“What if the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences threw an Oscar show and not everyone came . . . early? With last year’s audience for the telecast at a historic low of 32 million, the academy has devised a new strategy for enticing more viewers on Feb. 22: Ask presenters to eschew the pre-show red carpet so people will tune in to see who’s handing out the awards — or at least to get a look at what they’re wearing.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Right Now, Bankers Don’t Deserve To Be Music Sponsors
“The spectacle of those four unrepentant arch-capitalists in front of the Treasury Select Committee yesterday was one of the most extraordinary displays of complacency and denial you will ever see. … How can the art made at festivals sponsored by these bankrupt individuals and companies do the job that classical music should do, and have a necessary, critical voice in contemporary culture, if it continues to be supported by the dead hand of big banking?”
Hi, I’m Troy McClure. Today’s Topic: The Birds & The Bees.
“There can’t be many new DVD releases of short film anthologies which are unstintingly riveting all the way through. But here’s one. For the past couple of days, I have been glued to the BFI’s incredible collection The Joy of Sex Education, which is a compendium of sex education films from 1917 to 1973. They have a weird similarity to old-fashioned stag films, not merely because of explicit content, but because they are designed to be watched in a semi-clandestine world….”
Spike-Shedding Bang Sculpture To Be Dismantled
“One of the UK’s biggest pieces of public art is to be taken down after being blighted by safety concerns and a legal row. The £1.4m B of the Bang, outside the City of Manchester Stadium, has had problems since it was erected in 2005. One of its 180 steel spikes was dislodged within two weeks, and 22 have now been removed from the sculpture.”
LA Museum Collections Kept Growing In 2008
“Cash donations for acquisitions can be expected to plummet, but gifts of art are less predictable. In good times and bad, artworks come to museums in various ways — from friends and complete strangers. And despite the gloom that descended last fall, 2008 turned out to be a surprisingly good year for local collection growing.”
Half-Price Tickets: A Niche With Room For Expansion?
“Is there room for one more half-price ticketing agency in Los Angeles? Joining Goldstar, Theatermania and L.A. Stage Alliance’s LAStageTIX is StubDog, offering 50% tickets to Southern California events including theater, concerts, sports and more. StubDog says it is adding an incentive for the culturally minded: For every ticket sold, 10% will go to benefit local arts organizations, including L.A. Stage Alliance….”
Ticketmaster-Live Nation Merger Unsettles Indie Promoters
“Ticketmaster and Live Nation — the biggest ticket seller and the largest live-event promoter — announced a $2.5 billion merger yesterday, creating a vertically integrated entertainment behemoth that has competitors nervous and federal regulators watching. What’s in it for ticket buyers is far from clear. The era of the dreaded ‘convenience charge’ might be ending — but there’s no guarantee of lower ticket prices.”
In Letter, Museum-World Power Trio Protests Rose Plans
“Three prominent museum-world figures who are Brandeis University graduates” — the director of the Whitney Museum of American Art; the chairman of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s department of 19th-century, modern and contemporary art; and the director of Duke University’s Nasher Museum of Art — “spoke out vigorously on Tuesday against the school’s plans to close its Rose Art Museum and sell off artworks to raise money.” Their open letter is posted on the Rose’s website.
Hirst Opens Second Art Shop, Talks Up Affordability
“Damien Hirst has defied the slump in U.K. consumer spending by opening a second shop in London. Other Criteria, the U.K. artist’s publishing and merchandising company, started the store this week at 14 Hinde Street in the Marylebone district. It sells works including some by Hirst himself ranging from his keyrings at 3.50 pounds ($5) to prints showing pills on mirror glass shelves, from an edition of 125, at 4,000 pounds ($5,800) each.”
One Year Later, Fallout Of Writers’ Strike Comes Into Focus
“Given the state of the global economy, some of the downsizing and budget-slashing that Hollywood is now enduring would have come even without the 100-day walkout. But the realignment of the biz’s investment priorities is coming more swiftly and more comprehensively because of the scrutiny of operations that took place while the scribes were pounding the pavement.”