Category: today’s top story

“Le Poisson Rouge is following in the path of places like Joe’s Pub in the East Village and Barbès in Park Slope, clubs that mix classical and contemporary fare. Behind its success is an essential programming principle: architecture is everything. If challenging music is presented in an inviting and informal space, the theory goes, then open-minded young audiences will show up, whether the music is Bach, Ligeti or the stylistically eclectic singer-songwriter Corey Darge.”

“For some time now, most museums have been betting that a golden age of giving was soon to end. But even institutions that braced for a downturn say the stock market’s decline, the bankruptcy or disappearance of major investment banks, and the liquidity crisis have made this one unique.”

One of the last of the giants who created the American modern dance movement in the mid-20th century, Arpino co-founded the Joffrey Ballet, served as its primary choreographer for three decades, and shepherded the company through several financial crises and an ultimately successful move from New York to Chicago.

“After a century of continuous publication, The Christian Science Monitor will abandon its weekday print edition and appear online only, its publisher announced Tuesday. The cost-cutting measure makes The Monitor the first national newspaper to largely give up on print.”

“Even as Broadway braces for the impact of the biggest U.S. financial crisis in decades, New York’s largest nonprofit theaters are hewing to ambitious expansion plans. As they’ve grown, so too has the pay of their leaders.” The heads of the Roundabout Theatre, Lincoln Center Theater, and Manhattan Theatre Club all earned north of $400,000 last year, while Minneapolis’s Guthrie Theater paid its leader $682,229.

“The Metropolitan Opera led all U.S. arts organizations in fundraising from private sources with $128.1 million in 2007, according to a survey of 400 nonprofits by the Chronicle of Philanthropy.” Also raking it in last year were Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Miami’s New World Symphony, the San Francisco Opera Association, and the Smith Center for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas.

“If the art economy is as bad as it looks–if worse comes to worst–40 to 50 New York galleries will close. Around the same number of European galleries will, too. An art magazine will cease publishing. A major fair will call it quits–possibly the Armory Show, because so many dealers hate the conditions on the piers, or maybe Art Basel Miami Beach, because although it’s fun, it’s also ridiculous. Museums will cancel shows because they can’t raise funds. Art advisers will be out of work. Alternative spaces will become more important for shaping the discourse, although they’ll have a hard time making ends meet.”

“In a preemptive strike to keep audiences from trading an evening of theater for TV and a frozen pizza during troubled economic times, Center Theatre Group is announcing a new ‘Entertainment Stimulus Package’ that will make available 100,000 tickets at $20, available for all performances at all three of its theaters –the Ahmanson, Mark Taper Forum and Kirk Douglas — for the entire 2008-09 season.”

“Reacting to economic pressures and fallen ticket sales, Michigan Opera Theatre on Wednesday canceled its scheduled spring production of Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci and announced staff layoffs and other budget cuts. David DiChiera, MOT’s founding general director, said it was the first time in the company’s 38-year history that it had canceled an entire production. He said dropping Pagliacci would save $400,000 to $500,000.”

“The financially troubled New York City Opera furloughed employees for two days last week because it feared it would run out of money to pay them, a spokesman said Wednesday.”