What would be a "Transformational Projects Action Plan" for DC's cultural ecosystem
Tomorrow the city is releasing its first Cultural Plan. (In the past, there was the independent Downtown Arts Plan produced in the 1990s, and a cultural plan for the U Street area c. 2004.)
Thursday, April 4th 2019
6pm - 7:30pm
Anacostia Playhouse
2020 Shannon Place SE
I commented voluminously on the original draft, which overall didn't impress me.
I haven't seen the new document (after comments were due at the end of February the website for the cultural plan hadn't been updated til sometime yesterday). While it did identify some important issues, the recommendations were pretty weak, with little sense of urgency.
Hopefully the final plan is better. The updated website says there are:
28 policy and 8 investment recommendationsVision plans to accomplish quantum change: Transformational Projects Action Planning. Separately, over time, I've developed an approach to master or comprehensive planning that I now call transformational projects action planning. As part of master plans, I propose setting up a key set of big projects to focus on, projects with multiplicative and scalar benefits.
These are the most recent expressions:
-- "(Big Hairy) Projects Action Plan(s) as an element of Comprehensive/Master Plans," 2017
-- "Why can't the "Bilbao Effect" be reproduced? | Bilbao as an example of Transformational Projects Action Planning," 2017
-- "Downtown Edmonton cultural facilities development as an example of "Transformational Projects Action Planning" 2018
-- "Minneapolis Super Bowl: Urban Revitalization and Transformational Projects Action Planning," 2018
The basic idea is that a master plan should include a set of big, hairy audacious projects (like "big hairy audacious goals") to spur revitalization and community improvement in a substantive way.
TPAPs should be implemented at multiple scales:
(1) city/county wide as part of a master plan;
(2) within functional elements of a master plan such as transportation, housing, or economic development; and
(3) within a specific project (e.g., how do we make this particular library or transit station or park or neighborhood "great"?).
DC has relied on federal institutions to provide its culture. My basic point about DC's cultural ecosystem is that it is severely underdeveloped, because for most of the city's history, it's relied on federal museums and nationally-focused cultural institutions to "do its culture for it."
This is a problem because those institutions mostly present arts produced "somewhere else" and they focus on presentation as opposed to "production now."
How to build a local arts ecosystem: focus on creating a network or system rather than one-off and temporary endeavors. I wrote about this in 2015 in "Building the arts and culture ecosystem in DC: Part One, sustained efforts vs. one-off or short term initiatives":
Creating an integrated ecosystem of arts and cultural organizations. The paper reads well enough six years later, but I realize that I neglected to make clear a basic point that is unmentioned, which undergirds this argument (and virtually everything else I write).
That is the necessity of a networked system, in this case comprised of arts and cultural organizations, supporting the development and maintenance of the local cultural sector.
I take thinking in terms of systems and structures and processes for granted, but maybe it is too subtle for others to see.
Temporary efforts don't contribute to the long term. So much of what happens in DC's local arts scene is ephemeral and isn't well focused on building a stronger and greater whole.
One example is Artomatic. I think Artomatic--[deleted]--is really cool. It's a big extravanganza featuring hundreds of artists, performances, and talks in a "temporary space," and lasts for about six weeks.
But based on my focus on structural and social change and empowered civic participation, and adding to that the more academic perspectives of the Growth Machine (sociology) and Urban Regime (political science) theories about how cities work politically, I argue in favor of a focus on "sustained efforts" aiming to achieve significant outcomes.
Applied to arts and culture the aim should be creating an integrated framework of cultural institutions (aping the idea of the integrated public realm framework that I write about frequently in a variety of contexts).
Therefore my criticism is that the city's cultural sector isn't well developed, isn't focused on the long term and sustainability, and the focus on events--like Artomatic or "Art all Night" or "temporariums"--rather than on institutions and organizations, while neat, doesn't contribute substantively to the creation of a healthy arts ecosystem.
Thinking about the forthcoming Cultural Plan, I decided to put forward a list of transformational projects that would combine to build a sustainable and hopefully thriving local cultural ecosystem separate from but complementing and extending the federal/national cultural ecosystem.
The basic idea is that the cultural ecosystem needs anchoring institutions as laid out in "Reprinting with a slight update, 'Arts, culture districts and revitalization'," first published in 2009.
While I updated that piece earlier this year by adding an arts-focused real estate development entity to buy, develop, and hold cultural property, I didn't also add the mention of the need for anchoring events as a complement to anchor institutions ("Events and programming in a systematic manner" and "Events as drivers of activity for commercial districts: Holiday edition," 2018).
The typology of types of arts-related spaces and facilities comes from the Creative City Network of Canada publication Cultural Infrastructure: An Integral Component of Canadian Communities:
1. Multi-use hubs
2. Incubators
3. Multi-sector convergence projects
4. Artist live-work complexes
5. Creative production habitats
6. Integrated community projects.
and necessary elements of arts districts (although now I think more about broader ranged "creative quarters") from John Montgomery's paper "Cultural Quarters as Mechanisms for Urban Regeneration. Part 1: Conceptualising Cultural Quarters":
Characteristics of cultural quarters (from Montgomery [2003] -- slightly revised and reordered)
1. Cultural venues at a variety of scales, including small and medium.
2. Availability of workspaces for artists and low-cost cultural producers.
3. Small-firm economic development in the cultural sectors.
4. Managed workspaces for office and studio users.
5. Location of arts development agencies and companies.
6. Arts and media training and education.
7. Art in the environment.
8. Community arts development initiatives.
9. Stable arts funding.
10. Identity, image development, branding and marketing support
11. Complementary day-time uses.
12. Complementary evening uses.
Although, even coming with a list of cultural initiatives using the TPAP concept, it's probably too late.
The opportunity to do this kind of development is best realized when land and buildings are comparatively cheap. DC's land and buildings are expensive, even in 2009 when I wrote the foundational piece.
It's that much harder to accomplish in 2019, when land and building costs are even higher.
But it did work in challenging real estate environments in Toronto and Edmonton, so maybe I should be hopeful.
Anchoring institutions
1. The city needs a local fine arts museum to anchor a local arts ecosystem focused on arts production as opposed to arts presentation.
There was a major lost opportunity for the city to take over the Corcoran Gallery of Art to serve in this role, instead that institution was dissolved (see the discussion within "Should community culture master plans include elements on higher education arts programs?," 2016 and "When BTMFBA isn't enough: keeping civic assets public through cy pres review," 2016).
2. The city needs a local history museum but probably functioning at the regional scale ("Cultural resources planning in DC: In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king," 2007).
It happens that the failure of the City Museum in 2003 was one of the threads that spurred my interest in cultural planning.
(There should also be a transportation and tourism history museum at Union Station. I made recommendations about this in the DC State Rail Plan (blog entry). Passaic County, New Jersey has an element in their transportation plan acknowledging the opportunity with transportation infrastructure as an element of cultural heritage interpretation and tourism.)
3. Create a top notch (independent) arts and design college, comparable to Parsons School of Design in New York City, Otis in Los Angeles, CalArts in Pasadena, the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Central St. Martins in London, Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, etc. ("Should community culture master plans include elements on higher education arts programs?," 2016 ).
What I would recommend is that GWU, which amalgamated the Corcoran College of Art and Design, transfer the school to the University of the District of Columbia, which should then expand and extend the program, especially in design.
Academic programs to add include social practice and an arts-focused planning degree.
4. The city needs to support the development of discipline-specific anchors. There are myriads of examples like the School 33 Art Center and Baltimore Clayworks programs in Baltimore, the Writing Center in Bethesda, Podcast Garage in Boston, the Washington Glass School which was displaced from DC to Prince George's County, the Sculpture Center in New York City, Symphony Space in New York City, BRIC House in Brooklyn, Creative Alliance in Baltimore, FACT | Foundation for Art and Creative Technology in Liverpool, artetc.
5. And the creation of a large multi-faceted arts center that goes beyond specific disciplines. Models include LaFriche in Marseille, GoggleWorks in Reading, Pennsylvania, City of the Book in Aix-en-Province, Cablefactory in Helsinki, the Bergamot Arts Center in Santa Monica, Chicago Cultural Center, Evergreen Brick Works in Toronto, Bluecoat Centre for the Creative Arts in Liverpool, etc.
-- Design Handbook for Cultural Centres, Trans-Europe Halles
-- Managing Independent Cultural Centres: A Reference Manual, Trans-Europe Halles
For profit real estate driven initiatives include the new Shed at Hudson Yards in New York ("New York Chased the Olympics. It Got the Shed Instead" and "How the Shed Can Live Up to Its Hype: Focus on the Artists," New York Times), and less valorized efforts by the Daniels Corporation in Toronto ("A massive arts complex is now open on Toronto's waterfront," NOW Toronto).
6. City libraries should be reconceptualized as library-culture centers ("Update: Neighborhood libraries as nodes in a neighborhood and city-wide network of cultural assets," revised 2019).
The foremost examples are discussed in the cited piece but include Montreal, where many of the branch libraries have cultural centers, special media collections and facilities, and Salt Lake City, where the central library includes space for a local NPR station, the writing support program of the community college, exhibit spaces, an art gallery, a public auditorium for presentations and film screenings, etc.
7. School facilities should also be reconceptualized in part to support broader cultural functions, and elementary schools should adopt specific arts foci and languages.
