Compounding the problem is the fact that the arts don’t follow market principles—creative innovation rarely makes productions cheaper. Staging an opera is an old-fashioned way to lose money, and in tough times, ambitions are ratcheted back. For their part, audiences forgo subscriptions, buying tickets a performance at a time, which raises the stakes—and the costs—of marketing. It’s a vicious cycle.
Guerilla Action NAILS NYC’s David Koch Theater During Red Carpet Event
As an arts administrator, this whole thing makes me cringe, as I feel for the many people of the New York City Ballet who planned the fundraising gala event that night that was crashed. The thing is, nonprofit arts organizations need donors to stay afloat, and guys like this have money that they are willing to give. It raises the question, should arts organizations say no to donations from controversial figures? Two weeks ago I might have chosen Osama Bin Laden as an example—if he wanted to donate oodles of cash for a new hall, my guess is that the only reason an organization might say no is because it would be difficult to then sell tickets to the “Osama Bin Laden Theater”.
Regardless of how terrible this guy might be considered, I do appreciate that he decided to donate a lot of money to support the arts, so everyone, including the people in Guerilla Action, has access to world-class ballet and opera. It’s hard enough to sell ballet these days without adding this to the mix.
Maybe I’m missing the point…Guerilla Action’s stunt did result in a lot of exposure for their project, which seems to tell an important story. I just wish it hadn’t come at the expense of others who have nothing to do with Mr. Koch.
AM/PM (click for larger)
It’s pretty wild to walk two steps out of the movie Black Swan and be in front of the NYC Ballet. I love my neighborhood.
Susan and I had a picnic at the movies this morning, with a first course of chocolate banana toast & orange juice followed by a second course of seaweed & cayenne popcorn and ginger beer.
Susan’s face sums it up: It was an excellent movie and very upsetting, but didn’t leave us with much to ponder.
My cute sushi date last night on the Illumination Lawn.
Quick photo shoot on the way to the Performing Arts Library (that’s open until 8pm on Mondays!).
Very cool view from the Allen Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center (Columbus Circle).
Not as cool: the Dirty Projectors. Sadly, the Dave Longstreth’s attitude may have ruined them for me a bit. (It was still pretty cool, though.)
New bike racks spotted!
Another pretty view.
A perk of working late tonight at Lincoln Center: GIFing the fabulous view from my bosses’ office
The trend on thefacebook.com today seems to be looking up one’s name in Urban Dictionary and posting a result. I decided to see if my name was there, and was very surprised to see Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Ads among the results. Nothing goes better with a Birmingham booty call than Beethoven String Quartets!
Alice Tully-ing with the Beethoven cello sonatas.
