Investor Alberto Vilar has donated 14 million USD to the Mariinsky Opera and Ballet!<P><B><A HREF="http://www.nandotimes.com/noframes/story/0,2107,500250004-500373074-502240772-0,00.html" TARGET=_blank>Follow this link to the story</A></B>

presumably this is the same Vilar who must have contributed mightily to the renovation of the Covent Garden Floral Hall, which now has his name attached to it.....<P>does someone know what the deal was, there?<P>i suppose this is the antidote to your 'arts vs. dot-coms' thread, eh azlan? <P>on the one hand the artists can't afford the rent in areas where technology has pushed up rents - BUT: the tech people are making so much money that can give multi-millions away to fund the arts! ironic....

A fine initiative indeed. However on your point Susan about:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>i suppose this is the antidote to your 'arts vs. dot-coms' thread, eh azlan? <P>on the one hand the artists can't afford the rent in areas where technology has pushed up rents - BUT: the tech people are making so much money that can give multi-millions away to fund the arts! ironic....<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Once again it is Big Art that is benefitting. I have no doubt that the LA Opera, SF Opera and the SF Symphony Orchestra will sail through this crisis. It is the small companies and individual artists that are sufferring.

How true, Stuart. I wonder if there is an access to communication with some of these tech industries whereby smaller arts groups can benefit. I know that many large companies have a pr/arts department for offering grants to arts organizations, not necessarily large ones, to create community involvement and goodwill. The large arts organizations certainly offer more dash and exposure to these companies when they fund them. I suppose they could be educated to "cut the pie" as it were into many small pieces, and still get recognition for supporting the arts. It's all a matter of how it's done, of course. I know there are people that are very good at that sort of thing. Do we have any posters who work behind scenes to creatively develop/support/promote arts organizations? If so, we'd love to hear from you.

Well, here was a thread about a website that does exactly that, Maggie: partner dot-com firms with performing arts organizations:<P> <A HREF="http://www.criticaldance.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/000079.html" TARGET=_blank>http://www.criticaldance.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/000079.html</A>

Yes, Azlan, I remember. It's not quite what I was thinking of. It was more in the line of businesses and their communities. Plus, I found this particular organization admirable and worthy of emulating, but somewhat limited in their choices. Which, of course, is their prerogative. Perhaps if more of these "Artsalive" kind of things started up, there would be more variety. I also noticed that dance was missing on that particular site.

stuart - any comments on the Vilar/Covent Garden queries?<P>stuart & maggie: excellent points. thanks for raising that, to me. i would think maggie's onto something there. i mean, big money (tech or any other) companies can afford to donate big sums to "big art", but maybe small companies with a need to find a tax deduction (or an idealistic desire to support the arts!) could actually more easily fund "small art" in their own community, which seems a more direct way to achieve good public relations where they live, anyway...<P>a major mining company is a very big employer in the town i live in, (they are 'big' money), but all i am AWARE of them spending on, in art support, is for small things, visible around town - sculpture, etc. they may well do big things - but that somehow hasn't caught my eye. it's the small things at the local level that have made an impression on me....