When I was involved in H Street Main Street, one of my committee members made the point that if H Street were to become an arts district, why should that be limited to H Street, how could this be extended beyond the corridor and into the community? My response to that challenge was twofold:
(1) to recommend that certain city-owned properties that were unused to be converted to arts spaces like the Washington Glass School (today one of those buildings is still empty, 16 years later, and the other two were converted to housing);
(2) add an arts and international language focus to each of the area's elementary schools, and include an artists in residence program as part of the initiative (JO Wilson School already had a focus on French language teaching), programming, ideally involvement with relevant embassies and international cultural institutions based in the city, etc.
This extends that concept in a systematic way, to a community's entire set of elementary schools.
8. Create an art gallery complex. The Belgo Building in Montreal ("Inside The Belgo Building, a Hidden Hotspot for Contemporary Art in Downtown Montreal," Untapped Cities) and the Bergamot Arts Center in Santa Monica are the foremost examples. For various reasons, it's hard to make a go of galleries, so provide a facility to do it.
9. Support the development and maintenance of arts-based retail ("Cultural plans should have an element on culture-related retail," 2018).
Cultural Infrastructure and Planning
10. Create an arts-focused community development corporation to buy, hold, and develop cultural facilities and spaces at the city-wide scale, modeled after the Playhouse Square Development Corporation and the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust ("The Howard and Lincoln Theatres: run them like the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust/Playhouse Square Cleveland model," 2012 ) and the Paris-based SEMAEST ("BTMFBA: the best way to ward off artist or retail displacement is to buy the building," 2016).
Also see:
-- "Dateline Los Angeles: BTMFBA & Transformational Projects Action Planning & arts-related community development corporations as an implementation mechanism to own property" 2018
-- "BTMFBA revisited: nonprofits and facilities planning and acquisition," 2016
11. It should probably also be the same CDC to buy, hold, and develop artist housing, because the city is small enough that it might not be able to cost effectively sustain a separate organization. Jubilee Housing of Baltimore is a model for such a program.
12. The city should formalize and make public capital financing planning processes for cultural facilities. The Kresge Foundation process is one model. Currently the system is ad hoc.
13. The city should create a program that provides regular operating support to arts organizations. Models include New York City and Denver. The DC Commission on Arts and Humanities does do some of this already, but ironically on the eve of the introduction of the Cultural Plan, the Mayor has proposed changes that won't necessarily improve outcomes ("D.C.'s Arts Commission Faces Major Changes in Council Shift, Mayor's Budget," Washington City Paper).
14. The city should acknowledge the built environment as a key element of the city's identity, in particular historic architecture and urban design. This is Item #3 in "40th anniversary of the local historic preservation law in DC as an opportunity for assessment," 2019:
Treat the entire city as a "heritage area" from the standpoint of the design management of the built environment, using the concept of the cultural landscape, so that all buildings would have some basic design review and demolition protections, regardless of whether or not they are listed either individually or as part of an existing historic district.15. There should be specific cultural master plan elements specific to artistic disciplines. And the Parks and Recreation Master Plan should be expanded and released ("Lies, damn lies, and statistics: parks edition," 2016).
Otherwise, so many buildings and neighborhoods are unprotected now, and likelihood of protection is slim, e.g., our 1929 bungalow is quite intact, but there is no chance our neighborhood would ever become a historic district, or that a typical building of its type (e.g., bungalow, Craftsman style rowhouse, Italianate frame or rowhouse, Queen Anne rowhouse, etc.) would be able to be designated individually as opposed to being a contributing structure in a neighborhood historic district, except in exceptional circumstances.
In the US, there are two types of heritage areas, either state or federally designated. I am not arguing that we need to create a formal heritage area in DC. Rather we can use that framework, that is thinking about the city in its entirety as a cultural landscape, for managing the city's built environment.
Locally, Maryland has a system of state heritage areas, although they have limited additional protections concerning designation and protection and are more focused on tourism development.
For example, on music:
-- "Leveraging music for cultural and economic development: part one, opera," 2017
-- "Leveraging music as cultural heritage for economic development: part two, popular music," 2017
-- "Under threat: Austin's music industry as an element of the city's cultural ecosystem and economy," 2016
-- "Culture planning and radio: local music, local content vs. delivery nodes for a national network," 2019
16. With sub-plans for neighborhoods/sub-districts of the city. The Ward Heritage Guides produced by the DC Historic Preservation Office are a good model.
17. There should be an arts fundraising organization comparable to the Cincinnati ArtsWave organization, or wide-scale property tax funding programs like the Allegheny County Regional Assets District or the Denver area Scientific and Cultural Facilities District ("Funding arts and culture: ArtsWave, Cincinnati," 2018).
And more of the city's tourism tax revenue stream (taxes on restaurant meals, hotel stays, rental cars) should be directed to the support of cultural activities, including sub-city efforts (see item #21).
18. The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities should be reorganized and charged to act as the city's primary cultural planning and implementation agency, modeled after the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts, and the Brooklyn Resource and Information Center (BRIC).
Those organizations own and manage facilities, provide funding to organizations, and sponsor anchor events such as the Celebrate Brooklyn Festival, Artscape and the Baltimore Book Festival, etc. (They don't own every cultural facility, they own some.)
The Mayor has proposed creating a Department of Arts and Humanities in the place of the DCCAH, but it isn't clear that the proposal would be an improvement ("D.C.'s Arts Commission Faces Major Changes in Council Shift, Mayor's Budget," Washington City Paper).
19. Address the night time as a daypart and design product for cultural planning purposes ("Night time as a daypart and a design product," 2017; "The Vision Thing and DC's Night Mayor appointment," 2018).
20. There should be a capacity building programming initiative for arts organizations, artists, and community organizations. (It should be easier for people to learn all the stuff I've learned over the years...)
21. Provide marketing, organization, and financial assistance to district focused sub-city cultural development efforts. Districts like Anacostia ("How to build an arts district," Washington City Paper), Capitol Hill, Downtown, Dupont Circle, and Georgetown have a variety of cultural organizations and programming, but with the exception of the Dupont-Kalorama Museums Consortium, there are limited efforts to coordinate activities. Support and convening assistance from the city's cultural agency and Destination DC should be directed to such activities.
This could include support for the development of "neighborhood" arts and design districts, using the model of Indianapolis, which has a program for designating local arts districts ("'Create Indy' initiative gives money to cultural districts, artists," Indianapolis Star; "East 10th Street pursues status as arts district; some neighbors brace for change," Indianapolis Business Journal).
-- Resources for Aspiring Arts Districts, Indiana Arts Commission
Separately, neighborhood-scale arts districts in Baltimore (Station North, Highlandtown, Westside), the Penn Avenue Arts Initiative in Pittsburgh, and the Gordon Square Arts District in Cleveland impress me.
Events and programming
This list isn't meant to be exhaustive, but these particular items are important. + film festivals, design festivals, author festivals (the big one in DC is "national," produced by the Library of Congress), etc. Move away from Art all Night or reorganize it ("This Friday: DC's Art All Night Event | Once again, too much of a good thing," 2018)
22. Create an annual city-wide "Doors Open" event for DC's local cultural institutions.
"Doors Open" events were pioneered in Europe, and are when a community's culture organizations band together to provide a coordinated schedule of events, usually over a weekend, where people get free access to various cultural sites and events, many of which are not normally open to the public.
In North America, Doors Open Toronto is probably the biggest. The Toronto Star even publishes an event guide. (2011 Doors Open Toronto Guide)
But Open House New York Weekend is increasingly a big deal. Pittsburgh created one, Doors Open Pittsburgh.
In DC the Dupont-Kalorama Museums Consortium has had a district-specific Doors Open event for many years, as do the art galleries on Upper Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown, but including the participation of AU's Katzen Center for the Arts and the Kreeger Museum. It's not exactly the same, but Georgetown Glow, an outdoor sculpture walk in December and January is growing into a great event.
Let's do this for the whole city.
(I meant to write about this during the government shutdown -- #DCIsOpen -- and it's still on my list.)
23. Create a biennial art fair featuring locally produced art. Big art fairs like Documenta or Art Basel focus on bringing the art of high profile artists to a particular city. In a city like Washington where the major arts institutions focus on the presentation of art produced elsewhere, I am proposing the creation of an art fair focused on art produced in the city (and region).
The model is the BRIC Biennial in Brooklyn, although because the borough is so big, each edition has focused on a sub-district of the borough. The current program focuses on South Brooklyn.
24. Create a city arts festival like Baltimore's Artscape. It runs for a weekend every July and gets more than 350,000 visitors annually. It's part art fair and part arts organizations fair, although the latter varies considerably from year to year. There is a slew of name concerts as well as big participation by MICA, which is based in the Mount Royal area, where the event is held.
25. Create a city arts and ideas festival, like the Chicago Ideas Festival, Bristol UK's Festival of Ideas, Manchester UK's FutureEverything,Illuminate Baltimore, International Festival of Arts and Ideas in New Haven, Connecticut, the Boston Innovation Festival, etc.
26. Even though they are federal institutions, figure out how to get the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian Museums, and the National Archives (maybe) open later in the spring and summer seasons. The latest these museums stay open til is 7pm. The Hirshorn does do some various late night programming.
27. Create a CityPass tourism product for local culture institutions. (This relates to my as yet unwritten #DCIsOpen post.) In other cities, you can purchase a discounted pass for a set number of days that offers access to multiple institutions for one price. Sometimes, like in San Francisco, it includes use of local transit.
