“A film industry group has sued a high-end consumer electronics company, claiming its home theater jukebox system makes illegal copies of movie DVDs… It’s the latest move in the ongoing, larger war the movie industry has waged in trying to prevent what it considers unauthorized usage of its content.”
Blog
Your First Hit’s Free; Then You Pay
A discount ticket program aimed at college students has been quite successful at drawing young adults to arts events in Pittsburgh, but some in the city’s arts community have begun to question whether the cheap (and sometimes free) tickets will ever actually translate into a new generation of paid subscribers. Still, the program represents an important revenue source for performing arts groups in a time of fiscal uncertainty. And the program’s coordinator claims that more and more students lured in by an initial freebie are taking advantage of discount ticket offers.
Bringing Twin Artworks Together Again
“A pair of rare multimillion-dollar paintings by the Russian-born artist Wassily Kandinsky were reunited Wednesday at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts after being separated in a crude artistic surgery more than 70 years ago in Munich, Germany. The Minneapolis museum has owned one of the colorful abstractions since 1967, but the other, which was originally painted on the back of the Minneapolis image, fell through the cracks of Europe’s war-torn history and was all but forgotten for nearly a century. Preserved by the family of a Kandinsky friend, the second painting recently resurfaced in Munich and is now on loan to the Minneapolis museum.”
The Art Of War
War has inspired countless powerful works of art over the centuries, but most of it has been created by outside observers rather than by those who actually experience the horror of battle and the triumph of victory. In recent years, however, more and more veterans have been creating artworks to express their lingering feelings about the conflicts in which they were involved, and the results, as shown at a Chicago museum devoted to vet art, are deeply personal and overtly engaging.
Hit ‘Em Square In Their iPods
From RSS feeds to podcasting, portable content on demand seems to be the newest wave of the information revolution, and AJ Blogger Andrew Taylor sees serious potential for arts organizations willing to step up to the technological plate. “Imagine a community-wide Podcasting site, where arts organizations could post audio interviews and discussions relating to their coming performances. Imagine a whole new branch of public-broadcasting-like content, that doesn’t rely on the narrow and jam-packed broadcast frequencies.”
St. Louis Symphony Managers Seeking Musician Pay Cuts
There’s still one U.S. orchestra without a new musicians’ contract, and talks seem to have bogged down at the St. Louis Symphony, where the current agreement runs out on January 2. “Management has made one financial proposal to the union. That suffered an ‘overwhelming rejection’ at a union meeting on Nov. 8. Management, according to the memo, has refused to make a counterproposal to the union’s last offer… Management sources, speaking anonymously, have said that given the Symphony’s commitment to a balanced budget, it cannot commit to higher salaries without a larger income. Management’s current proposal would reduce musician salaries, reportedly to $61,000 a year.”
Fiscal Turnaround In Detroit
The Detroit Symphony has rebounded from three straight years of deficits and posted a small surplus for the 2003-04 season. “Some factors leading to the positive financial news are unique and unlikely to be repeated. The October 2003 opening of the orchestra’s new home, the Max M. Fisher Music Center, was a once-in-a-lifetime event; the gala that marked the opening netted $1 million.” The persistent deficits led the DSO to replace its executive director last winter, and the orchestra’s musicians agreed to reopen their contract early and make significant concessions to stem the tide of red ink.
Up In The Sky! It’s A Billboard! It’s A Beer Ad! No! It’s Art!
When Minneapolis’s Walker Art Center closed for a full year in order to renovate and expand, it launched “Walker Without Walls”, a series of events and installations intended to keep the museum’s name on everyone’s lips. The most constantly visible example of the museum’s efforts has been a large billboard on one of the city’s main downtown streets, which has featured a new specially created artwork by a different artist each month. But what is the public actually getting out of the billboard, which offers no explanation of what it is or why it’s there? One passer-by mistook the latest billboard for a beer ad – “Red Stripe, I think. Definitely not Budweiser” – and another thinks she sees “dried-up death on one side.”
Brueghel Masterpiece Nets £3.7 Mil
An action-filled painting representing the pinnacle of 17th-century Flemish artist Pieter Brueghel’s career sold at auction in the UK this week for £3.7 million. The Kermesse of St George depicts the drunken revelry of a village feast day, and has been out of the public eye since 1930, when it was bought by a Belgian family. The new buyer has not been revealed.
Plum Position – Making It In The Movie Biz
Three not-yet-30-something women are making a name for themselves in the movie production business. “In the year since they formed their company, the women have already had remarkable success in a world where their age, sex and relative inexperience might be a handicap.”