Yale University has invested $500,000 in the Shubert Performing Arts Center as part of a cooperative effort to keep the New Haven cultural asset in operation.
President Richard C. Levin, Vice President and University Secretary Linda Koch Lorimer and Vice President for Finance and Administration Joseph P. Mullinix joined Connecticut Governor John G. Rowland, New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr. and Mary Pepe, chair of the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, at a ceremony announcing the agreement.
"We are quite thrilled to be involved in this public-private enterprise to keep this theater open," President Levin said. "Our grant of $500,000 is in recognition that this theater is not only a cultural resource for the citizens of this community but an economic catalyst as well. We think that, in the long run, the future of downtown New Haven will rely substantially on the arts to attract people to take advantage of the restaurants and the businesses nearby."
The Finance Committee of the Yale Corporation approved the University's investment in the Shubert last month.
President Levin noted that the Yale University Art Gallery, the Yale Center for British Art, the Peabody Museum of Natural History and Yale's Schools of Art, Architecture, Music and Drama present a host of offerings for the public that, along with the Shubert and other cultural attractions -- including the International Festival of Arts & Ideas scheduled this summer -- position New Haven as a top cultural center.
In return for Yale's sponsorship of the theater, the Shubert will provide Yale with a stream of thousands of tickets over the next 10 years that the University will distribute to New Haven schoolchildren, extending Yale's practice of making performances at the Shubert a part of the cultural experience of pupils in the area.
The state provided $1.3 million toward the Shubert, the Community Foundation added $500,000 and Fleet Bank contributed $50,000. The total financial package will allow the Shubert to purchase its mortgage note. The purchase will allow the City of New Haven's annual $456,000 contribution to the Shubert, which now goes to mortgage payments, to support the financially pressed theater's operations. The state is providing an additional $700,000 for repairs and improvements for the 82-year-old theater.