Because the federal institutions are free, creating such a product hasn't been seen as necessary in DC, although the bus-based tour companies offer such passes combined with their transportation offer.There are some pass products for some DC museums that charge admission, but they are hit or miss, including the Newseum mostly, the for profit Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, and Mount Vernon Plantation in Northern Virginia, but not the Philips Collection, Hillwood, Tudor Place, Dumbarton Oaks, Kreeger Museum, GWU Museum including the Textile Museum, etc.
Like Doors Open events, this is a way to market DC's local cultural assets separately from the federal offer.
Media
Master events calendar for Takoma Park, Maryland.
28. Create a master calendar of arts events for the course of the year and publicize it. I am big now on "master calendars." Local newspapers (Post, City Paper, Washington Blade) publish such lists on a seasonal basis, but there needs to be a master list. Smaller communities do this better than DC.
DestinationDC and city cultural institutions should collaborate on the production of a common arts calendar product, communicated in various ways.
29. Reposition and relaunch city operated cable channels as a network comparable to what NYC does with "NYC Life" which has great programming, and a locally produced equivalent of CSPAN's BookTV and "American History TV" programming on weekends.
There are tons of great presentations all the time in DC. By capturing them on film they can reach broader and bigger audiences.
While WMPT distributes the Create Channel produced by a consortium of PBS stations, no local PBS channel redistributes the PBS World Channel, which is primarily documentaries, or the PBS SoCal produced LinkTV, which is distributed on Dish TV and Direct TV.
Ideally a cultural plan could advocate for the distribution of such programming locally.
30. Create broadcast studios for tv and radio at the Central Library. WGBH-TV does this in Boston ("WGBH studio and cafe to open at Boston Public Library," Boston Globe).
Separately, I've argued that public radio stations like WPFW-FM could be co-located at the Central Library, comparable to KCPW-FM in Salt Lake City.
31. Add broadcast capabilities to cultural facilities around the city including library branches and university auditoriums. This would support programming on a "DC Life" channel comparable to NYC Life and CSPAN.
BRIC has created a studio at the Coney Island branch of the Brooklyn Library system. A radio station and recording studio is located in the Montreal North cultural and community center library facility.
32. Work with public television media to improve arts media television programming ("Culture planning at the metropolitan scale should include funding for "local" documentary film makingVoting vs. civic participation | elections vs. governance,"2016--this entry includes a long section on public media news programming).
DC has access to three public television stations from Virginia, DC, and Maryland, but none offer premier arts television programming comparable to programs produced by public media in NYC and New Jersey, the "Artbound" program produced by PBS SoCal or various productions by W in Chicago. WLIW-TV has recently launched a 24-hour channel called Arts Access, serving Greater New York.
WETA provides interstitial arts programming, produces short programs about communities, and produces or televises documentaries on local topics. WMPT produces a show called "ArtWorks" and WHUT produces a show called "Artico" (Art in your community).
By contrast WMPT Maryland's locally produced "Maryland Farm and Harvest" and "Outdoors Maryland" are excellent and ought to set the bar for an arts-focused program serving the DC area (which could be shared with digital channels and even NewsChannel 8).
Another example is All the Art: the Visual Art Quarterly of St. Louis. NYArts was a magazine that charged for articles, but had great covers.
Labels: capital planning and budgeting, comprehensive planning/Master Planning, cultural planning, Transformational Projects Action Planning, urban design/placemaking
posted by Richard Layman @ 2:44 PM&Permanent Link
59 Comments:
Interesting comment by an artist in this article about public art in Greater Boston makes similar points about the Boston cultural scene not being particularly hospitable for artists, lack of work spaces, etc.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/art/2019/07/27/for-public-art-boston-area-competing-interests-and-big-questions/4CHzhKjHYVhZcmxDj0T1iN/story.html
This obituary of a Getty Institute staff member, Deborah Morrow, mentions a couple initiatives she spearheaded as grants administrator and then director of the Getty Foundation that are great models for any community.
The now titled Getty Morrow Undergraduate Internship program focuses on providing opportunities for more diverse students to intern at museums and other cultural organizations in SoCal, to broaden the demographics of staff.
The second was the Pacific Standard Time set of exhibitions which involved multiple arts institutions exhibiting around a common theme.
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2019-10-04/deborah-marrow-getty-foundation-director-dies
In the past, I've written about a Dewitt Wallace Foundation report on broadening participation in the arts, and how one of the examples was the Walker Art Gallery, which had (I am not sure it still exists) a program providing free access to low income residents.
I should have mentioned expanding access through such programs as another item in the post.
An article in the SF Chronicle mentions the various free access programs for the City arts museums (DeYoung, Fine Arts Museum). They've just expanded free Saturdays from only for SF residents to the 9 main counties in the Bay area.
But the article mentions all the various free access programs, including a museum day sponsored by California Libraries, where library card holders have preferred access, and a free access program for people with EBT cards.
https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/art-exhibits/legion-of-honor-de-young-museums-expand-free-saturdays-to-all-bay-area-residents
10/17/2019
http://discoverandgo.org/about/about.php
New president for Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Orange County/Costa Mesa, CA
https://www.ocregister.com/2019/10/19/the-segerstrom-center-for-the-arts-in-costa-mesa-announces-its-new-president
With an annual budget of $64 million in 2018-2019, the Center owns and operates the 3,000-seat Segerstrom Hall, the 1,954-seat Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, the 500-seat
multi-functional Samueli Theater, the 250-seat Judy Morr Theater and the 46,000-squarefoot Julianne and George Argyros Plaza. ...
Reitz arrives in time to generate renewed energy for big ongoing plans, such as bringing the $73 million, 53,000-square-foot Orange County Museum of Art building to the Center. It broke ground on Friday, Sept. 20 with $47 million secured so far. ...
Once the museum is finished in 2021, the campus will be complete, but the push toward diversifying programming and widening audiences will continue. Dwyer was particularly proud of how the center had made strides in “engaging all of Orange County’s diverse communities” with programs such as the first Off Center Festival in 2012.
Reitz will continue that tradition, and he will develop young audiences, striving to reach millennials and families with young children.
“A lot of the research shows you that if you don’t have a meaningful experience with the performing arts by the time you’re out of college or around that age, you’ll never attend
because you just don’t feel like it’s for you. You feel like it’s for somebody else,” he said. “It’s
critically important to get people into the theater at a young age. It will be at the top of my priority list for sure because we’re responsible now for the future audiences.”
in the events section, besides a city Doors Open, I could have suggested neighborhood scale Doors Open events. Basically, the art all night, but around the city, on a calendar.
11/8/2019
United Arts of Central Florida is a nonprofit arts support, funding, and technical assistance organization, focused on funding 60 specific organizations, and funded in part by local governments in Lake, Orange, Osceola and Seminole Counties, as well as by individuals, corporations, and institutions.
The group sponsors an arts magazine
https://unitedarts.cc/magazine/
and maintains an online calendar of events.
https://unitedarts.cc/about-us/faqs/
https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2019/11/26/d-c-s-paid-museums-retool-to-boost-attendance.html
I don't know if keeping for profit television stations should be a priority in DC's cultural plan.
Stations don't really do much in the way of local programming anymore outside of "the news", which very rarely covers arts and culture.
But likely there is an opportunity for something different.
https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/business/montgomery-county-considers-500000-grant-for-fox-station-move-to-bethesda/
11/26/2019
Baltimore's Creative Alliance, based in the old Patterson Theater in Highlandtown, and an anchor of the Highlandtown Arts District, is expanding.
https://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2019/11/26/creative-alliance-plans-to-expand-in-highlandtown.html
Classical music scene in Toronto is very successful:
https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/music/opinion/2019/12/23/surprise-years-end-finds-classical-music-and-opera-thriving-in-toronto.html
Prescott Park Arts Festival in Portsmouth, Maine, provides a wide ranging program of more than 90 events, free, with "recommended/encouraged" voluntary payment of $3-$5 for entry to specific events.
Collaboration between Austin Symphony Orchestra and a local DJ
https://www.austinchronicle.com/arts/2020-03-06/austin-symphony-orchestra-heads-bach-to-the-clubs
The program was initiated in 2018 as a new way of getting ASO out of the concert hall and connected to the contemporary music community in a way it hadn't been before. The plan was to match four DJs with four classical pieces (yes, program namesake Bach was represented) and have them create mixes inspired by the older music, then stick it in a club where the audience would get to hear four ASO musicians play each classical work live before each DJ launched into their thumping creation. What happened the first time ASO tested that concept on the street – on Dirty Sixth of all streets – the result was a packed Parish and a crowd that was equally jazzed about the Bach and the beats. With the experiment such a success, ASO said, "Let's do it again."
article about teens as curators of exhibitions.
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Arts/2020/0415/What-if-curators-were-teens-Museums-try-it?
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao opens after the pandemic shutdown.
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-06-04/coronavirus-museums-reopening-guggenheim-bilbao
various changes outlined.
equity focused arts outreach programs in Salt Lake County:
https://www.saltlakecountyarts.org/art-reach?section=overview
New Yorker has an article about the Tennessee Humanities Center and its initiative, Chapter 16, a digital media platform, promoting book reviews of books by Tennesseans, about Tennessee, and by authors presenting in Tennessee (at bookstores, on college campuses, etc.), in the face of traditional media cutbacks in publishing book reviews.
https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-tennessee-solution-to-disappearing-book-reviews
In
http://urbanplacesandspaces.blogspot.com/2019/02/an-illustration-that-it-is-possible-to.html
I've discussed how to create a nonprofit communication mechanism within digital ad networks operating in bus shelters.
