Another local arts group is beset with financial worries. Last week, the 11-member Pacific Baroque Orchestra sent out a letter to supporters asking for help in combating a potential $80,000 deficit on its $300,000 annual budget this year.

The group has been hit with a series of blows: in 2007, both its artistic director, Marc Destrubé, and its general manager, Tom Durrie, resigned. Nancy Powell, its new general manager, only joined in July 2008, so its season brochure was not sent out until the end of August. According to Powell, that left just one month to sell subscriptions before the first concert. With an as-yet-unnamed artistic director waiting in the wings to be hired, the economic downturn has only compounded the group’s difficulties.

“We had anticipated getting corporate sponsorships”¦and we just got nothing,” said Powell.

Powell said she needs to raise $70,000 to avoid going into debt, and is in talks with musicians to renegotiate their fees. So far, she said, the Canada Council for the Arts has agreed to help by hiring a consultant to help the organization; the B.C. Arts Council is reviewing its case; and she has requested an increase in funding from the City of Vancouver’s operating grants, which will be announced in January, from $19,500 to $30,000.