In Sunday’s (3/25) New York Times, Larry Rohter reports, “European governments are cutting their support for culture, and American arts lovers are starting to feel the results. In Italy, the world-famous opera house La Scala faces a $9 million shortfall because of reductions in subsidies. In the Netherlands, government financing for arts programs has been cut by 25 percent. Portugal has abolished its Ministry of Culture. Europe’s economic problems, and the austerity programs meant to address them, are forcing arts institutions there to curtail programs, tours and grants. As a result, some ensembles are scaling down their productions and trying to raise money from private donors, some in the United States, potentially putting them in competition with American arts organizations. … For artists and administrators in Europe, such changes are deeply disquieting, even revolutionary. In contrast to the United States, Europe has embraced a model that views culture not as a commodity, in which market forces determine which products survive, but as a common legacy to be nurtured and protected, including art forms that may lack mass appeal. … As they scramble to stay afloat, affected institutions in Europe are also cultivating private donors anywhere they can be found. But with little experience with, or understanding of, that kind of fund-raising, they often turn for advice to the American institutions with which they have built longstanding affiliations.”
Posted March 26, 2012
