Thursday, September 27, 2012
Saratoga one of the "super cool" cities......with the best pool anywhere.
Saratoga one of `super cool’ cities: site
Broadway and Washington Street in Saratoga Springs. (Times Union Archives)
But “super cool”? A new website dedicated to highlight communities as ideal to travel or move to named five dozen “super cool” cities around the world. Making the list: Saratoga Springs. “Saratoga Springs is a natural to be on any list of the world’s super cool communities,” said Andy Brack of Charleston, S.C., founder of TravelorMove.com. “With its sporting culture, cozy village atmosphere and outstanding quality of life, it’s no wonder Saratoga Springs ranked high on our list.” “Travel & Leisure magazine says Saratoga Springs is one of America’s greatest Main Streets: ‘Historic Broadway Avenue looks like a Main Street on steroids, with grand buildings of Beaux-Arts and Colonial Revival styles. It feels almost heroic in scale, but when crowds fill the streets to browse and nosh, it takes on a more accessible feel.’”
Using the definition you deem best, what is the most “cool” community within an hour or so of Albany?
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Wednesday, September 26, 2012
the letter below has been posted on: savethenycballet.wordpress.com
Save the New York City Ballet at Saratoga Performing Arts Center!
Marcia White and the Hon. Susan Read need to go from SPAC immediately!
Saratoga Springs and the Capital District want the New York City Ballet at its Summer Home at SPAC for 3 weeks, NOT 5 Days which is the current plan of SPAC.
SPAC was conceived and built as the permanent summer home of the New York City Ballet and the Philadelphia Orchestra.
******************************************************
Marcia White, President(for life) of SPAC and the Honorable Susan Read, President of the SPAC Board(who cannot fundraise because she is a judge) are dumping the New York City Ballet. Fundraising is the main job of any board of directors.
Saratoga Springs, New York prides itself on being the most fabulous city between Manhattan and Montreal. It has top notch culture, history, horses, architecture, springs, restaurants, shops, hotels, education, parks, pools and a downtown second only to Madison Ave., 180 miles to the South in New York City.
The unique and successful flavor of Saratoga Springs is a result having the very best of everything. The New York City Ballet is simply the best ballet company in the world. It is the only ballet company in the USA with a permanent summer home since 1966 in Saratoga Springs, NY. Mr. George Balanchine, the greatest choreographer of all time, who founded the New York City Ballet was the reason SPAC was built. The New York City Ballet has a world class orchestra. There is no other ballet company in the world that can compare, and Saratoga Springs is the richer in every way to have been chosen as its summer home. A whole ballet industry has grown up in Saratoga and the Capital District because of this company.
Except for a much appreciated Resolution from the Saratoga Springs City Council supporting the NYC Ballet several week residency at SPAC, Saratogians have mostly been silent? Where is the outrage of the business community, the Chamber of Commerce, the Real Estate moguls and Bankers, and the huge dance industry that has sprung up because the NYC Ballet has always been in residence?
If Saratoga’s racetrack shut down the screaming would be deafening and the money to keep it going would instantly start pouring in like an avalanche from the state.
If the dancers, musicians and choreographers leave Saratoga, we will all be the poorer-in mind, body and spirit. The loss to businesses, real estate and many other financial endeavors would be incalculable.
Wake up Saratoga! Save the New York City Ballet or you WILL regret it.
Marcia White and the Hon. Susan Read need to go from SPAC immediately!
Saratoga Springs and the Capital District want the New York City Ballet at its Summer Home at SPAC for 3 weeks, NOT 5 Days which is the current plan of SPAC.
SPAC was conceived and built as the permanent summer home of the New York City Ballet and the Philadelphia Orchestra.
******************************************************
Marcia White, President(for life) of SPAC and the Honorable Susan Read, President of the SPAC Board(who cannot fundraise because she is a judge) are dumping the New York City Ballet. Fundraising is the main job of any board of directors.
