This system worked well for audiences and performers, but the only way for most creators to earn a living from their works was through the support of patrons.
This, at least, is the idea behind the new site PatronQuo, "Where starving artists come to earn": In the days before commercial media and mass advertising, aspiring artists depended on the support of patrons in order to get their work out there, to ensure that they could continue to eat while honing their craft.
Mr. Steel, 41, said he was captivated by the chance to move into a brand-new, medium-size theater (2,200 capacity) that has the enthusiastic support of its patrons.
During the next 10 years Donne lived in poverty and humiliating dependence, first on the charity of Anne's cousin at Pyrford, Surrey, then at a house in Mitcham, about 7 miles (11 km) from London, and sometimes in a London apartment, where he relied on the support of noble patrons.
With her teacher at her side — and the financial support of such patrons as John Spaulding, the Sugar King, and Henry Rogers, of Standard Oil — Helen spent a year at Perkins, and then entered the Wright-Humason School, iNew Yorkrk, a fashionable academy for deaf girls; she was its single deaf-blind pupil.
They obviously have the support of corporate patrons who want to keep unemployment high and workers insecure because a pliant working class helps their bottom lines.
This is a long-standing tradition in classical music, which has relied greatly on the support of wealthy patrons (private, public, religious) for centuries, and it continues to this day.
The ability of the Syrian government and opposition groups to keep up the fight largely depends on the continued support of their external patrons.
We could not maintain the artistic standards of our festival, which receives no public subsidy, without the support of our enlightened patrons and donors.
One American official said at the time that Mr. Maliki's government appeared unwilling to crack down on militants firing the rockets because he needed the support of their political patrons.
Unlike Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, who have been forced to retreat to mountain redoubts in western Pakistan's tribal areas, Lashkar commanders have been able to operate more or less in the open, behind the public face of a popular charity, with the implicit support of official Pakistani patrons, American officials said.
