A study released on October 14 shows that New York City’s Lincoln Center, the arts complex that is home to a dozen of the world’s most prominent arts organizations, generated $1.52 billion in economic activity in 2003. The study, prepared by the economic development consulting firms Economic Development Research Group and Mount Auburn Associates, said that Lincoln Center supported 15, 200 workers with benefits and wages direct spending on local restaurants and lodgings by visitors, along with retail and other activities, poured around $258 million into the NYC economy. The center attracts around 4.7 million visitors annually, including 3 million ticket buyers and hundreds of thousands of others attending free performances, special events, and civic celebrations. The report added that since the early 1960s, when Lincoln Center opened, property values in the area have gone up 2,608 percent, compared with 447 percent for the rest of Manhattan. (New York Times)

The Brooklyn Academy of Music’s endowment of $18 million has been more than doubled recently by two major gifts totaling $30 million. The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, which supports educational and cultural endeavors, has pledged $20 million over five years, and two supporters, Richard B. Fisher and Jeanne Donovan Fisher, have made a gift of $10 million. Along with other contributions, these gifts have increased the endowment to more than $50 million. The organization did not even have an endowment until 1992; a healthy endowment is both a sign of stability (and encouraging to funders) and a financial cushion. BAM is on an upswing by all accounts. The 143-year-old academy is preparing to unveil its $8.6 million exterior restoration, to be celebrated October 24. It is also negotiating to buy the Salvation Army building next door, which would be used for education and community purposes, containing classrooms, small theaters, and meeting spaces. Attendance at BAM events is up 40% from five years ago, and 65% of that audience comes from Brooklyn. BAM is thus poised, according to Karen Brooks Hopkins, the institution’s president, to become “the quintessential urban arts center of the 21st century—with music, dance, theater, opera, film and a large education program.” (New York Times)

American Ballet Theatre recently announced that Fred M. Seegal, the newly appointed president of the company’s board of trustees, has issued a $400,000 challenge grant. Aimed at raising funds for ABT’s general operating fund over the next two years, the grant will match new or upgraded unrestricted donations to ABT up to $400,000. Seegal, the managing executive at Stephens Financial Group, previously served as president and managing director of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. He joined ABT’s board of governing trustees in 2003 and this June was appointed president of the board. Seegal also serves on the boards of the San Francisco Opera, the Newburger Museum, and the Museum of Television and Radio Media Center. For information on participating in the Fred M. Seegal Challenge Grant, please call the ABT Development office at (212) 477-3030, extension 3242.

A little less than a year ago, the situation looked bleak for the New York International Fringe Festival. Spokespeople for the Fringe revealed that 2003 was the first year box office income failed to cover expenses. A contributing factor was the August 14 blackout, which fell during the festival’s run and caused chaos in the city for several days. At the time, producing artistic director Elena Holy said that “the old formula” for producing the festival needed reinvention, citing “decreased advertising income, and increased venue, staffing, and insurance costs.”
By contrast, the Festival is now reporting record ticket sales for 2004, up at least 20% from 2003. Festival organizers believe the total ticket sales to have been just over 60,000, up from last year’s just over 50,000. With tickets costing $15, total grosses will likely fall between $800,000 and $900,000. This year’s Fringe made various changes, both fiscal and structural. The participation fee rose 25%, from $400 to $500. An agreement with Actor’s Equity allowed the festival to use venues of up to 500 seats south of 14th Street, so that larger, more expensive shows could still make a profit. Some of the year’s most successful productions ran at such houses, like the Schimmel Center at Pace University and the Lucille Lortel Theater. Applications for the Fringe rose more than 10% over last year (this was the first year artists could submit applications online), and advance sales rose dramatically. More than a week before the 17-day, 200-production festival began, advance ticket sales already stood at $46,000. (Back Stage)

After many months of lobbying by performers’ unions, the $4.75 million New York state COBRA subsidy bill became law on September 21 when Governor George Pataki finally signed it. Pataki vetoed another version of the bill last year, but supporters worked to revise it in order to answer his concerns. The Actors’ Fund of America has been monitoring the COBRA legislation and coordinating lobbying efforts on behalf of the Entertainment Industry Health Insurance Coalition, which includes performers’ unions like Actors’ Equity Association, the Screen Actors Guild, and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.
The bill is designed to help members of the entertainment industry afford health insurance. Under COBRA (the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985), if an employee resigns or is terminated from work, federal law guarantees the employee’s right to continue, either as an individual or as a family, on the former employer’s group health insurance plan—at the group rate—for up to 18 months at the worker’s own expense. The bill, known as the New York State Health Insurance Continuation Assistance Program, provides a subsidy to members of entertainment industry unions who are unable to afford COBRA (which can cost over $350 for an individual, over $1,000 for a family). Because their insurance will be continuous, they will keep their state and federal protections against preexisting-condition waiting periods and will be able to remain with the same providers until they become eligible again for their union plans. James Brown of the AFA cited a study showing that 22% to 24% of those covered by entertainment industry union-employer health insurance plans lose their coverage annually, and that 70% of those offered COBRA do not elect to purchase it, most refusing because of the cost. (Back Stage)

