The Tampa-based Florida Orchestra this week reported a $323,789 surplus on a budget of just over $9 million for the fiscal year that ended June 30. The orchestra’s ticket sales amounted to 38% of its overall revenue, which is low in comparison to the rest of the industry, but contributed income was robust, to say the least. Also significant is that “the orchestra finished in the black in a year when the board and musicians agreed on a new labor contract that boosted musicians’ pay by about 5 percent over the previous year.”
Tag: 10.26.05
Broadway – Where Are The Latinos?
Few Latinos attend Broadway shows. “Despite many mainstream companies’ frantic attempts to cater to the booming Latino market, Broadway remains overwhelmingly non-Hispanic. Though the number of Broadway-going Hispanics during the 2004-5 season was the highest since the League of American Theaters and Producers began such surveys, they still made up just 5.7 percent of the total. They account for 12.5 percent of the United States population, according to the latest report of the United States Bureau of the Census.” Now some producers are trying some unorthodox marketing to build that audience.
When Museums Sell Their Art (It’s Worrisome)
A number of American arts institutions are selling off some of their art. “The scale of such selling – by institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art – is renewing debate. ‘History will make a fool of these museums. It always happens. Often the things that are sold are based on inherited prejudices that will be overturned in the future’.”