以微妙而不是那么微妙的方式，纽约的林肯中心试图超越其狡猾的高级社会基础。凭借5.5亿美元的翻新工程，该国杰出的文化机构之一利用了几个怪异的大流行年来在身体和意识形态上重新设计自己。纽约爱乐乐团的所在地戴维·格芬·霍尔（David Geffen Hall）经历了一个完整的肠道，并带有一个新的音乐会空间，旨在解决长期存在的声学问题。除此之外，它已经改造了其余的校园，以向公众开放，并更加欢迎潜在的观众，这些观众甚至可能从未考虑过踏上脚步。音乐厅是作品的中心，但是在这个神圣机构的象牙墙之外发生了什么，这可能是有助于赋予其新生活的原因。
乍一看可能很难看到这种变化。林肯中心（Lincoln Center）是一个占地16英亩的世纪中期大型标志，在中央公园边缘附近，在中央公园边缘附近拥有六个表演，并成为建筑偶像，因此不太可能进行重型改头换面。格芬·霍尔（Geffen Hall）的外立面已经保存，但是内部已经完全重新配置，有500个座位，现在它的2,200人容量彩虹般的彩虹射击，舞台上的舞台更接近观众。翻新的音乐厅，现在命名为Wu Tsai Theater— for a $50 million donation from Chinese e-commerce site Alibaba cofounder Joseph Tsai and wife Clara Wu Tsai—is the centerpiece of a refresh at Lincoln Center that’s involved creating new public spaces and a major shakeup of the cultural institution’s leadership.
林肯中心（Lincoln Center）总裁兼首席执行官亨利·蒂姆斯（Henry Timms）在2019年在大流行开门和取消表演之前就获得了最高职位。他将采用计划扩大林肯中心的覆盖范围，这是他以前的职位所做的一切92nd街y, another venerable New York performance and events venue. Lincoln Center, with its sometimes stodgy menu of opera, ballet, and classical music, was overdue for a reappraisal of its external appeal.
“These big old institutions, it’s really hard to get them to move quick. They’re very good at impact, they’re very good at prestige, they’re usually quite bad at being nimble,” Timms says. The pandemic offered some flexibility. The closures allowed construction on the Geffen Hall project to speed up. The renovation was completed two years ahead of schedule, and has a novel curvilinear seating arrangement, which brings the audience closer to the performers and improves the musicians’ ability to hear each other on stage. The lack of normal operations at Lincoln Center also prompted other community-focusedTimms希望最终能够开始。他说：“突然间，您实际上可以更快地做事。”
林肯中心（Lincoln Center）的领导层开始着眼于墙壁，为整个城市户外的表演和公共场所寻找新的机会，因此林肯中心（Lincoln Center）的领导层开始了。蒂姆斯说，大流行在纽约的早期破坏使他和其他人说，林肯中心不仅仅是艺术组织，而是一个公民组织。它开始运营一家食品银行，献血中心，选民登记和投票地点以及协调2020年人口普查的站点。领导层本身甚至改变了，大多数白人和男性董事会现在更接近性别平等，有30％的有色人种。执行人员，以前所有白人，现在由60％的有色人种组成。大多数职位由妇女担任。
Redesigning Lincoln Center, including the interior of Geffen Hall by钻石施密特建筑师以及校园上的几个面向公共空间Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, became instrumental to this more expansive, more diverse version of the 63-year-old institution.
“The best example, and it’s a pretty good metaphor for the project, the lobby has doubled in size,” says Timms. A space formerly dedicated to a line of ticket windows now features a publicly accessible lobby with a café that’s open all day, even when there are no performances scheduled. When there are, a 50-foot video screen will simulcast what’s on stage. “If you’re wandering by and the philharmonic is playing, you can watch the performance for free,” Timms says.
Updating the “hardware” and the “software”
Timms describes the physical and cultural changes happening at Lincoln Center as updates to its hardware and software.” David Geffen Hall is very much a hardware decision,” he says. “It’s not just a concert hall. It’s designed to have these big, expansive community spaces throughout that allow more people to have more interactive and immersive and engaged experiences.”
林肯中心’s programming is the software, says Timms, and that is also undergoing a dramatic change for a place steeped in traditions of black-tie opera events and tickets priced beyond the reach of many of the city’s residents. “What you can’t do is simply show up with different architecture and the same programming,” Timms says.
这就是为什么林肯中心被聘为其新的首席艺术官Shanta Thake，他是Globalfest公共剧院和代表的前副艺术总监，这是一个世界音乐节，在纽约持续了近20年。她在林肯中心的第一个项目之一是将其标志性的中央广场和喷泉变成户外舞厅, complete with a 10-foot hanging disco ball. The same space was also used for a大规模婚礼，将其著名的广场变成了500个婚礼的场所，或者是由大流行而导致的。Thake还在整个城市进行了编程的音乐会，从传统的音乐厅设置中将古典音乐带来，并将其与公众更加接近，包括一些带有付费的定价结构的活动。这些事件为该组织带来了非典型的观众，有大约一半的有色人种，一半以下45岁，还有四分之一的林肯中心。
Thake says the redesign at Lincoln Center is part of bringing that audience to its more regular programming. “We have this opportunity to bring that audience indoors,” she says. “I think that’s the amazing challenge, and luckily we have a building that’s capable of that.”
But that doesn’t mean Lincoln Center is reverting back to its conventional programs. The first performance at the new Geffen Hall was the world premiere ofSan Juan Hill: A New York Story, composed and performed by Trinidadian trumpeter Etienne Charles and his band Creole Soul, alongside the Philharmonic. The piece is in reference to San Juan Hill, a prominent Hispanic and Black neighborhood that Robert Moses razed back in the 1950s to make room for Lincoln Center. Thake says the piece, commissioned by Lincoln Center, is an effort to grapple with the past and push the institution in a new direction. “I think you’re going to see us continuing to talk about it,” she says.
这也可能涉及进一步的建筑工作。Timms说，林肯中心最初是为了向城市的一侧开放，在那里，中城的喧嚣流向上西区的富裕，但封闭到另一个大型公共住房项目所在的地方。“我们校园的东部非常热情，我们校园的西部非常强烈。这是在林肯中心开头做出的选择，但我们现在正在考虑校园西部，我们能在那里做什么。” Timms说。“那是我们的下一个项目。”