“Richard Andrews, director of the University of Washington’s Henry Art Gallery for two decades, will resign by next February… Andrews is the reason the Henry is a nationally recognized force on the contemporary art scene. When he was hired, the Henry was a small museum without a core identity. He took it in the contemporary direction.”
Author: sbergman
Clifton Wins Poetry Prize
Maryland poet Lucille Clifton has been named the recipient of the Chicago-based Poetry Foundation’s lifetime achievement award. The $100,000 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize is handed out annually, and will be officially presented on May 23.
“Cyber-Riot” Over Digital Rights Management
“The movie industry is vowing this week to fight back after Internet users last week staged what has been termed a ‘cyber-riot’ over industry efforts to remove Web postings relating to a 32-character code that could crack copy-protection schemes on HD-DVD discs.”
New Money Drives Up Prices At Spring Auction
Even without a true blockbuster work to anchor it, Tuesday’s sale of Impressionist and modern art at Sotheby’s New York hauled in a staggering $278.5m, just under its high-end estimate. The bidding was driven largely by “an international group of today’s new rich [who] dropped millions of dollars, ignoring auction house estimates and paying whatever it took to take the right image home.”
Royal Opera Gets A £10m Windfall
London’s Royal Opera House has announced a £10m donation, one of the largest in the venue’s history, from the foundation of deceased philanthropist Paul Hamlyn. Part of the gift will be used to establish a permanent educational activity endowment, and the ROH’s Floral Hall will be renamed for Hamlyn.
Gilbert Leaving Santa Fe
Conductor Alan Gilbert, who has been much discussed as a darkhorse candidate to become the New York Philharmonic’s next music director, has announced that he is leaving Santa Fe Opera after four years as music director to pursue other conducting opportunities.
Netanyahu & Rachel Corrie Don’t Go Together
“The family of former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has forced [the Boston-area based] New Repertory Theatre to cancel a planned run next spring of a one-act play about a 1976 hostage rescue mission because it was to have been paired with the story of a pro-Palestinian American activist.”
More Arts Leaders Blast Olympic Funding Plan
Another prominent cultural figure has attacked the UK government’s plan to gut arts spending to help fund the 2012 London Olympics. This time, it’s “the chairman of the Royal Philharmonic Society – the second-oldest music society in the world, which commissioned Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony” taking the Blair government to task, accusing it of doing “thoughtless damage” to the arts.
Indy Plucks Young Concertmaster From Philly
The Indianapolis Symphony has found a new concertmaster after 15 months of searching. At only 27 years old, Philadelphia Orchestra violinist Zachary De Pue will be one of the youngest (if not the youngest) concertmasters of an upper-tier American orchestra.
Strib Dumps Architecture Beat – Other Cuts Coming
Minnesota’s largest daily paper, the Star Tribune, which was recently acquired by a private equity firm, has announced that it will cut 145 jobs over the coming months, and some reporters within the paper are already being reassigned. It looks as if the paper’s arts coverage will be hit hard: two TV writers are told to compete for a single job, and the only full-time architecture critic in the Twin Cities is being reassigned entirely.