“Broadway crowds were stunned yesterday when an underground electrical cable sparked an explosion that spewed flames and carbon monoxide into the air — forcing the evacuation of four buildings and canceling a performance of ‘Jersey Boys.'”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Tracing The Painful History Of A Painting Taken By Nazis
Pissarro’s “Rue Saint-Honore,” purchased by Spain from a Swiss art collector in 1993, “has been displayed in a government-run museum near the famed Prado since then and reproduced for sales and promotions.” An 88-year-old Californian, born in Berlin, is suing for the return of the painting the Nazis forced his grandmother to sell.
NBC Tries ‘Behavior Placement,’ Hoping You Won’t Notice
“The tactic–General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal calls it ‘behavior placement’–is designed to sway viewers to adopt actions they see modeled in their favorite shows. And it helps sell ads to marketers who want to associate their brands with a feel-good, socially aware show.”
Upper East Side Gallery Defaults On Debt, Artworks Seized
“Berry-Hill’s latest troubles come at a time when a number of New York galleries are struggling amid the recession. Nearly two dozen galleries in the city have closed amid the art-market downturn, including blue-chip spaces on the Upper East Side such as Salander O’Reilly Gallery and grittier warehouse spaces like Bellwether in Chelsea and Rivington Arms on the Lower East Side.”
Chicago’s Drury Lane Theatre Becomes B’way Playhouse
“Broadway in Chicago, the new leaseholder for the intimate 549-seat theater…, says the theater will be renamed the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place, with plans already in place to fill the venue with a mix of programming that should keep this stage in the heart of the Magnificent Mile lit up on a far more regular basis.”
Levine Has No Contract With Boston Symphony Orchestra
“As music director James Levine prepares for back surgery that could keep him from taking the podium at Tanglewood this summer, frustrations are building within the orchestra, and a stunning detail has emerged: Levine has no signed contract with the BSO.” The BSO’s managing director says: “This is not tenable, the uncertainty. We have to protect ourselves.”
LACMA To Step In As Watts Towers Curator, Conservator?
The Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs “has been perpetually short of the cash needed for the Sisyphean task of reattaching bits of ornamentation washed off by the rain and filling internal cracks caused by moisture and heat. Under the plan, LACMA would contribute its expertise and direct the conservation work,” while the city would “pay for manpower and materials.”
Eqypt’s Antiquities Chief Urges United Front Vs. Museums
“‘We need to cooperate,’ Zahi Hawass, who heads the Supreme Council of Antiquities, told [conference] delegates from 15 other countries. ‘We need to fight together.’ The delegates should produce one list of artifacts that should return home, he said.”
On The Ground, Painting The War In Afghanistan
“[I]n the era of blanket photographic and video coverage of the wars which Western powers are involved in, why are war artists still needed?”
Staatsoper To Inhabit Temporary Digs During Renovation
Music director Daniel “Barenboim said he would compensate by working even harder and trying to lure the opera’s fans across the city’s former Cold War divide. ‘Moving for three years can be seen as a calamity or as a challenge, and we have decided to see it as the latter,’ Barenboim said at a news conference.”