The Arts as Victims of the Economic Recession

Opera Pacific performed for decades in Orange County, up until last November. During intermission on the final night of The Barber of Seville, the musicians were told it was all over. They played the last act anyway, but there’s no more opera, and the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa is now short $400,000 in revenue. The 81-year-old Orchestras of Pasadena laid off half their staff last year and stayed afloat on checks written by board members. The economic decline is devastating the arts in Southern California. We look at the crisis facing arts institutions with arts writers, producers and advocates.