Barnes Hits Capital Target, Extends Campaign The Barnes Foundation has hit its $150 million fundraising target, and now has enough money to complete its controversial move to Center City Philadelphia. But the foundation isn't stopping there, announcing an extension of the campaign, and a new target of $200 million, to be raised from "national and international" donors. The extended campaign may be due in part to rising construction costs - the Barnes's proposed $100 million facility is likely to end up with cost overruns, and the museum wants to be prepared. Philadelphia Inquirer 05/17/06
Posted: 05/17/2006 6:24 am
Dia Loses Another Top Exec "Adding to doubts about his institution's direction, Leonard Riggio, the [New York-based] Dia Art Foundation's biggest benefactor, has decided to step down as chairman of its board... The decision comes as the institution is reeling from the loss of Michael Govan, its director for 12 years, who resigned in February to run the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. And six weeks ago, Dia lost its vice chairman, Ann Tenenbaum. She resigned after 12 years on the board, saying she was stretched too thin by family responsibilities and board commitments at other arts institutions." The New York Times 05/17/06
Posted: 05/17/2006 5:49 am
Where Prestige Takes A Back Seat To Local Pride They may not have million-dollar endowments or prestigious boards, but across the country, history is quietly accumulating in thousands of unheralded neighborhood museums. "A local museum is a community's autobiography, a way of saying: This is who we are, and this is how we got here. For researchers, the museums are invaluable archives, whether housed in multimillion-dollar, state-of-the art facilities or inside the stately rooms of storied mansions." Chicago Tribune 05/17/06
Posted: 05/17/2006 5:02 am
This Year: A Gentler Turner Prize The Turner Prize is famously provocative. Not this year. "None of the artists shortlisted this year were setting out to be controversial. 'They are trying to deal with the issues around them in the 21st century'." The Guardian (UK) 05/17/06
Posted: 05/16/2006 8:20 pm
Book: Museum As Launderer Paul Werner has a particularly harsh take on the role of American museums. "The role of the American art museum is to launder the money of its trustees and sponsors, not, as you may think, by turning one asset ('cocaine,' for instance) into another asset (say, 'Rembrandts'), but by turning artworks into objects of authority and trust - objects that mediate and are mediated by the worth of money. The American art museum turns art into buzz the way its owners turn pork bellies into pork-belly futures." Philadelphia Inquirer 04/23/06
Posted: 05/16/2006 8:14 pm
Major Gift To NYU Provokes Protests "A gift of $200m to New York University (NYU) to fund a new Institute for the Study of the Ancient World has resulted in a resignation and in criticism from archaeologists because of the source of the donation." The Art Newspaper 05/16/06
Posted: 05/16/2006 5:21 pm
Getty Might Return Artifacts To Greece "The Greek government alleges items were originally removed from the country illegally, although it is not known when they were taken. The museum may now return some of the four disputed antiquities, following a meeting with Greek Culture Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis." BBC 05/16/06
Posted: 05/16/2006 5:15 pm
- The Getty Speaks Greek "Once the issue is settled, [Getty Museum director Michael] Brand said, the two sides expect a "fruitful cooperation" that "could include long-term loans" of artworks. Greece is seeking the repatriation of a rare gold funerary wreath, a tombstone and a stone torso of a young woman, all acquired by the Getty in the 1990's. It has also demanded a votive relief that J. Paul Getty, the museum's founder, bought in 1955. Asked whether he felt pressure to cede some artifacts to shore up the Getty's reputation, Mr. Brand responded with a terse "No." The New York Times 05/17/06
Posted: 05/16/2006 5:04 pm
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Battling The Ghosts Of Opera Opera fans are a notoriously conservative crowd, and they tend to have very specific ideas concerning what voice is "right" for what role in the repertoire. But why does there have to be a right vocal type at all? Why shouldn't a great singer be encouraged to sing any role within her/his range, and to be creative in the interpretation, rather than bowing and scraping at the altar of the past? The New York Times 05/17/06
Posted: 05/17/2006 5:53 am
Record $3.5 Million Price For Strad "The tally for the violin created by Antonio Stradivari in Cremona exceeded the presale high estimate of $2.5 million. The purchaser, who was not identified, made the winning bid by telephone." Bloomberg 05/16/06