Saratoga Springs, New York prides itself on being the most fabulous city between Manhattan and Montreal. It has top notch culture, history, horses, architecture, springs, restaurants, shops, hotels, education, parks, pools and a downtown second only to Madison Ave., 180 miles to the South in New York City.
The unique and successful flavor of Saratoga Springs is a result having the very best of everything. The New York City Ballet is simply the best ballet company in the world. It is the only ballet company in the USA with a permanent summer home since 1966 in Saratoga Springs, NY. Mr. George Balanchine, the greatest choreographer of all time, who founded the New York City Ballet was the reason SPAC was built. The New York City Ballet has a world class orchestra. There is no other ballet company in the world that can compare, and Saratoga Springs is the richer in every way to have been chosen as its summer home. A whole ballet industry has grown up in Saratoga and the Capital District because of this company.
Except for a much appreciated Resolution from the Saratoga Springs City Council supporting the NYC Ballet several week residency at SPAC, Saratogians have mostly been silent? Where is the outrage of the business community, the Chamber of Commerce, the Real Estate moguls and Bankers, and the huge dance industry that has sprung up because the NYC Ballet has always been in residence?
If Saratoga’s racetrack shut down the screaming would be deafening and the money to keep it going would instantly start pouring in like an avalanche from the state.
If the dancers, musicians and choreographers leave Saratoga, we will all be the poorer-in mind, body and spirit. The loss to businesses, real estate and many other financial endeavors would be incalculable.
Wake up Saratoga! Save the New York City Ballet or you WILL regret it.
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Saturday, September 22, 2012
Friday, September 14, 2012
times union editorial by Bray to save SPAC.
Bray: SPAC needs new advocatesPAUL BRAY Published 9:06 p.m., Thursday, September 13, 2012 .fb_share_count_wrapper {
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Larger SmallerPrintable VersionEmail This Georgia (default) Verdana Times New Roman ArialFontPage 1 of 1The Saratoga Performing Arts Center was created to be a world-class facility for the classical arts. Duane LaFleche, an editor of Albany's former Knickerbocker News, was a visionary who helped establish SPAC in the 1960s. He said it would be our region's Tanglewood, only better.That meant having the New York City Ballet and the Philadelphia Orchestra for four-week summer residencies. SPAC itself was to have a sloping lawn that provided better visual sight lines to the stage than the Tanglewood lawn.Tanglewood emerged from a soggy farm in the Berkshires to go after visions like those of Serge Koussevitzky, former conductor of the Boston Symphony. His Tanglewood vision was to have "radiation of the beams of high culture over a nation and the whole world," according to a New Yorker magazine article last month.***SPAC made its home in the beautiful Saratoga State Park, but it has not radiated visions of high culture. The New York City Opera only lasted at SPAC from 1986 to 1997.The Philadelphia Orchestra's season is now three weeks. The New York City Ballet is swan diving from its original four-week residency to just a modest five-day visit next year.When the ballet was here for four weeks, company members made their home in Saratoga Springs. Dancers could be seen at places in the community.The current situation brings back memories of 2005, when former SPAC president Herb Chesbrough tried to end the ballet's residency. That was a step too far for Saratoga and the region, and Chesbrough was let go. Thankfully, a grass-roots group, Save Our SPAC, has formed again to save the ballet. (Http://savethenycballet.wordpress.com).There are steps to be taken to realize Duane LaFleche's vision and save the classical arts at SPAC.First, any entity dedicated to the classical arts needs an artistic director with charisma, imagination and organizational flair to highlight and excite people from near and far about the superb ballet and orchestra. SPAC, alas, has no artistic director.SPAC's current leader, Marcia White, previously was a nurse and a legislative employee. Her predecessor as president was a comptroller. Neither was close to being an artistic director.