Symphony orchestras became institutions in the last century. Now it seems like they’ve been around forever and will be around forever. But that’s not so. Check out the sad news in Columbus, Ohio, one of the largest cities in the Midwest. The head of its orchestra announced yesterday that it was shuttering its summer programming and possible shutting down for good.
After 57 years of music making, including a triumphant concert in New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Columbus Symphony says it will shut down June 1.
Out of money and having failed to reach a new labor agreement with the musicians, the orchestra’s board of trustees said today that it is canceling the summer Picnic With the Pops and Popcorn Pops series and most likely its 2008-09 season, scheduled to begin in October.
Columbus would become one of the nation’s largest cities without a full-time professional orchestra.
“It’s a tragic event,” said Karen A. Bell, dean of Ohio State University’s College of the Arts. “ It’s going to diminish the cultural life and vibrancy of the whole region.”
At the same time, let’s not get all mushy-eyed just yet.
It’s tempting to see Columbus’ struggle to remain financial solvent as part of the larger struggle of the arts in America, which have historically relied on philanthropy and civic good will to thrive. There’s a problem with this kind of thing, however — a problem that involves how we’re seeing the problem.
In weaving the particular (the Columbus orchestra’s money woes) into the general (America’s free market approach to the arts), we lose sight of the particular. Most significantly, we lose hope that there’s anything that can be done. The problem become so big and so out of any one individual’s control that some might say what’s the point in trying?
There is a point. We just need to limit ourselves to the problem at hand.
That’s what Drew McManus does over at Adaptistration, a professional blog about the management of professional orchestras.
He notes there’s more here than a dying tradition. He interprets the language in the orchestra’s press release, announcing that it will cancel summer programming and continue negotiations with the musicians, to be something like an old-fashioned grudge match between Capital and Labor. It’s turns out that management will continue to negotiate as long as management — i.e., the board of directors — gets the terms that it’s asking for and nothing less:
… The statement asserts that “due to uncertainties surrounding the 2008-2009 season” the organization is deliberately not selling subscription or single tickets until after they reach an agreement with musicians on a new collective bargaining agreement. Does anyone else smell a self-fulfilling prophecy blowing in the wind…
If the CSO board were sincerely concerned about their ability to deliver a 2008/09 season based on the outcome of ongoing collective bargaining negotiations, then they could simply place subscription ticket sales in escrow and return any payments if needed. …
… when asked if the CSO board is willing to meet with the musicians to discuss alternative proposals outside of the financial parameters presented in their proposed financial plan or to enter into mediation and/or binding arbitration, CSO Executive Director Tony Beadle said no, they are not. …
… if the CSO board is willing to bargain in good faith, it would be prudent to indicate some degree of willingness to negotiate beyond their previous self imposed limits, especially given that the musician’s initial offer provided approximately $500,000 reduction in expenses for next season. At this point, it increasingly looks as if the CSO board is deliberately maneuvering the organization into shutting down. …
Spoleto Festival USA’s Fifth Annual
Taste of Spoleto
Offers Ticket Discounts, Performance Highlights
and Southern Hospitality
Taste of Spoleto is made possible through the generosity of
All Occasions Party Rentals, Charleston Brewing Company, Coca-Cola,
Dedicato de Patris LLC, and Tidewater Foods & Catering LLC
When:
4 - 7 pm, Friday, May 2
Where:
Gaillard Auditorium, 77 Calhoun Street
Why:
One of the few opportunities local patrons have to purchase discounted festival tickets
What:
Free and open to the public, this popular annual event creates excitement leading up to the 2008 Spoleto Festival USA, May 23 – June 8, and gives Spoleto patrons the rare opportunity to:
· Purchase tickets to select performances at a 20% discount to Monkey: Journey to the West, Laurie Anderson, Boston Ballet, La Cenerentola, Bank of America Chamber Music concerts, Wachovia Jazz concerts, The Burial at Thebes, and much more
· View performance video of upcoming events
· Purchase the official poster for the 2008 festival
· Enjoy Lowcountry nibbles from Tidewater Foods & Catering
For more information, call 843.579.3100 or visit www.spoletousa.org.
