Drop That Sketch Pad! The latest threat to the art world appears to be art enthusiasts armed with sketch pads. This week, a Canadian man was told to stop sketching an ancient Egyptian artifact on display at the Royal Ontario Museum, because the piece in question was on loan from the British Museum, which does not allow sketching. The rogue sketcher helpfully pointed out that the ROM is not, technically, in Great Britain, and therefore allowed to make its own rules, but to no avail. Toronto Star 05/26/04
Posted: 05/26/2004 7:03 am
Wynn On An Art Buying Binge Vegas casino owner and collector Steve Wynn has regained his appetite for high-end art. "Last week in New York Mr Wynn bought John Singer Sargent's 1885 portrait Robert Louis Stevenson and his Wife. for $8.8m (£4.8m). He plans to hang it in his new casino, Wynn Las Vegas, due to open next year. With a Cézanne and a Renoir, purchased last year for $40.9m and also destined for Las Vegas, it looks like Mr Wynn has recovered his appetite for blue-chip art, and that the market is recovering after disappointing sales in recent years." The Guardian (UK) 05/26/04
Posted: 05/25/2004 9:43 pm
Court: Van Gogh Painting Is Authentic "France’s highest court ruled today that an atypical Van Gogh landscape rumoured to be fake was, in fact, real – ending an eight-year-old squabble over the sale of the painting." The Scotsman 05/26/04
Posted: 05/25/2004 7:32 pm
Fire At Saatchi Warehouse Destroys Valuable Art A fire at the warehouse housing millions of pounds worth of Charles Saatchi's art has destroyed much of it. "Modern art classics including Tracey Emin's tent and Hell, by Jake and Dinos Chapman, may have perished in the blaze. Monday's fire swept a London warehouse of leading art storers Momart. 'Charles is absolutely devastated. We are waiting for Momart to give us final confirmation'." BBC 05/25/04
Posted: 05/25/2004 5:18 pm
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Small Town, Big Drama Another conductor controversy has broken out in a small North American city. This time the showdown is in La Crosse, Wisconsin, where the board of the La Crosse Symphony has voted narrowly to dismiss conductor Amy Mills, after musicians in the orchestra complained bitterly about her musicianship. But some board members are furious at the way the vote was conducted, saying that two uncounted proxy votes in favor of Mills were not counted because they would have swung the vote in favor of retaining her past 2005. La Crosse Tribune 05/26/04
Posted: 05/26/2004 6:00 am
Music As Predicted By Math "The power of music to convey a certain emotion can now be predicted by a mathematical model, an Australian psychologist has found." Discovery 05/26/04
Posted: 05/25/2004 9:50 pm
Bailing Out Orange County "Chronically behind in their fundraising, Orange County [California] Performing Arts Center officials said Tuesday that they will issue $180 million in bonds to ensure completion of a theater and a 2,000-seat concert hall. Center officials said they have raised $117 million in cash and pledges toward their $200-million goal to pay for the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, the 500-seat Samueli Theater and an education center. Officials previously said they had hoped to raise $130 million by the end of 2003. But in the past 11 months they have raised only about $5 million." Los Angeles Times 05/26/04
Posted: 05/26/2004 5:53 am
KC Bistate Tax Initiative Ready For Vote An unprecedented bistate tax proposal is headed to the voters of Kansas City and its surrounding suburbs. The initiative, which calls for a quarter-cent sales tax to be collected for 15 years in order to support arts and sports projects in the area, is complex because of the geographical location of the city. Kansas City proper actually stretches across the Missouri-Kansas state line (technically divided into two separate cities,) and the metro area stretches far and wide in both states. The ballot measure was approved after months of haggling over how the money from the tax would be divided - more than 50% of the funds will go to small community groups. Kansas City Star 05/26/04
Posted: 05/26/2004 5:45 am
What's Happening To The WTC Cultural Facilities? Some New York arts leaders are wondering if the planning for the World Trade Center site has lost its focus and whether plans for arts facilities will be realized. "Lost in the debate over whether an opera house can fill its off-season or whether a dance and theater space could together attract sufficient funds, some arts leaders and planning experts say, is the more fundamental question of whether either of these options lives up to the grand plans for Lower Manhattan's hallowed ground." The New York Times 05/26/04
Posted: 05/25/2004 9:30 pm
Columbia Tuition Scaring Prospects Away Tuition for Columbia's arts degree programs has risen so high, the school is losing prospects to other universities. "Last month, several hundred graduate students in the school's visual arts, acting, writing and filmmaking programs marched across campus, protesting a decision to raise tuition to $33,052, from $31,240, in the fall. The school plans to continue increasing tuition 5.8 percent annually." The New York Times 05/25/04