***The recent appointment of Judge Susan Phillips Read of the state Court of Appeals as chair of the SPAC board is another mistake. Judge Read got the OK to take that position on the condition she would not do any fundraising. Yet that's the primary responsibility of boards of nonprofit arts organizations. To have a chair who must recuse herself from fundraising activity, as personally committed to SPAC as she may be, makes no sense.While SPAC may be the "summer place to be" and relatively close to New York City, Boston and Montreal, its leadership has done a woefully poor job of attracting audience and wealthy patrons from these areas.Creating a world-class, high-tech economy depends on being home to all kinds of excellence like a residency of the New York City Ballet. Yet, local funding is not adequate for excellence.Times Union editor Rex Smith quoted White as saying, "How much more can you ask people to give?"Leaders of successful artistic and education institutions don't think like White. They never hold back from asking donors or potential donors for more.Finally, SPAC should move beyond its reliance on Live Nation, which besieges SPAC with live rock concerts. It needs to connect the classical arts with assets of Saratoga Springs — like the racetrack, which according to a recent New York Times article, makes Saratoga Springs give Manhattan "chase as a city that never sleeps."The article pointed out "the magnetism of the track is what brings all these people here, whether they go to play the horses or just experience the atmosphere."Why can't SPAC take advantage of that magnetism?We need another advocate like Duane LaFleche, who got me and many others — including then-Gov. Nelson Rockefeller — excited about having the New York City Ballet and the Philadelphia Orchestra perform in Saratoga.Paul M. Bray was the founding president of the Albany Roundtable civic lunch forum. His e-mail is Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/Bray-SPAC-needs-new-advocates-3864097.php#ixzz26RoExVDY
Friday, September 07, 2012
Sunday, September 02, 2012
Last call for Victoria Pool bring-a-dish Labor Day Lunch.
Monday, Labor Day, September 3, 2012. Come one come all.Saturday, September 01, 2012
The real Victoria Pool appears.
yes, folks, yesterday this beautiful little girl whose name is Victoria Pool came to our pool and was totally suprised they have the same name. Victoria hails from Massachusetts and is 9 mos. old and a true beauty like her pool.Thursday, August 30, 2012
Lion's roaring full steam ahead at victoria pool.
Bring a dish for lunch labor day.monday, september 3, 2012 to close out a spectacular season.
RAIN OR SHINE!
Friday, August 24, 2012
Labor Day Lunch only 10 days away.
Run don't walk to line up for the waning last days of the beautiful Victoria Pool. Bring a dish to the Annual Labor Day Lunch on Monday, September 3, 2012.Thursday, August 16, 2012
thank you staff of saratoga spa state park for such a quick response at Victoria Pool.
the lawns at Victoria Pool are once again breathtakingly beautiful thanks to the quick response of the staff at saratoga spa state park. we are most grateful.Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Victoria Pool is more popular than ever this summer and is in urgent need of maintenance.
The lawns are way overgrown and full of weeds. The fountains are filthy. The lounges are dirty and the mesh on the seats is sinking so they are no longer comfortable. Chunks of the deck are broken and in urgent need of repair. Victoria Pool is extremely popular with long lines waiting to get in for hours on most hot days. It deserves better.
Thursday, August 02, 2012
meeting at hall of springs with spac, 4:45-6pm,thursday, august 2, 2012.
public to meet with spac to discuss new york city ballet problems at spac. Hall of springs patio, thursday, 4:45-6pm.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
3rd meeting to Save the New York City Ballet at SPAC, monday,7/30@6:30pm. Community Room, 1st floor saratoga springs public library.
If you care about the continued residency of the classical arts in saratoga and at spac come join this grass-roots effort to save the new york city ballet in saratoga. We need everyone's help and ideas. Our Saratoga City Council passed a resolution this week 5-0 supporting at least a 2wk. residency of the new york city ballet at spac.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
saratoga city council resolution to support continued at least 2 week residency of new york city ballet at spac.
