“People of color are far more likely to participate in some cultural activity during the course of a year than are white people. Ditto families with children over childless couples. Yet people who attend a performance or a museum are not likely to return within a year, or maybe even longer.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Piracy Will Hurt Young Artists, Elton John Argues
“Sir Elton John has come out in support of measures to crack down on music piracy,” explaining in a letter that “the unchecked proliferation of illegal downloading … will have a seriously detrimental effect on musicians, and particularly young musicians and those composers who are not performing artists.”
Why We Read Dan Brown
“Books are not so widely read without a reason. Surely future historians will look to Brown as an index of What We Were Really Thinking, and, turning the dense and loaded pages of his books, they may well ask, This they read for fun?”
Ralph Nader Turns Novelist (With Real-Life Characters)
“A few weeks ago, Nader was working the phones in Washington, trying to reach the people he had fictionalized. … Phil Donahue, a lifelong admirer, was flattered.” Ditto Yoko Ono. “Warren Beatty, whom Nader envisions running for governor against Arnold Schwarzenegger, and winning, with sixty-three per cent of the vote, blurbed the book.”
Cunningham And Cage’s Art Collection To Be Auctioned
“Christie’s will auction [Jasper Johns’ ‘Dancers on a Plane’] and other presents to [Merce] Cunningham, the dancer and choreographer who died in July, and his partner in work and life, the composer John Cage, who died in 1992. Proceeds from the sale, expected to total $3.5 million to $5 million, will benefit the Merce Cunningham Trust….”
Little Miss Sunshine, The Musical
“The quirky low-budget comedy film ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ and the 1989 Laura Esquivel novel ‘Like Water for Chocolate’ are this year’s choices to be adapted as stage musicals at the annual Sundance Institute Theatre Lab at White Oak in Yulee, Fla., the institute is expected to announce on Tuesday.”
Toasting Dallas’ Meyerson Symphony Center At 20
“The Meyerson is the only concert hall designed by I.M. Pei,” and it’s “an aural marvel.”
National Book Awards Invite Input From The Masses
“Beginning Monday, readers can now vote on the best work of fiction to win the National Book Award in the past 59 years. The winner will be announced on Nov. 18 at the National Book Awards ceremony to be held at a black-tie event at Cipriani Wall Street.”
Deferring To Readers, Newspaper Restores Its Book Page
“When we eliminated the section more than a year ago, you told us you missed it — and you kept on telling us…. You told us we are a community of readers. You told us you not only like to read but you like reading about reading. And you were right.”
Survey: UK Businesses’ Arts Spending Cuts To Last A While
“Businesses in the U.K. are cutting spending on the arts, and aren’t planning to increase it until 2011, according to a survey…. Among arts groups, 68.2 percent reported decreased levels of business investment, and more than half of those said they suffered a drop exceeding 50 percent.”