“The San Francisco Symphony’s 2009-10 season will include six commissioned world premieres and inaugurate Project San Francisco, a new initiative featuring two-week residencies by cellist Yo-Yo Ma and composer George Benjamin.” While the symphony “has seen its endowment income drop 25 percent and trimmed its administrative costs last year,” it says ticket sales and fund-raising are steady, and it “has no plans to scale back programming.” Also, it has a new four-year contract with its musicians.
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Tories: Museums’ Spending Has Plummeted Dangerously
“National museums and galleries’ spending on art for their collections have fallen by more than 70 per cent, the Conservatives said. Figures obtained by, Jeremy Hunt, the Shadow Culture Secretary, show that spending on art and other ‘heritage items’ by major galleries and museums has fallen by more than £11 million.”
Online Borrowing May Make Library Visits Obsolete
“[A]s with many businesses, libraries could find their salvation in the internet. The number of people using the web for services including book renewals and catalogue inquiries was up by a record 20 per cent [in the past year], with more than 76 million web visits. This trend looks likely to increase as there are plans to remove the need for [library] visits altogether, with the imminent launch of nationwide internet borrowing.”
Discussing Censorship, Cautiously, In Dubai
As a Dubai literary festival made its debut, the aborted fracas over charges of author blacklisting “led to a spotlight being turned on the prevalence of censorship in the Arab world, particularly in a state that recently jailed three journalists for defamation over offence caused by writing on the internet. … Though nobody in the censorship debate was prepared to confront the beast head on, their circumlocutions were both interesting and revealing.”
Its Main Sponsor Lost, Canadian Film Fest Is Canceled
“Independent filmmakers were mourning the cancellation Monday of the sixth annual Canadian Film Fest, a privately funded, grassroots event that had to be shelved after its cash-strapped sponsors were forced to bail.”
After Video Auditions, YouTube Names Orchestra Roster
“Video sharing website YouTube has announced the players in the symphony orchestra it recruited online. Two UK-based winners will join musicians from 30 countries to participate in a three-day classical music summit in New York City. … The shortlist of 200 entrants was published on 14 February, and the YouTube community then voted for its favourites to play in the world’s first online orchestra.”
In Spain, Erasing Visual Evidence Of The Franco Regime
“The Socialist government says the assorted icons of the Franco regime still on view — fascist-style eagles, yokes and arrows — have no place in modern Spain. A year ago, it passed a law to eliminate them. But the drive — part of a broader law aimed at redressing Franco-era injustices — has raised hackles among conservatives who say Prime Minister José Luis RodrÃguez Zapatero is reopening wounds they say were healed after the dictator’s death.”
Ticketmaster-Live Nation Merger Demands Close Scrutiny
“[P]ublic sentiment shouldn’t decide whether Ticketmaster, the dominant provider of ticketing services, should be allowed to merge with Live Nation, one of the world’s largest concert promoters. Instead, we hope antitrust attorneys at the Justice Department will focus on the deal’s potential impact on event promoters, venues and artists, all of which could be hit harder by the merger than the ticket-buying public.”
China Wasn’t Behind Phony Bid, Official News Service Says
“Cai Mingchao, the Chinese antiques collector who placed the winning bid for two Qing Dynasty bronzes and has refused to pay, acted without support from China’s government, the official Xinhua news service reported. Cai should answer for his own actions, the state-owned news service said, citing an unidentified official at the State Administration of Cultural Heritage….”
As NY Plans Cuts, A Case For More TV & Film Tax Credits
“[D]ozens of film and television workers gathered on Monday to ask politicians to expand the incentive program offered to their industry in the past few years, not scale it back as planned. The program, which offers studios tax credits from the city and state for up to 35 percent of the production costs — 30 percent from the state and 5 percent from the city — has been so successful that the state has already paid out the $690 million that was to last through 2013.”