New Haven’s Schubert Theatre has a storied past as a Broadway out-of-town tryout venue. But “the insistence of the Shubert board to put most of its eggs in the Broadway basket in the ’90s in either pre-Broadway or post-Broadway shows put it in difficult financial straits for what was viewed as the Fenway Park of theaters: charming, but with a limited box office.” Now the theatre has fallen on hard times, needing a plan for how to reinvent itself.
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Irish Arts Council Gets Funding Boost
The Irish Arts Council is getting a 16 percent increase in funding. “Some €61 million in funding has been allocated to the body for 2005. The council said the 16 per cent increase will be passed on directly to artists and arts organisations. The largest increases were for the film and traditional arts sectors, which received increases of 22 per cent and 18 per cent respectively.”
Land Before Time – The Prequel
Sequels have a bad rep in Hollywood, where they’re often little more than cheap rip-offs of a hit franchise. And then there are prequels – sequels that purport to tell the story before the original movie. “I think Hollywood is always looking for a new device to avoid original thought, and for a long time that was the sequel. But then I think the sequel got kind of strip-mined and depleted, so now we’re into the prequel. So it’s just another way of avoiding ever thinking of anything new, which is the ultimate goal of the Hollywood hit machine.”
Hollywood’s Blockbuster Year (But Smaller Audiences)
Hollywood is making more money than ever, but fewer people are going to the movies. “With nearly two weeks to go before the end of 2004, domestic box-office receipts appeared likely to top last year’s total of $9.27 billion, nearing $9.4 billion. But an increase can be attributed to a rise in ticket prices, up 3.85 percent to an average of $6.25, while attendance fell by 2.25 percent this year after dropping 3.8 percent in 2003.”
How’s Your Christmas Lit Cred?
Eew… ArtsJournal’s editor scored only 9 of 15 in this year’s Guardian books quiz… We’re sure you can do better…
Will China Rule The (Art) World?
Chinese art has been a hot sell this year, with millions racked up at recent auctions. “But does all this mean that the new rich of mainland China are about to take the international art market by storm and that Sotheby’s and Christie’s will soon be holding sales in Beijing and Shanghai? The reality, as with most things in this vast, complex nation, is much more complicated..”
In The Tradition Of Saddam, We Give You Subcomandante Marcos, Novelist
Mexican insurgent Subcomandante Marcos is collaborating on a novel – which is being serialized in a leading newspaper. Writing a whodunit may sound odd thing to do when you are running an insurgency, but Marcos has never fitted the traditional Latin American guerrilla mould.”
Germany Demands Russian Rubens
“Germany renewed its demand last night for the return from Moscow of a priceless Rubens oil painting that mysteriously vanished during the second world war. The Russian businessman who is refusing to give it back was threatened with legal action.”
The New Gateshead
Norman Foster’s latest project opens. “The Sage Gateshead, a £70m performing arts centre on the banks of the Tyne, opened yesterday. Its three music venues are shrouded by a vast and billowing steel-and-glass roof that resembles either a bank of low-lying cumulus clouds hugging the river, or the gun-blisters of a second world war RAF bomber.”
Norman Foster’s Garden (A Gallery)
Norman Foster has had a great couple of years. Through a series of high profile public buildings, he has altered Britain’slandscape. Here’s a gallery…