Bloomberg, Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s international financial news and information corporation, has inaugurated a new competition for contemporary dance in Britain. The Place Prize, to be held every two years, awarded commissions to 20 semifinalist choreographers, including full production and technical and rehearsal facilities. Their works were performed at London’s The Place theater in September, before being further winnowed down by audience awards and judges. $180,000 in cash prizes was distributed to winners. The top prize of $45,000 went to choreographer Rafael Bonachela, perhaps best known as pop singer Kylie Minogue’s choreographer. (New York Times)

Saxophonist, composer, and free jazz innovator Ornette Coleman has been chosen to receive the 2004 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize of $250,000 and a silver medallion. A ceremony will be held October 14 at the Hudson Theater, with Wynton Marsalis, artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, delivering a tribute to Coleman. The Gish Prize, which recognizes trailblazing talents in the arts, is now in its 11th year. Previously the prize has gone to dancer and choreographer Bill T. Jones, playwright Arthur Miller, author Isabel Allende, musician and poet Bob Dylan, film director Ingmar Bergman, and architect Frank Gehry, among others. (New York Times)

The New York state Assembly has approved a bill establishing an arts fund that would receive money when individuals mark a voluntary check-off on their personal income tax returns. The funds thus received would go to the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), which gives grants to arts programs statewide. The bill, A5384, is currently pending in the Senate.
Similar individual funds set up in other states have brought in millions of dollars. The bill aims to redress in part the severe cuts to NYSCA's budget that have occurred over the last few years. The funds gained through the bill would not diminish NYSCA's current funding in any way. The voluntary contributions would not be tax-deductible, but if the bill is approved by the Senate and signed by Gov. Pataki, the check-off on the tax form would constitute a direct appeal to millions of New Yorkers to donate-even a dollar-to their state's cultural programs. (Back Stage)

This spring the Alvin Ailey School announced TV host Oprah Winfrey's gift of $1 million to establish a scholarship program for dance students. The Oprah Winfrey Foundation has established the Oprah Winfrey Scholars Program, a permanent endowment allowing between 4 and 8 talented students to study at the school each year who otherwise would be unable to afford the tuition. The first auditions for the program took place in Chicago in May.

A new three-year contract agreement (2004-2007) has been reached between American Ballet Theatre’s management, Ballet Theatre Foundation, and the union representing the company’s dancers and stagehands, The Independent Artists of America (IAA). ABT executive director Rachel Moore said the new contract would allow the company to “provide the dancers with wage increases while exercising fiscal restraint.” IAA vice president Lori R. Wekselblatt concurred, saying, “We believe this agreement includes significant improvements in economic and non-economic areas, while allowing the new leadership of the Company the time to implement ideas for the future.”

The new agreement covers wages, benefits and working conditions for American Ballet Theatre’s roster of 90 dancers and three stage managers. ABT dancers and stage managers were members of the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) until 1994, when dissatisfaction with the union’s lack of support for dancers led them to form their own union, the IAA. Among the benefits ABT dancers have won for themselves over the years are vacation pay, dental insurance, a job security clause, and the right to refuse to cross picket lines.

Americans for the Arts, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group, has announced a new million-dollar initiative to involve individual Americans in advocating for the arts and arts education. The effort will use proceeds from the $120 million gift the organization received nearly two years ago from pharmaceutical heiress Ruth Lilly. "There is a policy disconnect between talking about the economic value of the arts in cities and towns, and the public and private investment in the arts," said Robert L. Lynch, the organization’s president. Americans for the Arts hopes to attract 100,000 donors over the next five years.

The Americans for the Arts Action Fund will focus on four areas: communicating with the media and candidates for office; advocacy training at the state and local levels; evaluating members of Congress; and providing a voice for the public. The fund will soon release a Congressional report card highlighting the voting records of members of the House of Representatives on important arts legislation. And in November, the organization will launch a national membership campaign designed to encourage Americans to join and support the fund.

