As it prepares to move into its new home in Miami’s Carnival Center, Miami City Ballet has landed the largest corporate gift in its history, courtesy of New York-based U.S. Trust. The exact amount of the donation was not disclosed, but the announcement sends a signal that the company is more or less fully recovered from the financial troubles it was experiencing a few years ago.
Month: July 2006
NYC Ballet Unveils New Programming Strategy
“In what it calls an effort to reach new audiences, the New York City Ballet has revamped the way it presents performances, creating 10 fixed programs with themes and catchy titles that will rotate over the course of its winter season… The new model does not mean a narrower repertory, however. The company will present 38 separate ballets, roughly the same number as in previous seasons.”
Guthrie Picks Interim Manager
Minneapolis’s Guthrie Theater has named David Galligan interim managing director, beginning in mid-August. Galligan, who recently stepped down from the CEO post at the Ordway Center (St. Paul’s main performing arts venue,) will not be a candidate for a permanent job at the Guthrie, but agreed to help steer the company through the transition to its new home on the Mississippi River.
Kerouac Manuscript To Be Published
“It’s literary legend: how Jack Kerouac wrote his breakthrough novel On the Road in a three-week frenzy of creativity in spring 1951, typing the story without paragraphs or page breaks onto a 36-metre scroll of nearly-translucent paper. In fact, he revised the book many times before it was published six years later, and while the scroll came to symbolise the spontaneity of the Beat Generation, the early, unedited version never reached the public. Now, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the novel’s publication, the original, scroll-written version of On the Road will be published next year in book form for the first time.”
Another Eye-Catcher In London’s Future?
The London Eye (it’s that giant Ferris Wheel on the bank of the Thames) is one of the city’s most identifiable landmarks, and over the years, it has stood the test of time as a brilliantly designed urban feature. Now, the husband-and-wife architectural team who designed the Eye are planning a “sleek new observation tower” and several other high-profile projects.
Meet The New Boss, Same As The Old Boss
Seeking stability after several seasons of fiscal uncertainty and internal dissension, the Louisville Orchestra has turned to a familiar face for leadership, naming Jorge Mester as music director. Mester, who also holds conducting positions in Florida and California, previously served as Louisville’s music director from 1967 to 1979, and his re-appointment comes as a big surprise, since the orchestra reportedly had a number of up-and-coming young conductors on its shortlist.
Getty Gets Transparent
“In a move sure to please all who crave details from lifestyles of the rich and tax-exempt, the J. Paul Getty Trust has followed through on its pledge in June to add a boatload of public disclosures to its website… Many of the figures were already part of the trust’s mandated annual tax filings. But these disclosures, more detailed than those offered by any other Los Angeles arts organization, mean an inquiring Web surfer, having found and learned the details of Rubens and Brueghel’s 17th century friendship from the Getty’s “exhibitions” pages, can then click on “about us” and “governance” and dive into deep numbers or such fanciful reading as the 53-year-old fine print on the trust indenture by which oil billionaire J. Paul Getty created the institution.”
Fighting The Good Fight
Looking back, it’s shocking how long it took for Asians to be accepted in Hollywood as anything other than stereotypes and stock characters. But since 1965, the actor known in L.A. simply as Mako worked tirelessly to showcase Asian actors and build a dynamic Asian theatre tradition. “Though the invention of Asian American theater was a collective act, Mako was its center, its heart, its founding father, the glue that held all else together.” Mako died in mid-July, leaving behind a vast legacy.
Operate Like Which Business, Exactly?
Arts managers and board members are fond of explaining to anyone who will listen that, in order to survive in today’s world, arts groups “need to learn to operate more like a business.” Andrew Taylor says it’s a profoundly unhelpful bit of advice. “Most businesses are poorly run, and many business practices correlate with mediocrity, not greatness… Business tools are merely ways to see the world, and ways to structure our interaction with it. Let’s be like the artists around us and explore those tools with creative abandon.”
The Trouble With Workshops
Workshops are a popular activity among playwrights, a chance to learn about the craft from others who have achieved success in the field. But playwright Mark Ravenhill says that the whole concept seems more than a bit fraudulent. “There is the unspoken expectation that in two hours, to a group of complete strangers, I am going to deliver a fundamental insight into playwriting, if not all the fundamental insights into playwriting… Tell a workshop participant that there are no rules, that they need to discover what a play means to them and write something that is unique to their sense of the world, and you are likely to be faced with a sullen customer who feels they aren’t getting their money’s worth.”