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Toledo Arts Groups Painting The Town Red

Arts groups in Toledo, Ohio are selling plenty of tickets these days. But that isn’t protecting the bottom line. “Some of Toledo’s best-known regional arts and community assets – from black-tie traditions to avant-garde artists – are working in a new medium: red ink. At least four of the area’s major venues have posted a string of deficit years, according to records they’ve filed with the IRS: the Toledo Opera, the Arts Commission, COSI, and Citifest.”

The Greatest Collection That Never Was

In 1973, British Prime Minister Edward Heath made a list of the 35 most important artworks in private hands. A “declassified 1973 document lists 35 paintings by foreign artists, each then worth at least £500,000. The entire list of 35 works could now be worth as much as £1 billion. The idea was that if the pictures ever came up for sale, they should be bought by public collections.”

Tough “Times” For Fiction, Serious Reviews

Jerome Weeks wonders if top editors at the New York Times realize how important the Times Book Review is to readers. “While many newspapers are shrinking every story to the length and mental level of a movie blurb (‘best ever!’), the Saturday Times and the Boston Globe’s Ideas section take their small stands against our rampant anti-intellectualism. They print essays, intelligent ruminations on topics and trends often prompted by books. Yes, more of these would be welcome. And yes, the Book Review needs a jolt of provocative writing and fresh thinking. But its dullness has had less to do with the nature of the books being covered and more with the genteel backscratching that passes for book criticism these days.”

Julian Schnabel Returns

Julian Schnabel is back. “How Alpha-male American, how gloriously, absurdly, heart-on-his-sleeve, Schnabel appears to be in a European setting. Surrounded by demure, waist-coated museum officials, he strides, shaggy-haired and bear-like in a great coat and baggy trousers, up and down the prestigious German gallery that has dignified him with a retrospective.”

Figuring Out Baryshnikov

Mikhail Baryshnikov is a prodigious talent. But “in all the agony and ecstasy that has surrounded Baryshnikov’s every move – the matchless dancing, the seething love-life, the mediocre film career, the downmarket commercial activities – it has taken time to see that his greatest claim to world gratitude is the almost unbelievable generosity with which he has marketed his talent.”

Brooklyn Opera Agrees Not To Use Virtual Orchestra

Reversing a decision aimed at saving money, “the Opera Company of Brooklyn will no longer use a computer that replicates an orchestra in place of live musicians. A deal reached with the musicians’ union explicitly bans the use of the computer, known as a virtual orchestra machine, or any other type of synthetic music, the union and opera announced Monday.”