\n<\/p>\n
It is the sort of buzzy production that was once a staple of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Tennessee Williams\u2019s \u201cA Streetcar Named Desire<\/a>,\u201d with its Oscar-nominated lead man, Paul Mescal, has people clamoring for tickets to BAM\u2019s production this month.<\/p>\n The excitement recalls a period when the performing arts center consistently drew crowds to see imports like the Royal Shakespeare Company<\/a> or cutting-edge work by directors like Peter Brook, composers like Philip Glass or choreographers like Pina Bausch and Martha Graham.<\/p>\n Over the past decade, though, critics say the academy\u2019s pioneering triumphs have been scarcer, the schedule thinner and the productions more modest.<\/p>\n BAM\u2019s financial condition, while improving, is still fragile. In the five years ending in June 2024, the staff declined by more than a third, the endowment lost ground and its nearly $52 million operating budget is still smaller than it was 10 years ago.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cTheir inability to drive revenues and manage cost escalation makes it harder to pursue their artistic mission,\u201d Declan Webb, a consultant to nonprofit arts organizations, said in a recent interview. \u201cYou have to do less and you\u2019re much more risk-averse and that is not a recipe for artistic growth.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The academy says its 2024 financial reports are not yet ready. But in 2023, BAM laid off 13 percent of its staff \u2014 cutting 26 positions \u2014 to help fill what officials called a \u201csizable structural deficit.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n In a recent interview at BAM, Amy Cassello, the academy\u2019s artistic director, said the academy is trying to be fiscally responsible while remaining artistically ambitious. \u201cWe are working on right-sizing our budgets, which obviously impacts our programming, but I also think that\u2019s what puts us on the path to growth,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd in the path to growth, we will get back to where we were and maybe even bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n BAM is far from alone in showing signs of strain. Cultural organizations across the country are struggling financially with reduced income and raided endowments, as the pandemic, aging audiences, rising labor costs, declining philanthropy and competition from streaming services take their toll.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The Guggenheim Museum last month announced<\/a> that it was laying off 20 employees across the museum \u2014 or 7 percent of its staff \u2014 and the Brooklyn Museum announced layoffs<\/a> to address a $10 million budget deficit.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a very difficult time for culture,\u201d said Anne Pasternak, the Brooklyn Museum\u2019s director.<\/p>\n But the decline at BAM predates the pandemic and speaks to what some view as the institution\u2019s dilemma \u2014 some find its programming too safe now, others too risky. While it\u2019s often mainstream fare that pays the bills, cutting-edge material has long been the academy\u2019s brand.<\/p>\n \u201cI used to go to BAM in the \u201980s and \u201990s once every couple of weeks and I\u2019ve only been a couple times a year in the last few years,\u201d said the performance artist Laurie Anderson, for whom the academy has long been a creative home. \u201cSometimes the programming wasn\u2019t something I was so into \u2014 not as experimental. I like stuff that\u2019s way out on a limb.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWhen BAM was at its peak, they had that part of the field to itself \u2014 exciting and different work that people hadn\u2019t seen in this country,\u201d said Michael M. Kaiser, chairman of the DeVos Institute of Arts Management and former president of the Kennedy Center in Washington.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n To its supporters, remembrances of what BAM once was are unfair and unrealistic, given a changed world. They also point to the institution\u2019s strong spring lineup, which, in addition to \u201cStreetcar,\u201d includes the Berliner Ensemble production of Bertolt Brecht\u2019s \u201cThreepenny Opera,\u201d directed by the acclaimed Barrie Kosky<\/a>; the Batsheva Dance Company\u2019s \u201cMomo\u201d; and the composer Max Richter\u2019s performance with the American Contemporary Music Ensemble.<\/p>\n \u201cBAM is getting Barrie Kosky to New York City and the Met is not,\u201d Joseph V. Melillo, BAM\u2019s long-serving impresario<\/a>, said, referring to the Metropolitan Opera. \u201cYes, they have to do less, but the quality is still there. They\u2019re rebuilding \u2014 everybody\u2019s rebuilding.\u201d<\/p>\n BAM also continues to be a crucial hub for Brooklyn, serving as a catalyst for other economic development in the area. There are now 60 institutions in the Downtown Brooklyn Arts Alliance<\/a>, including the Mark Morris Dance Center, Theater for a New Audience, BRIC<\/a> and UrbanGlass<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cBAM\u2019s historic role within Brooklyn is important, because it has given other cultural organizations the opportunity to partner,\u201d said Toya Lillard, the executive director of 651 Arts<\/a>, which is across the street from the academy and dedicated to African diasporic performance.