“In what was advertised as a gift to the citizens of Seattle, a gold-colored sculpture by an unknown artist turned up in Gas Works Park overnight Monday. The papier-mâché guerrilla art sculpture consists of several pieces: a full-size gold-colored man standing on the waterfront surrounded by what appear to be shells, some with the heads of people emerging from them.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
In Beijing, The Middle-Aged Step To The Barre
“Ballet is generally the domain of young girls in Ireland, but in China it is becoming a pastime of choice for the middle-aged. … Ballet has a strong focus on the individual, which does not sit easily with the mass focus of Maoist doctrine. It is also a western art form,” making the popularity of ballet classes “emblematic of China’s modernisation in the last 30 years of reform.”
Pete Townshend: I Am A Musical Theatre Animal
“‘I am writing a new musical,’ Townshend blogged. ‘Floss is an ambitious new project for me, in the style of Tommy and Quadrophenia. In this case the songs are interspersed with surround-sound “soundscapes” featuring complex sound effects and musical montages.’ … He is in talks with producers in New York but hopes to release some of the musical’s more ‘conventional’ songs on a new Who album next year.”
Radio Royalties For Artists Divide Black Community
“While the Performance Rights Act, now in a congressional committee, would affect all artists as well as large radio companies, the legislation has caused hostilities within the African-American community, pitting black-oriented radio stations and their popular DJs against black politicians and artists who support the bill.”
North Shore Music Theatre Assets Up For Auction
“The property and assets of the North Shore Music Theatre will be auctioned off to the highest bidder at an upcoming foreclosure auction, according to the theater’s former chairman. David Fellows said four groups with theater backgrounds have expressed interest in buying the property and continuing to operate it as an arts center.”
Prince Charles Wants The People’s Architectural Input
“Charles believes that residents — instead of architects and planners — should have the biggest say in the development of new communities,” and he wants that enshrined in planning laws. “The Prince’s Foundation, Charles’s architectural charity, has already sought greater public input for a string of new developments across Britain. Described as ‘enquiry by design’ (EBD), the approach allows residents to contribute directly to the masterplan of a new development.”
Artistic And Executive Directors Are Teammates, Not Rivals
Michael Kaiser: “I always compare the relationship between these two staff heads to that between a naughty child (artistic director) and an angry parent (executive director). The naughty child is always asking for ‘More, more, more!’ and the angry parent says ‘No! No! No! We can’t afford it.’ The lack of trust that develops between the two people who are meant to act as a team is ineffective at best and crippling at worst.”
High Line Executive Handsomely Compensated
“Robert R. Hammond, an artist and entrepreneur who had no experience in the world of public parks, has been paid about $1.2 million over the last 10 years of the High Line’s development — a vast majority of it since 2005. And his salary of $250,000 a year as president and executive director of the nonprofit he helped found, Friends of the High Line, makes him one of the most generously compensated leaders of the 10 major park conservancies in the city.”
Energizing Ravinia By Fusing Tradition With Adventure
“Welz Kauffman, a classical and jazz pianist who also happens to be Ravinia’s unconventional 48-year-old president and CEO,” a position he’s held since 2000, “broke Ravinia’s attendance record” in his first year, “and he has continued to build on that almost every season–attendance for the past several summers has regularly exceeded the 600,000 mark.”
In Search Of New Playwrights’ Theatre’s Old Scripts
Harry M. Bagdasian is “on the hunt for scripts of plays that premiered in the 1970s and ’80s at the long-defunct New Playwrights’ Theatre in Washington, which, as a determined 23-year-old, he co-founded. … He’s donating his New Playwrights’ memorabilia to the University of Maryland’s Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library, but he’s short another 34 scripts of New Playwrights’ shows performed during his tenure that he’d like to include.”