Blair Kamin: “The pavilion, one of two in Millennium Park commissioned to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Daniel Burnham’s Plan of Chicago, is a virtuoso display of structure, space and light. With its arresting combination of naturalistic forms and alien shapes, plus a dazzling video installation, the pavilion does exactly what it’s supposed to do: invite us to boldly contemplate the future.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Edinburgh Festivals Catch The iPhone Wave
“The Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Festivals Edinburgh have launched a new iPhone application to help visitors navigate their way around the events. The Edinburgh Festivals Guide … carries full listings for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, International Festival, Jazz and Blues Festival, Art Festival, Book Festival, Mela and the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. It will enable visitors to browse shows, check ticket offers, read reviews and plot their routes around the city.”
Minnesota Orchestra Institutes Pay Cut, Hiring Freeze
“Musicians at the Minnesota Orchestra have agreed to contract concessions in the face of financial pressures on the organization. The deal saves about $4.2 million – from salary, pension reductions and frozen positions – over the remaining three years of [a] contract that expires Sept. 30, 2012.”
Atlanta’s Woodruff Arts Center Gets $12M For Education
“The Woodruff Arts Center, which has increased its role in education in recent years, received a major boost in that effort Tuesday with the announcement of a $12 million grant from the Goizueta Foundation.”
Another Dance Company, This Time In Ottawa, Closes Its Doors
“Last year’s short season has turned out to be the last for Le Groupe Dance Lab. The dance company’s board of directors announced on Friday that the company would be shut down. … The final decision to close the company was the result of the loss of one third of its budget (a reduction due to the suspension [of operations in January]) which would make it difficult to attract a new artistic director or mount a performance season.”
Emmy Broadcast To Become Less Highfalutin’
“After last year’s ceremony drew the smallest Emmy television audience ever, a survey of viewers revealed that many found the awards to be focused largely on television shows that mainstream audiences did not know and were not interested in. So the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has decided to prerecord and edit eight awards this year to allow for more time to celebrate shows that are popular with the public but might not be winning the hearts of Emmy voters.”
Measha Brueggergosman Has ‘Butterflies’ About Return To Stage After Heart Surgery
This weekend the soprano with the big name, big hair and big voice gives her first performance since emergency open-heart surgery in June to repair a dissected aorta. “It’s horrible,” she says. “It’s not necessarily the singing that is stressful – it’s kind of everything that surrounds it, you know, like, the rehearsal process and the nerves and wanting to remember and wanting to be good.”
Arts Council England Gives £2.4M In Emergency Aid To Opera Cos.
“Opera has emerged as the big winner in the first round of Sustain funding from Arts Council England, the new cash pot set up to help cultural organisations combat the effects of the recession.” The largest award, £900,000 went to Welsh National Opera (which tours in England every year), with English National Opera receiving £750,000 and the Royal Opera House £700,000.
Ethics: They’re Different For The Bosses
“Are rules made to be broken – or obeyed? Newly published research suggests your answer to that question depends largely upon whether you are mulling it over from a position of power. ‘In determining whether an act is right or wrong, the powerful focus on whether rules and principles are violated, whereas the powerless focus on the consequences,’ states [a new] study.”
Britain Working On Changes To Visa System For Performers
“Arts leaders have welcomed a report by the Home Affairs Select Committee [of Parliament] which recommends a raft of changes to the controversial points-based visa system, including the introduction of a fast track process, so that performers can enter the country at short notice in ‘exceptional emergency cases’.”