American arts funding is undeniably in bad shape: 40 percent of all funding for state arts councils has been eliminated in the past two years, while the arts’ share of private giving in the past decade has declined by more than 40 percent. Americans for the Arts wants to help reverse those trends.

The fourth annual BAXten Arts and Artists in Progress Awards, which debuted as part of BAX’s tenth anniversary in 2001, will be awarded to seven individuals in a ceremony on November 4. The awards are designed “to honor individuals in the arts who have revealed and transformed our creative world. By instigating and enduring change they have deepened the definition of their field and paved the way for others.” Each award recipient then chooses, in turn, an individual or organization exemplifying those same criteria to receive a Passing It On Award, a cash award to assist them in their work. The 2004 BAXten awardees are: Clarinda Mac Low and Elizabeth Streb (artists); Maurine Knighton and Craig Peterson (arts management); Sister Kwayera Archer-Cunningham and Joan Finkelstein (arts educators); and Liz Koch (honorary). The awards will take place at the International Center for Tolerance Education, 25 Washington Street, in Dumbo, Brooklyn, at 8:00 p.m. For more information, or to reserve tickets for the event, call (718) 832-0018 or see BAX’s website at www.bax.org.

Impresario and former dancer Paul Szilard will be honored by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in a tribute on December 23, as part of the company’s City Center season in New York. Szilard has represented the company for 35 years, for 30 years as its exclusive international representative. Born in Budapest, Szilard became a U.S. citizen in the 1950s. He performed internationally as a principal dancer with Nora Kaye, Colette Marchand, Sonia Arova, and others. As an impresario, he has presented such companies as AAADT, NYCB, ABT, Martha Graham Dance Company, Dancers of Bali, Madrid’s Ballet Ullate, and Universal Ballet. Internationally, Szilard has been responsible for many celebrated cultural events, including the first Japanese tour of West Side Story with an American cast. He has also presented many internationally acclaimed artists, including Mikhail Baryshnikov, Erik Bruhn, Judith Jamison, John Taras, and Violette Verdy. His autobiography, Under My Wings: My Life as an Impresario, was published in 2001.

The Metropolitan Opera’s Saturday afternoon live broadcasts are the longest running cultural program in American broadcast history. Since the broadcasts started on Christmas Day in 1931, with a performance of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, only three people have been the “voice of the Met”: the stentorian Milton Cross held the job for 44 years, while the light baritone Peter Allen retired in May after 29 years. (Lloyd Moss has substituted twice.) Now WNYC classical music host Margaret Juntwait, who has been serving as one of several on-call backups to Allen for the last four years, will take over the role, starting December 11 with a broadcast of Verdi’s Vespri Siciliani. The Met says more than 10 million people hear each live Saturday broadcast, which is carried by around 360 stations in the U.S. and other countries. The broadcast’s continuing survival, however, is by no means assured. Last year longtime sponsor ChevronTexaco withdrew its support; Texaco (bought by Chevron in 2000) had backed the broadcasts since 1940. The Met launched a “Save the Met Broadcasts” appeal to the public, which thus far has raised about $10.6 million of the $150 million the opera house hopes to raise from individuals, corporations, and foundations over the next five years. (New York Times)

In May, Dance Theater of Harlem reported a deficit of $2.3 million. On September 21, DTH was expected to announce that it plans to lay off all 44 of its dancers through the end of the fiscal year, June 2005, as a result of its financial troubles. The company’s dance school in Harlem will continue to operate. DTH similarly laid off its dancers for six months in 1990, when it was forced to reorganize its finances by a projected deficit of $1.7 million. The dancers will open City Center’s “Fall for Dance Festival” on September 28 as scheduled, with a performance of George Balanchine’s Agon, but the company’s season at Washington’s Kennedy Center in late January has been canceled. (New York Times)

