In Friday’s (5/28) Los Angeles Times, Mike Boehm writes, “David Sefton has resigned after nearly 10 years as executive and artistic director of UCLA Live, the diverse performing arts series that brings leading dance, classical music, jazz, world and pop music and touring theater companies to the campus. He said Thursday that he quit in response to ‘a major rethinking and restructuring’ of the program that his bosses at UCLA’s School of the Arts and Architecture are undertaking in response to ‘increasing fiscal pressures’ brought on by the poor economy and the state’s fiscal woes. He said he resigned in a meeting Monday with Christopher Waterman, dean of the arts and architecture school. … Waterman said Thursday that ticket sales had plummeted the last two seasons, and changes were needed to keep the series solvent. He blamed the decline on the poor economy. Before the recession hit, Waterman said, UCLA Live was selling more than 100,000 tickets per season and earning about $5 million. But attendance dropped to 64,000, and then to 58,000 in the just-concluded 2009-10 season.”
Posted May 28, 2010
