As a fundraiseer, the American Composers Orchestra is auctioning mobile-phone ringtones created by Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Laurie Anderson, and other composers as part of its spring fundraiser.
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Canadian Arts Groups Score Big Tax Win
Canadian arts groups have won a court ruling that allows them to classify the artists they hire as contract workers rather than employees. The ruling will save the arts groups a lot of money. “Earlier Revenue Canada rulings had hit arts groups such as the Thunder Bay Symphony hard, demanding thousands of dollars in Employment Insurance and pension contributions that drove them near bankruptcy.”
The Missing (Unauthenticated) Pollock
“On Nov. 18, 2005, “Winter in Springs,” a 40-by-32-inch drip painting attributed to Jackson Pollock, was stolen from the Everhart Museum of Natural History, Science and Art in Scranton, Pa. But “Winter in Springs” was never authenticated and is not in the the four-volume catalogue raisonné, or complete listing, of Pollock’s work, regarded as the definitive word on authenticity. Nor was it insured. Authenticated Pollock works of similar size sell for about $10 million.”
Miles Davis In The Rock Hall Of Fame… Really?
“This seems provocative for a second, and then a little meaningless. It is not some sort of timely argument for underappreciated work; adventurous musicians like those in the Black Rock Coalition have been claiming Davis’s electric period as an inspiration for decades. There are some jazz adherents who never liked Davis’s long electric phase and will be mildly outraged. But after all the jagged turns of his career, and its thorough box-set gilding, most of us have long since let Davis’s body of work just assume its own meaning.”
Big Step – Pacific Symphony’s Europe Tour
Orange County’s Pacific Symphony is heading to Europe for its first tour. The orchestra has been talking about going on a tour for about a decade. But until recently it wasn’t thought that the orchestra was ready for one, financially or artistically.
A Popular LA Radio Figure In Legal Limbo
Chris Douridas made a name for himself in Los Angeles with his musical taste, first as musical director for KCRW and then in his work on a number of movies. But it all threatened to unravel earlier this year. “Though many details of what happened are unknown, law enforcement officials paint a lurid picture of events that led to Douridas’ arrest Jan. 6 on suspicion of drugging and trying to kidnap a 14-year-old girl.”
A Women’s Music Fest Looking For An Audience
Cal State University at Fullerton throws a women’s music festival and few people show up. “Is it the women themselves who are scary? Their music? Ironically, this annual festival, created five years ago by Pamela Madsen, a composer on Fullerton’s faculty, strives for inclusion. The attitude, and one rehashed in the panel, is that no one can really say what women’s music is. Some women address gender issues, some don’t.”
Deaf Theatre Loses Funding, Might have To Close
The 38-year-old National Theatre of the Deaf has lost a major grant and the theatre’s leaders fear the company might not be able to continue. “Without the $680,000 annual grant, administered by the U.S. Department of Education, the National Theatre of the Deaf slashed its annual budget from $1.2 million to $300,000.”
Curators Remove 12-Year-Old’s Gum From Frankenthaler
“The saga of the $1.5-million abstract Helen Frankenthaler painting defaced two weeks ago at the Detroit Institute of Arts by a 12-year-old boy who stuck gum on it during a school outing is heading for a happy ending. After intensive research, experimentation and surgical work with high-performance tweezers, hand-rolled Q-tips and a fast-evaporating solvent — plus some purposeful fooling around with gum — the quarter-sized residue on Helen Frankenthaler’s ‘The Bay’ is gone.”
Seattle’s Hammering Man Takes A Rest
The giant Jonathan Borofsky sculpture has had its swinging arm stilled. “Some ball bearings fell out of the arm’s mechanism Saturday and it was making ‘different noises.’ So a contractor turned off the motor that moves the arm in a hammering motion.”