On September 17, the 20th Annual New York Dance and Performance Awards, otherwise known as The Bessies, were awarded by Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project, the Joyce Theater, and the 2004 Bessies Committee for exceptional achievements during the 2003-2004 season. Established in 1983, the Bessies honor outstanding creative work by independent artists in the fields of dance and related performance in New York City.
Choreographer/Creator Awards went to Jonathan Burrows and Matteo Fargion (Both Sitting Duet at the Kitchen); Deborah Hay (The Match at Danspace Project); Ohad Naharin (Anaphasa at the Lincoln Center Festival); Justin Bond and Kenny Mellman (Kiki & Herb); Koosil-ja Hwang (Mech(a)/Body of Work at The Nest in DUMBO); Sasha Pepelyaev and Peeter Jalakas (The Swan Lake at Dance Theater Workshop); Kenneth King (Sustained Achievement); and William Forsythe (Sustained Achievement with Ballett Frankfurt). The Installation and New Media Award went to Deborah Warner for The Angel Project at the Lincoln Center Festival.
Performer Awards went to Arcell Cabuag in the work of Ronald K. Brown; Holley Farmer for Sustained Achievement with Merce Cunningham Dance Company; Christine McMillan for Body of Work with Ben Munisteri; Megumi Eda in Karole Armitage's Time Is the Echo of an Axe Within a Wood; Scott Shepherd in the Wooster Group's Poor Theater; and Lisa Viola for Sustained Achievement with the Paul Taylor Dance Company.
The Composer Award went to Philip Hamilton for his body of work. Visual Design Awards went to Brenda Gray for Lighting Design of Ronald K. Brown's Joyce Theater concert; Christophe Draeger for Set Design of Miguel Gutierrez's dAMNATION rOAD; Kathy Kaufmann for Body of Work in Lighting Design in the 2003-04 season; and Douglas Stein for Body of Work with Susan Marshall. Special Citations were presented to Mary Anthony for her inspirational teaching; Liz Berger for her advocacy on behalf of the arts to government officials; and to Mark Russell for his curatorial/artistic vision and 20 years of leadership at P.S. 122. The 2nd Annual Time Out New York Dance Audience Award went to Saba Dance Theater for The Four Seasons. The Susan E. Kennedy Award, which recognizes arts workers who have made supporting artists their life's work, was presented to Kathleen Hughes of the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.

American Ballet Theatre announced September 10 that principal Nina Ananiashvili is taking a temporary medical leave, effective immediately. The company has not said what is wrong with her. Ananiashvili will not perform with the company during its fall season at City Center, for which she was scheduled to dance in Les Sylphides, Mozartiana, and two pas de deux. She is scheduled to return to ABT in time for its engagement at the Kennedy Center in February.  

Dance Teacher magazine recently presented modern-dance pioneer Katherine Dunham with a lifetime achievement award, in recognition of her contributions to dance education. Dance Teacher, a monthly publication for dance educators, also featured Dunham on the cover of its September 2004 issue. The 95-year-old Dunham has worked as a dancer, choreographer, director, anthropologist, writer, and teacher. One of the first to introduce Caribbean and African dance forms to the U.S. and Europe, she developed an influential dance technique still taught around the world. She formed her own companies and dance schools, and she choreographed for a range of genres, from Broadway to opera. Today Dunham still teaches an annual Dunham technique seminar at the Katherine Dunham Centers for the Arts and Humanities in East St. Louis, IL. (Back Stage)  

Another step in the long legal battle over Martha Graham's choreographic legacy has come to a close. The Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance announced August 18 that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has overwhelmingly affirmed the District Court's rulings regarding the Center's ownership of Graham's dances, along with related sets and costumes.

The Appellate Court affirmed the trial court's findings: that Graham assigned all dances created before 1956 to the Center; that Graham was an employee of the Center and therefore that works created between 1966 and her death in 1991 were works-for-hire and belonged to the Center; and that related sets and costumes also belonged to the Center. A statement released by artistic directors Christine Dakin and Terese Capucilli said, "Martha deliberately set up the Center and willingly gave her dances to it in return for advantages to her. In this way she was free to focus entirely on creating her art and to safeguard it for the future. Successfully defending ourselves in this legal suit protects Martha's desires to house her art in the place she created for that very purpose. We will honor her art and her desires by keeping vital her great body of work." Seven dances were remanded to the district court for further findings, but the Graham Center and its legal team believe they have ample proof of ownership to satisfy the District Court with respect to those seven dances.

Also affirmed were the Court's findings that photographer, Graham protégé, and ex-artistic director Ron Protas breached his fiduciary duty to the Center and owes damages for licensing fees he inappropriately pocketed. The court stated, "There was evidence that Protas ignored questions that surfaced from several sources about his ownership of the dances, sets, and costumes, and made assertions regarding ownership of these items to the Center's board of directors and to third parties. These assertions were, at best, irresponsibly made, and, at worst, intentionally misleading."  

On July 28 the Juilliard School announced the appointment of seven new faculty members, effective for the 2004–2005 school year, to its music (classical and jazz), dance, and drama divisions, and to its liberal arts department. Renee Marie Baron, a scholar specializing in African American and Caribbean literature and cultural studies, joins the liberal arts department. In music, composer and arranger Richard DeRosa joins the jazz division, Brahms specialist Michael Musgrave joins the graduate division, and theory and piano professor Sharon Gail Levy joins in piano literature. Actress, director, and teacher Jane Nichols, who specializes in physical theater, clown, and Shakespeare, joins the drama division in comedy. In dance, renowned choreographer and Limon dancer Risa Steinberg joins the modern division, and longtime ABT principal Martine van Hamel joins the ballet division.

