Metropolitan Opera House – Photo by Flickr user Zio Paolino, Creative Commons license

Never fear, Wagner lovers: the largest opera company in the US will open its season on time. Faced with what it called an unsustainable financial strain, management had threatened a lockout this fall if labor representatives refused to accept drastic pay cuts. In the end, General Manager Peter Gelb was able to secure the first pay cuts for the Met’s unionized employees in decades, but the cuts were by no means as deep as initially proposed. Singers and orchestra members agreed to a 3.5% pay cut, effective immediately, and an additional 3.5% cut in six months’ time. That’s a far cry from the 17% reduction that Gelb had previously sought, and will be partially offset by a 3% raise in the fourth year of the union’s contract.

From the standpoint of the larger nonprofit arts field, the most significant part of the deal is a clause that allows an independent financial analyst to monitor the financial management of the organization on behalf of the employees. Experts claim this highly unusual provision could have ripple effects throughout the industry. This agreement came about when the unions, faced with the drastic cuts proposed by Gelb, developed a list of alternative cost-saving measures. While the management didn’t adopt those proposals outright, it agreed to let the employees have a say in how the overall savings are achieved.

California turns to tax breaks to reassert film industry dominance
Just as North Carolina decides to follow the examples of Michigan and New Mexico by scaling back its support of the motion picture industry, California is doubling down (actually, tripling down) on its incentives in an attempt to keep Hollywood productions in Hollywood. Governor Brown and the state Legislature have expanded California’s tax credit program from $100 million to $330 million per year. While the ability of film tax incentives to increase employment and stimulate the economy remains highly questionable (as previously discussed here at Createquity), California lawmakers have described the expanded tax program as a demonstration of their commitment to the film industry. California may indeed be in a somewhat different position than most other states in that a lot of film industry professionals are based in and around Los Angeles and would presumably prefer to work closer to home if the production costs, which can be significantly reduced by tax incentives, are roughly on par with other states.

International cultural agencies shake things up
The Australia Council for the Arts has announced what it’s billing as the most sweeping overhaul of its grant programs in 40 years in order to make them more inclusive and reduce the administrative burden on applicants. Each of the newly created funding categories will be open to artists of all areas of practice and applicants will be able to choose which discipline’s peer panel they want to assess their application. Meanwhile in the UK, the Arts Council England has rebalanced its portfolio of funded organizations to direct more funding to organizations outside of London at the expense of such venerable institutions as the English National Opera. Nevertheless, critics say the plan to devote 53% of the Arts Council’s budget to regions outside of London (up from 49%) doesn’t go far enough. Finally, the French Minister of Culture, Aurélie Filippetti, has resigned in protest of austerity measures that led to cuts in her Ministries budget. She will be replaced by Korean-born Fleur Pellerin.

New foundation to support American classical composers
The Chicago music critic Lawrence A. Johnson has launched a nonprofit foundation that will provide grants to ensembles and presenters that perform American classical music and commission new works by American composers. The American Music Project is still in the early stages of fundraising, but it’s already commissioned its first new work and is set to start awarding grants for the 2015-16 season. Johnson hopes to have raised $500,000 by next spring and eventually establish a standing endowment of $1 million. There’s no word yet on the size of the grants that will be doled for performances of rarely heard American works or how many organizations will be supported each year. While some might question the need for another nonprofit dedicated to classical music, Mike Scutari argues that the American Music Project will fill a gap in current support mechanisms with its focus on increasing the breadth of the American repertoire featured in concert halls around the country.

Corbett Foundation closing
Cincinnati’s Corbett Foundation, which has provided more than $70 million to arts and education nonprofits in Ohio and Kentucky since 1955, is finally closing its doors. The dissolution of the foundation has been planned for years; indeed, it was never intended to persist beyond the founders’ lifetimes. Explaining why it took until now to wrap things up after Patricia Corbett’s death in 2008, Executive Director Karen McKim said in effect that rising markets had foiled plans to spend down the foundation’s funds despite best efforts.

MUSICAL CHAIRS/COOL JOBS

• The Pittsburgh Foundation has announced its new president & CEO, Maxwell King.
• The National Association of Media Arts and Culture has a new executive director, Wendy Levy.
• The Center for Cultural Innovation’s board chair Angie Kim has been appointed interim leader as the organization’s search for its next President & CEO continues.
• Oregon Cultural Trust has hired Brian Rogers as executive director.
• Grantmakesr in the Arts has chosen Jim McDonald to be its new deputy director and director of programs, replacing the retiring Tommer Peterson.
• ArtWorks, an art therapy service provider in New York & New Jersey, is looking for an executive director. Posted August 15, no closing date.
• National Network of Consultants to Grantmakers seeks a project director; work virtually. Salary: $30-35k for 20 hrs/wk.
• McLean Project for the Arts (DC area) is in the market for an executive director. Salary: $55-70k. Posted August 6, no closing date.
• The Boston Globe is seeking an arts reporter. Posted August 21, no closing date.