City Council urges SPAC to maintain at least a two-week NYC Ballet seasonPublished: Wednesday, July 18, 2012
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By LUCIAN McCARTYlmccarty@saratogian.comTwitter.com/SaratogianCDeskSARATOGA SPRINGS — The City Council unanimously voted Tuesday night on a resolution expressing its love for the ballet.Saratoga Performing Arts Center announced earlier this month that next year’s New York City Ballet residency in Saratoga Springs would be cut in half, to one week. That is the second shearing of a week from the NYC Ballet’s summer schedule in three years.The council voted Tuesday on a motion urging SPAC to maintain the two-week stay of the ballet.“I have great concern that we’re in danger of losing the ballet at SPAC,” said Michele Madigan who proposed the motion. “I think it’s very important. It’s part of the culture of Saratoga; the arts of Saratoga.”The motion emphasizes the city’s support of the arts, SPAC and the NYC Ballet and endorses a “two week minimum summer residency for the New York City Ballet Company at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.”The NYC Ballet as well as the Philadelphia Orchestra have been staples in the SPAC season since 1966.“It’s certainly an issue worth fighting for,” said Public Works Commissioner Anthony “Skip” Scirocco. “It would really be a detriment to not have either one of those entities at SPAC.”Several members of the public also spoke on behalf of the ballet, including a former dancer with the NYC Ballet and a SPAC board member.Leslie Kettlewell said she has been working at SPAC in one capacity or another since she was a teenager. “I’m still an usher,” she said. She warned that the NYC Ballet seems to have its season whittled further and further down each year. “Soon the orchestra will be gone,” she said. “These problems are not insurmountable. I think this is a great opportunity for the community to pull together to help save the ballet.”Reached by phone Tuesday, SPAC President and CEO Marcia White said she, too, supports the NYC Ballet but said the financial structure of the organizations’ relationship is unsustainable. Continued...12See Full Story“The NYC Ballet and SPAC are in the same position and want the same thing,” she said. “The question is about the economics.”White said SPAC and the NYC Ballet will be working together to address the issue of money, which she said they both lose with the current arrangement and she hopes to bring the NYC Ballet back for two weeks in 2014. “That’s the goal,” she said.“Time are difficult,” Madigan said during the meeting, “but the arts are something that should be supported.” 12See Full Story 123See Full Story1234See Full Story
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By LUCIAN McCARTYlmccarty@saratogian.comTwitter.com/SaratogianCDeskSARATOGA SPRINGS — The City Council unanimously voted Tuesday night on a resolution expressing its love for the ballet.Saratoga Performing Arts Center announced earlier this month that next year’s New York City Ballet residency in Saratoga Springs would be cut in half, to one week. That is the second shearing of a week from the NYC Ballet’s summer schedule in three years.The council voted Tuesday on a motion urging SPAC to maintain the two-week stay of the ballet.“I have great concern that we’re in danger of losing the ballet at SPAC,” said Michele Madigan who proposed the motion. “I think it’s very important. It’s part of the culture of Saratoga; the arts of Saratoga.”The motion emphasizes the city’s support of the arts, SPAC and the NYC Ballet and endorses a “two week minimum summer residency for the New York City Ballet Company at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.”The NYC Ballet as well as the Philadelphia Orchestra have been staples in the SPAC season since 1966.“It’s certainly an issue worth fighting for,” said Public Works Commissioner Anthony “Skip” Scirocco. “It would really be a detriment to not have either one of those entities at SPAC.”Several members of the public also spoke on behalf of the ballet, including a former dancer with the NYC Ballet and a SPAC board member.Leslie Kettlewell said she has been working at SPAC in one capacity or another since she was a teenager. “I’m still an usher,” she said. She warned that the NYC Ballet seems to have its season whittled further and further down each year. “Soon the orchestra will be gone,” she said. “These problems are not insurmountable. I think this is a great opportunity for the community to pull together to help save the ballet.”Reached by phone Tuesday, SPAC President and CEO Marcia White said she, too, supports the NYC Ballet but said the financial structure of the organizations’ relationship is unsustainable. Continued...12See Full Story“The NYC Ballet and SPAC are in the same position and want the same thing,” she said. “The question is about the economics.”White said SPAC and the NYC Ballet will be working together to address the issue of money, which she said they both lose with the current arrangement and she hopes to bring the NYC Ballet back for two weeks in 2014. “That’s the goal,” she said.“Time are difficult,” Madigan said during the meeting, “but the arts are something that should be supported.” 12See Full Story 123See Full Story1234See Full Story
Sunday, July 15, 2012
we are thrilled to have our lion's heads fountains working again thanks to Mark, the master.
