“In a potentially devastating blow to Durham’s arts community, temporary City Manager Patrick Baker has proposed eliminating more than $118,000 in arts and culture funding. The proposal… would have the city scrap all support for the African American Dance Ensemble and the Walltown Children’s Theatre, and [reduce overall] funding for nonprofits arts groups by 28 percent.”
Author: sbergman
Shreveport Symphony Downsizes Itself
“The board of directors for the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra announced late Friday afternoon it will move forward with its proposal to move core musicians to a per-service payment structure… The board’s offer includes a 75 percent cut to core or full-time musicians, from $12,693 to $3,123 for the 2008-09 season. The proposal would also include the elimination of 24 full-time core positions as of Sept. 1.”
Plenty Of Classical Fans In Montreal
Classical music a niche genre? Don’t tell the concertgoers of Montreal, where 4,200 members of the paying public recently attended three separate classical concerts on a Monday night! “The wonder is that all this happens at the end of a long season, when one might suppose classical fans to be financially drained and musically saturated.”
Terese Kaptur To Run Fort Collins Orchestra
Colorado’s Fort Collins Symphony has tapped the director of the National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge to be its new executive director. “When she began, the NRO was in a deficit, but during her time there, the orchestra’s budget more than doubled with a 14 percent surplus, and attendance increased by 10 to 15 percent each season.”
Waiting For Shubert
Minneapolis’s Shubert Theater has been on the restoration list for nearly a decade, but it still sits empty and run-down, waiting to become the regional dance hub that has been promised for so long. Now, the renovation plans are changing yet again. “The anticipated cost of the renovation is now $41 million, up from $37 million two years ago… And if everything goes as planned, the Shubert’s doors will open in January, 2010.”
Preserving Biodegradable Art
“Artworks that contain everything from chocolate syrup to exotic Amazon fruits to television tubes and radio transistors often present daunting challenges for museums, collectors, and artists themselves when it comes to preserving their art for future generations… The issue is taking on urgency as institutions face the passing of many 20th-century artists, and consulting them about their ephemeral artwork is no longer possible.”
Forecasting The Publising Future
Book sales are expected to stay flat in the US this year, with trade paperbacks taking the biggest hit as baby boomers seek out large-print editions. “Religious books should keep growing, by more than 5 per cent annually,” and a DaVinci Code sequel could give the market a needed boost.
Wildlife Art Museum Looking For Attention
“The National Museum of Wildlife Art — a low-slung, reddish flagstone building hugging a hillside along the highway north of this ski town — was designed to fit in with its surroundings. The 51,000-square-foot museum succeeded better than expected,” to the extent that most people seem completely unaware of its existence.
Why Pollack Was Important
“Sydney Pollack died Monday, and with him went a certain kind of Hollywood movie. His directorial signature was not as obvious as those of other filmmakers… Yet for some 40 years, the words ‘directed by Sydney Pollack’ stood for something, a level of quality, a degree of seriousness and an intelligent and almost instinctive sense of storytelling.
Cannes: The Navel-Gazing Year
A 4-1/2 hour biopic of a labor hero in which virtually nothing happens; a thriller seemingly deliberately devoid of thrills – this year’s Cannes Film Festival seems to have been given over to self-important filmmakers who have forgotten the importance of their audience, says Peter Howell.