Just last week New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall was touted in the Globe as one of New England's Seven Wonders, for its acoustics and overall vibe. "Attending a performance is like sitting inside a violin," Renee Loth wrote. Now in a perhaps less-than-exciting but actually important press release, NEC says it's received a $357,000 grant from the Mass. Cultural Facilities Fund to replace the hall's HVAC system, restoring air-conditioning to the 104-year-old venue. The grant is actually the missing piece of a $1.2 million project that's already underway; walk by as I did the other day and you'll see trucks and hoses and cranes around the back of the building. MassDevelopment and the Mass Cultural Council jointly administer the grant program.
UPDATE: This morning's Globe has the full story, which lists $16.7 million in grants from the Fund to groups like the BSO, the MFA, Shakespeare & Company, MassMOCA, et cetera. But the real juice is in who doesn't get a grant - the Citi Performing Arts Center. And the Fund's overseers are pretty candid that they skipped the Center's $600,000 request because of Globe stories questioning executive director Josiah Spaulding Jr.'s gi-normous pay and bonus package in light of the center's financial problems and programming cutbacks. With the center's board well stocked with pals, Spaulding could probably have skated past a few newspaper stories. But a kick in the wallet like that delviered by the fund might not be so easy to move past.
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