It has been announced that the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and ballet superstar Mikhail Baryshnikov will each receive the Jerome Robbins Prize, awarded by the Robbins Foundation for excellence in dance arts. The prizes will be awarded in a ceremony at BAM on Wednesday, November 3, 2004, preceding a performance by Ballet Preljocaj. The Jerome Robbins Foundation will present BAM and Baryshnikov with awards of $100,000 each.

Robbins established the Foundation in 1970 with the intent to support dance, theater, and their associative arts. Following the outbreak of AIDS, the choreographer directed the Foundation's resources almost exclusively to addressing the AIDS crisis, but before his death in 1998, he expressed his wish that the Foundation again extend its resources to the performing arts. In 1995, Jerome Robbins wrote to the directors of his foundation, "I would like there to be established a prize to some truly outstanding person or art institution. The prizes should lean toward the arts of dance and its associative collaborators but not necessarily be defined by that surround." Last year the foundation awarded the first two Robbins Prizes to Jennifer Tipton and the New York City Ballet.

BAM, which opened in 1861, is dedicated to the presentation of progressive, innovative performing, cinema, and media arts. Extensive educational and community programs complete its role as a Brooklyn cultural cornerstone. Mikhail Baryshnikov is currently performing in a new play by Rezo Gabriadze, Forbidden Christmas or The Doctor and the Patient, as part of the Lincoln Center Festival. His Baryshnikov Arts Center, dedicated to the development of new and experimental work, is scheduled to open in January 2005.

Fred Ebb, one half of the legendary Broadway team of Kander and Ebb, died September 11 of a heart attack, aged 76. Lyricist Fred Ebb and composer John Kander had one of the longest-running collaborations in the history of American musical theater, with a dozen different musicals over nearly 40 years. The creators of Cabaret and Chicago, they were known for their embrace of risky subject matter and their ability to fuse sharp lyrics (with often pointedly political undertones) with catchy, hummable melodies. Ebb also provided the words to many standards, such as the song “New York, New York,” from Martin Scorsese’s 1977 film of the same title. Born on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Ebb graduated with a BA from NYU and an MA in English literature from Columbia, then held a series of odd jobs. In the late 1950s Ebb began working for a songwriter named Philip Springer. Several artistic collaborations later, Ebb and Kander were introduced in 1963 by a music publisher with which both men had signed. The two men began writing songs together for every possible outlet: cabaret showcases, nightclub acts, the pop charts. Their first Broadway musical was 1965’s Flora, the Red Menace, starring a teenage Liza Minnelli. The show lasted only three months, but the following year Kander and Ebb’s Cabaret, about a nightclub in Weimar Germany, won eight Tony Awards, including best composer and lyricist. Less-successful shows followed, but in 1975 the team struck gold with another tricky story, this time about glamorous murderesses: Chicago, directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse, starred Chita Rivera, Gwen Verdon, and Jerry Orbach. (Last year’s movie version of the show won a Best Picture Oscar.) Other successes were Woman of the Year (1981) and Kiss of the Spider Woman (1993), which both won Tonys for best score. At the time of Ebb’s death, the pair was revising Over and Over, based on Thornton Wilder’s play The Skin of Our Teeth. Their last completed musical, The Visit, with a book by Terrence McNally, premiered in Chicago in 2001. (New York Times)

updated on 9/17/04

Leading Limón dancer and teacher Carlos Orta died suddenly of a heart attack on May 15, aged 60. He was outside the Limón studios on Broadway and Houston in Manhattan at the time. Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Orta trained in dance at the Scola Cantorum in Paris and with Pina Bausch at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen, Germany. In 1979 he joined the José Limón company. A dancer of great dramatic intensity, he danced lead roles in much of the Limón repertory, including Othello in The Moor's Pavane, and in works by Susanna Linke and Donald McKayle. His choreography, which often drew from Venezuelan folk themes, won awards at the International Academy of Dance in Cologne and was performed by the Limón company, the Netherlands Dance Theater, and companies in Germany, Colombia, and Venezuela. He founded and directed Corearte Dance Company of Venezuela, based in Caracas, and he taught at colleges like Long Island University and Manhattanville College. In 1985 Orta received the Prize of Dance from the Venezuelan government. (New York Times)

updated on 9/17/04