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Thursday, March 13




Ideas

Oops! Congress Accidentally Funds The Arts From the groundbreaking news organization that brought you such exclusive reports as "White House Pretty Sure Uzbekistan Diplomat Stole A Bunch Of Soap" comes stunning news concerning the U.S. Congress. It seems that the nation's top legislative body has accidentally approved a large amount of money to be spent on the arts. Members of Congress are, quite naturally, horrified by the revelation, with the Senate majority leader quoted as barking, "We approved what?" A House member was aghast at the implications of the funding allocation: "This means some limp-wristed NEA member will decide what qualifies as art rather than Congress or the president. Remind me never to skim a bill again, no matter how long it is." The Onion 03/12/03
Posted: 03/13/2003 5:05 am

Visual Arts

NAC Gets A Surprise Legacy Canada's National Arts Centre "is expected to collect at least $500,000 from the sale of the estate of James Wilson Gill. He died in December after a long fight with cancer, leaving his Ottawa home and his extensive and valuable art collection to the centre... He was unknown to most NAC patrons, including many of those heavily involved in fundraising for the centre... The precise value of Mr. Gill's estate will not be known until his house and art collection are sold, a process that could take several months." Ottawa Citizen 03/13/03
Posted: 03/13/2003 5:49 am

A Warhol Stolen While On Loan? How did a valuable Andy Warhol painting on loan for a traveling Guggenheim exhibition in 1998 end up in the collection of a Guggenheim trustee a year later? The painting's lender is crying theft. The New York Times 03/13/03
Posted: 03/12/2003 9:37 pm

When Pictures Aren't What They Seem... "One of the most successful - if bizarre - cases of overpainting a great artist's picture came to light earlier this week, when it was disclosed that a Rembrandt self-portrait had been hidden under layers of concealing paint for 300 years. An unnamed pupil changed the 28-year-old Rembrandt into a flamboyantly dressed Russian aristocrat in a red hat, earrings, long hair and dashing moustache. For the next three centuries it was regarded as a portrait by an anonymous minor Dutch artist." These things happen more often than one thinks. How? The Guardian (UK) 03/13/03
Posted: 03/12/2003 7:23 pm

Weakening World Heritage Site Protections An organization that helps advise on World Heritage Sites says proposals being considered by the international body would severely weaken protections for the sites. "Among the changes the world heritage committee, which runs the world heritage scheme, will discuss are: Allowing states to veto any criticism of them for damaging or neglecting sites within their borders. Allowing states to prevent the creation of new sites in their borders if they stand in the way of development." The Guardian (UK) 03/13/03
Posted: 03/12/2003 7:17 pm

Music

No Light At The End Of The Tunnel In Pittsburgh The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is making progress in its fundraising efforts, says the organization's board chairman, but there is still the potential for a serious cash crunch even before the end of this season. The PSO is prohibited by its bylaws from running a cash shortage, but its reserves are depleted an its endowment, like those of most American orchestras, has lost a full third of its value in the decline of the stock market. "It faces the daunting statistic that Pittsburgh ranks next to last for private donations among the 22 largest orchestras in the United States in per capita donations." Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 03/12/03
Posted: 03/13/2003 4:41 am

Where Are The Peace Songs? "Whatever the actual effect of anti-war songs on global politics, they have long been a staple of pop culture. As evidenced by Bob Dylan's 'Masters of War', Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On?', the Clash's 'Straight to Hell' and U2's 'Sunday Bloody Sunday', the heavyweights of rock and pop have never been slow to let us know where they stand. But, with war on Iraq now apparently imminent, where is the song to rally round the white flag?" The Telegraph (UK) 03/13/03
Posted: 03/12/2003 7:40 pm