<\/p>\n But others note the structural issues that continue to weigh BAM down. Recent fund-raising has been less robust and leadership turnover has been constant, with the announced departure<\/a> last month of Gina Duncan after three years as president.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The academy\u2019s previous stewards had served for decades. Harvey Lichtenstein<\/a> was executive director for 32 years; Melillo<\/a> was artistic director for 35; and Karen Brooks Hopkins worked 36 years for the academy, including 16 as president.<\/p>\n But Hopkins\u2019s successor, Katy Clark<\/a>, who left in 2021, served for only six years. The artistic director David Binder, left<\/a> in 2023 after just four years.<\/p>\n \u201cParticularly in times of financial stress, the quality and consistency of professional leadership and sound governance could not matter more,\u201d said Reynold Levy, the former president of Lincoln Center and an expert on nonprofit institutions.<\/p>\n For an organization noted for its fresh and adventurous pushing of boundaries, BAM has a long history as a New York cultural landmark. Founded in 1861 \u2014 eight years before construction began on the Brooklyn Bridge \u2014 people from Manhattan had to take ferries to attend performances there, such as concerts by the Philharmonic Society of Brooklyn.<\/p>\n In 1908, BAM\u2019s new Beaux-Arts building opened on Lafayette Avenue in Fort Greene, but it initially struggled to attract theatergoers to what was then a gritty area. In 1968 the interest in attracting Manhattanites led to the creation of the BAMbus, which transported audience members back and forth to performances at the 2,096-seat Howard Gilman Opera House. (The bus was discontinued<\/a> in 2013 because of declining ridership and financial pressures.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n BAM began to burnish its international reputation when Lichtenstein took over as executive director in 1967. In 1983, he created the Next Wave Festival, an important showcase for innovative dance, music and drama that established BAM as an incubator of the artistic vanguard.<\/p>\n The physical plant also expanded. The BAM Harvey Theater opened in 1987, then a cinema complex, then the BAM Fisher building in 2012, which includes a theater, rehearsal studio and classroom. In 2019, BAM Strong opened, containing a renovated Harvey Theater, art gallery, roof deck and patron lounge. In January, BAM opened BAM KBH, which houses archives, a reading room, cinemas and a flexible performance space, in the L10 Arts and Culture Center<\/a>, a multidisciplinary arts hub.<\/p>\n Programming flourished. In 2003, BAM presented the Royal National Theater and Market Theater of Johannesburg\u2019s production of \u201cThe Island,\u201d originally directed by Athol Fugard; William Christie conducting the Baroque musical ensemble Les Arts Florissants in the Paris National Opera production of Rameau\u2019s \u201cLes Bor\u00e9ades\u201d; and Merce Cunningham Dance Company\u2019s world premiere of \u201cSplit Sides,\u201d to live music performed by Radiohead and the Icelandic band Sigur R\u00f3s.<\/p>\n Financially, the organization reached its heights in 2015, when BAM took in about $24 million in earned revenue. But the income began to slump even before the pandemic took its toll. Between 2015 and 2019, performance revenues dropped in half, to $8.6 million from $17 million, according to the academy\u2019s audited financial statements.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Then the coronavirus in 2020 set BAM back even further. The budget was cut to $30 million. The academy laid off 25 employees and furloughed 80. The organization\u2019s president and executives took salary reductions of up to 40 percent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n To rescue itself, BAM dipped into its $100 million endowment with a special distribution of $5 million and an additional $3 million the next fiscal year.<\/p>\n BAM\u2019s private-sector donations decreased to about $11 million in 2023 from about $25 million in 2015. (BAM said they were projected to increase to $14 million in 2025.)<\/p>\n The academy was forced to rein in the scope of programming. Its Next Wave Festival,<\/a> for example, went to seven programs in 2023, down from 31 in 2017. It went up to 11 in 2024 and is now at 13.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Karen and Joe left, it was hard to keep up the excitement that they had managed to generate for many years,\u201d said Nigel Redden<\/a>, the longtime director of the annual Lincoln Center Festival, which offered BAM-like programming uptown, but which was discontinued<\/a> in 2017. \u201cFinding companies, finding artists that are new and special and will excite and attract an audience \u2014 that seemed a little less the case. This year I thought that it was somewhat coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite its hurdles, BAM reports that it has been slowly rebuilding. The audience has grown by 41 percent over last year. Yearly revenues from performances are already ahead of the sluggish years that preceded the pandemic. Since fiscal year 2019, the total number of shows has increased by 50 percent, to 241.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nA Long, Illustrious History<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Encouraging Signs of Growth<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n