August 25, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
The European engineering and information-technology giant Siemens will maintain its annual giving for the arts and other projects at about $72-million despite declining business, says Bloomberg.
The firm, which sponsors the annual Bayreuth and Salzburg music festivals, among other social and cultural activities, reported a 28-percent decline in orders in July and cut 17,000 jobs last year. Stephan Heimbach, a spokesman for Siemens, said its long-term patronage activities “are not a dispensable quality in an economically difficult environment.”
In other arts news, New York’s City Opera has reached a deal with its singers, dancers, and production staff that will allow the financially strapped company to cut labor costs, according to The New York Times. Under the two-year contract, the opera will cut guaranteed work for American Guild of Musical Artists members from 26 to 22 weeks this year. Next year it will guarantee 23 weeks.
And The Denver Post reports on the travails of the Colorado Ballet, which had just shaken off the effects of a financial crisis a few years ago when the current recession hit. Contributions have dropped 60 percent in the past year, fueling a $500,000 budget shortfall.
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