Look for the beautiful Lion's heads fountains at the Victoria Pool restored to their natural beauty.
Thursday, July 05, 2012
stop the nycballet being cut to one wk., library mtg. 7/9@6:30.
NYC Ballet's SPAC residency cut to one week in 2013Published: Thursday, July 05, 2012
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More PhotosClick thumbnails to enlargeJoaquin de Luz and Tiler Peckpictured in this Saratogian file photo. By BARBARA LOMBARDO and PAUL POSTnews@saratogian.comTwitter.com/@SaratogianNewsClick to enlargeNew York City Ballet dancers Ana Sophia Scheller, left, Tiler Peck and Sterling Hyltin are pictured in this Saratogian file photo. SARATOGA SPRINGS — The New York City Ballet’s residency at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center will be cut to one week in 2013, with other visiting ballet companies filling the gap for week two.The reason: Both SPAC and the NYCB say they can’t afford a longer stay.Each performance costs $180,000, said Marcia White, SPAC president and executive director. It costs SPAC about $2 million to bring the ballet to Saratoga, and SPAC loses about $1.1 million in the process, she said.“At the end of the day we want the New York City Ballet to come here for two weeks, or for as long as they can,” White told The Saratogian in an interview Thursday.She hopes that a two-week residency could resume in 2014. “We want to do that, but it has to come back at a cost that’s sustainable,” she said.Thursday’s announcement of a shortened 2013 season comes days before the July 10 start of the ballet’s two-week residency at SPAC. Full details on the 2012 season are available here. In May, in stepping down after five years as SPAC board chairman, Bill Dake issued a dire warning that the future of the ballet’s residency, as well as the Philadelphia Orchestra’s three-week residency, were in jeopardy.A group of citizens unaffiliated with SPAC have scheduled a meeting for 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Saratoga Springs Public Library for people interested in developing a strategy to save the New York City Ballet’s summer residency. That meeting was arranged prior to the announcement of the residency cutback.The ballet’s schedule was reduced from three to two weeks in 2009 and average attendance went up considerably, but obviously not enough to offset rising production costs.The New York City Ballet and Philadelphia Orchestra have been mainstays of SPAC since its inception in 1966. Continued...1234See Full StoryNext year’s NYCB residency will run for five days beginning Tuesday, July 9, and consist of five evening and two matinee performances.SPAC, according to a press release, “is in serious conversations with the National Ballet of Canada and Aspen Santa Fe Ballet about potential short-term engagements at SPAC in 2013, as an adjunct to NYCB’s one-week program.”Despite financial losses, White noted value in the prestige and legacy of the New York City Ballet’s residency.“We treasure our historic partnership with New York City Ballet, which dates back to our earliest days as an organization,” White said in a press statement. “In recent years, NYCB and SPAC, like arts organizations nationwide, have had to confront new financial realities. We are all operating in an environment where funding from both public and private sources is more scarce, while the costs of doing business have continued to rise.”Susan Phillips Read, the new chairwoman of SPAC’s board of directors, echoed those comments in the press statement: “Our goal is to maintain City Ballet’s historic residency at SPAC at an affordable, sustainable cost. SPAC and its audience value the partnership with City Ballet tremendously and are ready to try virtually any alternative that will allow us to reach this goal.”The ballet has seen its production expenses rise $300,000 in 2011 and 2012. The estimated loss for SPAC of $1.1 million, White said, “is more than we lost when the ballet was here three weeks. We can’t absorb the New York City Ballet’s losses.”Ballet tickets cover only one-third of the expense, leaving SPAC’s individual donors and corporate sponsors to make up the difference.“We’re pushing fundraising to the limits,” White said at SPAC’s annual membership meeting in May.HSBC was a major corporate sponsor in 2010 and 2011, but is not back this year following its withdrawal of retail operations from the region.