The Australian government is launching an investigation into the business practices of selling Aboriginal art. “Once a $750,000 business in 1971, aboriginal art is now reputed to bring in at least $149 million. But many well-known aboriginal artists continue to live in third world conditions in remote communities, sometimes paid with a crate of beer or a used four-wheel drive, while their representatives are seen driving brand new Rolls Royces in downtown Sydney.”
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Osmo Vanska Quits Finnish Orchestra
“After keeping a foot on each side of the Atlantic for a few years, the Minnesota Orchestra’s music director will leave his post as chief conductor of Finland’s Lahti Symphony at the end of the 2007-08 season, concluding a two-decade tenure that began when he was named the orchestra’s music director in 1988.”
Suggestion – National Symphony Should Book A Crowd
The National Symphony has been looking for a replacement for music director Leonard Slatkin, but Mark Mobley has a suggestion. “The NSO needs a radical new strategy. It’s time to diversify the product by hiring a series of guest conductors. Put more emerging musicians, especially more Americans, on the podium, and let the players and staff set a course to lure patrons and improve the concerts.”
House Republicans Propose major PBS Funding Cut
“On a party-line vote, the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees health and education funding approved the cut to the budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes money to the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio. It would reduce the corporation’s budget by 23 percent next year, to $380 million, in a cut that Republicans said was necessary to rein in government spending.”
Welcome To Temple-Land
These days it isn’t enough to open a temple and expect the people will follow. In Delhi the creators of a new temple has added a little Hollywood pizzaz. “The creators of the new Swaminarayan Akshardham temple complex that towers over east Delhi thought to include several features not commonly found in Hindu architecture, including an indoor boat ride, a large-format movie screen, a musical fountain and a hall of animatronic characters that may well remind us that, really, it’s a small world after all. There are even pink (sandstone) elephants on parade.”
Is A Rounder Soccer Ball A Better Soccer Ball?
Adidas has spent millions trying to build a better, rounder soccer ball. “By reducing the number of places where panels touch each other, the ball reacts three times more accurately when kicked, according to Adidas, which tested the ball by having a robotic kicking machine whack it against a wall a few thousand times.”
Tijuana As Cultural Mecca?
“From painting, conceptual art and photography to video and music, the city’s artists now seem riveted not so much on border conflicts or a dream destination as on Tijuana itself: an experimental laboratory for people with hybrid identities and a growing global awareness.”
Power On The Move In Hollywood
Two of Hollywood’s biggest talent agencies are moving out of Hollywood. Okay, the move is only a mile away. “To the uninitiated, that may seem like a paltry distance. But for the agency world, which for a decade and a half has been clustered along a narrow corridor of power and information on Wilshire Boulevard here, it is the end of something, and the beginning of a more diffuse and more corporate existence.”
For-Profit Arts Center Dumps Theatre
Seattle’s Capitol Hill Arts Center has sidestepped the traditional non-profit model to be a for-profit operation. But audiences haven’t shown up for the center’s theatre offerings, so CHAC is shutting them down. “Everything [we do] is really successful, except the theater season. If what we do is so important to the community, they have to come out. If the Seattle audience doesn’t recognize Seattle value, the value will have to migrate elsewhere.”
Congress Boosts Indecency Fines
The US Congress has hiked fines for “indecency” on TV networks. “The bill raising fines to $325,000 per violation, which Bush said he would sign, caps fines at $3 million for continuing violations. The U.S. House of Representatives approved the measure by a 379 to 35 vote on Wednesday, while the Senate passed the bill by unanimous consent last month.”