wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

On Demand

Program Schedule

Topics

Soundcheck / April 10, 2008 / Orchestra Loses Bank Support

Orchestra Loses Bank Support

Thursday, April 10, 2008

UBS, the giant Swiss bank, has withdrawn its support of an elite Swiss orchestra. Amid a shaky economic climate, should other arts organizations be concerned? Joining us are New York Times reporter Daniel J. Wakin and Andrew Taylor, who writes the “Artful Manager” blog on Artsjournal and who heads the arts administration MBA program at the University of Wisconsin.


Comments

  • [1] hugh from Manhattan April 10, 2008 - 02:17PM

    Corporate support of the arts will inevitably suffer when the economy goes bad. I wonder what percentage of UBS profits its support of the orchestra represents?

    Also, Dan, do a double banana and go long.


  • [2] Joe Naturale from Rockland County April 10, 2008 - 02:18PM

    I don't know about corporate support, but I can tell you that popular support for the arts is waning. I sing and play the guitar on the street in tourist areas like Nyack with my guitar case open fo tips. People are less generous this year than last. I'm getting fewer dollar bills and a lot more loose change. The trend of diminishing popular support for the arts may correlate to same trend in the business sector.
  • [3] Amelia April 10, 2008 - 02:20PM

    I toured with the Verbier Orchestra for a few years, and one of the surreal, striking things, was how they treated us like VIPs, especially when folks from UBS were on tour with us. We stayed in 5-star hotels and ate at "the best" places all the time. It always made me feel funny to look around at all the musicians and imagine where we'd be eating and sleeping a month later. Maybe UBS could have saved a couple bucks on us and saved for the future!

    CLassical music is too embedded with corporate money. I think we could all take a page from Barack Obama's playbook and try to get people of ALL income levels involved.
  • [4] Jennifer Wright Cook from Brooklyn April 10, 2008 - 02:27PM

    I just hope that UBS gave the orchestra enough lead time to warn them of the upcoming funding loss; and maybe even an "exit grant" as Altria/Philip Morris did in NYC with most of its multi-year support. Hopefully UBS' philanthropy was respectful and responsible enough to do this.


  • [5] Tom from Cooper Sq., Manhattan April 10, 2008 - 02:34PM

    Here's the invariant arts organization funding equasion:

    Talent > Performance (sales)> subscribers > connoisseurs (advocates with access to donors, often Board Members) > Grants (NYSCA, NEH) > Donor-sponsors > Commercial Patrons > Accumulate endowments > keep expenses controlled.

    This is simple map of both strategic and tactical planning for all non-profits that work for the arts. Each organization needs some disciplined professional help with this, and can benefit from becoming acquainted with the Foundation Libraries.

    Every part of this equasion is subject to periodic failure. A backup tactical plan is needed in each element. When there's catastrophic failure in one area, the arts org must shift to build up another area so as to meet survival needs.

    Ciao, T

This thread is closed.


Back to Episode