NYC as part of their contract, requires public service advertising access for programs they produce, including arts-related media.
This article
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/18/arts/design/asian-american-artists-activism.html
has an image of one such "ad" in a NYC bus shelter, on discrimination against Asian Americans.
DC got some free ad slots, mostly on small billboards, but never did anything comparable as part of its contract.
Cities, when they make these contracts, need to include these elements, and it should be discussed within a cultural arts plan, the opportunities to use city contracts (beyond 1% for the arts type programs) to push the cultural agenda.
D.C. Mayor Bowser names new chairman of arts commission, which is facing accusations of cronyism and racism
By Peggy McGlone
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/dc-art-commission-new-chairman/2021/05/20/89c5b1f2-b97e-11eb-96b9-e949d5397de9_story.html
The Washington Post: The 1960s didn’t end until the ’80s. So says this art show about painting in D.C..
https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/museums/american-university-the-long-sixties-art-review/2021/06/02/e8ee7ee4-bf04-11eb-9c90-731aff7d9a0d_story.html
Enrich Chicago is nonprofit focused on developing POC leadership for the city's arts and cultural organizations.
https://www.enrichchi.org/
Enrich Chicago Featured in Chicago Magazine
“People heard ‘racism’ and thought it meant they personally were harboring racist thoughts —not that the entire art and philanthropic ecosystem was designed to reify and fund white culture, and that if we weren’t actively aware of this and working against it, then we were complicit in upholding it.” -Field President and Enrich Chicago co-founder Angelique Williams- Power.
https://www.chicagomag.com/chicago-magazine/may-2021/chicagos-arts-scene-has-a-race-problem/
NYC's funding of Latino and Puerto Rican theater reminds me that DC "should be" a center of African American theater and it isn't.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/30/theater/pregones-puerto-rican-traveling-theater-nyc.html
How Mass MOCA is building a regional arts community by undertaking various initiatives that support working artists.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/21/arts/mass-moca-artists.html
WRT #30 "Create broadcast studios for tv and radio at the Central Library."
https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/music/kexp-executive-director-to-retire-after-building-the-radio-station-into-a-global-institution/
11/9/2021
When Mara started volunteering at the station in 1987, it was still the University of Washington station KCMU, which had only a 15-mile range. But in 2000, Mara says he received a grant from the late Paul Allen for $250,000 a year (then the organization’s operating budget) for 10 years, and a $1-a-month lease at a new facility in South Lake Union. The next year, KCMU became KEXP, and the organization grew by leaps and bounds under Mara’s leadership.
In 2016, KEXP moved into its new home in Seattle Center, a community space with a record store, coffee shop and spaces where visitors could watch live sessions. Mara says he cried at the opening event for the space. It was one of his most memorable moments during his time as executive director. KEXP’s new home was an important step in Mara’s goal of connecting music lovers to artists who deserve to be heard. ...
“KEXP is the kind of station that understands nurturing artists and developing artists,” she says. “The station ends up being requested by artists. And that’s unusual.”
Even outside of his role at KEXP, Mara is an advocate for Seattle’s music scene, says Jasper. She says Mara was instrumental in developing a paid internship program to help people break into the music business, and a high school music-business career day that included stars like Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.
The planning commission for Greater Boston has an Arts and Culture section, and a number of reports, toolkits, and other resources.
https://artsandplanning.mapc.org/
3/23/2022
Q&A with Jazmyn Scott, executive director of new Seattle Black arts space Arté Noir
https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/visual-arts/qa-with-jazmyn-scott-executive-director-of-new-seattle-black-arts-space-arte-noir
7/12/2022
In a conversation late last month, Scott spoke more about her decision to join Arté Noir and her vision for the organization’s place within the Seattle community, as the nonprofit that first launched as a digital magazine in 2021 sets down roots in its new permanent location at Midtown Square at 23rd and Union. Its doors are scheduled to open sometime this fall. ...
When you were looking into taking on this job, were there any programs or initiatives that you knew you wanted to do with Arté Noir?
A huge part of our model when it comes to the retail side of things is that as we work with artists and creatives and invite them to have their products sold in our space. We’re not doing something where it’s like a consignment model. We are not looking to make money off of artists. We’re looking to put money in the hands of Black artists and for them to feel like they’re being paid what they’re worth.
So a lot of what we’re doing is paying them upfront 100% of their wholesale cost. Instead of us determining what the items are and the quantities and them giving them to us and then us taking a percentage and paying them back as items are sold, we’re determining what we want and we’re buying it up front.
So those artists don’t have to wait. They don’t have to play a guessing game about, ‘When is my stuff going to sell in this space?’ That’s our responsibility. We want these artists to know that we value what they do enough to pay them what they’re worth and not for them to feel like they’re being used. They put so much time, so much passion, so much effort into what they do, and it’s our responsibility to make sure that they’re getting everything that they’re worth. ...
Arté Noir at the Midtown Square building is a permanent home because our lease will turn into ownership by next year. It’s an example that we’re hoping to set about ownership and owning your own destiny in a community that we once did. We want to restore that feeling. Being able to be surrounded by some of the other Black businesses that are in and coming back to that community, it really — the Central District, and especially that kind of 23rd Avenue hub, is going to really be a hub for Black businesses, Black culture, Black arts.
"What would it take for Seattle to become a hotbed for playwrights?"
https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/theater/what-does-it-take-to-support-seattles-playwrights
8/4/2022
Historically, there have been a number of national programs playwrights have been able to apply for, programs that put concerted effort into supporting these creatives as they create new work — a task that is generally unpaid if, for instance, you’re sitting at home trying to write the next great stage play. For example, Yussef El Guindi, an award-winning playwright based in Seattle, cited The Lark, a 27-year-old play development program in New York City, as crucial to his progress as a playwright, enabling him to hone his craft while also forming connections to theaters across the country.
In October 2021, The Lark announced that it was closing its doors and looking to find new homes for its fellowships and artistic programs. ...
The difficulty becomes getting this new work in front of a producer or organization that wants to take the work to another city and mount another production — a necessity for a playwright to continue making money for their work beyond a world premiere of that work in Seattle. Some national programs, like the Humana Festival, used to be a destination for producers looking to find fresh new works. But for a regional world premiere, getting the attention of an out-of-town producer is trickier.
Reviews also play a role here, as El Guindi points out. The effect that the power and weight of, say, The New York Times can have on the life of a play is the reason he feels so passionately about seeing the base of theater critics in the Seattle area increase. A local effort in New York City, coupled with a review from The New York Times, can lead a playwright to national success and subsequent productions in cities around the country. Meanwhile, a dwindling critic presence in Seattle means fewer reviews, and fewer reviews means fewer chances to catch the attention of producers outside the Pacific Northwest who may read about the play.
“As difficult as it is to get a theater to take a chance on your untested play — especially one that hasn’t been blessed by New York critics, which usually ensures it a continued life elsewhere — it’s even more of a challenge to get theaters to do a second or third production,” said El Guindi. “If a theater can’t sell the play as a world premiere, or use quotes from The New York Times to attest to its quality, then it feels like theaters seem to be at a loss as to how to sell it.”
Philly’s African American Museum moving to the Ben Franklin Parkway.
https://whyy.org/articles/philadelphia-african-american-museum-ben-franklin-parkway-family-court-building/
8/11/2022
During a news conference on Thursday, officials announced the museum is relocating to the former Family Court Building at 1801 Vine Street, walking distance from Philadelphia’s “Museum Mile” along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
The museum has operated out of a space at 7th and Arch streets since opening in 1976. ...
The historic Family Court Building, a hulking beaux-arts property from the Great Depression era, takes up nearly 250,000 square feet. The African American Museum is set to occupy nearly 50,000 square feet, tripling the space it has now while putting it on par with similar museums in other big cities, including Chicago.
The new location and the additional space are also expected to grow museum attendance, which now tallies around 80,000 people a year.
“This will be a state-of-the-art blockbuster museum,” said AAMP President Ashley Jordan.
The space has yet to be designed, but is slated to include a theater, cafe, and exhibit space dedicated to telling the stories of notable Black Philadelphians, said Jordan.
The Free Library of Philadelphia, which sits right next door, will also occupy a section of the property as part of a larger redevelopment project that includes an 88,000-square-foot lot on nearby Wood Street.
The Free Library plans to open a 60,000-square-foot center for children and families, as well as a new auditorium.
Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is listed as a best practice example. The director of 20 years is retiring.
https://www.post-gazette.com/ae/theater-dance/2022/05/18/kevin-mcmahon-retire-pittsburgh-cultural-trust/stories/202205180106
Until the early 2020 shutdowns that began a two-year span with no live performances, festivals or gallery openings, the Cultural Trust had never incurred an annual operating deficit. McMahon had helped raise more than $400 million and grew the trust’s annual budget from $20 million to $85 million, placing it within the top five performing arts centers in the United States before the pandemic.
In addition to Broadway in Pittsburgh series shows like “Disney’s The Lion King” and “Hamilton,” the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust controls much of the real estate in the 14-block Cultural District and oversees umbrella services for companies that fill buildings along Liberty Avenue.
