NYC's Lincoln Center Aims To Bring World Class Art To Everyone

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1:48Alexis Christoforous:We are so blessed here in New York City to have Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. It's really fantastic. And we were just talking about how, especially in the summertime, they have those silent discos. You can see everyone with their headphones and their dance center. It looks pretty incredible. And the disco ball. The whole vibe. I know. Well, you know what? Summer is almost... I know we're technically still in summer. Right. But we're already talking about our fall programming for Lincoln Center. And here to walk us through it is Shanta Thake. She is Lincoln Center's chief artistic officer joining us here in studio.

2:20Alexis Christoforous:Great to see you, Shanta. So tell us what sort of the highlights are for fall programming at Lincoln Center. Yeah, we are off and running. We just finished the summer, but Lincoln Center is a huge campus, 16 acres in the middle of Manhattan, and we really have the best from around the world. We're kicking it off with Shuffle Along, which is this incredible capture of this beautiful musical that was first launched in 1921 with Broadway's first all-black cast. We are bringing back this reimagining of it for two nights only at the Rose Theater, and it's going to be an incredible night. Oh, so this is a reunion.

2:56Audra McDonald, right? It's a reunion, yeah. Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Savion Glover, so many amazing faces and names. What are some of the bigger seasonal highlights as far as those milestones that y 'all have accomplished recently? Well, you know, I've been at Lincoln Center now for five years. We've welcomed over 600 ,000 new people to Lincoln Center. And that was a tough five-year stretch coming out of COVID. It probably feels like a lifetime ago. Yes, it really was a time where we had to think about what does New York need right now? What should a performing arts center be right now?

3:28And so we made a lot of big shifts and welcomed a whole new group of people into Lincoln Center. for some of them for the first time. And it's been really amazing. We changed our entire ticket model to be free and choose what you pay. So all these barriers to entry for a lot of folks have really come down. And we've just said, New York, this is your place to come see the best in live performance.

3:48Alexis Christoforous:I just love that because we talk all the time about, we were talking a few minutes ago about the US Open, the tennis open and how it's really tough to bring a family to these sporting events and to Broadway as well. All your ticket prices are really out of hand for so many folks you are able to do. Is it all of your programming is what what you all of our programming is free and choose what you pay. So a family of four can come for free to many of our events, including we have an amazing open house on October 25th. I'll plug that. But also you can come see incredible new operas. You can see shuffle along for five dollars a ticket.

4:24So but you register for the tickets, correct? Register for the tickets. You have to sign up and actually purchase the tickets and you can pick whatever level feels. right for you. So it's this exercise in generosity. Any ticket level actually does come back to support the rest of us seeing this work and being able to bring work of scale. And how does the business aspect of that work in the sense if it's pay what you want, how do you kind of cover other costs there? Yeah, I mean, a lot of, you know, nonprofit performance really relies on the generosity of donors and individuals, foundations, our city government.

4:58We're so lucky to be in a city like New York that's so philanthropic and really knows that the live performing arts are critical to how we thrive and why we want to be in this city. And so everybody really pitches in and says this matters to us and it should be for everyone.

5:11Alexis Christoforous:I don't know how granular you can get with the demographics, but I'm just curious, are the folks who are coming to see these performances mostly New Yorkers? Are they tourists but within the U.S.? What kind of an international base do you have? Can you give us a feel for that or break that down for us? I would say the majority of our ticket buyers are New Yorkers, you know, but New York is an international city. So it's really hard to say when you have a New York audience, you also have an international audience. And I think for most people, Lincoln Center is an international brand. So if you're coming to New York from anywhere else in the world, this is one of the things that you're putting on that list.

5:47You want to see something on Broadway. You want to go to Lincoln Center. You want to check out these amazing spaces that are really some of the best spaces in the world and see some of the best artists in the world. So it's a, it's a mix, but I would say we start with New York and build from there. What do you find is still a challenge coming out of COVID, even though it's been five, six years now, where y 'all stand and what you think can be accomplished in the next five years? I would say, you know, the biggest challenge is the challenge that faces all of us, which is this challenge of increasing isolationism, you know, the idea that people are retreating further and further into themselves.

6:19And the great gift of that is that I think live performance is one of the great solves for this problem. And so really, I think the mission in this time is to make sure people understand that live performance, being out, getting out of your home leads to better health outcomes, better mental health, physical health, longer life expectancy. This is the way we get better. We see one another. We are seen. And so live performance is a huge part of this. And that, I think, is the message that we really have to get across in this time. It's more urgent than ever.

6:49Alexis Christoforous:And this fall, you have something called Festival of Firsts. I guess it's not the first time you've done it. But tell us what that is. Well, I think, you know, for a lot of people, they think of Lincoln Center, oh, you have to have done all of these things a thousand times before you can walk through the doors of Lincoln Center. So Festival First was really created by my colleague, Paloma Estevez. And it's around this idea of turning that idea on its head. How can we really show that we're opening the doors to Lincoln Center to artists to do a new thing? And so artists that are having their U.S.