An ENO Rescue Plan That Provokes Questions The hard-up English National Opera has got a plan to reinvent itself and restore its finances. But Charlotte Higgens writes that "the filleted document that has been released prompts as many questions as answers. It is full of management-speak and empty of figures. The story that has hit the headlines is about redundancies. A hundred jobs out of 500 are to go. But will this deliver sufficient savings? Redundancy deals for 100 people could cost at least £2m. Freelance singers and musicians will be hired for the bigger shows, which suggests that there will be fewer of them when times get hard. Yet it is massive shows, such as The Capture of Troy, or Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, that ENO does especially well, and come off best in the Coliseum, London's biggest theatre." The Guardian (UK) 03/13/03
Posted: 03/12/2003 7:29 pm

China Bans Four Stones Songs China has forbidden the Rolling Stones from performing four of the band's songs at concerts in China in April. "The songs were submitted to the Ministry of Culture for approval a few months ago. They simply said 'no' to those four songs. They didn't give a reason." The Age (DPA) 03/12/03
Posted: 03/12/2003 4:54 pm

Is The Musical Establishment No Longer Worth Joining? Norman Lebrecht is summoned to membership in two British music institutions - one old, one new - and round-files the invitations. Why? Neither represents the state of music at its best. And neither ought to be encouraged or endorsed for its views of the musical world. London Evening Standard 03/12/03
Posted: 03/12/2003 2:51 pm

Arts Issues

Don't Tell Him What To Do When Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty released his proposal last month to deal with a state budget deficit approaching $5 billion, arts advocates breathed a sigh of relief - the proposal cut the arts, but only by 22%. Still, a massive lobbying effort was launched to get the cuts down to what the state arts board sees as a more fair level, such as 14%. Apparently, the governor does not like being questioned: a revised draft of the budget slashes an additional $5 million from the arts board's budget, bringing the total cuts to 40%. The Star Tribune (Minneapolis) 03/13/03
Posted: 03/13/2003 4:26 am

  • Venue On The Brink The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts is a prominent jewel in the Twin Cities' cultural crown. It hosts touring Broadway shows, and is home to the renowned St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. But the Ordway, which has never been on firm financial footing, is now at crisis level, with its endowment depleted and sponsors pulling out of events they have long funded. Further complicating the fiscal situation is the fact that the Ordway receives a portion of its budget from the State Arts Board, which is now targeted for a funding cut of 40%. St. Paul Pioneer Press 03/13/03
    Posted: 03/13/2003 4:25 am

Libraries To Stay Open Bucking the recommendation of its own director, the Minneapolis Library Board has voted not to close four of its branches for the rest of the year. The closings had been proposed as a cost-saving move for the city in the face of a staggering state budget deficit. The Library Board will make a series of one-time cuts in services rather than go through with the closures. The Star Tribune (Minneapolis) 03/13/03
Posted: 03/13/2003 4:21 am

Israel's Artists Threaten Shutdown Israel's arts groups plan to shut down the country's cultural life June 1 "if the government does not restore funding for artistic productions. Israel, like governments around the world, is facing a budget crisis, and has made deep cuts in cultural funding. Jerusalem Post 03/12/03
Posted: 03/12/2003 5:12 pm

People

Will It Be Dean Libeskind?...Nahhh Daniel Libeskind is much-rumored to be a candidate for the dean of architecture job at Columbia University. What are his chances? Not good, if fellow architects Steven Holl and Peter Eisenman have anything to do with it... New York Observer 03/12/03
Posted: 03/12/2003 4:08 pm

Theatre

College Cuts Theater Department "Last month, in a sharp cost-cutting move, the administration [of Mills College, a small liberal arts school in Northern California] voted to eliminate the dramatic arts department in 2004... For reasons both pragmatic and symbolic, the disappearance of drama from the academic program at Mills reverberates in especially pointed and powerful ways. Beyond the loss of classes, student productions and jobs for the small department's four nontenured, 'semi-permanent' faculty members, the decision puts larger issues about women and theater -- and the way women get seen and heard in the world at large -- into high relief." San Francisco Chronicle 03/13/03
Posted: 03/13/2003 6:11 am

