bolster its finances, a necessity given the high cost of bringing in the quality of artists the center wants to feature, Ozgener said. Tax documents available through Guidestar show about a 24 percent increase in performance revenue (from $179,000 to $222,000) and a 3 percent increase in revenue from contributions and grants (from $1.96 million to $2.03 million) from 2014 to 2015, the most recent years with forms available online, along with a 5 percent increase in total revenue (from $2.14 million to $2.25 million) over that time period.

Cultivating donors and sponsors is important to the center’s longevity, Ozgener said, because while he and his family “planted the seed money for it,” their ultimate hope “is that the community can support it.”

Ozgener is high on OZ’s potential to play an increasingly vital role as Nashville grows and changes, bringing an artistic option more commonly found in bigger cities, while also offering an opportunity to engage with a new, different and – potentially – transformative type of art.

“People in this area may not understand what this is [at first], but you’ve just got to invite them to come,” Ozgener said. “When you come over here and you see something, the impact is really great.”

Eleanor Kennedy covers Music City’s tourism, hospitality and music business industries.