Lincoln Center To Advise Chinese Developers
April 30, 2011
On April 28, Lincoln Center announced plans to enter into a three-year agreement with the developers of a performing arts complex in Tianjin, China’s fifth largest city. The plans are currently embodied in a memorandum of understanding, and are subject to the completion of a binding agreement.
What services will Lincoln Center be providing under the agreement? The Center will recommend the content of artistic programming, propose an economic model for the performing arts center’s operations, establish a design and construction process, and provide staff training.
What will Lincoln Center be getting in return? The contract price was undisclosed. However, The New York Times indicates that this may be part of a larger effort by the Center to create a consulting business to supplement ticket sales and donations. Although the Center often offers free advice to arts executives, it will select a few other “intense engagements.”
Will this new business have an impact on the organization’s current role? Officials are still considering how to handle the balance of resources for its project in Tianjin. “Once we know we definitely have a deal, we will be retaining additional capacity to make sure we have the leverage to support those services,” Ms. Farley told the New York Times, “but to continue keeping our eye on the ball of the main Lincoln Center mission.”
The performing arts complex in Tianjin is scheduled to open around 2015.
Read the article at the New York Times
