FRIENDS OF THE ARTS PARTY NOVEMBER 9

On Tuesday, November 9, the Alliance will host its second annual Friends of the Arts Party to support the Robert F. Wagner, Jr. Fellowship for Public Policy and the Arts. The cocktail party will be held at Christie's New York (20 Rockefeller Plaza, on 49th Street between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas) from 6:30 to 8:30 pm and will feature a private preview of Post War/Contemporary art. Tickets are $100 and $250 and may be purchased online, by phone at (212) 947-6340, or at the door. For nonprofit organizations there is a special reduced ticket price of $50. To purchase tickets online, click here.

In 2002, the Alliance inaugurated the Robert F. Wagner, Jr. Fellowship for Public Policy and the Arts, a one-year fellowship aimed at training cultural policy leaders.

NEW YORK STATE CULTURAL DATABASE PROJECT

The Alliance for the Arts has launched the New York State Cultural Database project (an extension of its Citywide Cultural Database) and has hired Eric Shiner to coordinate the effort (see At the Alliance below). The objective of the project is to stimulate and strengthen the economy of New York State by promoting investment, economic diversification and community revitalization in all corners of the state through the cultural community. The Alliance is collaborating with the New York State Council on the Arts and I Love NY to develop a baseline of information about all cultural destinations in the state. One product of the project will be an information service called New York State Arts. This component, consisting of detailed profiles on destinations drawn from the database, will act as a resource to the statewide I Love NY tourism campaign and local and regional cultural tourism promotion efforts. Funded in part by New York's Empire State Development Corporation, the project aims to increase tourist spending while at the same time provide wider access to information on the arts to the citizens of New York.

CONGRESSIONAL ARTS REPORT CARD

The Americans for the Arts Action Fund has produced a Congressional Arts Report Card for the U.S. House of Representatives. The report card provides a detailed overview of all 435 voting Members' arts support during the 108th Congress (2003-2004). It assigns each member of the House of Representatives a letter grade and numerical score based on his or her voting record on specific arts and arts education policy issues. A perfect score equals 100 cumulative points, and the points are correlated to a letter grade of A+ through F.

Thirty-three Members of Congress received an A+, while the average overall score was a B. The Report Card shows that arts support is increasingly bipartisan; twice as many republicans voted for an NEA increase in 2004 than in 2000.

CITY COUNCIL CREATES EAST VILLAGE CULTURAL DISTRICT

In early October, the East Fourth Street Cultural District was created by the sale of six City-owned buildings and two vacant lots in the East Village to a group of 13 community organizations known as Fourth Arts Block for $1 each. Proposed by Councilmember Margarita Lopez, the sale marks the creation of the first cultural district in the city. The community groups will use the buildings as permanent, nonprofit cultural centers for performances, workshops, classes and rehearsals. They will also create theaters for Teatro Circulo and Instituto Arte Teatral Internacional.

AT THE ALLIANCE

Eric Shiner has joined the Alliance as statewide database coordinator. Prior to joining the Alliance, Eric previously worked as an assistant curator for YOKOHAMA 2001: International Triennale of Contemporary Art. He is an active independent curator.

Stephanie Margolin has joined the Alliance as Publications Manager. Stephanie comes to the Alliance from Kaplan, Inc., where she acted as project manager on various education projects at the college and the K-12 level. Stephanie's background in the arts includes a volunteer stint with Learning Leaders' Art Works program.

MILESTONES

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater opens the Joan Weill Center for Dance on November 15. Designed by Iu + Bibliowicz, the Joan Weill Center will be the nation's largest facility devoted exclusively to dance. For more information, click here.

MoMA reopens in Midtown on November 20. Designed by Yoshio Taniguchi, the 630,000-square-foot museum will be nearly twice the size of the former facility, offering dramatically expanded and redesigned spaces for exhibitions, public programming, educational outreach and scholarly research. For more information, click here.

New York Hall of Science opens 55,000-square-foot expansion on November 23. Designed by Polshek Partnership, the new hall includes the Discovery Labs, new exhibition spaces on the upper and lower gallery and space for traveling exhibitions.

PEOPLE

Peter Gelb, currently president of Sony Classical, has been chosen to succeed Joseph Volpe as general manager of the Metropolitan Opera. Mr. Gelb will join the Met on August 1, 2005 and will assume the role of general manager on August 1, 2006.

Emily K. Rafferty will be the new president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art effective January 15. Ms. Rafferty was formerly the museum's senior vice president for external affairs.

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