Good Morning:
Yesterday seemed like a day when the institutional accounting catches up with everyone. The Buffalo AKG’s Janne Sirén is stepping down, three months after the museum’s six-figure home loan to him became public (ARTnews). A Palm Springs Art Museum whistleblower alleges shuffled funds and a forced-out director (ARTnews). Louisville Ballet’s Leslie Smart departs on better terms, having pulled the company back from post-COVID extinction with $18.5 million in fundraising (Louisville Courier Journal).
The numbers behind the people don’t help. Boston’s mayor wants to cut the city arts budget by 27 percent (Boston Art Review). Hampshire College, closing its doors, is selling off its campus to pay down $25 million in debt (MassLive). Chicago’s biggest arts presenters are pleading with Illinois lawmakers to outlaw “ghost tickets” — speculative listings sold for seats that may never materialize (WBEZ).
On the building-rather-than-shrinking side: Oxford’s new Schwarzman Centre stitches seven humanities faculties together with a 500-seat hall, a black-box theater, and a museum of historic instruments (The Guardian). Someone, somewhere, is still pouring foundations.
Lastly – don’t miss my attempt to measure the size of the non-profit arts world next to commercial culture. The numbers are revealing. (Diacritical)
All of our stories below.
