SF Theater Audiences Bribed With $7.7 Million: Huge Grants To "Enhance Participation"

Go arts! Apparently not having big enough audiences is good for business. Mayor Newsom announced yesterday that a bunch of arts organizations across the San Francisco and the Bay Area will receive $7.7 million aimed at getting more asses in the seats. Among the recipients of the Excellence Awards, funded by The Wallace Foundation, are the SFMOMA, the San Francisco Opera, the Contemporary Jewish Museum and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. See the whole list here.

Hoping to "pioneer effective practices to engage more people in high-value arts activities," the money will go toward expanding the San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau's Arts and Tourism Department website and creating a combined mailing list resource for San Francisco organizations, among other components.

Just a thought here: if they actually started paying the public to attend theater and stuff, more people would go, no? $.7.7 million could go an awful long way.

pic from operachic.typepad.com

-- Brian Bernbaum