NEW RESEARCH OF NOTE

• Research on the effects of video games is booming; much is unknown, but apparently Grand Theft Auto promotes bad behavior in real life and playing Voldemort makes you evil. But it’s not just video games: watching reality TV can make you a worse person, too.
• Rhetoric about a “universal language” aside, it turns out that about 3% of people just don’t like music at all, and they’re amazingly not monsters.
• A new study finds that true stories aren’t any more emotionally resonant than fictional ones, despite expectations to the contrary.
• Hollywood still lags behind in diversity. According to a new study, whites had 74% of the movie roles despite making up only 64% of the population.
• A Kennedy Center evaluation found that 4th- and 5th-graders in arts integrated classes displayed more creativity and better problem-solving skills than peers.
• A college-aged mathematician has put together a linear regression model predicting the length of Broadway show runs.

The CCI Board seeks a visionary President/CEO to raise and invest funds for innovative projects that support individual artists in California, working in all disciplines. For more than 10 years, the Center for Cultural Innovation (CCI) has been helping artists with business training and grants to help them achieve financial self‐reliance. Founded in 2001 as a California 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, with annual revenues ranging from $1.2 to $1.8 million and a core staff of 5, it has been doing this by awarding artist grants, providing business training, creating networking opportunities that connect artists to each other and arts supporters, and incubating untested projects that have the innovative promise of transforming the field.

This is an exciting time to be at the helm of CCI. A trusted intermediary organization in the arts, CCI is the only nonprofit throughout California with the sole focus of supporting individual artists and creative entrepreneurs. The new leader will be building on a rich legacy of successful projects as well as stepping in as experimental projects are underway. Furthermore, the CCI board of directors is in the midst of strategic planning for the organization, which will be concluded under the leadership of the new director. Presently, the new strategic plan asserts a bolder focus on treating artists as creative entrepreneurs who need both business training and financing/funding opportunities, with the details of the plan to be concluded under the new President and CEO.

Deadline: February 15.

Research & Development Manager, Creative Placemaking Lab, Artscape

Artscape is currently seeking a full time Research & Development Manager to join our team. The Creative Placemaking Lab (CPL) at Artscape undertakes research, community consultation and partner engagement to develop the vision and advance pre-development planning for major new Artscape projects. The CPL also delivers a range of free and fee-for service capacity building tools, resources and programs designed to support the capacity of communities outside Toronto to develop cultural space and creative placemaking projects. We undertake strategic research, project evaluation and are committed to advancing Artscape’s role as a thought leader in Creative Placemaking. The successful candidate will join a small team working in a fast moving, entrepreneurial and collaborative environment. This new post will significantly enhance our capacity to deliver on the goals and strategic directions set out in Vision 2017, Artscape’s Strategic Plan. Reporting to the Director, Creative Placemaking Lab, the post-holder will be required to work collaboratively with the Program Manager, Creative Placemaking Lab, to coordinate the department’s work, and will contribute to cross department teams and participate in and support multi-partner initiatives as directed.

Deadline: February 14.

Vice President, Learning and Leadership Development, League of American Orchestras

As American orchestras lean into the dramatic changes of the 21st Century the Vice President for Learning and Leadership Development has a unique opportunity to help League members develop the leadership and organizational practices required for resilience, vibrancy and adaptive change. The Vice President will develop a strategy for achieving field wide impact and leverage resources through strategic partnerships and technology. The Vice President for Learning and Leadership Development is responsible for creating, implementing and measuring the results of a cohesive body of programs intended to equip orchestra workers in all roles at entry, middle, and senior career stages with strategic, leadership, and functional skills.

Deadline: March 14.

Arts Grants Administrator (two positions), California Arts Council

The California Arts Council will be hiring individuals to fill program administrator positions for the first time in over ten years. Currently there are two vacancies to be filled. This is a rare opportunity to join a hard working agency during an exciting time of growth.

No deadline, but candidates are encouraged to complete the qualifying exam as soon as possible.

Various positions, Centre for Effective Altruism

Effective altruism is all about combining empathy, reason and evidence. By carefully considering what we value, and by working together to find the best ways of achieving that, we can each do an amazing amount of good. The Centre for Effective Altruism is a collection of organisations which have come together to explore these core ideas; with each organisation pursuing different ways of putting the ideas into practice. CEA is the umbrella organisation to which 80,000 Hours and Giving What We Can belong. We’re also starting to branch out into global prioritisation research (e.g. comparing the value of work on AI risk and on helping the global poor) and pure promotion of effective altruist ideas. We’re based in the centre of Oxford [UK], where we share offices with the Future of Humanity Institute, and which is a global hub for the effective altruist community.

Deadline: February 21. Positions include Director of Community at Giving What We Can, Lead Developer at 80,000 Hours, and several program-related internships, among others.