Richard Morrison eulogises in the Times today about the brilliance of the revamped and reopened Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Centre, New York, which has ditched its "chilly municipal" feel for a "six-storey glass prow". Morrison uses the example of Alice Tully as a way forward for cash-strapped arts organisations – and potential donors – in this country: now is the time to spend, spend, spend, and invest in the arts, which people need in a time of economic gloom.
Not everyone is so enthusiastic. CultureGrrl has a fascinating two-part photo essay on how Alice Tully Hall has changed, mostly, she thinks, for the worse: uncomfortable new seats, bad lighting, only marginally improved acoustics, injury-inducing elements in the redesign, and, above all, a lack of faith in the old building's concrete brutalism.
The Southbank Centre was the last major revamp this side on the Atlantic, and I wonder if a similar catalogue of criticisms should be levelled at it. A couple of years on, was it really worth £115m to move an organ, put in some shops and restaurants – and still not to have a decent concert hall in the capital? With money as tight as it is now, you have to wonder whether that cash would have been better spent on a new hall instead of tarting up an old one that will never be world-class.
All right, belated harrumph over. Meanwhile, staying with the US, here's an encouraging article in the LA Times, highlighting how the Obamas are leading by example in their patronage of the arts. He managed to get $50m for the arts in his stimulus package, but Obama's being seen at concerts, the theatre, dance and opera is a political symbol that money can't buy. I've never seen Gordon Brown at the opera, but culture secretary Andy Burnham put in an appearance at Doctor Atomic last night. The sense of impending doom throughout Adams's opera must have been the perfect respite from the ever-deepening political gloom of Gordon Brown's government. Or not.
