Milwaukee Art Museum director David Gordon takes exception to a Milwuakee Journal-Sentinel story painting the museum’s financial situation: “We have conditional commitments for over $16m of the $25m target, this being the gap between the $125m cost of the Calatrava, the gardens, the refitting of the permanent collection, and the $100m so far raised. On an operating basis before interest and depreciation we made a surplus for each of the past two years since the Calatrava opened and if we miss a surplus this year it should be by a small margin.”
Month: April 2004
It’s Official – Colorado Symphony Chooses Kahane
The Colorado Symphony chooses Jeffrey Kahane as its new music director. “The Los Angeles native, a finalist in the 1981 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and winner of the 1983 Rubenstein Competition, remains most widely known as a virtuoso pianist. But his reputation as a conductor is quickly catching up.”
Spacey Takes On The Old Vic
Kevin Spacey is a big-time Hollywood actor. So why is he running the Old Vic? “After spending an hour and a half in Spacey’s company, I emerged from the Old Vic convinced that he is a man who means business, is in it for the long haul, and could be just the chap to restore the theatre to its former glories. It’s the first time so high-profile an actor has doubled as a theatre’s director since Olivier ran the National Theatre company at the same address in the ’60s and early ’70s.”
Broadway Buys American
“After years (some might say decades) of Broadway surrendering any cultural identity of its own to the British, the New York theatre these days couldn’t be more American.”
PuppetMaster
“Ronnie Burkett is the first to see the potential absurdity in ‘a grown man who spends his nights jiggling jointed dolls’. Recognising not just the theatre’s but most of the western world’s antipathy for puppets, he even admits: ‘It’s ridiculous – I wouldn’t pay to see it.’ None the less, his Memory Dress Trilogy has won him a reputation as one of the great theatre artists of the world.”
Tough Times For PBS
“In recent years, PBS has suffered through the same downturn in foundation, corporate and individual giving that has hit other non-profits. It has lost longtime program sponsors — most notably Exxon Mobil, which had underwritten “Masterpiece Theatre,” one of PBS’s signature series, to the tune of $300 million over 35 years. At the same time, viewership has eroded on a national level.”
Can Arts On BBC Be Saved?
A public review of the BBC reveals that viewers don’t value the public broadcaster’s arts programming. “Some will see these figures as further evidence of dumbing down. Public service broadcasting, they will conclude, continues to be squeezed by competitive pressures on audience share and reach, forced to abandon the cultural high ground in pursuit of endless makeover and reality TV strands, and tacky celebrity journalism such as Thursday’s Channel 5 documentary on Michael Jackson’s face. But the reality, as so often in these kinds of debates, is more complex.”
The Joyce’s WTC Dance Theatre Project
The Joyce Theatre in New York is proposing to build a new 900-seat theatre as a “home for dance as a cultural anchor for the World Trade Center site.” New York City Opera has a competing proposal – a 2,200-seat opera house that would be used in part for dance in the off-season.
Plan To Boost London Arts Big Time
A new initiative aims to raise the value of London’s arts industry by a third to £32 billion and create 200,000 new jobs in 10 years. “London’s creative industries currently employ 500,000 people and are responsible for one in five of all new jobs in the capital. But an investigation by the mayor’s Commission for the Creative Industries found the industry lacks international recognition, and young entrepreneurs often struggle to get financial backing.”
The Passion To See “Passion” (Or Not)
“With Mel Gibson’s blockbuster earning more than $355 million Sunday at the box office and energizing evangelicals and conservative Catholics across the United States, some devout Christians have found themselves facing a dilemma. They prefer not to view the film, because of its violent and gory nature or its traditionalist orientation, but feel pressure from pastors and other Christians to go. Some even say they are made to feel anti-Christian for not joining in the ‘buzz’ surrounding the film at their Sunday services.”