Posted: 05/16/2006 5:42 pm
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NAC Drops Gag Order "The public row between [Canada's] National Arts Centre and its employees over a controversial confidentiality policy ended yesterday when the NAC dropped its demand that staff sign a document some considered a gag order... To ease union worries, the NAC at first agreed to soften the letter, but eventually decided to drop it altogether. The policy will now be covered under Canadian common law, which specifies that employees cannot disclose their employers' secrets even if they haven't signed a confidentiality agreement." Ottawa Citizen 05/17/06
Posted: 05/17/2006 6:55 am
San Antonio May Pursue A PAC "A consultant hired by the city [of San Antonio] to study local needs for cultural facilities has sketched a recommendation for a new multi-hall performing arts center — price tag unknown — and about $20 million in upgrades to existing venues." San Antonio Express-News 05/17/06
Posted: 05/17/2006 5:26 am
Richmond Ponders Extra Funding For Evicted Arts Groups The city of Richmond, Virginia now finds itself without a primary performance venue, after the Carpenter Center, home to multiple area arts groups, closed for a multi-year renovation. In the interim, the Richmond Symphony, Virginia Opera, Richmond Ballet, and other Carpenter tenants are looking to the city to help them offset the revenue shortfall from being homeless. But divvying up the stopgap funds has proved to be a bit of a challenge for city officials. Style Weekly (Richmond) 05/17/06
Posted: 05/17/2006 5:18 am
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Daring You Not To Have An Opinion In an era when classical musicians are heavily marketed and encouraged to appeal to the widest possible audience at all times, baritone Matthias Goerne stands out as a performer unwilling to compromise for the sake of pleasing everyone. "You are either fascinated by Goerne or repelled by him. Like Ian Bostridge he polarises opinion. Both singers have pronounced mannerisms, both have highly personal ways of colouring the music, both have a timbre that lends itself to some repertoire but sounds ungainly in the 'wrong' music. The bottom line is: the German baritone, like his English tenor counterpart, does not allow you to remain indifferent." Financial Times (UK) 05/16/06
Posted: 05/17/2006 6:40 am
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Snubbing Julia The most notable snub among yesterday's Tony nominations was Julia Roberts, who was shut out of the best actress category. But how you view that snub likely depends on who you are. "If you're, say, a muckety-muck at Creative Artists Agency, which represents Roberts, you're in a foul mood these days, ranting about 'out of touch' nominators and 'pathetic' critics who are making Broadway inhospitable to movie stars. On the other hand, if you're a member of the American Theater Wing, the nonprofit organization that holds the Tony copyright, you point to the snub as evidence that the nomination process has integrity and doesn't bend to industry pressure to celebrate stars." New York Post 05/17/06
Posted: 05/17/2006 6:50 am
The Boring Business Of Broadway Everyone bitches about Broadway, and a glance at the history books will tell you that everyone always has. And while it is true that the quality of New York theatre probably isn't as low as everyone says, it is also true that "there's a technical problem with Broadway in the new tourist era: It's mostly boring." It also doesn't seem to have anything to do with New York, being mainly a concoction to lure free-spending tourists; nor does it have much to do with quality, with everything from orchestras to stage crew being squeezed to keep the profit margin up. In fact, to find really interesting theatre with a New York flavor these days, you almost have to look Off-Broadway. Village Voice (NY) 05/15/06
Posted: 05/17/2006 5:35 am
Tony Awards Skew Purple This year's Tony Award nominations scored a few surprises. "The musical The Drowsy Chaperone earned the most Tony nominations on Tuesday when it garnered 13, but the biggest surprise was the 11 earned by The Color Purple, the musical adaptation of Alice Walker's novel that has earned tepid praise but has been well-attended." Backstage 05/16/06
Posted: 05/16/2006 5:28 pm
- Teachout Predicts Want to know who should win this year's Tonys? Terry Teachout's already handicapped the field... AboutLastNight (AJBlogs) 05/16/06
Posted: 05/16/2006 5:10 pm
