“To get the house in order, start with the reason MOCA — or, for that matter, any art museum — exists: Start with the permanent collection,” Christopher Knight counsels. “MOCA’s commitment to building a collection … has not been matched by a commitment to showing it.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
In Baltimore Arts, Women Call The Shots
“With Debbie Chinn’s arrival in the fall to become Center Stage’s managing director, for the first time in history, the city’s three largest arts groups are being headed entirely by women.” That is, Center Stage (artistic director: Irene Lewis), the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (music director: Marin Alsop), and the Baltimore Museum of Art (director: Doreen Bolger). “Never before have women in Baltimore’s art scene held so much power.”
Cuckoo’s Nest Playwright Dale Wasserman Dies At 94
“Dale Wasserman, an autodidact who became the playwright responsible for two Broadway hits of the 1960s, ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ and ‘Man of La Mancha,’ died on Sunday at his home in Paradise Valley, Ariz., near Phoenix.”
Blackpool Woos Victoria & Albert Museum
“The stop-start courting of one of London’s most respected museums by a series of regional suitors has been revived, with discussions about a franchise for the Victoria & Albert on Blackpool seafront.”
UK’s Oldest Museum To Close For Yearlong Facelift
“Culture-seekers have one day left to visit the UK’s oldest public museum – Oxford University’s Ashmolean – before it closes its doors for nearly a year. The 325-year-old visitor attraction will be shut to the public from 23 December for a £61m revamp.”
How Fitzgerald Picked His Characters’ Ivy Alma Maters
“There’s a chapter in the life of nearly every major F. Scott Fitzgerald protagonist–after boarding school, before dissipation in New York–when he attends Harvard, Princeton, or Yale. … When Fitzgerald arrived at that crucial choose-an-alma-mater moment, did he just throw a dart at a crimson, orange, and blue board? Or did he have a more rigorous admissions process?”
Tintoretto’s ‘Nativity’ Began As A Crucifixion, X-Ray Shows
Jacopo Tintoretto’s awkward “Nativity,” at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, has been hiding something. “In the Renaissance equivalent of a cut-and-paste job, it appears that Tintoretto changed his mind about the subject, cut the original canvas to rearrange the pieces he didn’t like, then – perhaps two decades later – painted over parts of the result to come up with an entirely new composition. The painting that is now a horizontal nativity was once a vertical crucifixion.”
For Patrons Of Bankrupt Opera, Free Tickets Elsewhere
“In a generous act perfectly suited to the holiday season, four major arts organizations – the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Washington National Opera, Centerstage and the Hippodrome – will offer a gift of free tickets to patrons of the Baltimore Opera Company, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Dec. 4 and canceled the remainder of its 2008-2009 season.” Of course, the offer is smart marketing as well.
The Bible: Never Not A Best Seller
“It’s an astonishing fact that year after year, the Bible is the best-selling book in America — even though 90% of households already have at least one copy. The text doesn’t vary, except in translation. The tremendous sales volume, an estimated 25 million copies sold each year, is largely driven by innovations in design, color, style and the ultimate niche marketing.”
National Academy Museum Is At The Financial Precipice
“The 183-year-old academy, a museum and school that played a pathbreaking role in fostering a New York art scene in the 19th century, is in serious trouble. Having sold two important Hudson River School paintings from its collection this month to pay bills, the institution was recently branded a pariah by the Association of Art Museum Directors.” Artist members have rejected the notion of selling the academy’s Fifth Avenue museum and other properties.