TV in the Lobby
Via email, I just got passed this New York Times article on the latest attempt to advertise to theatergoers: in-lobby LCD displays, coming soon to a Seattle Rep near you.
Called StageVision, the project is the work of the National Corporate Theater Fund in New York, which seeks financing for 19 leading nonprofit regional theaters. It is sponsored by Sharp Electronics, which is supplying the Sharp Aquos liquid- crystal-display screens in the lobbies and is a StageVision advertiser; Time Inc., which is providing coverage of the arts from Time magazine and time.com; and Palace Production Center, New York, which produces video from that information.The project also has the support of the National Endowment for the Arts, which provided a small but symbolic $30,000 grant to develop it.
So does the NEA have ulterior motives here? After all, increased corporate support would certainly take some pressure off of the NEA's tight budget for supporting the arts. And given the NEA's recent (unfortunate) trend towards funding less controversial work, it's unclear whether corporate money has any fewer strings attached than funds from government.
Regardless, I'm all for finding new ways to support the arts, so long as the ads stay in the lobby, and not in the actual performance space. Unless, of course, I start to overhear, "hey, that's a great-looking TV. If I buy one of those I won't ever have to come to the theater again!" But I doubt that will be a problem.