Support for the Arts

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:33:42 -0700

Last week, Oregon Ballet Theatre presented DANCE UNITED, a remarkable one-time-only event offering performances by extraordinary artists from every major dance company across the country. This was the inspired idea of artistic director Christopher Stowell to raise funds and awareness of OBT’s dire financial situation. The last ditch effort worked. Yesterday, I received a message from Christopher saying that the company was successful and would dance another day.

Of course, OBT’s situation is not unique, with virtually all arts organizations either dipping into precious reserves to survive or wishing they had reserves to tap. What struck me about OBT’s situation was that for an outsider (or maybe well-informed neighbor to the north), the company seemed to have done everything so well. Their dancers are first-rate, and Christopher not only added interesting repertoire, but energized a city around its ballet company. Marketing is catchy and young audience members flock to performances. How clear it would be to point to the poor choices the company made over the last five years, but there don’t seem to be any. At PNB, we are looking very closely at our year-end results and even more closely at next year’s projections. We are looking at our rainy day fund (Seattle, rainy?) and wondering if we sufficiently prepared for the time we are in.

There are two glaring reasons for both OBT and PNB to be sweating right now. The first, too obvious to mention, is the economy. The second is a rare, brutal snowstorm that wrecked havoc with ten days of our grand sugar daddy, Nutcracker.

But beyond the obvious, aren’t we arts organizations always a few steps from financial uncertainty? I haven’t heard a politician or a pedestrian doubt the vital role of arts in our society. They all know what they have experienced in that transforming moment when the curtain lifts and the orchestra begins. They remember wide eyes at the opening of the exhibition and jumping to their feet as the play concluded its final act. Arts can be entertainment and, at its best, can also be so much more. And yet, while we recognize and appreciate, do we do enough to support? I would venture to guess that most in this country think arts run the gamut from fun to profound, but they remain low on the list of priorities in needy times.

I’ve heard two speeches in the past year that were worth hearing. They both clearly cast the value of the arts in our lives as vital, not optional. I’d like to recommend them to anyone who cares deeply about the arts and even more to those who don’t.

Ben Cameron, program Director for the Arts under the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, came to Seattle last year to speak at the Artsfund annual luncheon. Ben walks us through the seismic shift happening in our culture and our children’s minds in accessibility to entertainment. The 99 cent song is easily erasing the $100 symphony ticket, while the word “subscription” is becoming increasingly unknown to the ipod generation. With this trend, where will financial support for the arts from individuals be in a decade?

Does it matter? What if we lost our regional theaters? Ben names a UCLA study that determined that a kid who has been in a play is 42% less likely to exhibit racist behavior as an adult. It matters.

Sir Ken Robinson, in a 2006 speech with TED, talks of a fault in our education system that emphasizes more education that will lead to what was deemed valuable employment to a past generation. Priority would go to professors, accountants, and scientists, but not to painters, playwrights, and ballet dancers. Ask a kid to name three sports stars. Then ask them to name three sculptors. Poets?

Each speaks to a general lack of recognition of the tremendous value of arts in our culture. Each of us might think about what the arts have meant to us and particularly what we can do to introduce a child to the arts and teach them that without support, the curtain wont rise. Congratulations, OBT, and thank you for reminding us what we must do.

Link to Ben Cameron speech:
http://www.artsfund.org/Documents/Ben-Cameron-keynote-address-ArtsFund-luncheon-5-22.aspx

Link to Robinson video:
http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

NEW YORK

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 08:33:53 -0800

On my Delta flight, returning to Seattle after four days in New York, I’m worn out, but also pleasantly impressed. New York for me offered two lasting memories. One is of the talented dancers I watched and the other is of the mood on the streets: both are vibrant and healthy. I hoped to write something of the honest optimism I found in stores, sidewalks, stages, and studios, and I wanted to do it without the using the words “economic downturn.” But I can’t—too prevalent.

