When the Florida Philharmonic filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month, most of its board members, musicians, and managers threw up their hands, passed the buck to each other, and mourned the demise of the region’s only large orchestra. But two members of the Philharmonic’s chorus are refusing to let the Florida Phil slip away, and have raised $900,000 in an effort to get the organization back into workable fiscal shape. Support for the effort has been slow to come from musicians worried about their contracts, but the choruspeople now seem to have the organization behind them, and hope to raise $2 million by this Friday.
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Two Roads Diverge In a Windowed Wood…
Microsoft has constructed two model homes packed full of computers, sensors, digital media player/recorders, and scanners, all designed to showcase the technology of the near future. But “these two homes represent two futures. The first is what consumers want: digital media their way, in whatever form suits. The second is what Hollywood wants: media lockdown, with every use subject to permission and often then only for a fee. In the middle stands Microsoft, determined to navigate these extremes.”
Look But Don’t Touch. Or Breathe.
William Morris, a 19th-century artist specializing in rich tapestries and wall coverings, is well-known even today for his designs, which often featured leafy green patterns and twisting vines. But according to a new scientific investigation, Morris used arsenic to derive the green pigments he needed for his work, and the deadly chemical sickened some of his clients, depite Morris’s protestations that arsenic was not toxic. In truth, the artist knew better: he was on the board of an arsenic mining company, where he had been told all about the dangers of exposure.
£1 Million Boost For UK Cinema
A new fund has been set up in the UK to help filmmakers promote and market their work without risking insolvency in the process. The fund, which will be administered by the Film Council, will make £1 million per year available for distribution, with no one film eligible to receive more than £300,000. The amount a film receives will be in inverse proportion to how well it does at the box office, making the fund less an incentive to succeed than a hedged bet against failure.
U.S. Arts Cuts To Top $100 Million
Budget cutting, petty politics, and a flat economy are combining to force many U.S. states out of the business of funding art, and the cuts may total $100 million or more. “In the last 12 months, 42 states have cut their funding to the arts, wiping 13% off the total amount of funds available. But organisations are bracing themselves for an even more difficult 12 months ahead.” According to ArtsJournal editor Douglas McLennan, while the cuts are devastating for arts agencies, even more frightening is the message: “What the government is saying right now is that culture is not important for us to fund.”
Massachusetts Cuts Spread The Pain
Grant checks were sent out in Massachusetts this week to the 31 artists selected for funding by the state’s Cultural Council. But the 62% cut in the council’s funding means that the grants are less than half of what they were last year. Still, the council decided that it would be better to fund as many artists as possible than to keep the grants high and cut more individuals out of the process.
Next On The Cutting Block: Missouri
“The Missouri Arts Council could lose about 75 percent of its budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. A bill signed by Gov. Bob Holden authorizes the council to use money from the Missouri Cultural Trust, intended as an endowment to leverage private arts funding, for the new budget year. The council will receive no money from general revenues.”
Can Colorado Arts Council Survive?
Now that the Colorado Arts Council has seen its budget cut to $40,000 and its director fired, can it survive? “The council, a key player in the state arts community for 36 years, is barely hanging on. In order to survive, it must learn to get by with volunteers and donations from new sources. But the council also needs a commitment from [Governor Bill] Owens and other state leaders that they will support it and increase its funding when the economy turns around.”
Broadway Boheme To Close Early
Baz Luhrmann’s flashy La Boheme is closing after 228 performances. “The production, which cost about $8.5 million to mount at the Broadway Theater, recouped only about a quarter of that investment. Jeffrey Seller, one of the producers, said that although the production had found an audience, it was not necessarily the audience that a show needed to survive on Broadway.”
Rod Stewart, The Musical
If ABBA and Billy Joel can do it, why not Rod Stewart? Why not indeed? Write a musical based on his music, that is. A project based on Stewart tunes is in the workd. “Plot details were sketchy. It apparently chronicles the exploits of ‘a shy young man’ who is tempted by Satan while ‘attempting to win over the love of his life by emulating his hero Rod Stewart’.”