Visual Arts Scotland's National Gallery Makes A Titian Its Own Scotland's National Gallery buys itself a Titian for £11 million. The painting has hung on loan to the gallery for 60 years. "It took more than two years to complete the deal, using £7.6m worth of lottery funding and a £2.5m contribution from the Scottish executive. The rest of the money came from the National Art Collections Fund and the National Galleries. To facilitate the sale, £2.4m of the picture's value was offset against inheritance tax." The Guardian (UK) 02/27/03 Posted: 02/26/2003 10:21 pm Tracking Down Nazi Art Loot - A Futile Task? More people are trying to track down art looted by the Nazis dureing World War II than ever before. And museums and collectors are under greater scrutiny. But "experts have become increasingly pessimistic that much more of it will ever be recovered and restored to its rightful owners. The Germans seized perhaps 600,000 important works from 1933 to 1945. "As many as 100,000 pieces are still estimated to be missing, and some have undoubtedly been destroyed. 'Obviously, what this is all about is the art world having to pay the price for lack of interest in provenance that they have shown for generations. It's a good idea to put it on the Internet and make it available, but I don't think there's a great deal of follow-up by museums'." The New York Times 02/27/03 Posted: 02/26/2003 10:02 pm Met Museum Lands Matisse Trove The Metroplitan Museum lands a gift of 50 paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints by Matisse, valued at $100 million. "The gift, which comes from a foundation named after Matisse's youngest son, Pierre, and Pierre's wife, Maria-Gaetana Matisse, is one of the most important gifts of modern art the Metropolitan has ever received." The New York Times 02/27/03 Posted: 02/26/2003 9:59 pm Leonardo Interactive Leonardo da Vinci was one of the great minds in history. The Metropolitan Museum has developed a special interactive feature designed to complement the exhibit: an online tour (really an overview) of the show's eight galleries. This allows us to follow the stages in the development of Leonardo's mind through 34 representative drawings. Each of these can be enlarged several times thanks to a zoom feature. Artcyclopedia 02/03 Posted: 02/26/2003 8:04 pm Libeskind Chosen For WTC The proposed design by Daniel Libeskind for the World Trade Center site has been chosen. "The new building is planned to be taller than the trade center towers, which briefly stood as the world's tallest at 1,350 feet. Libeskind's tower also would surpass Malaysia's 1,483-foot Petronas Twin Towers, the tallest buildings in the world." CNN (AP) 02/26/03 Posted: 02/26/2003 7:27 pm WTC: Focus On The Memorial "The Libeskind design was considered the front-runner for weeks, although a rival plan by an architecture team called Think, which featured two soaring latticework towers called the World Cultural Center, collected strong support as the decision neared. Ultimately, however, rebuilding officials voted in favor of Mr. Libeskind's somber treatment of the memorial and the incorporation of an active street life in the commercial portions of the site." The New York Times 02/27/03 Posted: 02/26/2003 7:15 pm Beijing Goes On Museum-Building Spree Beijing is investing $854 million in building and renovating museums in preparation for the 2008 Olympics. "By 2008, Beijing will have 130 museums," said a government official. People's Daily (China) 02/26/03 Posted: 02/26/2003 5:25 pm Music Savannah Symphony Folds The 49-year-old Savannah Symphony, stuck with a $1.3 million deficit, has canceled the rest of its season. "I think the community has spoken. Savannah residents desire a symphony orchestra, I think, but there's been too much history with this organization as it stands today. The community sent us signals that [an orchestra] should start again with a new slate." Atlanta Journal-Constitution 02/27/03 Posted: 02/27/2003 7:23 am The Great CD Rebate (Hurry - Time Is Running Out Did you buy a CD between 1995 and 2000? Even one? "As part of a settlement in a huge price-fixing lawsuit, the major labels and a few record retailers are bankrolling a $67.4 million fund, to be split among all the people who bought an album between 1995 and 2000. Exactly how much money will be determined by the number of people who send in applications. So far, 2.8 million claimants across the country have signed up. At that rate, less administrative costs, everyone gets about $16 or $17 apiece." But time is running out... Washington Post 02/27/03 Posted: 02/26/2003 9:41 pm Prokofiev, Conflicted Prokofiev was unquestionably one of the great composers of the 20th Century. But "there is something profoundly suspect about Western attitudes to this composer. Instead of subjecting him to continuous critical assessment, we repeat favourite works and shun the rest. Prokofiev makes us uneasy in ways that Ravel does not. He reminds us of things we would prefer to forget - first and foremost of our obeisance to Stalin. Yes, ours, not his." London Evening Standard 02/26/03 Posted: 02/26/2003 8:01 pm San Antonio Symphony Too Broke To Pay Musicians The San Antonio Symphony is out of money and says it won't be able to pay musicians this week unless it raises $250,000 by Fridayt. "The 78-member orchestra was told during an emotional 10 a.m. meeting at the Majestic Theater that