Timely Culture Reporting and Arts Industry News
Washington D.C. Arts Groups are Cautiously Coming Out of the Recession
Washington Post - March 28, 2010
By Jacqueline Trescott
A year ago, widespread fear of going under was an unspoken feeling, yet not many closed their doors. "In Washington we have a leg up because we haven't had the widespread unemployment other places have had. But we are still feeling it," said Mariana Nork, SVP for institutional advancement at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. "About a year ago the outlook was dismal. And the recession was the death knell for a number of organizations. The recovery is happening, but it will be much slower for arts organizations in cities that were heavily hit, like Detroit," says Terrence Jones, president of Wolf Trap. In Washington, the federal government covers most building costs and salaries at the National Gallery, Kennedy Center and Smithsonian Institution. For the full article, click here
NEA's Rocco Landesman Tours Country to Underscore Link between Arts and Jobs
Washington Post - March 27, 2010
By Jacqueline Trescott
On Friday morning, National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman was not jetting from city to town observing the country's arts machinery, but sitting in the agency's conference room reporting back..."Last week, I was in California, and I learned that nonprofit arts organizations there have annual revenues of $2.4 billion, which is roughly equivalent to the revenues of California's convenience stores. That is significant," said a smiling Landesman. "But arts workers make more than Slurpees, they make places." For the full article, click here
Reuters - March 26, 2010
By Ellen Freilich
With the average price of a ticket to a big Broadway show $80, Broadway, the "Street of Dreams," is a good place to look for signs of renewed consumer confidence, says Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at BNY ConvergEx Group in New York. His analysis of the theater-going habits of the New York City natives and visitors has left him cautiously optimistic about the health of the consumer, with an emphasis on "cautious," said Colas. It's a bad news/good news story. The bad news is ticket sales for the eight largest shows on Broadway were down every single week of 2010 compared to the same period last year, partly due to "Winter Wonderland" weather persisting through February, Colas said. In the good news department, post-snowstorm demand bounced back nicely and was almost in positive territory on a percentage change basis compared to last year, Colas said. For the full article, click here
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