Getty Center chief executive “Barry Munitz is a man of grand appetites, a player among Los Angeles’ elite whose effusive personality and risk-taking management style have won praise even as they have alienated some of the trust’s most respected staff members. During his seven-year stewardship, Munitz has led the Getty through a trying period of change. But he has also pushed the limits on how nonprofit organizations use their resources. Documents show that Munitz has spent lavishly, traveling the world first class at Getty expense, often with his wife, staying at luxury hotels and mixing business with pleasure.”
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Autry And Cal Hist Team Up
“The Autry National Center and the California Historical Society have entered into a 100-year partnership designed to enhance exhibitions at the Autry museum in Los Angeles and create a Southern California presence for the San Francisco-based historical society. The plan calls for joint projects that will bring the society’s holdings out of storage and into the public eye.”
Banff TV Festival Lives
“The Banff World Television Festival has undergone a major makeover after staving off bankruptcy and has opted for a bold new image as matchmaker.”
Juilliard Piano Teacher, Cliburn Judge Harrassed
Weda Kaplinsky is head of the Juilliard piano faculty. She was also a judge at this year’s Van Cliburn competition, and seven of her students were among the 35 pianists admitted to the competition. For the past several months “Kaplinsky has been the target of an anonymous, orchestrated smear campaign, consisting of harassing e-mail messages, an anonymous letter, Internet postings, ominous late-night phone calls and a threatening statement overheard last week at Bass Hall.”
San Antonio’s 38 Strategies
San Antonio’s city council now has an arts plan that includes 38 strategies. “Public funding for the arts is about $2.78 per capita. That figure is about half of what other major cities allocate for the cultural arts. Yet, the economic impact of the local creative sector was $1.2 billion in 2003.”
Who Counts In Chicago Publishing?
“For years, Oprah reigned supreme as the city’s bookselling heavyweight, metaphorically speaking, only to take a break and then return to the classics–Faulkner anyone? While this was happening, an heiress to a pill-pushing fortune turned the world of words on its head when she made Chicago’s venerable little Poetry magazine the Valhalla of verse by giving it a god’s fortune. So there you have the beauty and mystery of Chicago’s book world: Oprah and Poetry.”
Congress Considers Deep Cuts In Public Broadcasting Funding
A US Congressional committee has passed major cuts in funding for public radio and TV. “By a voice vote, the House Appropriations subcommittee adopted a measure that would reduce the financing of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the organization that directs taxpayer dollars to public television and radio, to $300 million from $400 million. The subcommittee also eliminated $39 million that stations say they need to convert to digital programming and $50 million for upgrading aging satellite technology that is the backbone of the PBS network.”
Device Says We Watch More TV
Nielsen says its new electronic viewer measuring devices show Americans are watching more TV than previously measured. “The new local-TV ratings system, which replaces a written paper-diary system with a remote-control-like device, showed an 18.6 percent in TV viewing in San Francisco, followed by a 9.1 percent gain in New York, 1.4 percent in Chicago and 0.5 percent in Los Angeles. Among TV watchers, the demographic that saw the biggest increase was men between the ages of 18 and 49, an audience that advertisers pay a premium to reach.”
Arts Journalism – The Best And Worst Of Times
The National Arts Journalism Program has closed at Columbia University, and the timing is not auspicious. NAJP director Andras Szanto says that for arts journalism, “it’s the best of times and the worst of times. It’s the worst of times in the uncertainty, anxiety, insecurity, and dislocation facing arts journalists in institutions that are being staffed by outsourced freelancers with pay scales that are comparable to artists. Within news organizations, they’re trying to keep up with an arts world that is being marginalized.”
An End To Pakistan’s Bollywood Ban?
Pakistan’s film industry is trying to get the country’s government to end a ban on showing Bollywood films. “The ban was imposed after the Indo-Pakistan war of 1965. The local film industry has proven itself to be completely unable to meet the demands of the local market.”