“Helen Gardiner, one of Toronto’s most beloved cultural philanthropists, died yesterday at her Caledon East farm, just four days after her 70th birthday… [With her husband, Gardiner] assembled a spectacular ceramics collection and not only gave it to the people of Ontario, but built the museum that houses it.”
Author: sbergman
New “At The Movies” Hosts Named
Ben Lyons of E! Entertainment Television and Ben Mankiewicz of Turner Classic Movies have been named to replace Richard Roeper and Roger Ebert on At The Movies. Ebert and Roeper “each announced [Monday] they were disassociating themselves from the movie-review program citing changes Disney planned to make to the long-running series.”
PhilOrch Keeps Paying Ex-President
Joseph Kluger stepped down as president of the Philadelphia Orchestra in late summer 2005, but tax records show that the orchestra continued to pay him for two more years, even after a new chief was in place. Kluger says the $313,000 he received was for “consulting.”
NJ Cuts Back On Arts Funding
“Against a backdrop of cutbacks, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts reduced by 12.6 percent its funding for arts organizations, programs and projects on Tuesday… It could have been worse, [though.] Through a statewide lobbying campaign, arts leaders joined with educators and businessmen to convince legislators to restore more than half of the 27 percent funding cut in the budget that Gov. Jon S. Corzine submitted earlier this year.”
Levine Had Cancerous Growth, Docs Say
James Levine, who left his Tanglewood duties earlier this month to have emergency surgery, apparently had a cancerous growth on his kidney. “Fortunately, because of early detection, it had not spread to the surrounding tissues, blood vessels, or lymph nodes. Doctors reported the surgery was completely curative and no further treatment is necessary.”
Basic Cable Finally Gets Emmy’s Attention
“Mad Men, AMC’s sleek drama set in the advertising world circa 1960, and FX’s legal thriller Damages made Emmy nominations history Thursday as the first programs on U.S. basic cable to gain best-series nods.”
Cleveland Orchestra Names New GM
“Gary Ginstling, director of communications and external affairs for the San Francisco Symphony since July 2006 and former executive director of California’s Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, has been appointed general manager of the Cleveland Orchestra.”
Stratford’s Woes Aside, Shaw Having A Good Year
“For the first time in recent memory, the Shaw Festival is doing far better at the box office than its colleagues at Stratford. In fact, the chances are very good that, come year-end, there will be black ink at Shaw and red ink at Stratford: a definite reversal of the colour scheme in recent years.”
The Odd Duck At The Center Of A Shakespeare Scandal
Raymond Scott, the 51-year-old man accused of stealing a 400-year-old Shakespeare folio, is not your garden-variety thief. In fact, he insists that he’s not a thief at all, and points out that if he had actually stolen the volume in question, he probably wouldn’t have walked into a Washington library last month and asked them to authenticate it.
Lincoln Center Gets “Theatrical Garden” To Play With
“Architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien have redesigned Harmony Atrium between West 62nd and 63rd Streets as a “theatrical garden” featuring 20-foot-high walls of plants and rods of falling water. The goal is to transform the space… into a 7,000-square-foot round-the-clock gathering place and a gateway to Lincoln Center’s performing arts campus.”