Press Statement 9-11-14
Atlanta, GA September 11, 2014
The Woodruff Arts Center (WAC) is the non-profit umbrella organization of its four divisions: The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, The High Museum of Art, The Alliance Theatre, and Arts for Learning.
Although the ASO has a fully functioning Board of Directors and its own administrative staff, the WAC has been exercising increasingly greater control over every facet of the ASO. The Symphony has been placed in the position of running deficits that have been engineered by the WAC with the intention and for the purpose of extracting more concessions from the Orchestra’s musicians.
Two years ago, when the Musicians’ contract expired on August 25, 2012, the ASO management and the ASO Executive Board reached an agreement in the contract’s final hours that would have averted a lockout. However, the WAC rejected the deal out of hand, and promptly locked out the musicians for four weeks in an effort to exact further concessions.
Since the lockout of 2012, funds earned by and donated to the ASO have been manipulated in such a way as to force the ASO to continue to post deficits. This is a blatant attempt by the WAC to complete the permanent diminution and destruction of the ASO that it set out to do two years ago.
While the WAC bemoans the accumulation of deficits, it manages to secure funding to usher out veteran members of the ASO with a retirement incentive that would cost the ASO up to $3.75 million. This is almost double the amount needed to fund the Musicians’ proposal over the course of four years. The WAC is capable of raising money - and ignoring deficit accumulation - when the purpose is to diminish the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. The WAC is also able to approve
deficits in non-negotiation years (as they did at the end of FY 13), yet suddenly mandates that the budget be balanced – and only on the backs of the Musicians -- during a negotiation year. Practices such as these exemplify how the Woodruff Arts Center fails to live up to its charter to be stewards of the Arts for the city of Atlanta.
deficits in non-negotiation years (as they did at the end of FY 13), yet suddenly mandates that the budget be balanced – and only on the backs of the Musicians -- during a negotiation year. Practices such as these exemplify how the Woodruff Arts Center fails to live up to its charter to be stewards of the Arts for the city of Atlanta.
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