“Few writers are more acclaimed right now than the Chilean novelist Roberto Bolaño, who died of an unspecified liver ailment in 2003, at the age of 50. … [I]nterest in him and his work has been further kindled by his growing reputation as a hard-living literary outlaw.” But his widow and some of his friends say he invented elements of that biography: not only a heroin habit but his presence in Chile “during the military coup that brought Gen. Augusto Pinochet to power.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
At Brandeis, A Nightmare Scenario For University Museums
Brandeis University’s decision to shutter its Rose Art Museum and sell off its collection “represents the worst fears of university art museums nationwide.” The president of the Association of College and University Museums and Galleries said that it “reflected a general lack of understanding that art is not a luxury, but is a central part of a liberal education.”
Appreciation: John Updike, Working Writer
“[F]or me, the lasting image of John Updike, who died Tuesday of lung cancer at age 76, is as a self-described ‘freelancer,’ who produced a nearly endless stream of book reviews, novels, stories, poems and occasional pieces — more than 60 volumes’ worth in all — because he felt he’d be forgotten if he didn’t keep his name in print.”
BBC To Put All Publicly Owned UK Oil Paintings Online
“The BBC is to put every one of the 200,000 oil paintings in public ownership in the UK on the internet as well as opening up the Arts Council’s vast film archive online as part of a range of initiatives that it has pledged will give it a ‘deeper commitment to arts and music.” The BBC is vowing expanded coverage of the arts.
In NY, Tax Breaks For Film & TV Create Jobs
“Costly state incentives to lure film production and jobs may actually be paying off, at least in New York. A study of New York’s tax breaks for movie and television production suggested that a 30 percent credit offered by the state, along with an additional 5 percent offered by New York City, could be expected to keep or create about 19,500 jobs while yielding $404 million in tax revenue, at a cost of $215 million in credits.”
Where The Author Picks Up The Bill, Publishing Thrives
As publishing suffers, “there is one segment of the industry that is actually flourishing: capitalizing on the dream of would-be authors to see their work between covers, companies that charge writers and photographers to publish are growing rapidly at a time when many mainstream publishers are losing ground.”
Sebastian Barry’s Secret Scripture Wins Costa, Just Barely
Sebastian Barry’s “novel The Secret Scripture has its prize, in the form of the £25,000 Costa book of the year award — but only by the very skin of its teeth. In what the chair of the judges, Matthew Parris called ‘an extraordinarily close finish’, the 53-year-old Irish novelist gained the support of five out of the nine judges — with the others supportive of Adam Foulds’s narrative poem The Broken Word, set during the Mau Mau uprising in 1950s Kenya.”
Cashing In On Rose Collection Is Wrong (And Poorly Timed)
“The decision to close the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University and sell off its extraordinary collection smacks of panic. Panic, as everyone knows, is sometimes an appropriate response to reality. But usually it’s not, and, either way, it’s rarely edifying to watch.” Far from expendable, the museum “is the best place to go in the Boston area to see modern and contemporary art of the highest caliber.”
Rose Supporters Seek To Block Brandeis, Save Museum
“Donors and longtime supporters of the Rose Art Museum are exploring whether they can block Brandeis University’s stunning decision to close the museum and sell an art collection that had been valued at $350 million. Jonathan Lee, chairman of the museum’s board of overseers, said yesterday that he intends to meet with officials in the state attorney general’s Public Charity Division to see if there is anything he can do to stop the university from shutting down the 48-year-old museum at the end of the summer.”
Philadelphia Orchestra Chairman Exits Early
“In another acceleration of leadership change at the Philadelphia Orchestra, Harold A. Sorgenti will step down as board chairman now. He had been scheduled to do so in September. … [N]o successor has been named.”