Finally, A Move That Makes Sense

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

It may not be the first agreement of its kind, but the new partnership between Carnegie Hall and New York City Center does have a notable distinction: Rarely does something make so much sense.


With four theaters between them, these two organizations are poised to bring new energy to and understanding between the performing arts.


Under the terms of the agreement, the two houses will work together yet separately. They will create a 25-member Partnership Board of Trustees, with members from each organization’s board in the leadership. The president of the partnership will be Clive Gillinson, currently the executive and artistic director of Carnegie Hall. Arlene Shuler, president and CEO of City Center, will serve as the executive vice president.


Each organization will remain its own entity, with its own central mission, staff, board, subscribers, and 501(c)(3) status. “In lots of ways, much of what we do will remain about our core activities,” Mr. Gillinson said.


What the partnership creates is the capacity for educational efforts, co-produced projects, such as thematic festivals, and complementary programming. “It adds a monumental dimension,” Mr. Gillinson said. “Some of the big ideas one has are bigger than one art form. This allows audiences to get the big picture. They can travel across the art forms.”


Indeed, if the partnership functions as it should, audiences will have much to look forward to. The possibilities in cross-programming and co-productions could challenge Lincoln Center as a locus for music, theater, and dance.


As Mr. Gillinson put it in the press release: “Imagine a thematic festival that can draw simultaneously on newly commissioned music, dance, and theater works, with performances by symphony orchestras, dance companies, poets, theater companies, chamber ensembles, and recitalists, all in a coherently conceived festival with robust, complementary educational programs.”


The idea of focusing so many resources on one effort suggests that New York would have new major performing arts events. Festivals devoted to specific composers, time periods, or ideas could be presented in depth. It could also mean richer programming in smaller ways, too.


If American Ballet Theatre, which has an annual season in the fall at City Center, were to announce plans to dance “Les Sylphides,” Carnegie Hall could book an orchestra to play an evening of Chopin. The houses could market tickets together, giving the audience the chance to hear the music one night and see the dance with the music later.


Education and outreach efforts can also be expanded by the power of the two groups. Mr. Gillinson points out that while Carnegie Hall’s mission is to present the best in music, “in parallel to that is the commitment to education, to everybody’s right to have music as part of their life.”


The partnership board is weighted in favor of Carnegie Hall, the larger institution. It has 14 board members to City Center’s eight (plus three outside directors). But it is City Center that will feel the most immediate and dramatic benefit. The first major project is a major and much-needed renovation of the center’s hall, which is expected to begin in 2007. “This new partnership board will help us raise the $150 million,” Ms. Shuler said.


That this is the first priority is no accident. It was during the process of thinking through the renovations that the idea of reaching out to Carnegie Hall came about.


“[City Center] did a feasibility study to look at renovations,” Ms. Shuler said. “One of the concepts was to use our through-block to put the box office there. That would give us an entrance on 56th Street.”


And that put her and the board in mind of a neighbor down the lane that might be able to help: “We are right across the street from Carnegie Hall.”


A careful diplomatic effort ensued, with members of both boards discussing the possibilities. As the idea took hold, Ms. Shuler and Mr. Gillinson hammered out the details. “The board was very involved. Clive and I talked a lot,” Ms. Shuler said.


Both executives report that their staffs and boards greeted the news with approval. “Everybody sees what the potential is,” Mr. Gillinson said.


The agreement is certainly less of a head-scratcher than the proposed merger of Carnegie Hall and the New York Philharmonic, which was scuttled in 2003. Mr. Gillinson – who came to Carnegie Hall in July after serving as managing director of the London Symphony Orchestra – was not yet in his current post when those talks took place. His view, though, is that the situation is barely comparable.


“It’s in a completely different territory. Every discussion was purely about music,” he said. “There aren’t territories where we’re going to have to give way on things. Everything we do is complementary.”


In terms of the development of New York’s cultural spaces, the move could have a long-term impact. This partnership keeps money, leadership talent, and audiences for the performing arts further entrenched uptown – as opposed to downtown at a notional cultural center within the new World Trade Center site.


With every year in which nothing happens there, other venues improve and grow. City Center’s renovations may be complete, and their audience reinforced, by 2008. There is also the chance that the partnership here may lead to a domino effect: Other organizations might link up.


Whatever the larger implications, the key is that the public is the big winner. These organizations have ambitious, active boards; clear-thinking, creative leaders; and very different strengths, all of which improves the quality and frequency of what can be presented on stage. Endeavors like this shore up New York’s reputation as the nation’s artistic capital.


The New York Sun

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