Repatriated Klimts To Go On View In LA "Five multimillion-dollar paintings by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt — looted by the Nazis and recently returned by the Austrian government to the family of Maria Altmann in Los Angeles — will go on view at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art [this April]... The exhibition was initiated by Stephanie Barron, LACMA's senior curator of modern art, in January after an Austrian arbitration court ordered its government to turn over the paintings to Altmann, whose family fled Vienna in 1938." Los Angeles Times 03/16/06
Posted: 03/16/2006 6:17 am
Is Chicago Ruining Its Neighborhoods? There's no question that Chicago boasts some of America's best architecture. But a high-quality backdrop makes it all the more obvious when an architectural mishap has occurred, and Charles Leroux worries that they've been happening a lot lately. "The biggest architectural blunder is the devastation of the city's neighborhoods by bad residential structures tossed up to take advantage of the real estate boom. Some communities have been rendered almost unrecognizable by condoing, townhousing and McMansioning." Chicago Tribune 03/16/06
Posted: 03/16/2006 5:52 am
Costco - Home Of The Fake Picassos? Costco recently sold a Picasso drawing on its website for $39,999.99. But it looks like the authetication of the drawing was faked, and the incident has sparked questions about the company's online art purchases. The New York Times 03/16/06
Posted: 03/15/2006 9:00 pm
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Curtis Gets A New Chair With A True Philly Pedigree Philadelphia's prestigious Curtis Institute of Music has a new board chair. H.F. "Gerry" Lenfest, 75, will take over the leadership of the school's board in June, just as Curtis is also welcoming new director Roberto Diaz. Lenfest, pne of the city's most active arts supporters, donated $6 million to Curtis last year. He is also chairman of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the American Revolution Center. Philadelphia Inquirer 03/16/06
Posted: 03/16/2006 6:35 am
New BBC Awards Handed Out "The Takács Quartet won the disc of the year award at the inaugural BBC Music Awards, presented by the magazine yesterday in London. The Takács was honored for its three-disc recording of Beethoven's late string quartets, the final installment in its complete Beethoven cycle. The set also won in the chamber music category... Conductor Paavo Järvi and the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra won the orchestral award for a recording of Grieg's Peer Gynt. A recording of Vivaldi's Orlando Furioso led by Jean-Christophe Spinosi won the opera award; soloists included soprano Jennifer Larmore." Playbill Arts 03/16/06
Posted: 03/16/2006 5:32 am
The Case Of The Melting Orchestra An orchestra playing instruments made out of ice has to stop their performance when one of the flutes melted. "Instrument maker Tim Linharts has been able to transform frozen water into functioning flutes, violins, and a double bass out of ice. The instruments were played for the first time at a concert in a gigantic igloo that was deemed a complete success aside from the early melting of the flute." All Headline News 03/15/06
Posted: 03/15/2006 9:34 pm
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Ground Zero Talks Stall Again; Pataki Blasts Developer The contentious effort to build something - anything, really - at the site of the World Trade Center terrorist attacks in New York has stalled once again, and city and state officials are fuming. Talks to jumpstart the project broke down after Larry Silverstein, the developer chosen to spearhead the Ground Zero project, reportedly attempted to up the cost of the project by $1 billion. Silverstein insists he did nothing improper, but New York Governor George Pataki was unusually blunt in declaring that "this guy has betrayed the public's trust." New York Daily News 03/16/06
Posted: 03/16/2006 6:20 am
It's Hard Out Here For A Non-Profit Executive Nine percent of all U.S. non-profit executives quit their jobs every year, according to a new study, and 75% expect to depart within five years. Among the factors contributing to early exec burnout is the omnipresent problem of dysfunctional boards who either don't fully engage, or don't really understand the non-profit mission. "Exacerbating the high-turnover problem is the lack of succession planning" at many non-profits. Chicago Tribune 03/16/06
Posted: 03/16/2006 5:54 am
Art Sprawl Atlanta has been one of the fastest-growing cities in America for over a decade now, and its boom has sparked an arts building explosion as well. But unlike in many other cities, much of Atlanta's new arts infrastructure is spreading to the suburbs, and these aren't small-town projects. A $145 million performing arts center is rising in suburban Cobb County, and millions more are being sunk into various projects around the metro area. Atlanta Journal-Constitution 03/16/06
Posted: 03/16/2006 5:37 am
Chicago Arts Failing To Draw Minority Crowds A new study conducted by the University of Chicago concludes that the city's arts organizations are failing to connect with a racially and economically diverse populace, and are drawing most of their support from affluent whites. "Admission fees, hours of operation and transportation are areas institutions may need to reconsider if they wish to broaden attendance, say the researchers." Chicago Sun-Times 03/16/06
Posted: 03/16/2006 5:14 am
Liverpool's Capital Culture Plan - Too Many Outsiders? Lots of money is flowing into Liverpool for its Capital of Culture year. But some of the local artists are complaining: "It’s as if the people running 2008 have no confidence in what’s already here. There are lots of government agendas being worked out. People are getting grants because they are good at filling in forms. But money isn’t coming into the music scene: it’s going to consultants. The clubs that really fuel the music are unfunded and almost off the radar as far as the official bodies are concerned." The Times (UK) 03/15/06
Posted: 03/15/2006 7:45 pm
Trying To Understand The Cult Of Creativity "They say a creative organisation does not depend on individuals but on people working within an organisation where creativity is simply part of the expectation. Internal structures are understood and changed; boundaries (to understanding) are treated similarly and new domains are formed." National Business Review (New Zealand) 03/15/06
