The Detroit Symphony may still be looking for a music director to replace the departed Neeme Järvi, but the ensemble is enjoying rising attendance and a stability that most other American orchestras would kill for. How did they accomplish such a thing in a city famed for its crippling poverty? Rather than simply making an appeal to the business community for help, the DSO has become a major investor in the urban revitalization of its hometown, and is endeavoring to show the community the same long-term commitment it requests from others.
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Oregon Arts In Dire Straits
“A torrent of red ink is flowing through some of Oregon’s best-known arts and cultural organizations. The Oregon Historical Society and the Oregon Symphony each posted a six- or seven-figure deficit in its two most recent fiscal years. Oregon Ballet Theatre, Portland Opera and the Oregon Bach Festival in Eugene also booked large losses last year. Arts officials checked off a laundry list of problems causing the disappointing financial results: high costs, executive changes, miserly state support and fierce competition for audiences and donor dollars.”
Whose PAC Is It, Anyway?
St. Paul’s Ordway Center for the Performing Arts is hunting for a new chief executive, and Dominic Papatola says that the center would do well to spend some time reexamining its mission before it settles on a new leader. “The Ordway is the crown jewel of St. Paul’s cultural destinations, but it is a flawed gem. Economically and organizationally, the place was built broken… No one has ever been able to successfully juggle the building’s multiple roles as landlord, presenter and producer.”
Museum’s Ready – Who’s Bringing The Art?
The tiny country of Luxembourg opened its spectacular new I.M. Pei-designed modern art museum this month, an enterprise nearly twenty years in the making. “Still, this striking symbol of modernity is not quite what its name implies. Because Luxembourg owned virtually no Modern art, and the museum could hardly afford to start building a collection of works by, say, Picasso, Braque, Matisse, Dalí, Miró and the like, this is really a museum of contemporary art… The size and sober grandeur of Mr. Pei’s building still suggests a museum awaiting a collection. But at least the museum exists, something that at times seemed less than certain.”
The Met’s $45m Duccio May Be A Fake
“A Columbia University professor known for challenging the art historical establishment asserts that a painting purchased in 2004 by the Metropolitan Museum of Art for an estimated $45 million is not the work of the early-Renaissance master Duccio di Buoninsegna, to whom it has long been attributed. The Met’s scholars have dismissed his argument, citing detailed scientific testing and scholarly study of the work.”
It Must Be Nice To Have Your Very Own Senator
Politicians are known for using their influence to do favors for friends in trouble. But when is the last time you heard of a conservative Republican senator pulling strings to get a pal released from an Arab prison after a drug conviction? Senator Orrin Hatch, the floor is yours…
Vox Populi.com
“In the age of widespread broadband access, iTunes video and video sites like Youtube.com, television viewers are migrating en masse to the Internet, looking not only to watch their favorite shows online but also for ways to discuss and engage with those shows. As a result, the blogs, communities like livejournal.com and message boards devoted to television shows are becoming more popular — and mainstream — forums for viewer discussion and feedback. And the people behind the shows have taken note.”
A History of Violence
Often lost in our continued marveling at the words of William Shakespeare is the fact that the Bard’s plays are often shockingly violent. A handful of new British productions embrace the bloody brutality, and Ben Brantley says that it’s impossible to miss the wider significance of the interpretation. “Besides demonstrating that there’s more than one way to skin a corpse, these contrasting takes on Titus anatomize the impact of a world where slaughter and torture are everyday occurrences, and especially on those whose job is to kill… The current investigations into the alleged rape and murder of civilians by American soldiers in Iraq have made such presentations tremble with inescapable timeliness.”
Dali Museum To Get New Home
“Salvador Dali never set foot in St. Petersburg, Fla., where the dominant art form is the watercolor beachscape. But in a strange twist worthy of one of the Spanish Surrealist master’s paintings, St. Petersburg will soon be home to a $30-million museum to house the world’s most comprehensive collection of Dali’s work… Groundbreaking is set for early next year. The new facility will open in 2010.”
Pavarotti Surgery Successful
Luciano Pavarotti is resting comfortably following successful cancer surgery in New York. “The 70-year-old singer was preparing to leave New York last week to resume his farewell world concert tour in Britain when doctors discovered a malignant pancreatic mass.” Doctors were reportedly able to remove the entire mass during the procedure, but pancreatic cancer has one of the highest eventual fatality rates among cancers. Pavarotti plans to resume touring in 2007.