Recession adds to challenges for suburban arts

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090705/ap_en_mu/us_meltdown_suburban_arts

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. – When he hired Itzhak Perlman as artistic director of the Westchester Philharmonic in 2007, Joshua Worby thought he'd hit a grand slam.

He figured that Perlman, a popular, world-famous violinist, would attract new subscribers, raise the reputation of a suburban orchestra just outside New York City and spur fundraising by 40 percent.

"That's the way we projected it," said Worby, the Philharmonic's executive director, "and most of it came true."

Sure enough, attendance doubled. Perlman said he was "extremely happy." Even one category of fundraising, donations from individuals, went up 25 percent.

Then the economy tanked, corporate giving dried up and the orchestra ended the 2008-09 season with a deficit instead of a surplus.

Orchestras, theaters, museums and other arts organizations in the nation's suburbs face the challenge to attract customers — and donors — from the same population going to the Chicago Symphony, the Smithsonian or Broadway plays.