Happy dance: Nick Stuccio digs his new digs.

A fine art

The Live Arts Festival found the money — without losing its mission

Nick Stuccio makes his way past a massive rented air conditioning unit to proudly show off the toilet he helped install. Like a new homeowner, the producing director of the Live Arts Festival gives nearly every visitor “the grand tour” when they enter the fest’s new digs at Fifth and Poplar streets. The industrial building came with a massive loading dock area that was converted into a performance space and will host New Paradise Laboratories’ latest, “Fatebook,” this year.

That doesn’t come cheap, even when you’re doing a lot of the work yourself, which brings us to the teeny-weeny tweak in this year’s banner: “PNC Arts Alive Presents the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival.”

“You’re thinking that, in a way, it’s like a sellout,” says Stuccio, who co-founded Philly’s two-week celebration of alternative theater and dance in 1997. “But nothing’s changing. If I branded their name on my forehead, I’m still going to present wacky, cool sh-t.”

In launching “Arts Alive” — a program that will give $5 million over the next five years to local arts organizations — PNC was looking for “unique branding opportunities,” according to a company spokesperson. And for $40,000 to use toward this year, Live Arts was happy to oblige.

Even so, this year more than ever, Stuccio must closely examine the revenue each show can create in order to stabilize his roughly $1.7 million  budget — meaning tickets to local favorites Kate Watson-Wallace’s “Store,” Brian Saunders’ “Junk,” and Pig Iron’s “Welcome to Yuba City” will all be $25 to $30 per show. And, unlike previous years, there are no free performances.

“Some may look at [the sponsorship] and say, ‘that’s bullsh-t,’” says Stuccio. “And when I was 26 years old, I probably would have said the same thing. But let them change jobs with me. Because if they can find a way to raise this money, I’d be happy to let them do it.”