enlarge Suzi Piker/Staff Writer

Dancers hang from an excavator Aug. 7 during rehearsal for “Q2: Habitat,” a work in progress presented by Opera House Arts at Settlement Quarry in Stonington. Opera House Arts spends anywhere from 7 percent to 20 percent of its budget a year on new work.

enlarge Suzi Piker/Staff Writer

Mark Kindschi attaches bamboo quills to a porcupine puppet that he built for “Q2: Habitat,” a dance piece commissioned by Opera House Arts at the Stonington Opera House.

enlarge Suzi Piker/Staff Writer

This century-old building houses Opera House Arts, which used private funding from one family as well as ticket sales and foundation funding to pay for “Q2: Habitat.”

STONINGTON — In each year of its 10-year existence, Opera House Arts at the Stonington Opera House has commissioned artists to create a new piece of theater, dance or music.

Those efforts come at great expense and with considerable risk to the long-term viability of the community arts organization, which operates in the century-old shingled opera house at the tip of Deer Isle. In any given year, somewhere between 7 percent and 20 percent of Opera House Arts' $480,000 annual budget goes toward new work.

Life would be a lot easier if the nonprofit arts group simply hired actors, dancers, singers and musicians to perform existing material.

But Linda Nelson, executive director, thinks that would be copping out.

"We're part of the economy down here, and we're actually producing something," Nelson said.

"It's really not that much different than a manufacturer. We're producing something that people can consume and enjoy, while also pumping an estimated $1 million a year into our local economy. In doing so, we are creating work that supports Maine artists and strengthens Maine's communities."

In the current economic climate, arts groups like Opera House Arts are finding it harder to create, produce and present new work. Many worry about their ability to continue doing so, but they fear shortchanging their mission if they pull back.

Nearly all of the new performance pieces that end up on Maine stages are paid for privately, through gifts from individuals or grants from private foundations. State funding, in the form of grants from the Maine Arts Commission, is limited, and the competition for federal dollars is fierce.

Opera House Arts, with its aggressive production schedule, is among the most active presenters of new work in Maine, though it is not alone. In Maine's largest city, Portland Stage Company, the Portland Symphony Orchestra and Portland Ballet routinely create and encourage new work, as does the Penobscot Theatre Company in Bangor.

Across the state, the landscape is populated with other arts and community groups and individual artists making similar efforts on smaller scales.

"If nobody dares, we've not moved the art form forward at all at a time when it's critical to move forward," said Eugenia O'Brien, artistic director for Portland Ballet, which just wrapped up two evenings of its annual "Portland Dances!" new work showcase at John Ford Theater at Portland High School.

"That's the reason for the horrible mantra, 'The show must go on.' It's sort of like having a huge dog in the apartment in the city. You've got to let him run. Well, you also have to let artists create. That's what feeds their soul," O'Brien said.

DANCERS, COMMUNITY COLLABORATE

At Portland Ballet, O'Brien estimates it costs between $10,000 and $20,000 to produce "Portland Dances!" She pays for the program through whatever grant money she can tap, as well as individual underwriters and ticket sales.

In this year's program, 19 choreographers presented new dance works.

Up the coast in Stonington, Nelson said her group will spend more than $35,000, or roughly 7 percent, of Opera House Arts' $480,000 budget on new work this year. In 2010, Opera House Arts will commit $105,000 on new work, or 21 percent of its budget.

This summer, Opera House Arts commissioned two pieces: the second installment of its ongoing quarry dance project; and this Wednesday, a concert-version adaptation of Robert McCloskey's classic Down East tale "Burt Dow, Deep Water Man" as a children's opera.

Both are works in progress, and both will be presented as premieres next summer.

"Q2: Habitat," staged as a preview Aug. 7-9 at the Settlement Quarry in Stonington, follows "Quarryography" in 2006-07.

Opera House Arts teamed with the local conservation group Island Heritage Trust to hire Maine artists Alison Chase, Mia Kanazawa and Nigel...