Since Iran’s June presidential election, the curator of a gallery show in downtown L.A. “has had trouble communicating with the five male artists, securing basic biographical information about each of them and, in some cases, even obtaining their artwork.” On Facebook, “he hesitated to link … to the artists’ personal pages out of concern for their safety.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
School District, ACLU Settle Lawsuit Sparked By Rent
“An Orange County school district where varsity athletes threatened to rape and kill the lead actress in a student production of the musical ‘Rent’ has agreed to provide harassment and discrimination prevention training to Corona del Mar High School students, teachers and administrators and other district officials, according to a legal settlement….”
Two Very Different Arts High Schools Debut In L.A.
“One occupies $232 million worth of serious architecture on a promontory overlooking downtown Los Angeles. The other rents cramped space in a South L.A. church. … [I]t may be too early to say which of the two has the most potential to nurture the next generation of artists and performers.”
LACMA Director Talks About The Film-Program Fiasco
“You won’t see LACMA without film,” Michael Govan says. “It’s way too important to art history and to us. But the shape of that program … everyone’s saying, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ I’m telling you, it’s broken.”
Heirs, Swedish Museum Settle Claim Over Looted Nolde
“Sweden’s Moderna Museet and the heirs of a Jewish businessman forced to flee Germany before World War II settled a seven-year dispute over a Nazi-looted Emil Nolde painting in the museum’s collection.”
Pittsburgh Symphony Gets $1 Million Gift
The $1 million check from board chairman Richard P. Simmons was part of a 2006 challenge grant. “It softens the blow that the PSO did not end last season in the black and is not expecting to do so in the coming season due to the financial climate….”
In Studio And On Concert Stage, Musicians Play The iPhone
“Among the tens of thousands of applications created for Apple Inc.’s iPod Touch and iPhone are more than 100 that transform the devices into music makers…. Professional musicians are increasingly embracing the more sophisticated digital instruments, using them in live performances, DJ sets and recordings.”
‘Walking In The Footsteps Of Great Writers’
Novelist Margaret Drabble lists her top 10 British literary landscapes for a good wander. At No. 1: Stonehenge.
Why Hollywood Worships The Remake
“[W]hen it comes to making new product these days, Hollywood is perhaps the most enthusiastic outpost anywhere of cultural conservatism. … [T]he movie and TV businesses are obsessed with reliving the past, giving the green light to a deluge of projects adapted from old (and, ahem, not-so-very old) movies and TV shows.”
At English National Opera, Theatre People Playing Big Role
“[T]o survey the ENO output across the upcoming season is to encounter a commitment to theater names unusual in the world of opera, which tends to have its own coterie of directors. The lineup of talent for the year ahead includes four companies better known for their work in physical theater.”