World Theatre Day is Friday March 27th!

What are your local theatres doing? What can you do to celebrate?

http://www.artsjournal.com/dramaqueen/2009/03/march-27-will-mark-world.html

Broadway is doing well in the recession

So, this is defeating my logic of ticket purchasing patterns (high priced tickets will suffer -- movies and easy entry will do well).

http://www.backstage.com/bso/news_reviews/film/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003953504

What are your purchasing patterns? Your limits? Your exceptions?

Facility Analysis

So, I was reading my arts journal blogs and found a perfect example of a statement of experience + analysis in an blog addressing the lobby of Alice Tully Hall:
http://www.artsjournal.com/lifesapitch/2009/03/lobbyist.html#comments

The expectation of the average audience member seems to be high. Much higher than ten years ago when all you might want is a wine or a bag of chips at intermission (maybe a soft couch to sit on . . .).

If you have a public space in the 21st century -- it is simply common courtesy to offer wireless access, ambient music, food and beverage, and an opportunity to people-watch. Within those parameters, how do the Baltimore/Washington performing arts organization fare in comparison?

Imagination Stage has: a toy store, a cafe, free wifi, a plazmazine of what's coming and examples of students productions from the past, several tables and a round couch area. Not too bad :-)

What? We need arts in public schools? For real?

So I was invited to join a cause on facebook this weekend, and I was looking through the page of what the administrators posted, and I stumbled upon this page from Americans for the Arts telling of the new initiatives they are taking to promote the arts in public schools. I am very passionate about the fact that arts classes need to stay vital in public schools right now, despite whatever economic pressures we are facing. We can all say yes, kids who are in arts classes are more likely to excel in things like math and science, for all those close minded parents who dont believe that the arts are important because it is important for kids to be exposed to the arts, but I'm sure that we can all agree that without our arts classes in high school we would not be where we are today.

http://www.americansforthearts.org/public_awareness/default.asp

here is the link for the Americans for the Arts new public awareness campaign.

Local Economies

How might the arts participate in some of these locally focused economic stimulus models? You might take a moment and look up the Federal Theatre Project to get some ideas.

Read the article here.

What is a service organization?

As you are preparing for tomorrow's class -- here is a preview to our topic: Arts Service Organizations.