“Any guy who could bring Tony Kushner’s ‘Angels in America’ to Broadway, as Landesman did at his company’s Walter Kerr Theatre in 1993, represents a big step in the right direction. The reason is simple. The NEA cannot be successful, whatever its format, unless successful people working full-time in the arts are addressing the powerful work of their most talented peers.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Coal Mining Threatens South Africa’s Mapungubwe Ruins
“South Africa’s environment ministry may try block a coal project proposed by a company partly owned by ArcelorMittal because it jeopardizes the United Nations- recognized World Heritage Status of a set of historical ruins.” The ruins are “remnants of what was once southern Africa’s biggest kingdom…. Artifacts including a gold ornament, known as the Golden Rhinoceros, have been found at the site while the ruins include royal graves and stone walls.”
Help! This Board Is A Disaster! Is There Any Hope?
Ask Amy probably doesn’t get letters like this: “I am on a pro-bono consulting project with a local nonprofit. Unfortunately, I’m simply not sure this organization can make it. There’s a gung-ho executive director but a total turkey of a board. … Do you have a view on whether a dud board can be rehabilitated? How scary should I be with these deadbeats to prompt some action?”
Tony Nominations Fail At Their Task: Goosing Sales
“The Tony Award nominations on May 5 generated mixed results in Broadway ticket sales: most of the honored musicals and plays did normal business for the week — sluggish, compared with many nominees in years past — while several producers said their advance ticket sales were unusually strong.”
Nottage To Speak In D.C. On Wartime Violence Vs. Women
“Lynn Nottage, who won the Pulitzer Prize in April for her play ‘Ruined,’ and Quincy Tyler Bernstine, an actress in the play’s current production in New York, will be in Washington on Wednesday to join activities linked to United States Senate hearings on rape and violence against women in so-called conflict zones, such as Congo and Sudan.”
Tight Funding Teaches Producers To Play Well With Others
The Cannes Film Festival may be a touch less glamorous this year. “But the international film industry is banding together more than ever to fight the financial crisis. In the absence of domestic funding from hedge funds and private investors, many of the festival’s high-profile films … had to scrape together a hodgepodge of support, including funding from foreign pockets and tax incentives.”
Louisville Orchestra Chief Exec Stepping Down
Louisville Orchestra chief executive officer Brad Broecker will step down this month from the position he’s held since 2006 at a salary of $1 per year. He took over “just after the orchestra averted bankruptcy, and quickly brought conductor Jorge Mester back to the organization. … His replacement will be Robert Birman, whom [Broecker] recruited last year as the orchestra’s chief operating officer.”
Kimbell Coup: An Easel Painting By Michelangelo (Maybe)
“The image is of St. Anthony being tormented by eight flying demons. The painting is on a wooden panel, 18 inches tall. And some scholars are now convinced that Michelangelo Buonarotti completed it in 1487-88 — when he was 12 or 13 years old. … It’s rare because it’s only one of four easel paintings the artist made, and now the only one in an American museum.”
Failed Radio Ad Initiative A Misstep By Sure-Footed Google
“Google Inc.’s foray into selling radio ads was supposed to show how its online-advertising brainpower could revolutionize an old-fashioned people business. … Instead, radio tripped up Google. The company is pulling the plug on its attempt to automate radio-ad sales on May 31, exposing how far Google is from its goal of grabbing a big chunk of the multibillion-dollar business of off-line ad sales.”
NYC’s New Public-Building Policy Yields Artful Architecture
In the revamped process, “architects compete on the quality of their portfolios and their construction records. Building projects are grouped by cost, from high to low, encouraging smaller and younger firms to apply at the lower end; eligible architects are selected by a panel that reviews and updates the list periodically. Realistic fees are negotiated…. This makes the process more open, more rational, and more fiscally controllable. It also delivers infinitely better buildings.”