New York’s Shed shrinks British chief
NewsThe Shed – New York’s $475 million new arts center in Hudson Yards – is having to rethink its future in light of a financial squeeze.
First decision is to halve the job of Alex Poots, lured over from founding and running Manchester’s International Festival to be both executive and artistic director.
From now on, he’ll be just artistic director while Maryann Jordan, the Shed’s president and COO, runs the joint.
Wouldn’t necessarily say that it’s shrinking due to finances. Poots is actually a really good administrator, and the venue is too large for the same person to run both the artistic and financial aspects that come with managing a major US performing arts institution. It makes sense to split it up.
If the change is ‘in light of a financial squeeze’, then surely it would have been more cost-effective to have one person serving as both artistic and executive director, and not to employ two individuals to cover the same remit.
Programming at The Shed is totally wack! What a waste.
The Shed has much potential but also some big strikes against it: It’s located in the no-man’s land of the Hudson Yards office park/mall, which has gotten some bad press, especially among New York’s creative types. And it’s aiming to present the same types of performers who otherwise might appear at BAM or National Sawdust or the Park Avenue Armory.
Not saying it can’t make a go of it, but it needs to find a way to attract more of the tourists who spend their time and money in midtown Manhattan.
A very common arrangement for many U.S. arts organizations.