Andrew Taylor on the Business of Arts & Culture
www.artsjournal.com/artfulmanager/

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Support the contents or the box?
  Posted: December 4, 2007
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In recent years, far too much public money has gone on capital projects and keeping the lavatories working in subsidised theatres, and far too little into the work that actually goes on stage. An empty theatre is just a building and nothing more, and if that building is not fit for 21st century theatrical purpose, then why not turn it into something else?....

If we have to make choices between putting public money into bricks and mortar or into making art and nurturing the next generation of artists, I know where I want it to go.

The challenge, of course, is that both sides are right. The contents (at least in their current form) need a box. And the box needs content. The trick is finding a resource balance -- from earned, contributed, and public funds -- that grows the two together.