The OSO players will be getting a briefing on the state of the orchestra’s finances tomorrow between rehearsals at the hall.  If I’m allowed to share some of that information, I will, but if not, I’ll give a broad-brush, impressionistic version (basically: thumbs-up, thumbs-down, or thumbs-sideways).  My hunch is that we’re going to be ok - the support from our donors and audiences is holding - but that some belt-tightening is going to occur. [Read more →]

Model of the new PATH terminal at the WTC site in NYC.

I was reading the Sept. 1 issue of The New Yorker last night, and came across a profile of the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.  He’s arguably the most in-demand architect in the world right now, with his spectacular bridges, train stations, museums, and concert halls achieving near-instant landmark status upon completion (or sometimes even before).  I was struck by his humble, no-nonsense attitude about what he does, and more specifically, about how his work affects people other than the commissioners or himself:

I like doing [train] stations, because they are the home of everybody, and because you are providing a beautiful moment in the life of people who work so hard; I am not a food producer, I am not a doctor; I am an architect, and I use my work for a sense of philanthropy, and not for any glory…This is a Stoic concept: to stay in the middle, which permits you to be free from the ambitions of the high, and permits you, through your liberty, to deliver something to those who don’t have anything.

Click here for a slideshow of his current and past projects.

Back in the boom years of the dot-com bubble, technology start-ups bloomed like weeds in a vacant lot.  They marketed premises, and sometimes only even just their names, and got tons of funding for just the idea of being something.  We all know what happened to 99% of those corporations.

Here in Portland, we’ve got the opposite problem: we’ve got genuine cultural assets that you can see, hear, touch, and feel.  But there’s not bricks-and-mortar support from the community.  With the exception of the new Gerding Theater at the old Armory (for Portland Center Stage), there has been no new, major, purpose-built cultural building proposed for the Portland area.

Here’s a snippet from an article about the Dallas area and its support for the orchestra and other cultural institutions that I found to be quite telling:

The Dallas Arts District is expanding with two long-awaited new facilities, both designed by international “starchitects.” The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts’ Winspear Opera House, by London’s Foster and Partners, and the Wyly Theatre, by Rem Koolhaas and Joshua Prince-Ramus, are both due to open in fall 2009. A year later, a smaller City Performance Hall will round out a concentration of visual- and performing-arts facilities unmatched anywhere.

“There’s a demonstrated commitment to the arts and culture and quality of life,” Mr. Adams says of Dallas, “and it’s demonstrated in a physical sense in the Meyerson Symphony Center, where the DSO plays, being one of the finest concert halls in America. The new buildings next door are further evidence of that commitment. The idea of Dallas being a can-do city is not just PR.”

It’s time for Portland to step up and support a major, purpose-built, new home for the Oregon Symphony, with a recital hall and management offices all under the same roof.  We can talk about how much of a great, visionary, progressive city we are, but until we have a showcase for our primary cultural assets, it’s all still just talk.

And, coincidentally, here’s an article from today’s Seattle Times, telling the story behind their spectacular Benaroya Hall, which began with an organization in dire financial straits, and with no readily perceivable sources of public financing.

From the Oregon Cultural Trust’s press release [click here to download complete press release as a pdf file]:

The Oregon Cultural Trust reports that Oregonians donated a record $3.5 million to the Trust in 2007 - up 20 percent from 2006 receipts.

Oregon governor Ted Kulongoski commented “In 2007, for the first time in years, the state made a major reinvestment in art and culture.”

Donors who match or exceed their gifts to the Trust with contributions to any number of Oregon’s 1,100 cultural nonprofits may claim their Trust donation as a 100 percent credit against their state income taxes.

Tektronix, one of the first companies to set up shop in Oregon’s celebrated “Silicon Forest” high tech community of companies, has been sold to a Washington, D.C. conglomerate.  Tektronix was one of our featured sponsors of our first Classical A subscription week, and it was encouraging to have a prominent local company support the symphony in a highly public way.  Therefore it was disappointing and worrying to read the headline on this afternoon’s edition of The Oregonian.  The orchestra has been relatively lucky in receiving support from both those corporations who are not headquartered locally and those who are.  However, when a company is bought out by an out-of-state interest, it may become more likely that interest in supporting local entities may wane.  I sincerely hope that those who remain with Tektronix in Oregon will continue to make the case for putting money back into the local community - arts causes or otherwise.