The next gen of arts patrons
Plus, the recipients of the National Endowment for the Arts's latest round of grants.
Last year, I saw 54 dance performances, four operas, and most likely thousands of works of art in-person. This is how I like to spend my time when I can: observing the results of ideas and efforts and doubtlessly endless drafts, away from the confines of a screen.
I could write a screed here, which I fear would end up sounding glib, about my inherent belief in the continued importance of arts in these uncertain times et cetera et cetera.
Instead I will say that I strongly believe that time spent taking in a live performance or beholding a painting in the flesh is never time wasted, and that doing so is one of the best methods to affirm a bit of hope within you or feel connected to the people around you—even the strangers sitting in front of you in a theater. I am still riding the high of Gillian Murphy’s final Swan Lake performance in July and how invigorated I felt to witness something spectacular with a sea of other people who, just like me, couldn’t really believe what they were seeing.
This newsletter will continue to be a place for us to follow the comings and goings in the world of arts and culture, centering, always, this core belief: that the arts are essential to our humanity and, as such, a vital part of our fast-changing world.
The Metropolitan Opera is courting its next generation(s) of patrons. Last year, it trimmed its Julie Taymor-directed, English-language version of Mozart’s The Magic Flute to a tight 90 minutes, no intermission, the New York Times reported. The opera—which traditionally runs around three hours—is the Met’s annual holiday-season appeal to kids, though it keeps evolving. Not only was this most recent production the shortest its ever been—it also included a 6-7 reference for all the Gen-Alpha attendees.
For the past decade, this strategy has worked. The Met told the NYT that in that time span, the production has averaged an 85 percent paid audience (just under the notable 87 percent it saw for its successful Kavalier & Clay run).
The Magic Flute isn’t explicitly billed as a production for kids (when I attended two years ago, I, having not paid all that much attention when buying cheap tickets, discovered only during the show that it was in English and had no intermission). But aside from these aims of artistic accessibility, there also lies this fact: it is staggeringly cheaper than New York City Ballet’s The Nutcracker next door. (Compare a family circle ticket around $30 to $40 to one around $120 to $150).
Of course, to bolster its audiences, the Met needs to court more than just Gen Alpha and their millennial and Gen X parents. That’s why it recently invited about 70 influencers, with the help of influencer marketing firm Relay, to enjoy a night at the opera, the New York Times also reported. Together, they have a combined audience of around 16 million people. Some influencers were paid, while others were simply invited to a show—with no content guidelines given or coverage required.
The most high profile of these influencers? Taryn Delanie Smith and Tiffani Singleton of the “We’re Your Girls” podcast, who filmed an episode in the opera house, got to wear costumes from Met productions, and who attended (and promoted) the Met’s much-anticipated New Year’s Eve premiere of its new production of Bellini’s I Puritani (which has gotten pretty great reviews, particularly for its star-quality singers).
The opera subreddit is skeptical of this move, but honestly, I think it’s right on the mark. The influencers’ content, the NYT notes, is “a far cry from a critic pointing out an ill-conceived plot line, an orchestra struggling to keep pace or a missed note.” That could sell seats.
By now, I am sure you have seen what the Trump administration has done to the performing arts venue formerly known as the Kennedy Center. (If not, it’s that it changed its name to the “Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts”).
Well, it turns out that the Center changed its board rules months ago in May, which now state that only trustees appointed by the president can vote on decisions—barring the input of congressional board members, the Washington Post reported exclusively. This could conflict with the Center’s charter, as an act of Congress did establish the Kennedy Center in 1958 with the National Cultural Center Act (signed by President Eisenhower). It does seem, however, like there is a lot of confusion among these board members about what voting rights they had before this change was even made. Basically, this story is far from over, especially as several members of Congress have vowed to use various legal measures to fight against this name change.
In the meantime…more and more performers are pulling out of their slated Kennedy Center shows. Drummer Chuck Redd canceled a Christmas Eve performance, the dance company Doug Varone and Dancers pulled out an April show, and the jazz group The Cookeres also withdrew from a New Year’s Eve performance. The banjoist Randy Barrett, who has a Kennedy Center show in January, however, told the Associated Press that he disagrees with these decisions, and that “our tribalized country needs more music and art, not less. It’s one of the few things that can bring us together.”
As we have previously discussed, attendance at the Center is down across the board. The Kennedy Center’s musicians weighed in on the state of things in their latest bulletin, Slipped Disc reported:
When we come together as a community in support of art and music, we choose connection. The energy of a full concert hall empowers artists and audiences alike—the audience isn’t just observing — they’re an essential partner that makes a performance come alive. Music has always been a force for unity and connection and we remain committed to that ideal.