Posted: 03/15/2006 5:14 pm
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Proulx: A Sour Grapes Rant? Annie Proulx hoped that "Brokeback Mountain" would scoop her up the Best Picture Oscar. But it didn't, of course, and Proulx isn't happy. "It was a safe pick of 'controversial film' for the heffalumps," she writes in an essay for The Guardian. Is she bitter? You judge: "For those who call this little piece a Sour Grapes Rant, play it as it lays." The Guardian (UK) 03/12/06
Posted: 03/15/2006 5:51 pm
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Workshop Denies Bias, Wonders At Controversy New York Theater Workshop continues to insist that the dustup over the cancellation of "My Name Is Rachel Corrie" is nothing more than a misunderstanding, and not, as some critics would have it, a deliberate attempt to silence certain theatrical voices. "Whether a misunderstanding or not, how the workshop, an artistically bold and popular company, found itself in such an embarrassing public jam still baffles [the company's directors,] who said they did not know the extent of the public relations damage and financial cost." The New York Times 03/16/06
Posted: 03/16/2006 6:29 am
Needed - A Political Theatre For NY The uproar over New York Theatre Workshop's cancellation of "My Name is Rachel Corrie" "shows that New York needs a theater free from the prejudices of its funders and subscribers, one immune to special interests..." Time Out New York 03/16/06
Posted: 03/15/2006 5:08 pm
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Brown: I drew On Many Sources For Da Vinci Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown spends a third day in court defending himself against plagiarism charges. "Brown's cross-examination has been dominated by detailed questions about punctuation, spelling, and to what extent the language and ideas of The Da Vinci Code mirror those of the Holy Blood. At times showing signs of impatience, Brown sighed, shook his head and joked that his eyesight had deteriorated during the case as a result of the minutiae he had been forced to study." Yahoo! (AP0 03/15/06
Posted: 03/15/2006 7:27 pm
- Brown Defense: Your Book Was Only One Of Many Dan Brown continued to insist in court, defending himself against plagiarism charges, that he and his wife, Blythe, had not bought or even read a copy of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail until a late stage of the research, long after he had submitted the synopsis for his own proposed book. He said the "clear point of evidence" was he had not included HBHG in the bibliography in his synopsis for the publishers. "I was very eager to impress my publishers with a longer list of bibliography ... if I had read it I would have included it." The Guardian (UK) 03/15/06
Posted: 03/15/2006 7:02 pm
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Piracy Crackdown "Twenty-nine people have been arrested [in the UK] in the biggest ever operation against those who make and sell counterfeit CDs, DVDs and computer games. A six-month investigation has seen representatives from the record, film and software industries working with police and trading standards officers... They were also targeting those committing benefit fraud, reflecting the growing increase in the level of cooperation between the government and the so-called 'creative' industries." BBC 03/16/06
Posted: 03/16/2006 5:45 am
A New Fun-ner BBC? The BBC is to embark on a new era, with more emphasis on entertainment. "The white paper, the culmination of more than two years of wrangling over the BBC's future, effectively means that when the corporation's current charter expires at the end of this year it will have a new charter in place, ensuring its future through 2016. Though Parliament will have a chance to discuss the proposals, they are not subject to legislative approval and are essentially a done deal. Critics and competitors of the BBC said they were disappointed." The New York Times 03/16/06
Posted: 03/15/2006 9:05 pm
FCC Launches Flurry Of Indecency Fines America's FCC has proposed "$3.9 million in fines against scores of television broadcasters for violating federal decency limits, including a record $3.6 million for stations that aired a show depicting group sex. The agency also upheld its decision to fine 20 CBS stations $550,000 for a stunt in which pop singer Janet Jackson exposed her breast during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show." Yahoo! (AP) 03/15/06
Posted: 03/15/2006 7:24 pm
Polygamy Before HBO HBO's new show featuring a polygamous family has a downside: "By default, it perpetuates the common notion that the Mormon polygamy was a unique mutation in the history of Christianity. On the contrary, the practice goes back very nearly to the beginning of the church — and it has popped up again, from time to time, sometimes finding the most surprising advocates." InsideHigherEd 03/15/06
Posted: 03/15/2006 6:12 pm
Theatre Owners To Jam Cell Phones? "Movie theater owners faced with falling attendance are considering asking federal authorities for permission to jam cell phone reception in an attempt to stop annoying conversations during films..." Backstage 03/15/06
Posted: 03/15/2006 5:36 pm
Wanted - New Media Plan To Pay Actors The advertising industry is looking for a new formula for paying actors. "The payment structures in the current collective bargaining agreements with SAG/AFTRA were originally developed to meet the needs and problems of the early 1950s. As different means of broadcasting were developed, new payment streams were added on to the contract, creating enormous administrative complexity, distortions in the allocation of compensation, and the potential for out-of-control costs. For example, talent payments for broadcasts that reach very small audiences can today exceed the actual cost of the media." Backstage 03/15/06
Posted: 03/15/2006 5:34 pm
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NY City Ballet Names Nine New Soloists New York City Ballet has promoted nine dancers to soloist. "The promotions, announced last week, suggest that this is a significant time of growth at the middle level of the company." New York Sun 03/14/06
Posted: 03/15/2006 9:30 pm
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