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Star: Arts Guru to Run TO Festival of Arts & Culture
From the Star:
Arts guru returns to run new festival
Janice Price moves back from U.S.
Jul. 11, 2006. 01:00 AM
The Toronto Festival of Arts and Creativity — a hugely ambitious and wildly eclectic 10-day event set to make its debut in early June, 2007 — has scored a coup by luring Janice C. Price back to Canada as its CEO.
It's the cultural equivalent of a World Cup match with a score of Toronto 1, Philadelphia 0.
Price — one of the most highly regarded figures in the international world of arts administration, arts marketing and fundraising — will be coming home after a decade at New York's Lincoln Center (where she served as interim executive director in 2001) and Philadelphia's Kimmel Center (an historic multi-space facility that is home to eight companies including the Philadelphia Orchestra and also presents Broadway shows). Price had been the Kimmel's president and CEO since 2002.
Before moving to the U.S., Price held senior positions with the Stratford Festival, Livent and the Hummingbird Centre.
"It's a thrill for us to get Janice to come back and launch our festival," says David Pecaut, co-chair and founding co-godfather of the festival, which he more or less invented in collaboration with Tony Gagliano, CEO of St. Joseph Media, as the Star reported last summer.
"People in Philadelphia are used to hearing me talk about how much I love Toronto," Price said last night in an exclusive phone interview, "and this opportunity was just too good to let go. I've spent many years working on the dynamics and challenges of running big arts centres. What I'm most excited about now is having the chance to break out of the buildings and work more directly on connecting the arts with the audience."
In 2007, the festival will run for 10 days, including two weekends, on a budget of about $8 million, according to Pecaut, a U.S.-born venture capitalist who is also chair of Toronto City Summit Alliance. Pecaut claims the festival will do for Toronto what the Edinburgh Festival and Venice Biennale do for their cities.
What will make it unique, he says, is that it will cover a wider range than any other festival — theatre, film, dance, architecture, painting, sculpture.
To celebrate Toronto's cultural renaissance, the festival will collaborate with local institutions such as the National Ballet Company, the Toronto International Film Festival, Harbourfront Centre and Soulpepper Theatre. But it will also draw international cultural attractions to Toronto.
"We'll be commissioning original works, and we'll be drawing artists from the rest of the world and underlining this city's own diversity," Pecaut said yesterday. "A lot of the events will be at outdoor venues, and many of them will be free."
The AGO will be presenting exhibitions in a number of spots around town beyond the confines of its own building.
The film festival is working on a retrospective and celebrity-studded tribute to some cinematic giant like the ones it staged in the 1980s for Warren Beatty and Martin Scorsese.
Price, who is expected to appoint a program director, will concentrate on logistics, sponsorship, fundraising, ticketing and marketing.
The festival plans to raise at least half its $8 million to $10 million budget through sponsors, while lobbying to get several million more from governments.
"The most exciting challenge," says Price, "will be to get people stimulated enough by the atmosphere to be more adventurous, take more chances and sample things they might not risk the rest of the year."
Price spent last weekend in Toronto finalizing a deal — to the surprise of insiders who said she was earning so much in the U.S. that no Canadian arts organization would ever be able to repatriate her.
Sources say her salary at the Kimmel was over $300,000 (U.S.) She took a pay cut to accept the festival job, but the festival raised the ante well beyond the $200,000 ballpark it originally budgeted for a CEO.
Candidates had been screened with the help of Daniel Weinzweig and his executive search firm Searchlight Canada.
Yesterday, Price informed the Kimmel board, agreeing to stay until Labour Day before moving.
Details about the dates, programs and ticketing for the 2007 festival will be announced later this summer, Pecaut promises.
AoD
From the Star:
Arts guru returns to run new festival
Janice Price moves back from U.S.
Jul. 11, 2006. 01:00 AM
The Toronto Festival of Arts and Creativity — a hugely ambitious and wildly eclectic 10-day event set to make its debut in early June, 2007 — has scored a coup by luring Janice C. Price back to Canada as its CEO.
It's the cultural equivalent of a World Cup match with a score of Toronto 1, Philadelphia 0.
Price — one of the most highly regarded figures in the international world of arts administration, arts marketing and fundraising — will be coming home after a decade at New York's Lincoln Center (where she served as interim executive director in 2001) and Philadelphia's Kimmel Center (an historic multi-space facility that is home to eight companies including the Philadelphia Orchestra and also presents Broadway shows). Price had been the Kimmel's president and CEO since 2002.
Before moving to the U.S., Price held senior positions with the Stratford Festival, Livent and the Hummingbird Centre.
"It's a thrill for us to get Janice to come back and launch our festival," says David Pecaut, co-chair and founding co-godfather of the festival, which he more or less invented in collaboration with Tony Gagliano, CEO of St. Joseph Media, as the Star reported last summer.
"People in Philadelphia are used to hearing me talk about how much I love Toronto," Price said last night in an exclusive phone interview, "and this opportunity was just too good to let go. I've spent many years working on the dynamics and challenges of running big arts centres. What I'm most excited about now is having the chance to break out of the buildings and work more directly on connecting the arts with the audience."
In 2007, the festival will run for 10 days, including two weekends, on a budget of about $8 million, according to Pecaut, a U.S.-born venture capitalist who is also chair of Toronto City Summit Alliance. Pecaut claims the festival will do for Toronto what the Edinburgh Festival and Venice Biennale do for their cities.
What will make it unique, he says, is that it will cover a wider range than any other festival — theatre, film, dance, architecture, painting, sculpture.
To celebrate Toronto's cultural renaissance, the festival will collaborate with local institutions such as the National Ballet Company, the Toronto International Film Festival, Harbourfront Centre and Soulpepper Theatre. But it will also draw international cultural attractions to Toronto.
"We'll be commissioning original works, and we'll be drawing artists from the rest of the world and underlining this city's own diversity," Pecaut said yesterday. "A lot of the events will be at outdoor venues, and many of them will be free."
The AGO will be presenting exhibitions in a number of spots around town beyond the confines of its own building.
The film festival is working on a retrospective and celebrity-studded tribute to some cinematic giant like the ones it staged in the 1980s for Warren Beatty and Martin Scorsese.
Price, who is expected to appoint a program director, will concentrate on logistics, sponsorship, fundraising, ticketing and marketing.
The festival plans to raise at least half its $8 million to $10 million budget through sponsors, while lobbying to get several million more from governments.
"The most exciting challenge," says Price, "will be to get people stimulated enough by the atmosphere to be more adventurous, take more chances and sample things they might not risk the rest of the year."
Price spent last weekend in Toronto finalizing a deal — to the surprise of insiders who said she was earning so much in the U.S. that no Canadian arts organization would ever be able to repatriate her.
Sources say her salary at the Kimmel was over $300,000 (U.S.) She took a pay cut to accept the festival job, but the festival raised the ante well beyond the $200,000 ballpark it originally budgeted for a CEO.
Candidates had been screened with the help of Daniel Weinzweig and his executive search firm Searchlight Canada.
Yesterday, Price informed the Kimmel board, agreeing to stay until Labour Day before moving.
Details about the dates, programs and ticketing for the 2007 festival will be announced later this summer, Pecaut promises.
AoD