Questioning The Art Of Broadway - Or Is It The Economics? So Broadway has reopened after the musicians strike and business is back to normal. Or is it? "In the end, the combatants in the great Broadway music strike of '03 settled their fight in a fashion that leaves unanswered crucial artistic and economic questions. Craftsmen everywhere have ceded their skills to robots. Why wouldn't this happen on Broadway? Here's why it shouldn't: People don't come to Broadway to see efficiency. Broadway shows are already an economic anachronism. People are willing to pay big bucks to witness the magic of creation. If Broadway's producers forget that, they will wreck an important local industry." Newsday 03/12/03
Posted: 03/12/2003 5:04 pm

Publishing

Rowling On The Warpath Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is suing a Russian author and a Dutch distribution company in an effort to stop the global release of a book she says plagiarises her tales of magical teens. The book in question features a character named "Tanya Grotter," a stunningly familiar-looking cover, and several plot twists mirroring the Potter series. The book's author claims that his work is parody, and therefore protected under publishing law. BBC 03/13/03
Posted: 03/13/2003 4:36 am

Warning: Big Brother Is Watching What You Read Library patrons in Santa Cruz, California are seeing signs warning them about the snooping powers of the US Patriot Act, which allows governments authorities to see who has checked out which books. "The signs, posted in the 10 county branches last week and on the library's Web site, also inform the reader that the USA Patriot Act "prohibits library workers from informing you if federal agents have obtained records about you." San Francisco Chronicle 03/10/03
Posted: 03/12/2003 5:21 pm

More Books, But Fewer Choices More books are being sold, thanks to a broadening of outlets and the superstores. But the personality is being wrung out of the business, and we're increasingly buying a narrower range of book. "According to a recent Bookseller, gamely surveying the trends of 2002, the range of titles sold in the high street fell by 5 per cent last year - from about 437,000 to just over 417,000. At the same time the number of different ISBNs assigned to fiction fell by 1,000, while - perhaps the most sinister figure of all - 'frontlist' sales accounted for nearly 44 per cent of total revenue. We may be buying more books, but they are increasingly the same books, sold by shops that are differentiated only by the sign on the door." The Guardian (UK) 03/12/03
Posted: 03/12/2003 5:17 pm

Media

The Oscars, Tightly Scripted The Academy Awards are serious business in Hollywood, but producers are well aware that the minds of their audience may be elsewhere if the Oscars are held in the midst of an invasion of Iraq. The show will go on, regardless of the political situation, but new rules are being imposed, and organizers say they will be strictly enforced. Rule #1: No one wants to hear actors in ball gowns spouting their political opinions. Rule #2: No paper lists of people to thank. Rule #3: For that matter, thank more than five people, and the orchestra will play you mercilessly offstage. Toronto Star 03/13/03
Posted: 03/13/2003 6:16 am

Sopranos Suspends Production HBO has suspended production of its global hit The Sopranos as a result of a bitter legal fight between the network and the show's lead actor, James Gandolfini. The conflict began when Gandolfini claimed that HBO had missed a contract deadline, and thereby voided his agreement. HBO has countersued in an effort to force Gandolfini to work. Conventional wisdom holds that Gandolfini doesn't actually want to leave the hit show - he's simply angling for a sizable raise. New York Post 03/13/03
Posted: 03/13/2003 5:40 am

Seattle Public TV Station On The Rocks Seattle PBS station KCTS has limped along for years and has a small local presence. It's also having big money problems. The station is behind on its rent, has been contacting funders to try to cut deals for grants, and has been losing staff. A consultant recommended the station's president step down, but he hasn't. "The important thing is that the overall state of the station is in decline, and these are just symptoms." Seattle Weekly 03/12/03
Posted: 03/12/2003 5:31 pm

  • Infommercial This! It's pledge time again, and Steve Wiecking is disgusted by the programming fare KCTS uses to try to lure pledges. "KCTS supposedly has the world of culture at her fingertips—something she brags about all during her pleas for me to give her money—and what is she airing in order to con me into believing her high-toned hooey? Infomercials. She's helping hucksters sell their wares and then asking me to pay for it." Seattle Weekly 03/12/03
    Posted: 03/12/2003 5:28 pm


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