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For What It's Worth

Michael Rushton on pricing the arts

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Should opera companies just slash their ticket prices? Updated with responses to comments

September 4, 2024 by Michael Rushton 5 Comments

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Opera Philadelphia is radically cutting their prices (the article is paywalled, but you get 6 months of the Inquirer for a buck, which is not a very high wall): In the first 48 hours after unveiling its new “pick your price” ticket program Tuesday morning, Opera Philadelphia sold 5,876 tickets — an extraordinary response that has fueled company hopes that it could sell out the season. “Just seeing what the numbers are was very, very moving to me, because for my entire career in … [Read more...]

Does it matter if the subsidized arts are mostly attended by the well-off? (updated)

July 24, 2024 by Michael Rushton 1 Comment

I have a new paper out, “The pursuit of equality through public funding for the arts”, in Innovating Institutions and Inequities in the Arts, edited by Joanna Woronkowicz and Doug Noonan.1 To explain what it is about, let me start with a completely different policy field: reducing the use of fossil fuels. Here is the abstract from a working paper from the NBER released just a week ago, by Severin Borenstein and Lucas Davis, “The distributional effects of U.S. tax credits for heat pumps, solar panels, and electric … [Read more...]

On the Florida Arts Funding Cuts: Beyond the Fringe

July 3, 2024 by Michael Rushton 2 Comments

Last week Florida governor Ron DeSantis vetoed $32 million in arts funding, which in that state is managed and allocated by the Division of Arts and Culture. The Miami Herald reports: Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday cited “sexual” festivals in Orlando and Tampa as the reason he vetoed more than $32 million in arts funding across Florida this month. “You have your tax dollars being given in grants to things like the Fringe Festival, which is like a sexual festival where they’re doing all this stuff,” DeSantis said during a news … [Read more...]

Arts presenters need to show some spine

May 13, 2024 by Michael Rushton Leave a Comment

In class I’ve told students I don’t like the phrase “cancel culture” since it is never quite clear what the speaker means by it. But arts presenters keep going around cancelling artists, and so I might need to rethink my stance on this. The art museum on my own campus cancelled a long-planned art exhibit by Palestinian artist (and Indiana University alumna) Samia Halaby on the grounds that she is an activist for the rights of Palestinians (the official IU line was that this was about “security”, which not a single person on this … [Read more...]

Why Public Funding for the Arts: A Personal View

April 18, 2024 by Michael Rushton Leave a Comment

I wrote a book looking at how different ways of moral and political theorizing drew different conclusions regarding whether the state should, or should not, subsidize the arts. At the very end of the book I give something of a personal view. There is a review circulating that is terribly confused about this (I won’t link - I read it so you don’t have to), and so I thought it would be worthwhile to just put out there what I wrote in this short conclusion, edited for brevity. First, to make a claim for public funding for the arts it is … [Read more...]

On the high price of West End tickets

March 6, 2024 by Michael Rushton Leave a Comment

The Guardian has a new editorial up about how the price of a theatre ticket in London is too darn high. I imagine it would be possible to write a similar piece about theatre in any big North American city as well. But it makes some questionable claims and assumptions, so, here we go… “Theatre’s in a perilous state. My wife went the other day, it cost her nearly £200 – who could afford that?” asked the actor David Harewood. Well, for a start … your wife? Not to be (too) flippant about this, but a necessary condition for any … [Read more...]

Today in dynamic pricing

February 27, 2024 by Michael Rushton 1 Comment

I have a chapter on dynamic pricing in my old book. In a nutshell: dynamic pricing is where the seller adjusts the current price upwards or downwards based upon the most recent information on market conditions. This is not the same as a cinema having discount Tuesdays, since it will offer that each week as a result of known factors about the demand for tickets. Dynamic pricing is where you make changes on the go, where the price change might be up or down, depending. I suggested in the book that while airlines and hotels are pretty good at … [Read more...]

Museums are not like highways

February 14, 2024 by Michael Rushton 1 Comment

In a New York Times op-ed, Laura Raicovich and Laura Hanna call for a generous increase in the way the government, in particular the federal government, funds arts institutions: As policymakers in Washington gather to draft a new budget for fiscal year 2025, they could solve culture’s current financial crisis and radically reshape how we think about sustaining the arts. They could do this by tapping into abundant appropriations that already enjoy bipartisan support. To make this possible, first we need to stop treating museums, theaters and … [Read more...]

Economic impact / Job creation arguments for public policy are terrible, episode 647.

October 26, 2023 by Michael Rushton Leave a Comment

Reasonable people can disagree on the amount of military support the US ought to give to Ukraine. But no reasonable person can think that the costs of this are actually benefits in terms of spending and US job creation. The benefit to the public of the arts is the arts, not the money that we spend on the arts. The benefit to the public of aid to Ukraine is the aid to Ukraine, not the money that was spent on providing that aid. … [Read more...]

On elites, and public subsidies for the high arts

October 18, 2023 by Michael Rushton Leave a Comment

We had a lively and sometimes contentious discussion earlier today - it will appear on YouTube at some point, I will post it then. In the meantime, a condensed version... … [Read more...]

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Michael Rushton

Michael Rushton taught in the Arts Administration programs at Indiana University, and lives in Bloomington. An economist by training, he has published widely on such topics as public funding of the … MORE

About For What It’s Worth

What’s the price? Everything has one; admission, subscriptions, memberships, special exhibitions, box seats, refreshments, souvenirs, and on and on – a full menu. What the price is matters. Generally, nonprofit arts organizations in the US receive about half of their revenue as “earned income,” and … [Read More...]

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Recent Comments

  • antonio c. cuyler on Should we subsidize arts consumers, art producers, or neither?: “As a form of indirect funding, the federal government has equitably afforded all cultural nonprofits tax exemption and the ability…” Jul 5, 14:16
  • Paul Kassel on Should we subsidize arts consumers, art producers, or neither?: “I think the goal of public art policy is the creation of art by, for, and of the people. Resources…” Jul 3, 07:24
  • Carlo on What to do with the NEA? Make it Conservative?: “The Kennedy Center is offering $25 tickets in only select orchestra seating for the performances of Washington National Opera: Porgy…” May 20, 14:17
  • Carlo on Art in Turbulent Times: “The Kennedy Center today is selling discounted tickets for the Washington Opera for $20.” May 1, 21:31
  • Montague Gammon III on Art in Turbulent Times: “We would like to think that a Trumped Kennedy Center would experience a significant downturn in attendance, but we should…” Apr 22, 05:51
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