without private donations, paychecks won’t be issued Friday. The crisis could jeopardize future performances." San Antonio Express-News 02/26/03 Posted: 02/26/2003 7:22 pm Arts Issues Museum Car Picks Up Driving Fine It now costs £5 to drive into the center of London. But officials at one museum were surprised to get notice of a fine for the museum's 105-year-old Daimler that has not been on the road since 1947. "We were surprised to get the paperwork because the Daimler has not moved under its own power for decades," said Andrew King, curator of the Bristol Industrial Museum, where the car has been on display for 25 years." The Telegraph (UK) 02/27/03 Posted: 02/26/2003 10:30 pm Tourism Chief: Failure To Invest In Arts Harms Economy A former Scottish tourism chief says Scotland's failure to invest in the arts will hurt the country's ecxonomy. "As soon as an arts organisation looks for money, it is described as eating up money for a group of people who can well afford the ticket price. That view has far too much credence in government and needs to be challenged; government needs to identify the arts as an important component of what we are as human beings. Instead every penny towards the arts is questioned, almost begrudged." The Scotsman 02/26/03 Posted: 02/26/2003 9:51 pm How Should Arts Money Be Split up? A recent report by the Boston Foundation said that 65 percent of arts donations went to two percent of the area's cultural organizations - the ones with budgets of more than $20 million. This has led some to call for spreading the wealth among the rest of the arts organizations. But leaders of two of Boston's largest arts groups say the portion of funding for major groups is right because they serve the widest audiences. "That chart doesn't show audience served. That's the number one point." Townonline.com 02/26/03 Posted: 02/26/2003 7:34 pm Theatre Progressive Pricing When "The Play What I Worte" opens on Broadway next week, it will cost $1 to get in. The next it costs $2. The next $3. "The Play What I Wrote," which revolves around a comedy act that's breaking up, features a surprise celebrity guest star each night. In London, those guests included Roger Moore, Jerry Hall, Sting and Twiggy. New York Post 02/27/03 Posted: 02/27/2003 8:15 am ACT Theatre Woes Fail To Impress Critic So Seattle's ACT theatre is on the versge of going out of business. The theatre declared a life-and-death emegerncy, then gave itself a little breathing room when board members ponied up some operating money. Roger Downey isn't impressed. Why was the theatre's board so ignorant of the organization's precarious financial situation? Many Seattle arts groups seem headed down this same path - ACT is just the first. Why do we let it happen? "It's entirely in keeping with the way arts groups, in Seattle and elsewhere in this country, are governed and financed. The system is rickety even in good times, and bad times expose its shortcomings cruelly." Seattle Weekly 02/26/03 Posted: 02/26/2003 9:19 pm Publishing National Book Critics Circle Awards " 'Atonement,' Ian McEwan's unlikely best seller about the meaning of fiction, was among the winners Wednesday night of a National Book Critics Circle prize. In the general nonfiction category, which included William Langewiesche's controversial 'American Ground,' Samantha Power won for 'A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide'." Yahoo! (AP) 02/27/03 Posted: 02/27/2003 9:23 am Hip Hop - Not Just The Music Anymore "The billion-dollar music genre, which already has the advertising and fashion businesses bouncing to its beat, has now infiltrated one of pop culture's less-frequented markets — book publishing. Ranging from pricey coffee-table eye candy to practical reference and history books, the tomes are an effort to preserve hip-hop culture in more than just CDs and music videos." New York Daily News 02/27/03 Posted: 02/27/2003 8:04 am Media Congress To Investigate Payola Senator Orrin Hatch says he'll start Congressional hearings into payola to radio stations for playing music. Current payola deals include exclusive arrangements between radio stations and independent promoters who guarantee the station a fixed monthly or annual payment. In return, songs 'suggested' by such an independent promoter are the most likely to be added to playlists. This allegedly is used by Clear Channel and Radio One." Rocky Mountain News 02/27/03 Posted: 02/27/2003 9:06 am A World Of Hurt (But Is It Art?) The latest reality TV shows feature pain or gross-outs. "Pain is the new rock‘n’roll", proclaims one show. "It may be, but it isn’t exactly new; pain and dangerous stunts have been finding an arts audience for years. Edinburgh Fringe-goers were watching Jim Rose juggle with chainsaws when Jackass’s Knoxville was a twinkle in an MTV executive’s eye. Devotees of the boundary-pushing forms of live art have been witnessing representations of self-harm for some considerable time. Now it’s gone mainstream, what has changed?" And is it art? The Scotsman 02/27/03 Posted: 02/26/2003 9:54 pm UK Producers Form "Virtual" Movie Studio Hoping to encourage the making of British films,a group of prominent producers are hoping to raise £50 million-£136 million to create what they're calling a "virtual studio" to produce movies. The idea is to offer "long-term financial support" to British feature films. BBC 02/27/03 Posted: 02/26/2003 9:37 pm