BAM goes crash
NewsThe Brooklyn Academy of Music has sacked 13 percent of its staff and slashed next season’s programming in a financial crisis that is part -post-Covid and part swingdoor management.
BAM president Gina Duncan said they had to ‘weather the downturn in charitable giving for the arts, and address an outdated business model that heavily relies on a shrinking donor base’.
The institution has 222 people on the payroll.
Full story here.
The sad thing is this turn of events was very predictable but shortsighted “people in charge” lived in a continuous state of denial. A flush and prosperous past is no guarantee of a safe and successful future. Unfortunately, many other similarly complacent arts organizations are also facing uncertain futures. It’s apparently a sign of these troubling economic times. Yes, it’s “bullet biting time” for one and all! Will only the fittest survive? Time will tell. Meanwhile, good luck to BAM…and to all the suffering others!
“An outdated business model?’ The classical music business has been “outdated” for a hundred years.
Amen. Every student that comes to me with blue-sky optimism walks out with their first assignment which is to define, accept and align with a respectable back-up plan i.e. a solid back-up plan.
You clearly aren’t even aware that BAM’s offerings include very little classical music.
BAM went all-in the past few years with DEI priorities, programming categorical content almost exclusively for several seasons, abandoning its legacy of curating the finest in performing arts achievement as a first-level priority. So, of course the audience isn’t coming back. This will be a wake-up call to focus once again upon quality, period. But the solution is not to sack staff; it’s to sack management.
Compare BAM’s programming to that of Lincoln Center — which actually IS doing what you say — and you’ll see how successful BAM has been at maintaining quality and adherence to its mission while addressing diversity concerns.
Why does BAM have 222 staff and what do they all do?
What number would you find acceptable? I assume you could give us a definitive answer since you clearly have a vast amount of experience running a major non-profit institution.
How about answering a question, esp. if the person who asks it may not have “a vast amount of experience”? I’d be curious myself, and no, I don’t know the answer. Perhaps it is 222? Perhaps more, perhaps less? If *you* have this vast amount of experience, please enlighten us. Or you could at least stop the insults.
Only God knows, Omar.
What number would meet with your approval?