Among McMahon’s goals in his remaining months is to complete a $150 million capital campaign that has already topped $100 million. The money will go toward operations, programs and projects such as renovating the Benedum Center marquee and Greer Cabaret sound system. It will also improve what McMahon said is an underserved endowment compared to those of venerable Pittsburgh arts organizations such as the Carnegie Museums and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. ...
McMahon’s predecessor, Carol R. Brown, took on the task of building a Pittsburgh Cultural District with new and restored theaters and art galleries in an environment that would entice people not only to visit, but to live Downtown.
“While I am sad to bid Kevin farewell, I am also incredibly grateful for how far the Cultural Trust has come under his direction,” Brown said in a statement. “His commitment to the organization and the ongoing development of the Cultural District has been unwavering.” ...
McMahon is proud of the many programs and festivals he helped start, including First Night. But he is proudest of the 40-root rubber duck that pulled up along the Allegheny River in 2013.
Thousands of people lined the banks of the North Shore to catch a glimpse of the inflated yellow duck, the brainchild of Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman and the biggest hit at the Pittsburgh International Festival of Firsts, launched by McMahon. That festival and others focused on bringing in artists from around the world were part of the philosophy that the Cultural Trust has “something for everyone.”
“To this day, the incredible response from the entire community to the Festival of Firsts, where we had that big yellow duck, that showed me that if you meet people where they are, everyone actually can have an arts experience. It was something as simple and yet as beautiful as that.
“Seeing the reaction that night to that silly duck floating up the river … even to this day, I still kind of get chills thinking about how something like that could bring this community, all walks of life, together. And we did that.”
Urg.
The "events and Programming" section should have included more activation initiatives.
Public art should be in this section (the city already has some programs, but none with the verve of programs elsewhere, such as New York CIty).
The old Pittsfield Storefront Artist Project is still a model and other ways to activate vacant windows and storefronts.
https://www.iberkshires.com/story/39828/Pittsfield-s-StoreFront-Artists-Project-Closing-Shop.html
I see Chicago has revived the idea.
https://loopchicago.com/in-the-loop/chicago-loop-alliance-transforms-vacant-wabash-storefronts-through-art/
https://chicagoreader.com/arts-culture/the-storefront-project-provides-a-movable-feast-of-devised-theater/
Note that the author of Learning from Bryant Park suggests that Business Improvement Districts need to take a more active role in setting up such programs.
Times Square Arts of the Times Square Alliance BID is an example. He also mentions multifaceted arts spaces as activation devices.
http://arts.timessquarenyc.org/times-square-arts/index.aspx
There are already ephemeral public art programs like Georgetown Glow, and neighborhood based sculpture programs in Dupont Circle and Capitol Hill--if I remember correctly.
More can be done. Sculpturewalk Sioux Falls is a great example.
https://sculpturewalksiouxfalls.com/about/
Pop up programs and events. Art in public spaces like how the plaza at the Gare de Lyon train station in Paris is used for photography exhibits. Etc.
Salt Lake City has a small grant program for festivals. While the amounts don't support large events, the City Events Office also sponsors some events directly.
https://www.slc.gov/mayor/2022/11/02/mayors-office-arts-culture-and-events-fund-opens-for-2022
DC's neighborhood festivals need to be incorporated and supported better.
Getting digital art placements in various outdoor digital advertising venues (like what Times Square does), including bus shelters.
https://www.inquirer.com/entertainment/music/wxpn-black-opry-residency-concert-program-20230317.html
WXPN residency program to support Black artists who play blues, country, roots, and bluegrass
“Music labels aren’t in the artist development business anymore," said WXPN's Roger Lamay who is behind the program for Black Americana musicians.
The Black Opry Residency, funded by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, is a project that gives five musicians from around the country a chance to take part in songwriting sessions, career development workshops, and networking opportunities with big-name industry leaders.
By offering these resources, WXPN general manager and Black Opry Residency co-executive producer Roger LaMay (along with WXPN program director and Black Opry Residency co-executive producer Bruce Warren) said the aim is to broaden their audiences and magnify the voices of emerging artists.
“Music labels aren’t in the artist development business anymore,” he said. “They used to sign new artists and say, ‘OK, we’ll work with them for a few years and eventually they will be successful.’ That’s sort of going away. Our mission is to connect artists and audiences. That’s what we do — give artists more tools and exposure to move forward.”
Years ago, I suggested PBS do this with a historic theater in Alexandria, Virginia (they didn't). There is also the IFC Theater in NYC.
Hollywood’s historic Egyptian Theatre to reopen after Netflix restoration
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/07/hollywood-egyptian-theater-reopen-netflix
Hollywood’s 100-year-old Egyptian Theatre is reopening this week after a $70m renovation from Netflix, with the streaming giant planning to use the lavish location as a venue for premieres and events.
The Egyptian, which hosted Hollywood’s first-ever movie premiere in 1922, will screen classic movies on the weekends, programmed by American Cinemateque, the non-profit which previously owned the theater. During the week, it will host screenings for Netflix, which purchased the building in 2020.
The Kimmel Cultural Campus and Philadelphia Orchestra has a new overarching brand name: Ensemble Arts Philly
https://www.inquirer.com/arts/kimmel-cultural-campus-new-name-ensemble-arts-philly-20240110.html
The Kimmel Cultural Campus and the Philadelphia Orchestra — the umbrella arts organization which encompasses the orchestra, the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, the Academy of Music, and the Miller Theater — has adopted a fresh moniker to clarify the confusion around its multiple venues: Ensemble Arts Philly.
The names of its venues — which collectively produce hundreds of concerts, plays, musicals, and more each year — will stay the same.
The idea is that Ensemble Arts Philly is not a destination, it’s the organization that presents work in these spaces. While Verizon Hall patrons will still attend shows at the Kimmel Center, their tickets will now say “Ensemble Arts Philly presents…” instead of Kimmel Cultural Campus. The website, which was kimmelculturalcampus.org, will now be ensembleartsphilly.org and its social media handles will adopt @EnsembleArtsPhilly. (Visitors to the former site will be redirected to the new one.)
... This new name, the organization hopes, will help people know exactly where to go. Ticket holders often get mixed up between the venues. When large audiences flocked to Wicked and The Lion King last year, some people wound up in the atrium of the Kimmel Center (300 S. Broad St.) instead of the Academy of Music (240 S. Broad St.).
“What we realized in the year’s worth of research that we did assessing the public’s understanding was that the destination model became this stacking of brands, and that is where the friction came into play,” said Crystal Brewe, Ensemble Arts Philly’s chief marketing and audience experience officer. “It’s a set of buildings on Broad Street that is also along the Avenue of the Arts, that’s also in Center City, and it’s also on this Kimmel Cultural Campus — but what’s the campus? We just really wanted to kind of undo some of that and make the communication tighter.”
Open Doors events in Boston associated with MLK Day
1/15/2024
MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS OPEN HOUSE The MFA’s annual open house event for
Massachusetts residents includes several planned events and panels honoring the legacy of Dr. King and provides access to its “Fashioned by Sargent” exhibit. Tickets are available in person on a first-come, first-served basis. Admission is free with a valid Massachusetts ZIP
code. Monday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave. mfa.org
FREE ADMISSION TO THE ICA BOSTON Spend MLK Jr. Day exploring the Institute of
Contemporary Art and celebrate his legacy with art-making activities, a short film screening, and three exhibitions. Free advanced tickets are required and will be available to reserve beginning Sunday at 10 a.m. Free. Monday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Institute of Contemporary Art, 25 Harbor Shore Drive. icaboston.org
ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM DAY OF SERVICE This family-friendly event
dives into the legacy of MLK Jr. and Coretta Scott King and their lasting work on social justice movements and civil rights actions. Several activities led by local educators, organizers, and cultural activists will engage participants with Boston’s history of activism. Free admission. Monday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 25 Evans Way. gardnermuseum.org
MLK DAY AT THE POP CENTER Bring the kids to a play space to celebrate and learn the meaning of MLK Jr. Day. Kids of all ages can enjoy two hours of playtime and warm up at the venue’s hot chocolate bar. Help your child leave their handprint on the Wall of All Colors Mural and hear from Boston-born activist and multidisciplinary artist Danny Rivera. Up to $20 admission. Monday, 10 a.m.-noon. 1037 Chestnut St., Newton. thepopcenter.com
FREE ADMISSION TO FRANKLIN PARK ZOO AND STONE ZOO In honor of MLK Jr. Day,
the Franklin Park Zoo and the Stone Zoo will offer free admission and keep attendees engaged with zookeeper chats, animal encounters, and more. Guests are invited to share messages of hope and peace on zoo murals. Free, with last admission at 3 p.m. Monday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Franklin Park Zoo, 1 Franklin Park Road; Stone Zoo, 149 Pond St., Stoneham. zoonewengland.org
PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM MLK JR. DAY CELEBRATION The Peabody Essex Museum
in Salem is offering free admission to celebrate and explore the life and legacy of Dr. King. An art pouring event hosted by Dorchester-based artist Rahim Gray will keep guests of all ages entertained and engaged with social justice, identity, and freedom issues. Free admission. Monday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Peabody Essex Museum, 161 Essex St., Salem. pem.org
Chicago performing arts groups experiencing drop in patronage, income.
https://archive.ph/aXW6m
Chicago performing arts struggle
to win back audiences
11/27/2023
- people don't want to buy season subscriptions, just for shows they want to see
- more last minute ticket buying
- audience numbers per performance are more variable from smaller than before to larger
- some venues focusing more on presenting popular productions
- uncertainty of non ticket based donations
- larger organizations teaming with for profits especially for proven hits
- pre Broadway runs are cheaper than post
https://www.wesa.fm/arts-sports-culture/2024-01-25/pittsburgh-arts-groups-name-change
Pittsburgh arts group's name changes but mission remains
https://shiftworkspgh.org/about/
If you’ve never heard of Pittsburgh’s Office for Public Art, you’re not alone: The group, though an important part of the city’s art scene for nearly two decades, operates largely behind the scenes.