7:19debuts, they're releasing a new album, they're trying a new thing. We've got opera singers doing comedy shows. We have people really exploring new parts of their craft, but also just people stepping into a new thing. So we have these great buttons that say my first time at Lincoln Center. And, you know, it's really amazing to see audiences and artists find a new door into a place that may have seemed off limits.

7:41Alexis Christoforous:I'm just curious if there's an artist hearing this right now. And they said, oh, how do I get in on that? I mean, how would they contact Lincoln Center? How can they be a part of that? Yeah, I think, you know, all of live performance and all of I'm sure all of our work is about relationships. So a lot of what my team is doing, a lot of what I'm doing every day is going out and seeing work. So we tell artists all the time, just introduce yourself, say hello, let us know what you're working on. It's our job to make sure there's a path to all of the great artists of our time to Lincoln Center. And you never know who that next great artist is, whether they could be across the street at LaGuardia, they could be at Juilliard.

8:16they could just be walking by and making sure they understand that there is a space for them so those silent discos do you have anything comparable during the fall before it gets cold or the winter that or do we have to wait till next summer oh well listen we try to we try to keep opportunities for dancing year round i i think silent discos are one of the most fucking weirdest things it is bizarre i must say when you're walking by and you see people sort of like really like what are they listening to yeah when you put on those headphones i do think there's the kind of freedom that comes with it.

8:47You sort of do things you wouldn't otherwise do. We have our amazing VIA series, which is a social dance, Latin dance series that we do in our David Rubenstein atrium once a month. There's an enormous amount of activity that still centers social dance throughout the year.

9:01Alexis Christoforous:Has it been a challenge in terms of benefactors, finding benefactors, getting the benefactors to continue to commit at the level they've been committing? I would say, you know, I, again, I think this is the most urgent story of our time. So actually it has not been difficult to find donors and philanthropists and just New Yorkers who say, I see this as a priority for my city. I moved to New York. I invest in the city. I work in the city because I, because I see the thriving arts ecosystem. I see what's possible. I'm inspired to be in rooms where I hear new stories and I bring that into my life.

9:38And I I want my kids to experience that. I want my grandkids to experience that. And so we really have, I think, only more donors. And like I said, we're bringing in hundreds of thousands of new audience members to Lincoln Center because of our ticket model. And if even a fraction of them decide that they want to spend more money and pay it forward. They're welcome to do that. They're welcome to do that. You're in an enviable position. Right.

10:01Alexis Christoforous:So many museums, too, are many, many folks are suffering right now and trying to find the the benefactors. Yeah. I mean, I won't sugarcoat it. It's a tough time for everyone. But I think that's why it's really up to all of us to support one another. And Lincoln Center, you know, we're 11 arts organizations on campus. But we're also, you know, we think of our role as really being able to help other performing arts centers around the city and say, what do we need collectively that we can make asks together? We can tell this story together and really reach this much wider public than we can do individually.

10:37Talk to us about the Lincoln Center Open House that's coming up soon. Yes, I'm so glad you asked. Open House is one of my favorite events of the year, and it's an open house. We open David Geffen Hall, but also the Met is opening their doors. Lincoln Center Theater opens its doors, and it's an opportunity to see things inside and out. You'll see pop-up performances unfolding around you. You can make your own puppets. It's a great day for kids. It's all free. You can learn about the storytelling in opera. You can take a dance class and really everything in between. It's so much fun. How long is it?

11:08Is it a day or is it something that lasts a couple of weeks? It's a full day. So you really can show up, I think at 11 o 'clock and go until six o 'clock and you're there. It's pretty jam packed. I love that. I think October 25th. October 25th. You can even get a head start on your Halloween costume. It's a lot of fun.

11:23Alexis Christoforous:Okay. And just talk to us if you can. I don't how in-depth you can go, but opera. It's been a challenge, right, for The Met as well, to bring in a new audience, a younger audience. And how are things going in that regard? You know, I can't speak for The Met, but I will say their fall season looks so incredible. It does look amazing. I mean, they have a new opera with Missy Mazzoli, Royce Fabric, Lincoln at the Bardo that I think is just going to blow the roof off the place. So I think there's so much excitement for what's happening there this fall. And I'm really excited to see that continue to grow.

11:56There's room, you know, there's plenty of ticket models. There's plenty of ways that people are getting in and seeing their first opera and to see your first opera.

12:03Alexis Christoforous:I remember when I saw my first and I brought my opera glasses. I bought special passes to see it and I just felt extra, extra fancy. But it really is quite an event. And it's a wonderful thing. And I think maybe if we stop thinking about it like an event, maybe we'll just go a little more often. Yeah, I mean, what I would love is for people to think of live performance as part of their daily life, part of their ritual. We think of diet and exercise as something we need to be healthy. Well, live performance is absolutely something that should be part of a healthy life. And so thinking about how do I add this to my routine and like how much more fun is it to add live performance than to get back on the treadmill, you know?

12:41Alexis Christoforous:So shuffle along is the first thing. September 27th, you're going to be kicking that off. Super excited to see all that you've got planned at Lincoln Center this fall. So Shanta Thake, thanks so much for being here. We appreciate it. Lincoln Center's Chief Artistic Officer.

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