Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts has been up and running for two years now, but something’s still missing. The Kimmel, home to the Philadelphia Orchestra and various other groups, “was supposed to be accessorized with art selected and funded under provisions of the city’s Percent for Art program. However, a number of problems slowed the project considerably, to the point where the seven-member jury tasked with choosing the art is just now entering the final phase of the process.”
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Denver Science Museum CEO Resigns
“Raylene Decatur, president and chief executive of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, resigned Wednesday after almost nine years of overseeing major and sometimes controversial changes at the 104-year-old institution… More than 30 full-time and part-time employees lost their jobs there in 2002 and 2003 as the museum struggled with the shrinking attendance and a reduction in contributions from the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District… Decatur heard harsh criticism from some former employees and volunteers for the layoffs and the less than pure-science exhibits created during her tenure.”
Just Don’t Lick The Walls
When your city’s national image is best summed up as “the American answer to Siberia,” how exactly do you go about drawing a crowd of out-of-towners to take notice of your thriving community and impressive cultural scene? Well, if you’re St. Paul, Minnesota, you first arrange to host the National Hockey League’s All-Star Game during the dead of winter. Then, just before the cameras roll, you build an enormous palace out of 27,000 bathtub-sized blocks of ice, right smack in the middle of downtown, and just across the street from the hockey arena. The 2004 Ice Palace is a marvel of art and engineering, and it opens to the public tonight. Oh, and just for the record: the temperature in the Twin Cities this morning was a crisp 13 below zero.
The Most Eclectic Music You’ll Ever Hear North of Fargo
What with the well-documented financial woes of the Canadian orchestra industry, it’s a wonder that the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s New Music Festival still exists. Now in its 13th year, the festival became one of the surprise industry successes of the 1990s, drawing thousands of fans from across North America with its quirky programs and relaxed style. This year’s edition, which kicks off this weekend, will feature a 20-piece electric guitar band made up of teenage musician-composers; a rapper participating in a formal premiere of a Swedish composition; and an appearance by composer Arvo Pärt.
Atlantic Theatre Alive For Another Season
“Officials with the Atlantic Theatre Festival, a premiere classical theatre venue in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, announced Tuesday that they have secured the financing they need to go ahead with its 10th anniversary season… Earlier this month, the festival had announced it was $300,000 in debt. While some creditors had agreed to a restructured payment plan of the $150,000 owed to them, others did not. Also, the Wolfville town council voted against a motion to guarantee a loan for the festival to repay its creditors. The ATF board had set a goal to stabilize its finances before beginning its new season and announced that if it couldn’t find the funds, it would cancel the festival.”
Staring Down The Ratings Board
Bernardo Bertolucci’s new film, The Dreamers, premiered at Sundance this week, sporting an eye-catching NC-17 rating. It’s the first film in years to carry the adults-only rating, normally considered a death sentence by studios, and Bertolucci is eager to take on the MPAA for the criteria it uses to assign ratings to films released in the U.S. No movie has ever been rated NC-17 for violent content, no matter how gory, but certain sexual content makes the rating automatic. Bertolucci’s view: “an orgasm is better than a bomb.”
A New Home For Boston Ballet? Well, Maybe.
Boston Ballet, searching desperately for a new home for its annual production of The Nutcracker since being kicked out of the Wang Center in favor of a touring Radio City Christmas show, may have found more than just a holiday staging ground. If things go the company’s way, the city’s Hynes Convention Center could be renovated into a performing arts center, and Boston Ballet could take up permanent residence there. Of course, the company doesn’t own Hynes, and hasn’t yet spoken to the city of Boston about the plan, and any renovation would take years to complete, but what the heck? It never hurts to dream.
532 More File-Traders Sued
“The Recording Industry Association of America is suing 532 more individuals it says are illegally sharing copyright music over peer-to-peer networks, the group announced Wednesday. It’s the largest group of copyright-infringement lawsuits that the music trade group has filed since it began its crackdown on file traders in September. The latest batch of traders targeted by the RIAA are accused of distributing, on average, 858 music files. Currently the RIAA doesn’t know exactly who these people are, so it must use a ‘John Doe’ process to obtain the names of those it says are illegally sharing music. Defendants are identified by their IP addresses.”
Draconian Or Not, Lawsuits Work
Privacy advocates and computer users may not be wild about the music industry’s decision to combat illegal file-sharing by suing individual downloaders, but don’t expect the tactic to go away anytime soon. The fact is, the well-publicized lawsuits are doing more to stem the tide of piracy than anything else the industry has tried, and a global crackdown on the websites that facilitate the downloads may be next on the agenda.
Prairie Art Central
Sedan, Kansas is a prairie town that not long ago looked like it was dying. But the town has reinvented itself as an art colony. “As word spreads, artists have begun arriving. Some are refugees from what they say are overcommercialized art scenes in places like Santa Fe, N.M. One, Stan Herd, a pioneer of environmental art, has built a monumental stone work called “Prairiehenge” on a hilltop outside town.”