Angela Mack is the new executive director of the Gibbes Museum of Art, according to Tuesday’s Post and Courier. She has been with the Gibbes for two decades. For the past five years, she has served as the museums deputy director and chief curator.
The announcement comes more than a month after Todd Smith resigned suddenly as executive director. Despite suspicions that he’d been pushed out, inquiries to board members, museum staffers, and former employees suggest the museum was satisfied with Smith’s work. He was leaving (his last day is June 30) for personal reasons.
Mack’s appointment is also a surprise. Tom White, chair of the Gibbes’ board of directors, said publicly that there would be a nationwide search for a new director that would commence some time during the summer.
Now that Mack has been installed, it’s not clear why she would be the right choice. Indeed, she has been at the museum for a long time. And indeed she shepherded the upcoming exhibition, one that’s getting national attention, on slavery through the lens of landscape painting. But curating is different from leading an institution.
While being a curator requires management and operational acumen, being a director requires a vision — a dream — and the social and political skills to inspire others, especially Charleston’s patron class, to rally together to achieve that dream. I’d like to know more about Mack’s accomplishments in that regard.
By the looks of it, this might be a short-term solution. According to the P&C report, the museum is in some trouble financially. It reported a deficit of more than $618,000 in three of the past five years. If that’s truly a problem for the Gibbes (I’m unconvinced; there were up years in that five-year span; check out for yourself the Gibbes’ IRS tax forms for 2004, 2005, and 2006), then Mack may be
just the kind of “crisis-manager” the museum needs, someone who’s not going to ask for much from her board while providing solid leadership.
Since I moved to Charleston, I’ve come to be a fan. I think their art deserves a more serious kind of attention than it currently gets. This guerilla art mafia, so to speak, has cultivated a style, attitude, and sensibility that warrants fevered discussion and celebration. These guys might disagree. I don’t know. Enjoy.
Organizers of Kulture Klash 2 say that about 1,300 people attended the April 19 art party. But last night, I learned that organizers were worried about violating fire codes and were restricting the number of people who were in 10 Storehouse Row at any one time. So that means, maybe, that far more than 1,300 people were on the premises that night (the line as I was leaving was long). So what might that mean? That lots and lots and lots of people were hungry for art, dance, music, and other forms of creativity. That creativity is chic. And so on.
The 9 p.m. performance by the Carolina Chocolate Drops on June 4-5 will be relocated to the Cistern at the College of Charleston in order to accommodate increased demand to see the popular trio specializing in traditional African-American string music from the Piedmont.
The 6 p.m. performances will still be at the Recital Hall at the Simons Center for the Arts.
The trio was recently featured in Denzel Washington’s movie, The Great Debaters.
Tickets are $20.
For tickets, call (843) 579-3100 or go to www.spoletousa.org.
The city of North Charleston is about to embark on the first phase of plan to renovate the Power House building.
Located on the Old Navy Yard, the building will be made into a facility that “accomodates cultural and civic functions,” said Marty Besancon, director of the city’s Cultural Arts Department.
In other words, it’s going to be an arts center. Besancon’s office doesn’t want to call it an arts center yet, because plans have not gone through the approval process. But indications are in place for building that will be arts-oriented. Bottom-line: It’s going to be a multi-use facility, likely with a focus on the arts.
That first phase will take about a year. It will involve cleaning and removing old equipment from the interior and exterior.
The next stage involves plans for restoration and remodeling. Besancon did not provide information about the cost of the project or a time table for its completion.
“It’s a remarkable building with a lot of potential,” Besancon said.
There's more to art than you think. It's not just theater, paintings, books and dance. It's the enterprise of human creativity and it takes vastly different shapes and forms. Here you'll find my thoughts about the arts in Charleston and beyond. Neither of us knows what to expect.
