This year’s Latin Grammys are being held in Miami. “For years the Latin Grammys have been mired in a debate centering on whether arts and politics associated with Cuba can ever be separated. If the event succeeds, it could greatly bolster Miami’s position as the Latin entertainment capital, organizers say. If it doesn’t, it would be another strike against a city that for years has struggled with an image of intractable political strife over Cuba.”
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Most Valuable First Editions
What are the most valuable first-edition English books? Sotheby’s estimates that the most valuable are Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Peter Rab bit (1901) and Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows (1908), which could both fetch £50,000.
Sir Terry Frost, 87
Abstract painter Sir Terry Frost has died of cancer. “Sir Terry was at the forefront of abstract art in Britain and was renowned for his use of vibrant colours, dolloping blobs of colour and spiralling squiggles on to his canvasses.”
The Cellini Ransom
An insurance company has received a ransom demand for a Cellini scuplture, stolen three months ago from an Austrian museum. “According to reports, the Uniqa insurance company received a letter last week demanding €5m (£3.5m) for the return of the Saliera or Saltcellar. This is thought to be the first response that insurers or police have had from the thieves who stole the 16th century solid gold sculpture by Benvenuto Cellini, estimated to be worth €50m, in a raid three months ago.”
New Era For Dallas Opera
Dallas Opera has a new leader in general director Karen Stone, who takes over at a challenging time. “It’s a company doing major-league work on a $10 million budget, half that of comparable operations in Houston and Seattle, but with nearly $800,000 in accumulated deficit. But it’s also a company preparing for a snazzy new opera house being designed by Foster and Partners for the Dallas Arts District.”
Poetry Of Disaffection
What poetry would Australians write? “Recently, a poetry initiative was trialled in selected schools. The intention was to enable students from different social and financial backgrounds to find a common ground in the wonderful world of words. What emerged was a tragic picture of isolated and disaffected youth striking out against the defenceless.”
Pricing Tickets To The Highest Bidder
Later this year, Ticketmaster plans to start auctioning off tickets to the highest bidders. “With no official price ceiling on such tickets, Ticketmaster will be able to compete with brokers and scalpers for the highest price a market will bear. ‘The tickets are worth what they’re worth. If somebody wants to charge $50 for a ticket, but it’s actually worth $1,000 on eBay, the ticket’s worth $1,000. I think more and more, our clients — the promoters, the clients in the buildings and the bands themselves — are saying to themselves, `Maybe that money should be coming to me instead of Bob the Broker’.”
Movie Lessons – Sequelitis Is An Affliction
There are lessons to be learned from this summer’s movie season. “The main conclusions? Big-budget sequels, previously considered a sure draw for fans of franchise films and the antidote to unpredictable studio profits, proved vulnerable.”
Money For Scottish National Theatre
Scotland is about to get its first government funding for a national theatre. “The sum required for the scheme is relatively small within the overall overspend – a recommended minimum initial investment of £2.5 million – and will represent an additional sum over and above the £38 million the Executive supplies to the Scottish Arts Council.”
Dancing To Relativity
Einstein’s theory of relativity is almost 100 years old. So how to celebrate and at the same time shed a little light on how to understand it? “The Institute of Physics has asked a contemporary dance company to produce a new work marking the centenary of the 1905 publication of Einstein’s most famous and important ideas. The show will be premiered at Sadler’s Wells theatre in May 2005, and if London audiences are wowed, a national tour is planned. ‘Dance is an expressive medium. It will be ideal for abstract concepts like the theories of Einstein on everything from tiny atoms to the dynamics of the whole cosmos’.”