The US Congress is close to passing a law that would allow artists a tax deduction for donating their work to a non-profit institution. “The Artists’ Contribution to American Heritage Act of 2003 (HR 806) would allow artists a charitable tax deduction ‘equal to fair market value’ for contributing ‘literary, musical, artistic, or scholarly compositions created by the donor’ to qualifying public institutions such as a library or museum. Under current law, artists may deduct only the cost of materials used to create the work.”
Blog
After 30 Years Feld Folds
Eliot Feld has folded his company for a year after taking 30 years to build it. “People feel bad, people feel sorry, and some people feel it’s a real loss. One sustains a dance company out of internal will, by insisting on its being. They’re very expensive to run and the competition is extraordinary. You build a castle out of sand and if you don’t keep protecting it, or can’t any longer, the tide comes in and it disappears.”
Is Reality TV Done?
Reality TV shows have proliferated this year. But their time may be coming to a close. “Advertisers, in fact, have done what critics and cultural warriors couldn’t – namely, chase the so-called reality genre into temporary retreat, leading to at least a short-term resurgence of scripted sitcoms and dramas.” This fall’s new schedule reveals a changed landscape. “Of the 39 new programs scheduled, 20 are comedies and 17 are dramas, leaving staged reality on the sidelines because many of those shows create an environment for commercials that makes sponsors uncomfortable.”
Are Universities Selling Their Souls?
A former president of Harvard writes in a new book about the dangers to academia by the profit imperative. Increasingly schools are chasing money at the the expense of… standards? Integrity? “How colleges and universities relate to the marketplace and the world beyond their walls is not merely an academic issue. These institutions are an engine of prosperity, training specialists and the workforce, advancing scientific discoveries and moving people up the ladder of socioeconomic advancement. It is increasingly difficult, though, to meet higher education’s insatiable financial demands through conventional means. The hunt for profits is not a new story.”
Boston Ballet Raises The Barre
The troubled Boston Ballet is finishing up its first season under director Mikko Nissinen. The company has improved considerably during the season, even while it had to cut back because of budget constraints. Nissinen improved the company’s repertoire and its preparation.
Bush Allocates $125 Million To Teach History
The Bush administration is spending $125 million to teach American history. Studies show that few colleges require study of American history, and that few students kn ow even the basic outlines of American history.
FCC: We Don’t Care What The Public Thinks
The FCC’s Michael Powell seems determined to deregulate media company owenership. This despite overwhelming public opposition. “Powell’s contempt for public opinion, evidenced by his scheduling of only one official hearing on the proposed rule changes, is so great that he refused invitations to nine semiofficial hearings at which other commissioners were present. The hearings drew thousands of citizens and close to universal condemnation of the rule changes. Likewise, an examination of roughly half the 18,000 public statements filed electronically with the FCC show that 97 percent of them oppose permitting more media concentration. Even media moguls Barry Diller and Ted Turner have raised objections, with Turner complaining, ‘There’s really five companies that control 90 percent of what we read, see and hear. It’s not healthy’.”
Humanities Lecture – Is That All There Is?
Historian David McCullough gives this year’s annual Jefferson Lecture, the “highest humanities honor the US federal government can bestow. The NEH, which curates annual lecture series, asks only that the Jefferson Lecture, for which it pays the speaker $10,000, be “original and substantial.” Unfortunately, McCullough’s lecture, while entertaining, was neither very original nor particularly substantial. It was meant, perhaps, to be inspirational, with a long peroration about the glories of history, the human drama, the importance of leadership, the lifting of the spirit, and much more repetitive flapdoodle. This stuff sounds good when well delivered, and McCullough has the natural, practiced delivery of a man who might do voice-overs for the History Channel. But for something so prestigious as the Jefferson Lecture it was all rather flimsy and diffuse.”
Louisville Symphony Misses Another Payroll
The ailing Louisville Symphony has missed another payroll. “The cash-strapped orchestra missed all of yesterday’s $170,000 payroll and has not said when it expects to meet that obligation. Partial paychecks were sent to orchestra employees last week, and earlier this week the musicians agreed to perform three concerts scheduled for last night and tomorrow.”
Dispensing Argument Over Judgment
The new literary magazing The Believer doesn’t believe in the Thumbs Up/Down approache to criticism. “This is the editorial caveat I deliver when I assign a new piece: I tell the writer that you certainly can be displeased with what you’ve read, but your essay should still be titillating and intriguing enough to make people want to go out and read the book to see who they agree with, basically. An interesting ambitious book, whatever its flaws, should still be written about in an interesting and fair way.”