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Joffrey Ballet's win-win with Groupon is a lesson for Chicago's cultural institutions

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT

On Aug. 18, the Groupon online “deal of the day” offered discounted subscriptions to the upcoming season of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago. Within 24 hours, 2,338 people had taken the bait, the Joffrey announced the following day in a press release. To offer some perspective, the Joffrey had about 4,900 subscribers on Aug. 17. In other words, the ballet company saw a nearly 50 percent increase in its subscription base in one day. And they said subscriptions were dying. Or dead. Nonsense.

Director Says He Left Met Production in Visa Spat

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT

When the respected German director Peter Stein withdrew in July from a major production of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov at the Metropolitan Opera, blame was laid on the usual suspects: “personal reasons.” Now those reasons have become clear. Mr. Stein said he had pulled out because he felt offended by his treatment at the United States Consulate in Berlin when he applied for a work visa and by a lack of sympathy from Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, over confrontations with bureaucracy.

SAM enters 10M loan agreement with endowment fund

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT

The Seattle Art Museum will enter into a $10 million loan agreement with its endowment fund, according to a petition for declaratory relief from the King County Superior Court.

Fantastical, Collaborative Ten Days Opera

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT

A collaborative live opera, Dieci giorni (or 10 Days), by Bay Area composers Erling Wold, Lisa Scola Prosek, Martha Stoddard, and Davide Verotta, conducted by Stoddard and directed by Jim Cave. The production opens on Sept. 10 for a two-weekend run at Thick House on San Francisco’s Potrero Hill.

Arts Biz Pitches 1% Solution

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Stung by the recession, budget cuts and a drop in charitable giving, New York City's cultural institutions are launching a major campaign to convince the city to allocate 1% of its annual budget to arts funding.

Cal Performances Continues to Astound

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT

The East Bay artistic community held its collective breath when Robert Cole, longtime director of Cal Performances, announced his departure at the end of last season. The big question on everyone's mind, in the face of the economic downturn and shrinking budgets, was whether his replacement could possibly continue the international reputation for artistic excellence that Cole had achieved during his 23 years at the helm of the most comprehensive, single-location performing arts series in the United States. Judging from the organization's current season, the first designed by new Director Matías Tarnopolsky, 40, everyone can exhale. Tarnopolsky not only has managed to arrange significantly more performances than last year, but has also astounded with a host of artistic coups.

At Lincoln Center, Information Is Architecture

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT

The electronic component of the redesign of Lincoln Center includes — in addition to the words that have been adorning the risers of the new grand entrance stair on Columbus Avenue for the last few months — five screens at the back of the new bleachers facing Alice Tully Hall, scrolling text on the West 65th Street staircase to the north plaza, and 13 new vertical 4-by-8-foot L.E.D. screens, or blades, lined up along the south side of West 65th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues.

B.C. adds $7M to Arts Council budget

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT

B.C. Culture Minister Kevin Krueger has found an additional $7 million for the B.C. Arts Council. After being in the hot seat for the past three weeks over cuts to cultural funding, Krueger announced Wednesday that the province would give the council $7 million from its 2010 Sports and Arts Legacy Fund.

Fricke steps down at Washington National Opera

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT

After 18 years and a recent bout of ill-health that kept him off the Washington National Opera podium for more than a year, Heinz Fricke, the music director of WNO and the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, has announced his retirement. Henceforth, he will bear the title of Music Director Emeritus.

Utah newspaper cutting staff in half

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT

The Deseret News, Utah’s longest-publishing daily newspaper, said yesterday it will cut nearly half of its staff and consolidate breaking news operations with affiliated television and radio operations.