Let me begin with streets and stores. I met my mother at the Frick Collection on Sunday morning. Granted, it was a holiday weekend and many tourists surrounded, but I found her in a several-hundred-person queue waiting for entrance. It was pay-what-you-want Sunday with a suggested admission price of fifteen. Most within earshot were paying five or more. The Frick continually served as my sanctuary during twenty years of living in Manhattan and never had I seen it so bustling. The pre-Valentine’s Day line at Borders was dozens deep, with five cashiers briskly moving us through. The Hudson Hotel looked no different than at any other time, with the exception of diners saying “tap” to waiters more quickly than in past visits. That occasional—okay, widespread—New York elitism of store clerks, bartenders, and hosts was gone, replaced by offers to bring drinks to my table. Fiorello’s Restaurant offered each diner a tray of freshly baked cookies, compliments of the house. No doubt there is a new frugality, but New Yorkers weren’t holed up in their studio apartments counting precious cash. They were out enjoying New York and splitting checks and choosing tap water. Businesses were genuinely pleased to see them. When I left the hotel early this morning, I headed for a taxi aware that our expense budgets at the ballet are stretched. The couple just ahead of me asked if by chance I was headed for JFK. Still spending, happy to divide costs, and giving bigger tips due to my good fortune.

I attended two performances of the New York City Ballet. I tell my company I will choreograph when we run out of money. Yes, I ‘m considering it, though I’ve chosen aggressive fundraising before adopting such risky measures. I also don’t think it’s time for me to become a dance critic. I sat behind a row of them and they need no competition. I will say that the company looked terrific in both programs. I may be biased, but there is really nothing like the New York City Ballet, with its exceptional range of talent among dancers, musicians, and choreographers. Both performances were full, with a happy crowd drifting through the photographic exhibit celebrating the School of American Ballet and purchasing away at the gift shop. I was completely entertained by a documentary of interviews and film clips of company members then and now. To see the fledgling Sara Mearns and Christian Tworzanski in the talent show at the mall was hilarious.

Usually comped for my thirty years of service, I was told there were no seats available. Though reasonably full, this was not the case—perhaps just a new policy for those with thirty years of service wanting a free ticket. I got one anyway.

Five auditions over the next two days brought more talent than I imagined. Three hundred auditioned for either our Summer Course or for the Company. (Here’s where those words creep in.) With the daily onslaught of news of arts organizations scaling back and reducing ranks as a result of the economic downturn, where will all of this talent go? As I watched the two hundred dancers mostly still in their teens vie for a place that I may not even have in Pacific Northwest Ballet, I wondered. I suppose some will remain with their schools for one more year, while others will continue to take class and audition and perhaps make doppios to pay rent. Will others migrate to universities that their parents can no longer afford to take advantage of stellar dance departments that are also scaling back? After a lifetime of tendus and pirouettes, how many will quit the profession, embittered because they can’t find a job? I am a tiny piece of this inevitable frustration that we are all in, and I write without answers, just issues.

My dad had a very serious conversation with me when I was thirteen. I was hopelessly committed to ballet at the time and could honestly think of nothing else. (Well, almost nothing else.) My family’s lineage was of advanced degrees and relatively high-paying jobs. My father warned that if I could not guarantee landing a job as a dancer and a high-paying one at that, I should consider a new path now. He talked me through average salaries of the profession, reasoning that without considerable success I would not be able to support a family, own a home, or enjoy much that life can offer. He was at times a very practical man. What he didn’t know was that, for most, ballet is an incurable addiction. These talented teens in our New York auditions will wake up tomorrow and head for ballet class and another audition, and some will call me in a year to see if I’m hiring then. A rare few will start their own companies and perform where they can, and possibly one day have health insurance, too. This commitment and tenacity is everything that our nation was built on. It’s way stronger than the Dow Jones industrial average and promises to be there tomorrow. I’m a little less confident about the Dow! Ballet brings true inspiration, and the resolve of dancers continues to inspire.

Artistic Director, Peter Boal

Support for the Arts

NEW YORK