- Tony Awards - This Year's Surprises? "In most cases, the notable absences are within categories, not entire categories themselves. But an exception is the brand-new award for best performance by an actor or actress in a recreated role, which was expected to go to either Jonathan Pryce for stepping into "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," or Harvey Fierstein for recreating the role of Tevye in "Fiddler on the Roof." To the surprise of many, no award will be given this year in this category." The New York Times 05/17/06
Posted: 05/16/2006 5:05 pm
Idolotry - Broadway's New Farm Team? " 'American Idol' has absolutely become a big deal here in terms of finding new talent. Watching this show has become another way to locate incredibly talented people — it's like a televised open call. I watch it, and certain people on our staff have to watch it. Our inside joke is we root for our favorites to lose so that they can become available to us..." Los Angeles Times 05/16/06
Posted: 05/16/2006 4:47 pm
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When Will Canadian Book Prices Fall? (They Should) The Canadian dollare has been rising in value against the US dollar. Theoretically that means book prices ought to be coming down. "Savvy consumers have been objecting about the big price difference between the U.S. dollar price printed on the back of a book and its Canadian dollar equivalent." CBC 05/16/06
Posted: 05/16/2006 5:36 pm
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Hot 97 A Little Too Hot For Its Landlord A New York building owner is trying to evict popular hip-hop radio station Hot 97 from its Manhattan studios, saying that the station encourages violence and has been the site of multiple shootings tied to various gangsta rappers and their entourages. The carpenters' union that owns the building says it is just trying to protect its other tenants, and is also seeking to bar entourages from accompanying rappers to the station for appearances. Washington Post 05/17/06
Posted: 05/17/2006 7:08 am
But The Posters For Saw II Were Fine, Huh? "The Motion Picture Association of America has censored a poster advertising a film about the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The image that ran afoul of the MPAA is tame by the standards set by the amateur photographers of Abu Ghraib. It shows a man hanging by his handcuffed wrists, with a burlap sack over his head and a blindfold tied around the hood." The MPAA says the picture depicts torture, and is therefore not appropriate for general viewing. But Philip Kennicott points out that the U.S. government has officially approved the use of the techniques depicted in the poster, and that brings up an interesting side debate concerning what constitutes torture, and what Americans are willing to turn away from. Washington Post 05/17/06
Posted: 05/17/2006 7:03 am
Critic: DaVinci Not All That Controversial, After All As worldwide protests by devout Catholics continue unabated, The DaVinci Code got its first screening at Cannes last night, and Simon Houpt says that all the hand-wringing isn't necessary. Opus Dei, the secretive Catholic sect depicted as murderous in Dan Brown's novel, "is granted some slack in the big-screen version, which opens across the world on Friday. Furthermore, theories about the life of Jesus Christ that have caused consternation in the Catholic world, brought condemnation from the Vatican, and provoked calls for boycotts across the globe, are presented with a measure of skepticism on film that the book does not possess." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/17/06
Posted: 05/17/2006 6:44 am
What Makes Cannes Great? Cannes is on, and with it comes the usual litany of complaints regarding the supposed commercialization of the festival, the Hollywood exploitation, and, on the other side of the coin, the continued insistence on pushing a bunch of low-budget, esoteric art films that no one understands. "But both forms of grousing miss the point and the glory of this festival, which since the beginning — this is its 59th edition —has mingled the lofty and the crass with particular Gallic flair." The New York Times 05/17/06
Posted: 05/17/2006 5:56 am
Report: Tough For Minority Writers In Hollywood An early version of a report on who's getting work writing in Hollywood is out, and it doesn't look good for minority writers. "The full 2006-07 "Hollywood Writers Report" is set to be released in September, but the early results suggest that women and minorities may find it even harder to get work in the TV industry now that the urban- oriented UPN and WB networks have merged into the CW network." Backstage 05/16/06
Posted: 05/16/2006 5:32 pm
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