Also, be apprised that as of this month, no group of that name any longer exists. The nonprofit is now called Shiftworks Community + Public Arts. But the new label doesn’t indicate a new mission so much as it more accurately signifies what the group’s already been doing.
... The OPA was created in 2005, as a partnership of the City of Pittsburgh and the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. At first, its functions included things like providing technical assistance on public art projects. But it evolved into an advocate for what public art can be and for how it can shape our environment.
“We aim to impact not only physical landscapes and cityscapes, but also shift perspectives and expectations for what is possible when artists, communities and organizations work together,” said Kluz.
For example, when plans began to rebuild the Fern Hollow Bridge after its collapse, in January 2022, OPA approached the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation about incorporating public art into the project.
... OPA also worked with the Allegheny County Chief Executive’s office to commission a new light-based artwork for Downtown’s Three Sisters Bridges. (Designer Rob Long’s work was unveiled in November.)
OPA has also supported initiatives including Arts Excursions Unlimited, artist Edith Abeyta’s project to increase cultural connectivity for Hazelwood residents. Along with organizing cultural outings to other city neighborhoods and beyond, AEU has changed its own community by collaborating on the creation of murals in the neighborhood and even programming activities at Hazelwood Green, so that the sprawling new development on an old mill site neither overwhelms nor ignores the existing community. (One program was an overnight camp-out on the site for neighborhood kids.
In all, over the years OPA has managed more than 100 temporary and public artworks, done 75 projects for clients, and held 325 events. Other ongoing OPA programs include artist talks, lunch-and-learns, and walking (and biking and kayaking) tours of artist studios, parks, and public art in various neighborhoods.
Just as Arts Excursions became its own nonprofit in 2022, so OPA attained independent 501(c)3 status in July. It has seven full-time staffers including Kluz and a part-time research associate, and its budget of $1.36 million is funded through a mix of grants, individual donations, and earned revenue from client projects. The next time you read about a public art project around here, there’s a fair chance you’ll find “Shiftworks” in the fine print.
https://www.artsexcursionsunlimited.com/
Arts Excursions Unlimited is dedicated to increasing the cultural connectivity of the citizens of the greater Hazelwood community. The project is community-owned. AEU is facilitated by artist Edith Abeyta.
La Zona outdoor cultural space in San Antonio.
https://www.expressnews.com/entertainment/article/San-Antonio-La-Zona-event-venue-17404749.php
Boston Public School kids get free access to museums on Sundays.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/02/26/opinion/all-bostons-kids-should-be-able-enjoy-free-museum-sundays
Under the seven-month-long pilot program she announced that night all children in the Boston Public Schools — and members of their families — are eligible for free admission on
the first two Sundays of every month at the Museum of Fine Arts, the Aquarium, the Boston Children’s Museum, the Museum of Science, the Institute of Contemporary Art, and the
Franklin Park Zoo.
It’s a wonderful gift to the 46,000 or so enrolled BPS students — one an estimated 2,500 students and family members have already taken advantage of during its first month of
operations. But sadly more than 20,000 other school-age children are not eligible, a fact that has some of their families feeling left out. It would behoove this mayor who knows so well the benefits of opening new worlds for children to expand the reach of this effort to all Boston
children.
City councilors Erin Murphy and Ed Flynn have sponsored a resolution in support of expanding the program. Parents of students in charter schools, parochial schools, and some
3,000 students enrolled in the METCO program who live in Boston but attend suburban schools “pay taxes too,” Murphy said. “And we have to represent all the families in Boston.
... The new city program, scheduled to run through August, is budgeted at $1 million, including $300,000 in federal pandemic relief money designated for the arts, and the rest from a number of philanthropic organizations and donors, including the Barr Foundation, Amazon’s charitable foundation, Barbara and Amos Hostetter, and Jim and Kathy Stone.
Going to most of the city’s cultural gems is expensive, easily costing a family of four $100 or more for an outing. Sure, some offer occasional free days or times and passes for reduced price tickets are available for some at the Boston Public Library. And the Highland Street Foundation sponsors free admission days at various institutions throughout the year. But there has never been anything as sweeping as the city’s current effort, which offers admission to BPS students, up to three family members, and on Sundays when more people can take advantage of it.
“Culture institutions are public infrastructure in the same way that our roads and bridges, libraries and parks and schools are,” Wu said at the program’s official launch at the Boston Children’s Museum. “We’re here to affirm that the institutions here today whose presence and contributions make Boston an international hub of arts and culture belong to all of our residents and especially our young people.”
The kind of small organization support infrastructure group for arts as production, creativity.
A new look at the New Thing, a critical part of D.C.’s Black arts scene
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/02/28/new-thing-exhibit-american-university-museum/
Print Center, Philadelphia
https://printcenter.org/100/mission-history/
Pricing, access, new audiences, theatre.
The Guardian view on theatre pricing: an issue of cultural democracy
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/01/the-guardian-view-on-theatre-pricing-an-issue-of-cultural-democracy
Your money is no good here: Free museum day returns to Los Angeles on March 23
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-02-29/free-museum-los-angeles-march-23
More than 30 museums across Southern California will throw open their doors on March 23, and the price of admission will be free.
The SoCal Museums Free-for-All spans multiple cities and covers a gamut of artistic interests, including pop culture, cultural heritage, science and history. The offer for March 23, a Saturday, is good for general admission but does not cover parking or any special ticketed events, according to event organizers.
https://socalmuseums.org/annual-free-for-all-2024/
https://www.latimes.com/lifestyle/story/2024-02-29/at-home-galleries-find-a-new-foothold-in-los-angeles
Looking for L.A.’s art cool kids? They’re hosting exhibits in laundry rooms and garages
Quarters belongs to a new guard experimenting in the L.A. art scene by bringing exhibits in-house. Residences range from a Tudor mansion and a chateau-esque apartment to a five-car garage and a backyard cabin modeled after the Unabomber’s hideout. They’re a new spin on a nearly century-long L.A. tradition of domestic galleries that rely on word-of-mouth, neighborly trust and consummate hosts.
“When you have these residential spaces, a lot of times it’s because you want to keep the concept high and rents low,” said Danny Bowman, who started his gallery, Bozo Mag, in the revamped garage behind his rented Highland Park house. Openings tend to spill out into the patio or the emptied pool. “Instead of coming for 20 minutes, they stay for three hours,” he said.
High rents and the pandemic were an unexpected boon to the city’s DIY art and literary scene — from roguish takeovers at IKEA to guerrilla readings in parking lots — meshing cultural events that fall somewhere between a kegger and a 21st century salon. Angelenos in the art industry have been a sort of anchor to it all, with a new school intersecting the Venn diagram of curators and patrons, artist-run commercial spaces and art-fair cool kids. Residential galleries also are defined by what they’re not: design showrooms, permanent exhibits, private collections or endowed artist shrines. Still, they’re hard to track — either because they pop up like Whac-a-Mole or remain underground for practical reasons.
In L.A., where most residences are zoned “single family,” home-based businesses like these technically have a limit on visitors (one per hour) and operating hours (8 a.m. to 8 p.m.). “It’s a decidedly gray area in terms of zoning,” said Sam Parker on his namesake gallery in a rented five-bedroom Storybook home in Los Feliz. Since 2017, Parker’s openings have posed a parking dilemma for his neighbors on the winding hillside. “There comes a very real anxiety with how long we can we keep this up and get away with this until it’s a larger problem,” Parker said.
Be it sprawl or architecture, light or climate, L.A. plays a lead role in hosting experimental spaces beyond the white-cube model. These DIY concepts, from pools to the L.A. River, are “crucial to the art scene in Los Angeles” that began in the 1970s, said Christine Messineo, director of Frieze L.A. and Frieze New York. The influx of moneyed and blue-chip galleries over the last decade has the city competing with top art hubs like New York, Berlin and London.
Why so many L.A. creatives meet up at a secret, underground spot: Ikea
https://www.latimes.com/lifestyle/story/2023-10-26/los-angeles-creatives-meet-up-at-ikea-residency
Genius Ikea hacks aren’t just for the products. Showrooms across the globe play host to first dates, birthday parties, epic games, disco naps and an eye-rolling number of pranks. But at Ikea Burbank, the mega-chain’s largest store in the nation, an underground crew is at work on a new scheme for the prefab utopia: artist’s haven.
Testing the boundaries of the three-story, 22-acre site is Ikea Residency, an unofficial (and unsanctioned) collective of artists, writers and makers in Los Angeles. The DIY set belongs to a growing creative scene remaking the disappearing “third space” — neither home nor work but somewhere in between — in their own image. They’re hungry for collaboration, creative breakthroughs and, sure, maybe some meatballs.
