“The long-awaited National Museum of African American History and Culture took an important step forward yesterday with the selection of an architectural and design team. The Smithsonian, which is overseeing the $500 million project on the Mall, chose Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup as the firm that will design the signature building across the street from the Washington Monument.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
In A Lebanese Prison, 12 Angry Men And A Female Director
“At Roumieh, Lebanon’s biggest penitentiary, in the mountains above Beirut, something unprecedented in the history of the country is happening. Every Sunday for four months, inmates from the all-male prison are performing a play…. What’s more, they’re doing it in front of an audience from outside, many of them women. The play’s director is a woman from outside, a noninmate.” The play? “Twelve Angry Men,” in Arabic.
Via AAMD Loophole, Another Museum Monetizes Collection
“Opened in 1914, the small, neoclassical Montclair [N.J.] Art Museum has long boasted an impressive collection of American art…. In the stewardship of its permanent collection, however, Montclair has left a more questionable legacy. The museum has often treated its record of local philanthropy as trade-in art.” Now the museum is exploiting a loophole in the Association of Art Museum Directors guidelines, selling works from its collection as part of its new “financial security plan.”
Even The Day Jobs Are Disappearing In Hollywood
“Jobs that the creative community once relied on to stay afloat during rough times are themselves starting to dry up in this recession. That includes everything from directing assignments at commercial production houses to positions at restaurants, bars, hotels and retailers.” While that’s bad news for people who’ve been pink-slipped from studios, it’s “even worse for people who are struggling to break into the biz.”
Warning: Rise Of Auteur Would Marginalize The Playwright
“[A]lthough the religious cult of the auteur has been widely attacked … it is now in danger of spreading to theatre. Certain creative figures, whose endeavours I frequently admire, are in danger of acquiring auteur status. What that means, in effect, is that their individual style and idiosyncratic signature becomes more important than the work itself.”
Wary Of Repetition, Margaret Drabble Abandons Fiction
“Margaret Drabble has said that she will not write another novel because she is worried about repeating herself. The 69-year-old author of novels including A Summer Birdcage and The Ice Age told the Radio 4 arts programme Front Row last week that she had stopped writing fiction. ‘What I don’t like is the idea that I’m repeating myself without knowing it, which is what old people do endlessly.'”
Grosz Heirs Sue MoMA Over Works He Left In Germany
“The heirs of the German Expressionist painter George Grosz filed a lawsuit in federal court in New York on Friday against the Museum of Modern Art, saying it had refused to return two paintings and a watercolor by Grosz that were left behind when he fled Germany in 1933.”
Omaha Playhouse Removes Artistic Director; Uproar Ensues
“A public forum is planned today to discuss the latest drama at the Omaha Community Playhouse. … Two directors at the playhouse, Artistic Director Carl Beck and Associate Director Susie Baer-Collins, have resigned” after Beck, the longtime artistic director, was offered a lower-paying job and Baer-Collins was offered Beck’s job. The cast of the playhouse’s upcoming production walked out in support, and the show was canceled.
Challenge To The Wealthy: ‘How Can I Give More?’
“Donations to charities in the millions have fallen by one-third, and the need for assistance keeps climbing. But some philanthropists use this as a call to give more in times of greatest need.”
The Ford Foundation’s Objectives, More Sharply Defined
“The Ford Foundation, the nation’s second-largest philanthropic institution, has begun unveiling the results of a two-year overhaul undertaken by its new leader, Luis A. Ubiñas.” For example: “a single line of work devoted to advancing and supporting Native American arts and culture has been melded into a new, broader line of work supporting and promoting native, indigenous and minority contemporary artists.”