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Intro

Orchestrating Change
Symphony strives to sustain fresh momentum under its new music director

Art Has Four I's
KMA's new director Todd D. Smith wants to pull the museum into your life

Big City, Big Heart
Against expectations and budget cuts, opera is on a festive surge

One of the first things to feel the pinch of an economy gone sour is a city's largest art organizations. After all, the arts are a luxury that are typically one of the first expense items slashed in any attempt to balance both governmental and personal budgets. Corporate and foundation purse strings have tightened on a national scale, and many arts organizations in other states are having a hard time meeting their obligations. You'd think that art funding would be in short supply around here.

Only that doesn't seem to be the case. Sure, the larger organizations are feeling the pinch, but the pinch has served to spur efforts to adapt to difficult times. Those efforts have been much more successful here than in many other cities. Indeed, the three organizations highlighted in this article are now on better footing than they were when the recession hit.

The coming year should be an exciting one. A new conductor, Lucas Richman, will take the baton at the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. Todd D. Smith has already begun rechanneling the Knoxville Museum of Art's energies and reconnecting it to the center city. The Knoxville Opera Company, once on the brink of shuttering its doors, has been magnificently resuscitated by Frank Graffeo, who plans to bring a bigger and better Rossini Festival to downtown.

The arts are looking better than ever right now. What was that you said about a recession?
 

February 27, 2003 * Vol. 13, No. 9
© 2003 Metro Pulse