The Cincinnati Art Museum wants to make its biggest renovation and expansion in its 119 years. The museum hasn’t raised any money yet, and doesn’t have an architect chosen, but “envisions more galleries to show off rare collections. More gathering spaces for more than 270,000 visitors a year. High-tech, multimedia educational facilities. A modern library open to the public. And a virtual museum that is as accessible as the real thing.”
Blog
An iPod Experiment That Failed
Last year, Duke University spent $500,000 on iPods for its students. The plan was hyped as a tech step forward. But the experiment wasn’t exactly a big success…
Are Cheap Supermarket Books Killing Literary Quality?
“Cheap books are apparently the spiritual equivalent of universal suffrage, and by offering works by Dan Brown, Patricia Cornwell and Tony Parsons for a pound or two below the prices levied by traditional outlets, Tesco and its friends are “democratising” the book trade. Moving on to the wider implications of our supposedly democratised culture, as a general rule whenever a participant is offered more “choices”, whether in the number of book outlets, TV channels or radio stations, the end result will be to depress the overall quality of the available material.”
LA’s Center Theatre Kills Off Play Development Programs
Los Angeles’ Center Theatre Group is killing off its programs to develop new plays and playwrights. “Artistic director Michael Ritchie, who took the helm of Los Angeles’ flagship theater company in January, is eliminating the Other Voices program for disabled artists — a Taper fixture since 1982 — plus the Latino, Asian American and African American labs established from 1993 to 1995.”
ABT Averts Musicians’ Strike
American Ballet Theatre avoided a musicians’ strike with a new contract that “the union said requires the ballet to use only live musicians and bans so-called virtual orchestras. The union portrayed the deal as a victory in a fight by theater musicians, including those on Broadway, against the use of virtual orchestra machines, which save money over live performers.”
Record Number Of Books In 2004
“A study announced Tuesday estimates that a record 195,000 new works came out in 2004, a 14 percent jump over the previous year and 72 percent higher than in 1995.” But a previous study says that while more titles are being published, fewer books are actually being sold…
Corcoran Director Resigns, Museum Quits Gehry Expansion Plan
“David C. Levy resigned yesterday as president and director of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. The Corcoran’s board of trustees, meanwhile, suspended the museum’s efforts to build a new wing designed by architect Frank Gehry, for which fundraising largely has stalled.”
Whitney Has Plan B For Expansion
The Whitney may have an alternate plan to propose for its extension, as the museum goes into hearings with New York’s Landmarks Preservation Commission. “The original design would require razing the two brownstones that are closest to the Breuer building. The current entrance would be maintained for school groups; the rest of the public would enter through a new 32-foot entrance that would lead through a passageway into a public piazza.”
National Arts Journalism Program To Close At Columbia
“After an outstanding 11-year record of advocating for and promoting the cause of arts journalism, the National Arts Journalism Program, the only program in America dedicated to the advocacy of arts journalism, is being closed down at the Columbia School of Journalism.”
NAJP Alums Respond To Program Closing
Arts journalists who have been fellows of the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia, weigh in on this week’s decision to close the program…