New Haven Connecticut’s Long Wharf Theatre got a stunning surprise from the state, in the form of major capital funding for a new home. The “$30 million to Long Wharf on the day of its 40th anniversary gala stunned even the most seasoned arts leader. It’s not just that the figure is the largest singular grant to a capital arts project in state history (as best that anyone can determine anyway). It’s that the state subsidy is expected to make up about two-thirds of the capital project. Estimates for the new theater has it costing anywhere from $35 million to $45 million, depending on the year the question was asked. The final price is yet to be determined.”
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In Praise Of Intermission
“Theatre is a social contract between actors and audience, the interval an essential point of meltdown in the stalls, a respite from the artistic effort where those addressed shuffle about among themselves and consider the effect. This process, unconsciously undertaken, surely completes the essential circle of the theatre experience. We get to know each other.”
UK To Investigate Ticket Rip-Offs
The UK is launching an investigation into ticket agency fees for concerts and West End theatre. “The consumer affairs watchdog has launched a fact-finding study to discover if agents are distorting the market and overcharging customers following a series of complaints.”
Culture Clash: When Opera Shares A Home With Ballet
In Toronto, a new hall meant to house the Canadian Opera Company and the National Ballet has turned up some cultural differences between the two groups and how they’d like to use the building. “A good deal of horse-trading went on as to who would use the 12 less desirable weeks, particular those in the hot summer months. In the end, both companies accepted some of them. But the ballet, being a tenant rather than a partner in the project, had the weaker bargaining position. Its season will now push into July.”
(Under)Funding The Humanities
“According to the report by the Foundation Center and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, funding for the humanities by a sample group of some 1,000 large U.S. foundations more than doubled, from $134.1 million in 1992 to $335 million in 2002. But total foundation giving tripled in that period, to $15.9 billion in 2002, and the humanities’ share of the pie crumbled from 2.5 percent in 1992 to 2.1 percent in 2002. In 2002, education ($4.2 billion) and health ($2.9 billion) were the prime recipients of the sample group’s dollars, according to the Foundation Center.”
Sorting Out The Politics Of Artists
“For years, many conservatives have railed against the political leanings of the arts world and opposed the use of public money in arts funding. It’s a world that has taken as its official motto Andy Warhol’s observation that art is whatever you can get away with. . . . It shovels you between ennui and disgust. It’s axiomatic that much of the mainstream discourse in arts circles would be regarded as the language of the fringes in other fields. ‘It’s very lonely,’ says Don Schwartz, a sculptor based in Connecticut who argues that the liberal dominance of the arts world is a result of liberals disliking economics and thus drifting to jobs in culture. ‘It’s very intimidating to be a conservative in the arts. A lot of conservative artists give up’.”
Conservatives Mount Campaign Against Michael Moore
Conservatives protesting Michael Moore’s “Farenheit 9/11” have mounted a protest campaign. “Since we are the customers of the American movie theaters, it is important for us to speak up loudly and tell the industry executives that we don’t want this misleading and grotesque movie being shown at our local cinema.”
Understanding Music From The Ground Up
“To understand music, we have been taught, that room has to be unlocked, the windows opened and the world fully engaged. But now the emphasis may be changing. The appeal of a more abstract way of thinking about music may be growing. There is a search for timeless laws and principles; it may be that something can be learned from the listener in the locked room.”
People Meter: We Know What You’re Listening To
“The Portable People Meter is the next big thing in ratings. For the past few years, about 1,500 people in the Philadelphia area have worn small electronic devices that keep track of every bit of radio programming they might hear in the car, at the office, as they walk to lunch, when they drop by a friend’s house or when they hit happy hour after work.”
I Trillin, Poet
“Calvin Trillin is one of America’s most productive and frequently published poets. When he’s in a pithy mood, he is also, word for word, one of our most highly remunerated. But neither he, nor anyone else, would claim that he is one of our best, and in terms of quality, his verse falls somewhere between that of Alexander Pope and the bathroom wall, generally tending to the latter. He works in what might be called a middle-world of American political journalism.”