One of the perks of leading premier cultural institutions, besides the substantial salaries, is the use of elegant apartments, which are often owned by arts organizations and passed from one top executive to the next. But the Brooklyn Academy of Music took it a step further in 2015 when Katy Clark became its president. The organization gave its new leader nearly half the purchase price of a $1.9 million, three-bedroom prewar home overlooking Prospect Park that she could call her own. The unusual one-time housing bonus of $968,000 came on top of her new starting salary of $355,000, which was a considerable boost from the roughly $200,000 she had been making in her prior job. Now, after just five years in the post, Clark left BAM in January for a lower-profile job at a foundation — and the apartment has gone with her, leading to questions about the fiscal prudence of such an outlay to lure a leader whose tenure wound up being much shorter than her predecessor’s.

Source: International New York Times March 04, 2021 16:12 UTC