“Penumbra — the nation’s pre-eminent African-American theater company — is slicing $912,000 from its $3.8 million budget for the fiscal year ending June 30. They plan to cut more the following year — the goal is to lower the budget to $2.5 million. It’s all a proactive response to the economy, theater officials said.”
Tag: 02.13.09
Arts Money Back In Stimulus Bill?
Members of the House and Senate conference committee completed their negotiations of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act with $50 million designated to assist the nation’s arts and cultural workforce through funding to the National Endowment for the Arts.
Movie Box Office Doing Well In Recession
The movie industry, famously resilient during the 1930s, is now showing similar signs of prospering in a recession. Across North America, box office returns are holding relatively steady.
Why Chopping The Arts From Stimulus Makes No Sense
“From an economic standpoint, starving the arts is suicidal. Consider the case of the High Line, the park in the Meatpacking District. The City of New York invested $170 million in the project, which directly inspired as many as 50 major residential projects worth as much as $5 billion. And the park isn’t even open yet.”
Michigan Governor Proposes Eliminating State Arts Funding
“With the recession already leading to millions in lost corporate and private donations, rising deficits, shrinking endowments, layoffs and artistic cuts, arts groups saw state support as especially important. Arts leaders said the cuts would lead to further job losses.” Says one arts leader: “No governor has ever done more damage to arts and culture and our creative future in Michigan.”
Writer Hugh Leonard, 82
He was a “prolific Irish playwright, memoirist, travel writer and dyspeptic newspaper columnist whose autobiographical play Da won four Tony Awards in 1978.” In Dublin he was a celebrity, especially for his Sunday column; one longtime friend said, “He used it to thank his friends and warn his enemies. You didn’t know which you were until you opened the paper on Sunday.”
Other Hartford Companies Woo Ct. Opera’s Stiffed Subscribers
“TheaterWorks, the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts, Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Hartford Stage and Connecticut Concert Opera are offering special deals for Connecticut Opera subscribers who paid for two shows that they will not see.”
Why Do Philosophers Live So Long?
Carlin Romano: “I therefore exited graduate school with the flinty belief that philosophers live extraordinarily long lives, a no-brainer in light of the standard personality I lazily attributed to them then… Even in the worst circumstances, philosophers didn’t go postal. They went, to speak in federal metaphorese, Social Security.”