“One thing you can do in Philadelphia is stand before the Gates of Hell. I am not talking about the Badlands of North Philly. I am talking about the Rodin Museum.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Glories Restored, Rijksmuseum Is Reopening After 10 Years
“Instead of fighting the building, we have embraced it and accepted its eccentricities,” said the museum’s director of collections. “This was built as a national museum, not just an art museum, and we want the public to get a sense of history, seeing the paintings, furniture and applied arts that were all conceived around the same time.”
Bristol Old Vic Is ‘On The Margins Of Viability’
“Ask Tom Morris, artistic director of Bristol Old Vic, about his theatre or the city of Bristol, and he is all joie de vivre and enthusiasm. But if the conversation turns to the arts cuts or the future of regional theatre, though, his concerns are obvious.”
Are Readers Getting Fed Up With Authors’ Postmodern Tricks?
Laura Miller: “To begin your novel with a feint – a novel-within-the-novel that only announces itself as such after the fact – is a legitimate way to do this, but for [many] readers … it can register as a violation.”
Actor Richard Griffiths, 65
“He was the kind of actor whom everyone remembers with affection, whether as the flawed but inspirational Hector in Alan Bennett’s The History Boys (first staged in 2004, then filmed in 2006) or as the eccentrically gay Uncle Monty in Bruce Robinson’s Withnail and I (1987) … [or] in the Harry Potter films as Uncle Vernon Dursley.”
William Shakespeare, Scofflaw
“An academic study confirms the playwright was repeatedly hauled before the courts and fined for illegally stockpiling food and was threatened with jail for dodging his taxes.”
How San Francisco Symphony Musicians And Management Struck A Deal
Musicians’ union committee chair David Gaudry: “We found over the course of the last weekend the mood of the two parties working together seemed to take a turn for the better. And it made for a more collaborative, problem-solving pair of sessions Friday and Saturday, and I think that’s really what allowed us to go forward and reach an agreement.”
St. Paul Chamber Orchestra Musicians Reject Latest Offer
“Saying they have fulfilled a promise made to Saint Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, musicians of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra this evening voted to reject management’s latest contract offer.”
Movie Studios Are Snapping Up Books Even Before They’re Finished
“More and more, studios trolling for the next Hunger Games are acquiring the rights to books before they’re published; a buzzworthy title sometimes gets snapped up before an author has even finished writing. (No, aspiring scribes, it still pays to actually complete your work.)”
Just How Hard Is It To Run An Arts Organization?
“The chief executive of Big Corp has to deal with shareholders, staff and customers. Arts managers have a fraction of a corporation’s turnover yet have many stakeholders: often three levels of government, multiple donors and sponsors. The level of stakeholder servicing can seem grossly disproportionate to the sums involved.”