The classical arts do not claim the public space they occupied only a few decades ago. A sensibility has vanished. The philistines have won. — Richmond Times-Dispatch editorial page, “Beverly Sills,” 7-6-07
Because of my recent posts on Mayor Wilder’s CenterStage board, I’ve had occasion over the last month to get into some interesting and thought-provoking discussions/debates on the subject of advisory committees. This feeds into the spirited discussion on regional leadership and planning that is currently going on in the Times-Dispatch and at the Buttermilk & Molasses and River City Rapids blogs.
It’s all well and good to speak of regional cooperation, and of encouraging new leaders to step forward. But reality doesn’t match Richmond’s rhetoric when it comes to walking the walk. What happens when, time and again, new voices and ideas are rejected out of hand — or must be accompanied by a hefty admission fee to “the club” before they are seriously considered?
Case in point would be my favorite dysfunctional example of how the Old Guard continues to do business. The Virginia Performing Arts Foundation, and the City of Richmond, each claim that they seek to provide “world-class performing arts venues” for the citizens of Richmond. At the same time, each has failed to appoint performing artists and arts professionals in key positions of the downtown arts center project, and especially when it might matter the most. Is that a mere oversight — seven years and counting — or a potent example of the exclusionary Leadership by Country Club that continues to cripple real change and progress in Richmond?
Whatever it is, this philosophy fails to acknowledge what works — both on the local front and nationally. We’ve already noted the considerable success of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts last fundraising campaign, overseen by a board of leaders heavy on arts expertise. And readers of River City Rapids will be familiar with how Kansas City leaders built local support and collaboration by initiating an ambassador program that puts the spotlight on local ownership of its new performing arts center. Both ideas would be considered revolutionary — crazy, even — by our city’s current gatekeepers.
I’ve been informed that the connected people who sit on the area’s all-corporate advisory boards “theoretically make sure that the money they and others are donating to the organization is well managed and spent wisely” (the key phrase there is “theoretically”). In defense of all-corporate boards, 1st District City Councilman Bruce Tyler uses The Memorial Child Guidance Clinic as a positive example of how effective these “Boards of Insiders” can be.
I don’t entirely dismiss those points of view. But the context here is the arts, and not health care or banking, so I’ve thought a lot about the stellar career of Ms. Beverly Sills, the world-famous opera singer, cultural ambassador and — yes — arts administrator. Unfortunately, Ms. Sills passed away this past week at the age of 78.
If we really aspire to greatness in building a publicly-funded arts center, why wouldn’t we emulate one of the nation’s premier performing arts non-profits, a truly “world class” operation — the Lincoln Center of New York. The Lincoln encompasses many different organizations, theatres and programs, and many different advisory boards. Unlike the planned setup for Richmond’s CenterStage, artists and cultural professionals are not shunted aside at the Lincoln so that grocers, Big Tobacco lobbyists and energy executives can exclusively run the show. Case in point would be the appointment of Sills as Lincoln Center’s Chairwoman of the Board; she ran the operation from 1994 to 2002.
But her appointment is only one of many that shows that organization’s arts-first focus. The Jazz at Lincoln Center board, for example, has plenty of investment bankers and corporate suits sitting at the table. But it has also included such luminaries as jazz musician Wynton Marsalis, promoter George Wein, record company presidents Lisa Schiff and the late Ahmet Ertegun, and authors Albert Murray and Henry Louis Gates. Elsewhere, you can find actors, talent agents, producers and writers sitting on various Lincoln Center boards.
At the end of her long and distinguished performing career in 1980, Sills served as the General Director of the New York City Opera — she is credited with reviving the flagging company.
From her New York Times obit:
She inherited a company [the New York City Opera] burdened with debt and unsure of its direction.
Her vision for revitalizing the City Opera included offering unusual repertory and making the company a haven for talented younger American artists. Under her, the repertory significantly diversified, with productions of rarities like Wagner’s early opera “Die Feen,” Verdi’s “Attila” and Thomas’s “Hamlet,” as well as new operas like Anthony Davis’s “X (The Life and Times of Malcolm X).”
To entice new and younger audiences, she reduced ticket prices by 20 percent. A $5.3 million renovation of the New York State Theater in 1982 improved the look and efficiency of the building, though not its problematic acoustics. In 1983 the City Opera became the first American company to use supertitles. The company had a sense of mission and vitality. But the deficit grew to $3 million. Then a devastating warehouse fire destroyed 10,000 costumes for 74 productions.
Still, Ms. Sills was a prodigious fund-raiser and a tireless booster. When she retired from her post in early 1989, she had on balance a record of achievement. The budget had grown from $9 million to $26 million, and the $3 million deficit had become a $3 million surplus.
In closing, having knowledgeable arts people sitting at the planning table of an arts venture is hardly some novelty. it’s worked for the biggest and best performing arts companies for decades.
[And while we may not have a Beverly Sills in our midst, we do have plenty of savvy, resourceful arts experts and managers — both former performing artists as well as accredited administrators and seasoned promoters — and the city and VAPAF have known about them for years. Don't forget that one of these professionals, with a proven track record, was unfairly fired from VAPAF's project for having the nerve to disagree with the grocers and venture capitalists. But there is much untapped expertise too...]
Looking at the larger picture, I would submit that if the status quo in Richmond is unable to integrate actual performing arts professionals into key positions on a taxpayer-funded arts project, it doesn’t bode well for future cooperation and diversity of input in solving future problems related to schools, crime, the environment and taxes.
Ah, but we do know what hasn’t worked real well for Richmond. Putting people in charge who don’t know what they are doing.
Even a “philistine” can understand that.