Michael Kaiser, president of the Kennedy Center,  celebrated mastermind of the financial turnarounds of the Royal Opera, American Ballet Theatre the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, has some interesting advice for arts organizations in our current troubled times. His ideas take on a strong resonance, La Cieca thinks, when applied to our big New York opera companies:

“My fear is that so many arts organizations are as a first resort cutting programming … but I like it to be a last resort, because when you cut programming you are basically becoming less competitive for the money that does exist. When there’s less money to be given to the arts, you have to compete harder, not less hard.”

Kaiser continues:

“What I see as the big crisis is how arts organizations respond to the economy … My fear is that so many arts organizations are as a first resort cutting programming … but I like it to be a last resort, because when you cut programming you are basically becoming less competitive for the money that does exist. When there’s less money to be given to the arts, you have to compete harder, not less hard ….

“Arts organizations that do that are in danger of having even less, suffering more and recovering slower … I see a lot of press being written about now’s the time to do accessible work, and I couldn’t disagree more. The press loses interest, the public loses interest and I don’t see that as a smart response ….

“When you do daring, interesting work, that’s what energizes a community….

“I believe in something we call institutional marketing … to get people excited about the organization …That means really exciting artistic projects; it means finding one’s way into the press …. A lot of arts organizations feel like they don’t have the time or energy to do that kind of work, but I think it’s essential.”