The first cohort of guerrilla artists descended on Burbank in July. One piece by Thomas Macie is still there today: pennies hammered into warehouse shelving units as a Donald Judd-style permanent installation at Ikea. Macie and his resident partner, Sophie Lynn Morris, also made Måla modeling dough casts of the fissures found on display furniture and crayon rubbings off the splintering cement floor. The idea, Blair-Schlagenhauf points out, is to “literally show the cracks in the Ikea façade.”
With complimentary child care, Wi-Fi and coffee (as long as you join the free Ikea Family program), Burbank’s big blue box dovetails with most co-working spaces. Walk into the sunlit, 600-seat cafeteria and you’re guaranteed to spot those Angeleno archetypes — digital nomads, content creators and the underemployed — using it as a low-key place to get stuff done.
L.A.’s guerrilla readings are invading parking lots and cemeteries
https://www.latimes.com/lifestyle/story/2023-05-16/los-angeles-pop-up-literary-readings-parking-lots-cemeteries
L.A.’s myths are more cinematic than bookish, but Johnson is part of a creative underclass revising the L.A. literary scene writ large. Forged in urban sprawl and COVID-19, guerrilla readings pop up in unexpected spots like vacant spaces, living rooms and rooftops, adding a DIY frisson to nightlife. These free events and their offshoots are happening nearly every night of the week — and sometimes they inspire attendees to start their own.
Before the pandemic, Sammy Loren struggled to find a social component to his writing. “I was always envious of the way in which the art world had this built-in social life,” he said. He’d go to readings at legacy bookshops and his eyes would roll back in his head, and then everyone would disappear right after.
While living in Mexico City, he fell in with a thriving literary circuit divorced from cultural establishments, where poetry groups held court on street corners and in back alleys. Loren returned to L.A. in 2021 and hosted an ersatz dinner-party salon that spun off into Casual Encountersz, “readings of rage and romance” at his house, or anywhere really. “I always try to introduce myself to everyone that comes,” he said. The 38-year-old seized a rhythm between the “manic Gen Z voices” and his “geriatric millennial peers,” like the night he paired Jasmine Johnson’s stream-of-consciousness drug confessions with Jeffrey Deitch gallery director Melahn Frierson’s college diary sexcapades.
A parallel plot is playing out between small businesses and indie presses. Last month, the Dry River zine from Gen-Z-run Crybaby Press threw a release party and reading at the Chinatown wine bar Cafe Triste, while the Quarterless Review, a risograph-printed lit magazine from Tiding House, co-hosted a poetry-meets-comedy variety show in Night Gallery’s courtyard with the Erogenous Zone.
Bookstores and cafes work best with this kind of cross-promotion, particularly ones that operate as both. Stories Books & Cafe in Echo Park has always baked events into its business model, especially to attract evening customers, said co-founder Claudia Colodro. Book sales perk up depending on the author and audience, she said, but the cafe enjoys the lion’s share with coffee, beer and wine sales.
Colodro said event nights on their patio have flourished post-pandemic, thanks to events coordinator Chris Molnar, who’s also publisher of Archway Editions, the literary imprint of powerHouse Books (distributed by Simon & Schuster). Archway’s online editor, Caitlin Forst, based her reading residency NDA on the autofiction anthology she edited last year and has brought out marquee authors like Ottessa Moshfegh, Chris Kraus and Jonathan Ames. Molnar and Forst both moved here from New York in 2021, eager to mine the “untapped reserve” of young and “unpublishable” writers in L.A.
A Concise Guide to LA’s Outdoor Art Spaces, from a Pool to a Garage
https://hyperallergic.com/456823/los-angeles-outdoor-art-spaces/
8/22/18
https://artandcakela.com/2023/08/30/in-the-trenches-artists-encounter-the-los-angeles-river-part-1/
In the Trenches: Artists Encounter the Los Angeles River, Part 1
https://www.getty.edu/projects/pacific-standard-time-2024/
PST ART: Art & Science Collide
A landmark regional event that explores the intersections of art and science, both past and present
PST ART: Art & Science Collide will create opportunities for civic dialogue around some of the most urgent problems of our time by exploring past and present connections between art and science in a series of exhibitions, public programs, and other resources. Project topics range from climate change and environmental justice to the future of artificial intelligence and alternative medicine.
Grants to over 45 organizations are supporting research and implementation of a wide variety of projects promoting dialogue around pressing issues. These projects include:
Exhibitions and public programs throughout Southern California, including at the Getty Center
Publications containing new research on the intersections of art and science
Educational resources for K–12 students and teachers in L.A. County
The initiative will also yield a report on the intellectual and economic impact of all program activities as a whole.
https://www.nj.com/hudson/2024/03/night-of-ideas-brings-a-touch-of-french-social-culture-to-jersey-city.html
Night of Ideas brings a touch of French social culture to Jersey City
Imagine it’s a winter night at a cafe near the Sorbonne in Paris. A large table crowded with students, artists and professors energetically debate city life over glasses of Bordeaux with a cloud of Gauloises cigarette smoke spreading around.
That was the spirit Jersey City sought to emulate Friday evening at the Night of Ideas, an evening of discussion and arts. It was the first event organized locally by Centre Pompidou, the iconic Paris museum that’s building an American branch in Journal Square, and Villa Albertine, a cultural outreach program of the French government.
About 100 attendees, mostly students and local residents, came to Hudson County Community College’s Gabert Library on Friday for conversations, exhibits and performances built around an urban theme: How do we build and how do we live in cities today?
'Dinner and learning': The Leonardo launches club for patrons of the arts
https://www.ksl.com/article/50935549/dinner-and-learning-the-leonardo-launches-club-for-patrons-of-the-arts
3/2/24
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/jun/27/met-museum-kids-art-public-schools-new-york
‘It’s just magical’: the Met celebrates New York public school artwork
lison Scott-Williams, the president of Studio in a School NYC, was telling me about the difficult task of choosing the very best art from the over 1,200 pieces submitted this year for the PS Art program. Now in its 21st year, PS Art is an annual showing of the best of the best artwork made by K-12 students in New York City public schools, exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As Scott-Williams shared with me, whittling down those 1,200-plus submissions to the 122 on display was daunting work, but worth it. “It’s a gift to be able to support young people in this way,” she said.
Partnering with communities in 10 different states, Studio in a School works with numerous institutions around New York, including the Brooklyn Museum and the Studio Museum in Harlem. The organization was founded in 1977, in response to budget cuts that all but eliminated the arts from NYC public schools, and Studio in a School now offers programming from pre-K populations up through high-schoolers. As Scott-Williams put it, “we serve underrepresented children in underresourced neighborhoods.” This means providing opportunities to take part in the arts for children who may not get enough art curriculum – if any at all – from the schools where they learn.
Austin theater company works to preserve Latin American culture
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/austin-theater-company-works-to-preserve-latin-american-culture
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/08/arts/design/los-angeles-art-galleries.html
How Galleries Off the Beaten Path Are Diversifying L.A.’s Art Scene
Residency, Band of Vices and Charlie James are among the smaller galleries bringing young Black and Latino artists to the attention of collectors and curators.
Such dealers see their role as helping to build a new collector base, to introduce a wider public to art as both an aesthetic pleasure and a financial investment. The galleries offer educational programming and payment plans.
“I didn’t see myself as a collector,” said Rita Morales, an entertainment executive. “But Band of Vices treated me as one, so I started to feel like one.”
Philadelphia’s growing number of listening rooms and record bars is music to vinyl lovers’ ears
https://www.inquirer.com/arts/48-record-bar-listening-room-vinyl-20240307.html
The listening bar concept has been making its way around the world. It arrived in Philly in 2022 with the Listening Room, a speakeasy-like back room space at Stephen Starr’s restaurant, LMNO on the border between Kensington and Fishtown.
48 Record Bar opened in December after a long gestation period. Sweeney, a musician and creator of the blog Philebrity began kicking ideas around six years ago with Donal McCoy, who co-owns Sassafras and formerly the Tin Angel, the Old City folk club just down the street that closed in 2017.
The idea was to convert the upstairs storage room “into a listening room not unlike you would find in Japan but with our own take on it, that combines the legacy of cocktail culture that Sassafras represents with a really amazing sound system and well curated music. It would be unlike any other space in the city.”
Sweeney and McCoy tested the concept in pop-ups at various locations last year, and have succeeded in creating that unique space, down to the surprise sight of a comfy couch in the bathroom.
On a recent Thursday night, every seat and padded banquette was taken in the intimate room during an evening themed around British folk music of the 1960s and 1970s. Sweeney cued up LPs by Iain Matthews, John Martyn, and Richard and Linda Thompson.
48 Record Bar club members can pay $12 a month, where on Wednesday nights they can bring their own LPs to play, as well as getting first crack at ticketed events. For $40, they get that plus an LP of the month to take home. This month’s selection is Eccentric Boogie, a collection of rare funk from the highly regarded Numero Group label.
Deep listening events are also part of the 48 Record Bar experience. Last month, two $15sittings on a Sunday morning sold-out, with vinyl lovers listening to OutKast rapper André 3000′s instrumental flute music album, New Blue Sun. Coffee and pastries from Center City cafe Thank You Thank You were included in the price of admission.
