Yale University’s famously influential art gallery designed by architect Louis Kahn has reopened following a three-year restoration. “The university lavished the spectacular sum of $44 million – enough to finance an entire new museum – on reconstructing Kahn’s loftlike gallery, replacing its entire steel-and-glass window wall… Although the Yale gallery now looks brand new, the Polshek architects initially despaired over their ability to correct its severe structural problems without compromising the architect’s vision.”
Author: sbergman
Rutgers Picks An Architect For Its Transformation
“With a cylindrical glass academic building and a new undulating landscape that will extend the campus right to ‘the banks of the old Raritan,’ the Mexican architect Enrique Norten has won the competition to reimagine the historic Rutgers campus in New Brunswick, New Jersey… Undetermined is how much the overall project will cost and how long it will take. Rutgers hopes to raise much of the money from public and possibly private sources.”
Presumably, It’ll Show Up On YouTube Soon
Daniel Wakin says that while the opera world is full of outsize egos, Roberto Alagna’s onstage tantrum this week is one for the ages. Moreover, Alagna’s subsequent ban from the La Scala stage affects more than just a week’s worth of ticketbuyers in Milan. “The cancellations will also probably trouble executives at Decca Classics, which was making a DVD of the production. No decision has been made about whether to issue it.” UPDATE: Here’s the video of the walkout
Hollywood Reporter Cuts Staff
The venerable Hollywood Reporter, which has been covering the entertainment business for 75 years, is cutting ten staff positions in what is being described as a significant overhaul. “Seven of the cuts were from the editorial side of the trade publication; three from the business side. Several lower-level editors received promotions and reassignments in the shuffle.”
Cold Comfort
Charles Frazier was a complete unknown as an author when he published his debut novel, Cold Mountain, in the mid-1990s. His own hopes for its success weren’t high: “I hoped there’d be 8- or 10,000 people in the South that would enjoy it and that the reviews would be good enough to get me a better teaching job.” Four million copies, a National Book Award, and an Oscar-winning film version later, Frazier just scored a whopping $8m advance for his next novel.
High Fidelity Hits An Insurmountable Low
Less than a week after it opened to blistering reviews and public indifference, the musical version of Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity was officially killed off by its disappointed producers. Part of the problem may have been that the hipster rock music that permeated the book and movie of the same name was nowhere to be found in the Broadway version, despite the fact that the plot largely revolves around it.
A Quiet Philanthropic Power Bails Out Edinburgh
The family foundation of pianist Carol Colburn Hogel has donated £500,000 to allow the Edinburgh International Festival to clear some of its mounting debt. “Grants from the Dunard Fund, financed by the family business, have run from concerts by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra to exhibitions at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. This year alone it will give away about £1.5 million. It has also built a reputation as a donor that responds quickly, without layers of red tape.”
An Unlikely Country Does Music Ed Right
Musically speaking, Venezuela is best known for “pulsating salsa and down-home folk ballads, songs with bawdy lyrics played on four-string guitars and maracas. But for 31 years, an ambitious state program aimed at instilling a love of classical music in children — particularly poor children — has drawn the admiration of conductors from as far away as Berlin and Boston, while producing musicians who have excelled in Europe’s most hallowed concert halls.”
Sticker Shock Puts Bakersfield PAC On Hold
Plans for a new performing arts center in Bakersfield, California, are in flux after the initial cost estimate for the project came in at a whopping $341m. If built, the center would play host to the Bakersfield Symphony and other area arts groups, but several of the project’s prominent backers pulled their support after seeing what it would cost.
Something Old, Something New In Savannah
“More than three years after the Savannah Symphony disbanded, a new professional orchestra is taking shape in the historic Georgia city — with an operating model its organizers hope will let the group be sustainable and fill some of the void left by its predecessor’s demise.”