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Chicago Still Running Deficits, But Things Are Looking Up

The Chicago Symphony ran up another sizable deficit in the 2004-05 season ($1.3 million, to be exact,) but that figure represents a major improvement over the previous season and is $700,000 less than the deficit the orchestra had projected for the year. Fund-raising was up by 4% overall, and the budget for fiscal 2005 was reduced 2.6% from the previous year. Ticket sales also rebounded from a slow year in 2003-04, and were up by 7% overall, with nearly 85% of subscribers renewing their seats for 2005-06. The CSO’s internal plan calls for achieving a balanced budget by 2006-07.

Is New York’s Cultural Dominance Slipping?

Is New York still the culture capital of the world? Was it ever? Lots of New Yorkers would certainly claim that it was, is, and will always be, but then, most New Yorkers also believe that the world ends just west of New Jersey. A realistic look at history reveals that “there was only a relatively brief time when New York City, no longer overshadowed by Europe, was universally considered the art capital of the world.” Worse, a good deal of serious art and culture is being replaced (not only in New York, but across America) by attention-grabbing “events” intended simply to draw huge crowds. “It is clear that the arts and culture have risen in importance for cities all over the world, which increases the competition for talent.”

When The TV Has Everything Ever Made

Television of the future will be radically different. “You’ll not only be able to watch every film, but also every TV program, news show, documentary, music video, and video blog, and all of it will be playable wherever you go. Great, you think: Thousands of channels, millions of choices, and still nothing worth watching. Nevertheless, “nonlinear TV”—watching the tube on our schedule, not the broadcasters’—is our destiny. The revolution will not be televised, however, until the companies that funnel the content into our homes figure out how to control it. The best advice for now: Study the music industry and do the exact opposite.”

When Once America Reached Out To The World With Culture

“From the late 1940s through the end of the 1980s, the American government — along with the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations — sponsored lectures and conferences abroad on American history and literature; art exhibitions featuring America’s Abstract Expressionists and postmodern painters and sculptors; international tours of jazz musicians, symphony orchestras, and ballet companies, as well as of Broadway musicals and dramas; visiting professorships where American academics taught in foreign universities…” These interactions promoted understanding. But all the programs went away and now…

Solzhenitsyn Cottage Burns

A cottage where Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote some of his most famous works has burned down. “An official at the local fire department said the dacha burned down on Wednesday night. The newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets said it was being rented by a Georgian man and that faulty electrics had sparked the blaze. It was unclear how much of the writer’s old papers remained there, although the newspaper said there were rare photographs and writings about the writer’s life.”

Steve Kurtz: A Life Under Investigation

A year and a half after his wife died, artist Steve Kurtz is still fighting American prosecutors who accused him of bio-terrorism. He says his persecutors “have to have something to show for the millions of dollars they’ve spent on this. They’re trying to create a kind of hysteria, a horrible kind of vigilantism. It’s right out of Hitler’s handbook. The final goal is to silence and intimidate voices of dissent.”

New Wind At The Baltic

The new director of the Baltic Gallery, the UK’s largest contemporary art space after Tate Modern, is making some changes. “He hopes to instil common sense into the gallery, which until this year lacked simple visitor facilities such as a cloakroom and information desk. ‘We are taking a new approach in our philosophy towards our visitors. The visitors are the reason we are here – with the artist. I was telling our managers earlier today that as a mindset we have to hug each visitor’.”

Christie’s In China

Christie’s has signed a deal to become the first Western auction house in China. “Under the agreement, settled this week, Christie’s will license its name, provide experts and oversee the entire auction process, from the acquisition of works for sale to the printing and design of the catalog. Its first sale – 45 examples of modern and contemporary Chinese art – is scheduled for Nov. 3 at the Great Wall Sheraton Hotel in Beijing and is expected to bring $10 million.”