The Synergetic Spirit of Buffalo’s Black Arts Community
https://hyperallergic.com/876439/the-synergetic-spirit-of-buffalo-black-arts-community
https://hyperallergic.com/tag/black-arts-movement/
In 1968, three Buffalo artists — James Pappas, Allie Anderson, and Clarence Scott — established a center where fine art could be accessible to inner-city residents. Through exhibitions, performances, and classes, the Langston Hughes Center for the Visual and Performing Arts became a hub for creativity and connection. The group, later joined by artists Wilhelmina Godfrey and Hal Franklin, immersed the city in the energy of the Black Arts Movement, exhibiting widely recognized artists like Richard Hunt, Abdias do Nascimento, and the Chicago-based group AfriCOBRA. However, the 1968 show of their own work, Six from the City, put them at the center of history as the first exhibition of all-Black artists in Buffalo.
https://burchfieldpenney.org/exhibitions/exhibition:10-08-2021-05-01-2022-founders-the-early-history-of-the-langston-hughes-center-for-the-visual-and-performing-arts
Pappas’s colorful assemblage of motifs is a reminder that fluidity is essential to the many parts that make us whole and to uncovering new aspects of the self through art. Young artists at the center were offered an opportunity to experiment not always afforded to people of color; they were encouraged to try different media and means of expression. His ability to move seamlessly between painting, screen-printing, and photography embodies this ethos in practice.
https://hyperallergic.com/687897/black-power-in-print-illuminates-the-rich-artistic-legacy-of-the-movement/
https://www.mfa.org/beyond-the-gallery/black-power-in-print
Mainframe Studios in Des Moines is believed to be the largest nonprofit art studio in the nation. The creative workspace offers affordable studio spaces and events open to the public to connect community members to the artists working in the state.
https://www.mainframestudios.org/
Mainframe Studios is located at 900 Keosauqua Way and is visually identifiable thanks to its vibrant 40,000-square-foot mural that adorns its facade. The nonprofit provides affordable studio spaces for artists across numerous disciplines and hosts artist-led workshops and events open to the public. It opened in 2017.
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/local/2023/10/30/oakridge-neighborhood-opens-teen-tech-center-in-des-moines-best-buy-oakridge-studio/71334986007/
A new teen tech center is coming to Des Moines. Here's what you need to know
Des Moines metro teens and young adults will soon have a new hangout spot.
Oakridge Neighborhood, a Des Moines-based nonprofit that provides affordable housing and other services to low-income and refugee families, has partnered with a Best Buy program to open Oakridge Studio — a new teen tech center.
With the tech center inside Mainframe, Littlejohn said youth participants will have the chance to be in a "collaborative space" and be among creative individuals who are from their communities and can teach them, work with them or inspire them. That aspect, she believed, "elevates" the Oakridge Studio.
Frank said the studio will feature a wide range of tech equipment, including 3D printers, drones, laser cutting, virtual reality headsets and tools and programming for robotics. A recording studio will be available to participants looking to launch podcasts and make their own music and maker stations for those wanting to start their own businesses.
There will be opportunities to learn photography and videography, as well, Frank said.
Frank, who will be a permanent fixture at the center, said Oakridge Studio plans to bring in guest speakers and host workshops to help participants explore different software and technology.
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/entertainment/arts/2017/10/18/tour-mainframe-studios-downtown-des-moines-newest-artist-space/762438001/
What once was a windowless data center filled with towering computers has been transformed into bright and airy studios for photographers, graphic designers, painters and other artists.
Dozens of artists are bringing life to Mainframe Studios, which fills the former Qwest Communications office at 900 Keosauqua Way. The nonprofit organization has just completed the first phase of a $12 million project to revamp the space into affordable art studios. There are 64 studios now open.
Once fully renovated, the 160,000-square-foot facility will include 180 artist studios, which organizers say will make it the nation’s largest affordable studio project of its kind.
The project is the brainchild of developer Justin Mandelbaum, who is also working on a marquee skyscraper project downtown through his family's development firm, Mandelbaum Properties.
Mandelbaum created Mainframe to provide artists with permanent, affordable studios. He says artists continue to get squeezed out as development booms in and around downtown Des Moines.
Mainframe offers studios as small as 160 square feet and some more than 3,500 square feet. Rents start at $7 per square foot per year. That means a 500-square-foot space would run about $292 per month, plus utilities.
https://www.latimes.com/travel/list/free-museum-days-los-angeles-botanic-gardens
You’ll want to plan your whole month around these 11 free museum days in L.A.
ArtsAVL, Asheville, NC.
https://artsavl.org/
The arts council supports arts professionals and businesses in Buncombe Country through connection, advocacy and grants.
“The artist-run leadership model in the River Arts District has created a supportive and thriving home for artists, and in turn created a nationally recognized destination where visitors get the unique opportunity to see artists at work and view a vast variety of different artworks all in one location,” Cornell said.
Craig Setzer, a woodworker, specializes in furniture making and is a featured artist at Foundation Woodworks’ gallery and has worked in the attached woodworking studio for nearly a year.
“It’s such a mecca for artists,” he said. “It’s a pretty cool idea to have all these old, abandoned industrial buildings be turned into studios and artist sanctuaries.”
El Jaouhari said one thing that makes RAD unique is that the public can visit studios and witness the artists making their artwork. He said the city’s arts community widely ranges from technically trained fine artists to self-taught artists and crafters. Also, Asheville’s arts community extends from RAD to downtown.
Foundation Woodworks offers a shared woodworking studio designed to help woodworkers build their businesses by providing designated workstations for artists to rent. Setzer said the style of the studio is a rare find.
City development has aided in the sculpting of RAD, like the greenway along the French Broad River and new residential housing and businesses. The same elements that have supported the arts district have the potential to harm it.
This winter, ArtsAVL conducted a Creative Space Study in response to artists’ concerns about the rising cost of living. Cornell said local artists and arts businesses have expressed concerns about being priced out of the Asheville area. She said affordable living and workspaces are increasingly becoming more difficult to find, especially in areas like RAD.
Kerr said he’d like to see more single and larger studio availability, and he’s concerned that bringing more non-art-related businesses into the district will take space away from the local arts community. He said he’s witnessed that happen in Seattle and that it can change the culture of a city.
“My only worry is, moving into the future, that more places like that start opening means less places for artists to be. That could be a potential issue down the road, like you take the art out of the River Arts District it no longer becomes what it is known for,” Kerr said.
https://wlos.com/news/local/arts-avl-new-free-trolley-service-a-great-success-first-day-operation-partnership-gray-line-asheville-explore-north-carolina-arts-council-second-saturday-rad
https://avltoday.6amcity.com/education/artsavl-arts-for-schools-grant-now-open-for-applications
https://avltoday.6amcity.com/arts/artsavl-gives-an-update-on-ashevilles-creative-economy-at-the-state-of-the-arts-brunch
https://avltoday.6amcity.com/arts/buncombe-countys-creative-economy-bounces-back
https://artsavl.org/reports/
https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/theater/seattles-theaters-lean-on-an-age-old-funding-model-to-bring-new-audiences
What are Seattle's biggest theaters banking on to keep them going? Subscriptions
3/21/24
In exchange for buying a season’s (or a portion of a season’s) worth of shows ahead of time, subscribers get access to good seats and good deals per ticket, as well as other perks like discounts on additional tickets, invitations to subscribers-only events, or free parking.
In return, theaters get reliable, preseason income, and stronger, more personal relationships with their patrons.
“A subscriber is somebody who believes in the theater and wants to be there,” said John Bradshaw, longtime executive director of Seattle Shakespeare Company. “They believe in you.”
There’s no denying that subscriber numbers have dipped. The 5th Avenue Theatre averaged about 20,000 subscribers per season, pre-pandemic. This year, it has around 7,000 subscribers. In March 2020, Seattle Rep was at 10,400 subscribers; today it’s at 5,700. Seattle Shakespeare currently hovers around 46% of its pre-pandemic subscriber numbers, Bradshaw said.
The numbers may look shocking, but Katie Maltais, who joined the 5th Avenue as managing director last fall, remains circumspect. “I have been hearing that subscriptions are dead since I entered this industry,” she said. “But somehow I’ve never worked for a theater company that did not grow subscriptions.”
Not only are subscriptions financially efficient, they reduce decision fatigue, which is hugely valuable for people with chaotic lives. Six date nights, already on the calendar? Yes, please. But hey, if something comes up, subscribers can change their show night, no problem. Flexibility is key, particularly now that reaching potential audience members requires such administrative dexterity.
Here’s the other thing: Short of a massive (and necessary!) increase in government or philanthropic support, there simply isn’t another funding model for regional theaters that seems to work right now.
Subscriptions get people in seats early, which is crucial for building word-of-mouth buzz, said Susie Medak, longtime managing director of Bay Area theater Berkeley Rep, who now coaches and contracts with theaters around the country.
“There’s been this delight in the idea that the new model is either membership or something else that nobody has yet figured out,” she said. “For companies that switched to things like membership models, that means for the first few weeks of your run you likely won’t have anybody there, unless you’ve got a celebrity involved or something. And that just doesn’t work.”
https://www.startribune.com/minneapolis-nonprofit-pollen-midwest-closes/600356718/
The Kennedy Center’s Local Theatre Festival will return to the REACH for a day of events celebrating the local theater community. Mark your calendars for Aug. 24.
https://www.kennedy-center.org/whats-on/festivals-series/local-theatre-festival/
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