Posted: 05/25/2004 5:11 pm
CT Philanthropist Dies, With Arts To Benefit A seed heiress living in Connecticut has died, leaving $16 million to various arts groups in the state. Louise Wheelock Willson was a passionate promoter of the arts, donating money to various groups and handing out stacks of tickets to friends and acquaintances in an effort to promote the groups she supported. The Hartford Symphony, Connecticut Opera, and New Britain Museum of American Art are among the list of beneficiaries in her will, and the big winner is the Nutmeg Ballet in Torrington, which will receive $5 million, the biggest gift in the company's history. Hartford Courant 05/26/04
Posted: 05/26/2004 5:26 am
The Hardest Working Man In Academia? Henry Louis Gates may be the "Hardest Working Man in Academia." His latest book "The just-released African American Lives (Oxford University Press, $55, co-edited with Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham) brings the number of books Gates has edited or co-edited to 51. He has written or co-written another 12." And he's hard at work on another half dozen projects... USAToday 05/25/04
Posted: 05/25/2004 5:51 pm
Purse Strings & Sure Things When sconomic times are tough, the temptation for theaters to get conservative is strong, and there's no surer way to make a quick theatrical buck than for a company to bring back a show that has already been a proven success for them. But the remounted productions don't always work out as planned, and sometimes, an audience's nostalgia for a great show can actually work against the new version. St. Paul Pioneer Press 05/26/04
Posted: 05/26/2004 6:57 am
Healing Wounds In The Auditorium Following an 8-year legal battle over ownership rights, Chicago's Auditorium Theatre is being folded into the operations of Roosevelt University, and the theater's new director "plans to more closely align the historic downtown venue with the educational institution that fought long and hard for the right to govern the Auditorium as it saw fit." Brent Batterson, a 45-year-old set designer turned arts administrator, has been brought on largely because he has no history with the Auditorium, and therefore no axes to grind in the various wounds that developed over the course of the court fight. Chicago Tribune 05/26/04
Posted: 05/26/2004 5:37 am
Resignations at Walrus The new magazine Walrus was supposed to reinvigorate the Canadian periodical scene. But the mag's first editor quit after only a few months, and now, new editor Paul Wilson and managing editor Gillian Burnett are quitting as well, saying that they can't work with ultra-hands-on Walrus publisher Ken Alexander. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/26/04
Posted: 05/26/2004 6:39 am
Playing The R Card Keeping kids out of R-rated movies has long been a task that movie theaters have performed grudgingly. After all, many action pictures aimed at the teen market are rated R, which technically excludes anyone under 17 from being admitted without a parent. But now, some theaters are trying out a new system, under which kids whose parents have been willing to grant them blanket permission to see R-rated films can bypass the system simply by flashing "the R-card". The Motion Picture Association of America, which assigns the ratings, is not pleased. The Christian Science Monitor (Boston) 05/24/04
Posted: 05/26/2004 6:30 am
Because Gay People Need Crappy Music, Too! MTV has announced that it will launch a new channel aimed at gay and lesbian viewers next February. LOGO, as the channel is being called, will air a mix of acquired and original programming. No word on whether MTV's plans call for the channel to stick to its planned format for a few years, then veer off into a mix of whiny reality shows and insipid profiles. Boston Globe 05/26/04
Posted: 05/26/2004 6:23 am
Pixar - Playing The Field? Pixar has earned more than $2.6 billion at the box office for its five animated movies. Now its partnership with Disney is about to expire and the hottest movie company is being courted by the biggest players in Hollywood... The New York Times 05/25/04
Posted: 05/25/2004 9:24 pm
Scottish Ballet - Promoting Personalities Scottish Ballet has decided that the key to getting bigger audiences is to promote the personalities of its dancers. "The company is looking at sponsorship, fashion shoots, websites and media interviews as just some of the ways to boost the dancers’ profiles and build up a fan base around individuals." The Scotsman 05/26/04
Posted: 05/25/2004 9:19 pm
Dance Theatre Of Harlem In Danger Of Folding "Dance Theater of Harlem, the groundbreaking black ballet company founded 35 years ago, may disband its 44-member troupe if it fails to come up with $2.5 million to stanch its losses by the end June, Arthur Mitchell, the group's founder, said yesterday. The company intends to continue its school, which serves 800 to 1,000 students, Mr. Mitchell said." The New York Times 05/26/04
Posted: 05/25/2004 7:30 pm
