Green Goes to Ballet Chicago
Effective June 1 Ballet Chicago’s new managing director will be Randall Green, currently executive director of the Civic Center for Performing Arts. The struggling Ballet Chicago, performing at the Civic Opera House this weekend, was a last-minute addition to the Civic Center’s annual Spring Festival of Dance; at the time Green said he added the Ballet Chicago to the festival because he would rather support a local company than out-of-town troupes such as the Joffrey Ballet, which he dumped this year. Green apparently saw brighter prospects at Ballet Chicago than did many other observers, or else was faced with compelling reasons to bail out of his Civic Center post. Stay tuned.
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More than 3,000 of the nation’s museum administrators will descend on Chicago for the annual meeting of the American Association of Museums (AAM) May 9-13 at the Hilton. And the leaders of more than 50 Chicago-area museums are using the opportunity to draw attention to the fact that it’s significantly more difficult to operate a museum today than it was even ten years ago. Local museum execs point to a long list of problems, including the Tax Reform Act of 1986, which has caused a drop-off in gifts of objects to many museums. In addition there are growing threats of censorship and the constant threat of reductions in both public and private financial support. For the first time in memory, for instance, the Chicago Park District is providing what amounts to no annual funding increase to the museums located on Park District property. “We’re all finding it harder to make ends meet,” says Ellsworth H. Brown, president of the Chicago Historical Society and president-elect of the AAM. “I think the 1990s are going to be a tight time in general.” The situation seems particularly lamentable considering the public’s obvious interest in what the city’s museums have to offer. Chicago’s sports teams may get all the attention, but in fact the total annual attendance at Chicago museums is double that of all the city’s sports teams combined.
Kennedy Center Update
The Goodman Theatre, Free Street Theater, and Hubbard Street Dance Company, the three Chicago performing groups still planning to appear in June at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., may not find the situation there reassuringly settled if and when they arrive. In an interview with the Washington Post last week, James D. Wolfensohn, the newly appointed chairman of the board at the Kennedy Center, declared the national performing-arts center “bankrupt” and cited an immediate need for $45 million in federal funding to cover a $15 million debt and $30 million in needed renovations. Hubbard Street managing director Gail Kalver says her dance group does not yet have a signed contract for its appearances June 14-16, though Kennedy Center staff seem to be preparing for them. Goodman producing director Roche Schulfer says he has a signed letter of agreement from the center for scheduled performances of She Always Said, Pablo June 21-July 22. Schulfer described his dealings with the Kennedy Center as “nothing out of the ordinary,” but added: “That’s not to say anything out of the ordinary won’t happen.”
