Meanwhile, sponsorship prices have dropped with the shrinking donor pool.
“Years ago, in New York for example, you’d want to get in early to grab hold of the sponsorships that you really wanted,” says DeSisto. “Sometimes you almost had a bidding war.”
“There’s much less jockeying for the plum pickings,” she says. “You find yourself getting closer to the exhibit opening, and still no sponsor in the picture.”
Bank of America tends to support arts institutions in places where it has a large staff and clientele. Employees like to see their company “actually investing where they live and work,” explains DeSisto.
In 2010, the Louvre Museum received funds to restore “The Winged Victory of Samothrace,” as did the Reina Sofia in Madrid for the conservation of Picasso’s “Woman in Blue” (1901).
Why back the Old Vic? “It’s in an area of London that can use the excitement,” says DeSisto, describing the strip near Waterloo station where the theater sits.
It doesn’t hurt that the Old Vic is run by Spacey.
DeSisto remembers the time she invited the Hollywood star to address bank staff. He offered to screen his movie “Margin Call” (2011) -- about a financial executive who gets fired and realizes his bosses were cooking the books.
“I said, ’I think we’ll take a pass on that,’” DeSisto deadpans. “The financial people and traders were held up to be villainous -- I didn’t think the bank would appreciate the characterization. He understood.”