“The orchestra and ballet are less than 10 percent of our attendance and cost over 40 percent each, of our expenses,” former SPAC Chairman Bill Dake said at this year’s annual membership meeting in May. Continued...1234See Full StoryDake has said the ballet should experiment with less expensive productions and that Saratoga, which has very supportive crowds, would be the place to do it.After seven years of operating in the black, SPAC is facing a possible $250,000 deficit in 2012. Dake, in May, also gave a bleak report on SPAC’s slightly more than $4.5 million endowment: “$2.5 million of that is restricted, so it’s really only $2 million, which can erode very quickly.”The ballet has been on shaky ground at SPAC for almost a decade. In February 2004, former SPAC President Herb Chesbrough announced that SPAC could no longer afford to host the ballet, setting off a firestorm of protest that led to a state investigation of SPAC’s business operations and the eventual mass replacement of board members, including Chesbrough.Following a brief resurgence, the nation’s 2008 economic decline hit the entire arts world deeply and the ballet hasn’t been spared.“We’re all war-weary veterans from the last go-around,” said George Neary, an avid ballet fan who is one of a handful expected to lead Monday’s meeting at the library. “People feel like they’re helpless about this. I want to give them some hope that we can save the ballet and SPAC.”White said she will attend that meeting, if invited. She noted that she has been talking to members of that group.Neary said SPAC could create new generations of ballet fans by lowering young people’s ticket prices. Children under 12 already get free lawn seats and students through college age can buy lawn tickets $10 and get a 25 percent discount in the amphitheater.Neary also said that SPAC’s contract with LiveNation, for pop and rock concerts, drains money away from classical programming. “SPAC used to run their own concerts,” he said. “That money is out the door.”But White said SPAC gets $1 million per year from LiveNation, which underwrites classical programs. Most LiveNation ticket revenue goes to performers, whose prices have escalated greatly, she said.Most of LiveNation’s revenues comes from concessions, she said. Continued...1234See Full StorySPAC gets no funding from Saratoga Springs or Saratoga County and only a small amount each year from the New York State Council on the Arts, White said.1234See Full Story
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More PhotosClick thumbnails to enlargeJoaquin de Luz and Tiler Peckpictured in this Saratogian file photo. By BARBARA LOMBARDO and PAUL POSTnews@saratogian.comTwitter.com/@SaratogianNewsClick to enlargeNew York City Ballet dancers Ana Sophia Scheller, left, Tiler Peck and Sterling Hyltin are pictured in this Saratogian file photo. SARATOGA SPRINGS — The New York City Ballet’s residency at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center will be cut to one week in 2013, with other visiting ballet companies filling the gap for week two.The reason: Both SPAC and the NYCB say they can’t afford a longer stay.Each performance costs $180,000, said Marcia White, SPAC president and executive director. It costs SPAC about $2 million to bring the ballet to Saratoga, and SPAC loses about $1.1 million in the process, she said.“At the end of the day we want the New York City Ballet to come here for two weeks, or for as long as they can,” White told The Saratogian in an interview Thursday.She hopes that a two-week residency could resume in 2014. “We want to do that, but it has to come back at a cost that’s sustainable,” she said.Thursday’s announcement of a shortened 2013 season comes days before the July 10 start of the ballet’s two-week residency at SPAC. Full details on the 2012 season are available here. In May, in stepping down after five years as SPAC board chairman, Bill Dake issued a dire warning that the future of the ballet’s residency, as well as the Philadelphia Orchestra’s three-week residency, were in jeopardy.A group of citizens unaffiliated with SPAC have scheduled a meeting for 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Saratoga Springs Public Library for people interested in developing a strategy to save the New York City Ballet’s summer residency. That meeting was arranged prior to the announcement of the residency cutback.The ballet’s schedule was reduced from three to two weeks in 2009 and average attendance went up considerably, but obviously not enough to offset rising production costs.The New York City Ballet and Philadelphia Orchestra have been mainstays of SPAC since its inception in 1966. Continued...1234See Full StoryNext year’s NYCB residency will run for five days beginning Tuesday, July 9, and consist of five evening and two matinee performances.SPAC, according to a press release, “is in serious conversations with the National Ballet of Canada and Aspen Santa Fe Ballet about potential short-term engagements at SPAC in 2013, as an adjunct to NYCB’s one-week program.”Despite financial losses, White noted value in the prestige and legacy of the New York City Ballet’s residency.