We are grateful to our audience who continues to support the arts, who is present to relish the same fine music-making they have always valued, and who helps ensure the longevity of the arts institutions of the Kennedy Center.
All eyes are on the Tate as the museum searches for its next director, after longtime head Maria Balshaw will officially step down in the spring. The stakes for her replacement are pretty high: an anonymous employee, who was involved in a recent strike, told the Museums Association that the institution was facing an “existential crisis.” A Tate spokesperson told the outlet that this year, employees will see a three-percent pay increase for most roles, while directors will see a zero percent increase. Two our of three of the unions that represent workers at the Tate have accepted the pay increases, and negotiations are ongoing.
The Times’s chief art critic, Rachel Campbell-Johnston, proposes there is a bigger issue at hand: the Tate, she says, just can’t compete with the bigger museums in Europe and the U.S. in terms of its collection. And while Balshaw has had a number of wins—expanding the Tate’s membership to 150,000, staging some blockbuster shows, and standing firm in the resolution to not accept oil money (compared to the British Museum’s reliance on BP)—the four-museum institution is indisputably struggling.
People are also mad at the British Museum for its long-term loan program, through which it will loan artifacts with former British colonies for up to three years, Artnet reported. As we have discussed before, the British Museum has a lot more red tape and restrictions when it comes to loans compared to, say, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which in recent years has joined the push to repatriate looted art and artifacts.
The British Museum, of course, has such a reputation for looted items that it has dedicated a webpage to its “contested objects,” the most famous of which are the Parthenon Marbles and the Benin Bronzes.
Speaking with The Telegraph, British Museum director Nicholas Cullinan called the new loan program an act of “cultural diplomacy” and added: “When we lend objects from the British Museum’s collection, things that come from Britain, back to their source, it can be incredibly powerful, it can be incredibly enlightening.” In December, the museum loaned 80 artifacts to Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya.
In an op-ed published in Hyperallergic, academic Emiline Smith, whose research focuses on the trafficking of cultural and natural resources, decried the program, writing:
Long-term loans are not restitution. They do not acknowledge historical wrongdoing, nor do they restore agency to source communities. Instead, they reinforce a museum’s claim of ownership over objects it has no moral (and often legal) right to possess. Under this model, formerly colonized nations must ask permission to temporarily access their own heritage, accept conditions dictated by a British institution, and bear the financial and logistical burdens of care, while the museum retains ultimate control.
She added that, if the museum really cared about decolonization, “it would use its considerable influence to advocate for legislative change rather than clinging to outdated laws.”
Some better museum news: Guggenheim Bilbao scrapped its plans to build a satellite location in Spain’s protected Urdaibai biosphere reserve after a vote by the museum’s board of trustees, ArtNews reports. The project faced opposition, particularly from environmental groups, since the Guggenheim Foundation first began exploring the expansion in 2008.
Also, last month, Libya reopened its national museum, 14 years after the fall of dictator Muammar Gaddafi. The museum’s former head of antiquities, Mustafa Turjman, told The Guardian that he hoped the reopened collections would help inspire the country, which remains politically divided in two governments, eastern and western. “The most important thing is teaching the mind,” he said. “Teaching how to respect time and history, and how to respect others, and to be involved in the world.”
It will be very interesting to see where Yuval Sharon goes once he leaves the Detroit Opera, where he has served as artistic director since 2020, at the end of the 2026 season. The primary reason he’s cutting his contract short? The company just doesn’t have the funding for Sharon to realize his bold—and often avant-garde—artistic visions, the New York Times reported. Those of us in New York, however, have two productions to look forward to: Sharon’s Met debut in March with Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” and his take on the Ring cycle next year.
The NEA grants for “America250” are have been awarded and include recipients such as:
The Montgomery Symphony Association (to “support the world premiere of a new orchestral work by composer Dr. Nkeiru Okoye honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.”)
Flint Institute of Music (to “support a commissioned orchestral fanfare honoring Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette” by composer Jonathan Bailey Holland)
Carolina Ballet (to “support costume costs for performances of George Balanchine’s Stars & Stripes”)
Grand Canyon Chamber Music Festival (to “support the commission of new works of music honoring Chief Joseph, Sitting Bull, and Sacagawea”)
Ballet North Texas (to “support a lecture, demonstration, and performance inspired by Maria Tallchief”)
Dallas Black Dance Theatre (to “support a restaging of ‘Bodies as Site of Faith and Protest,’ set to the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech ‘We Shall Overcome,’ and choreographed by Tommie-Waheed Evans)
and the American String Teachers Association (to “support newly commissioned works for youth choir and string orchestra to celebrate three American women heroes”), among others ▲