“Just three weeks before the grand opening of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s new Max M. Fisher Center, the symphony has received $8.7 million more in gifts from philanthropist Fisher and several other donors. Fisher kicked in another $5 million, bringing his contribution toward the refurbished and expanded Woodward Avenue concert venue and entertainment complex, which will now bear his name, to $10 million.”
Blog
Non-Profits Taking Big Economic Hit
America’s non-profit corporations, including many arts groups, are being forced to make painful cuts in the face of declining public funding, stagnated individual giving, and tumbling foundation spending, and the situation may not improve for quite a while, even if the economy continues its current rebound. Government funding is the second-largest source of revenue for non-profits, and at the moment, with states strapped for cash and the federal government charting a course which does not include much state aid, the public subsidy situation is dire.
Senate Rejects FCC Rules Changes
“The Senate approved a resolution Tuesday to repeal media ownership rules critics say could lead to a wave of mergers and ultimately stifle diversity and local viewpoints in news and entertainment. Defying a White House veto threat, the Senate voted 55-40 to undo changes to Federal Communications Commission regulations governing ownership of newspapers and television and radio stations. Those rules already have been placed on hold by a federal appeals court.”
Appeals Court To Scrutinize RIAA
A federal court is challenging the recording industry’s assertion that consumers who have copyrighted material available to others on their home computers are guilty of illegal distribution. Judge John Roberts is asking the industry to clarify how such practices are any different from an open library door. But the judge also has some tough questions for the telecommunications companies who have been subpoenaed by the RIAA, telling the lawyer for Verizon Communications, “You make a lot of money off piracy.”
Now You’ve Done It! You Woke Up Congress!
Senator Sam Brownback has had about enough of the recording industry’s legal crusade against illegal file-swapping, and, since he makes laws for a living, he’s making a law intended to make it tougher for the industry to keep up its pursuit. Among other things, “the legislation would require owners of digital media to file a John Doe lawsuit to obtain the identifying information of an Internet user, rather than simply requesting a subpoena.”
In Praise Of Elitism
“The elitism question is a complicated matter, not least because of the widely-observed paradox that claims of anti-elitism emanate from academics who write a language of deliberately clotted opaque jargon and make a parade of not particularly relevant erudition, such as Lacan’s forced marriage of psychoanalysis and mathematics. It’s also complicated because the word elitism is thrown around with wild abandon with no particular definition being stipulated, as if its meaning were entirely transparent and self-evident and generally agreed on. But nothing could be farther from the truth.”
Art Of The Video Game
“Computer and video games were once the province of futuristic gladiators and soldiers of yore. But as better graphics technology has made games more visually realistic, digital artists have been using 3-D game environments to recreate real places and simulate recent events. In the process they are turning what has been a platform for pure fantasy into a medium for social realism. At the very least the violent action at the heart of many games accurately reflects the world that game players confront when they step away from their screens. Digital games appeal to artists for several reasons.”
Bolshoi Fires Overweight Dancer
“A long-running feud came to an end yesterday when the ballerina Anastasia Volochkova was fired by the Bolshoi Theatre for being too heavy for male dancers to lift. The ousting of Volochkova, a prominent Russian celebrity, marked the climax of a row over claims that she was too large.”
Cleaning Of David To Resume
Anxious to clean Michelangelo’s David by next year’s 500th anniversary of its sculpting, officials in Florence have resumed cleaning of the statue. “At a news conference yesterday in front of Michelangelo’s marble vision of naked male beauty, experts defended their decision to resume the project, which was interrupted when an internationally respected restorer quit rather than follow orders to use a cleaning method she feared could harm the sculpture.”
Toronto Opera House To Be “Tops In The World?”
Plans for Toronto’s long-awaited opera house are unveiled. It’s a $150 million 2000-seat theatre. “Our ambition is to position this opera house among the top two or three in the world. If you look at what has worked for 400 years, you have a reasonable chance of success. Once you go over 2,000 seats (Roy Thomson Hall originally sat more than 2,800 people), you have made an unacceptable compromise.”