“We treasure our historic partnership with New York City Ballet, which dates back to our earliest days as an organization,” White said in a press statement. “In recent years, NYCB and SPAC, like arts organizations nationwide, have had to confront new financial realities. We are all operating in an environment where funding from both public and private sources is more scarce, while the costs of doing business have continued to rise.”Susan Phillips Read, the new chairwoman of SPAC’s board of directors, echoed those comments in the press statement: “Our goal is to maintain City Ballet’s historic residency at SPAC at an affordable, sustainable cost. SPAC and its audience value the partnership with City Ballet tremendously and are ready to try virtually any alternative that will allow us to reach this goal.”The ballet has seen its production expenses rise $300,000 in 2011 and 2012. The estimated loss for SPAC of $1.1 million, White said, “is more than we lost when the ballet was here three weeks. We can’t absorb the New York City Ballet’s losses.”Ballet tickets cover only one-third of the expense, leaving SPAC’s individual donors and corporate sponsors to make up the difference.“We’re pushing fundraising to the limits,” White said at SPAC’s annual membership meeting in May.HSBC was a major corporate sponsor in 2010 and 2011, but is not back this year following its withdrawal of retail operations from the region.“The orchestra and ballet are less than 10 percent of our attendance and cost over 40 percent each, of our expenses,” former SPAC Chairman Bill Dake said at this year’s annual membership meeting in May. Continued...1234See Full StoryDake has said the ballet should experiment with less expensive productions and that Saratoga, which has very supportive crowds, would be the place to do it.After seven years of operating in the black, SPAC is facing a possible $250,000 deficit in 2012. Dake, in May, also gave a bleak report on SPAC’s slightly more than $4.5 million endowment: “$2.5 million of that is restricted, so it’s really only $2 million, which can erode very quickly.”The ballet has been on shaky ground at SPAC for almost a decade. In February 2004, former SPAC President Herb Chesbrough announced that SPAC could no longer afford to host the ballet, setting off a firestorm of protest that led to a state investigation of SPAC’s business operations and the eventual mass replacement of board members, including Chesbrough.Following a brief resurgence, the nation’s 2008 economic decline hit the entire arts world deeply and the ballet hasn’t been spared.“We’re all war-weary veterans from the last go-around,” said George Neary, an avid ballet fan who is one of a handful expected to lead Monday’s meeting at the library. “People feel like they’re helpless about this. I want to give them some hope that we can save the ballet and SPAC.”White said she will attend that meeting, if invited. She noted that she has been talking to members of that group.Neary said SPAC could create new generations of ballet fans by lowering young people’s ticket prices. Children under 12 already get free lawn seats and students through college age can buy lawn tickets $10 and get a 25 percent discount in the amphitheater.Neary also said that SPAC’s contract with LiveNation, for pop and rock concerts, drains money away from classical programming. “SPAC used to run their own concerts,” he said. “That money is out the door.”But White said SPAC gets $1 million per year from LiveNation, which underwrites classical programs. Most LiveNation ticket revenue goes to performers, whose prices have escalated greatly, she said.Most of LiveNation’s revenues comes from concessions, she said. Continued...1234See Full StorySPAC gets no funding from Saratoga Springs or Saratoga County and only a small amount each year from the New York State Council on the Arts, White said.1234See Full Story
Tuesday, July 03, 2012
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Saratoga may be cool to visit but it gets a “meh” for living here. Same old same old and Broadway gets sleepier every year.