Should a well established public Arts high school sell its name for a donation to their capital campaign? If approved the school would bear the name of billionaire businessman. Is this the wave of the future?
NYC has a PA high school in Queens supported by Tony Bennett. The main concert hall bears his name and he named the entire school after Frank Sinatra. Mr. Bennett was not the sole financier, and he is an arts person, so I’m not sure if this is directly applicable.
I don’t think it matters, personally. LaGuardia High School is named after a former mayor. And yes, they were honoring him because he was the one who mandated the formation of the original High School of Performing Arts…but when the average person hears the name “LaGuardia,” the first thing they think of is the airport. Mayor LaGuardia wasn’t famous for being involved with the arts. So I don’t think it matters what the name of the school is. If it offers great training and has some successful alumni, it will have a good reputation regardless of the name.
Most of the schools in my town are named for somebody who donated a bunch of money decades ago for a trust fund, with the proviso that any future schools in the main complex would carry their last name. I would say that if it’s a person it’s fine, but commercial ties get tricky – you probably wouldn’t want kids attending the Anheuser-Busch High School for the Performing Arts.
Also, as somebody who has served on the board of a performing arts center, I strongly advise that naming rights have an expiration date and NOT be in perpetuity. Many places from Lincoln Center on down have started facing this issue (e.g. the decision around naming the David Geffen Hall, formerly Avery Fisher Hall, now the David Geffen Hall at Avery Fisher). In their case the price was $100 Million, but smaller venues will face similar decisions at much lower donation levels.
My two cents is to be grateful there’s interest. The mostly popular alternative for increasing revenue is raising taxes. Hey, we have towns in our region that sold themselves as landfills for city waste to, in part, fund their schools.
@Delegator, Anheuser-Busch High School for the Performing Arts has a nice ring. Then again, I graduated from Schlitz Malt Liquor Polytech.
To add, I’d hope the district’s attorney would be all over that expiration date issue. And there are morality clauses to also consider. You know how some of those billionaires behave when the Chateau Margaux 1875 flows …