The Massachusetts-based DeCordova Museum is going ahead with plans for an ambitious $10 million expansion and renovation. The plans include a sculpture ‘zoo,’ a new visitors’ center, and loads of behind-the-scenes improvements designed to better protect and house the museum’s collection. The fund-raising will be a challenge, but the museum’s director insists that “ten million dollars is not really a lot of money,” and with no signs of imminent economic recovery nationally, the DeCordova’s decision underlines a feeling by many arts groups that forward progress can no longer be put on hold simply because conditions are less than perfect.
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Atlanta’s New Hall
“For its new Symphony Center, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has approved a risky, radical interior design that departs from traditional concert halls. The unorthodox plan… features surround seating and a ceiling that moves up and down, one of the few of its kind in the world. The center — expected to open in 2008 — is intended to lift the 58-year-old orchestra up from its acoustically atrocious Symphony Hall.”
Happy With Their Choice
The Cleveland Orchestra must really like its new music director. Just a year into the Franz Welser-Möst era, the orchestra has extended the young conductor’s contract through 2012, a nearly unprecedented move obviously designed to showcase the organization’s confidence in him. Welser-Möst’s appointment was somewhat controversial, as might be expected when a young and relatively unknown conductor takes the helm of an ensemble widely regarded to be among the top five in the world. But the musicians are reportedly more than happy with Welser-Möst’s leadership, and he is now guaranteed a place in Cleveland for the next decade.
Pittsburgh Sym To Stay Home In 2004
The board of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has canceled a major European tour planned for summer 2004. The PSO’s continuing budget crisis prompted the move, and the orchestra insists that it still considers international touring to be an essential component of its mission. The PSO estimates it would have lost as much as $200,000 had the tour gone on as scheduled.
What Is Infrasound?
“The big brother of ultrasound, infrasound means frequencies too low to be heard by the human ear. Infrasound occurs naturally – from waves pounding shores, storms, earthquakes, meteors hitting the atmosphere. Longer pipes in church organs also create infrasound, which many believe gives the music a particular atmospheric power. Humans have a hearing range of roughly 20 to 20,000 Hz (the lowest note on a piano is around 33Hz). Sounds that fall below that threshold are not audible – but they are felt.” And musicians are learning to play with it.
Criticisms Of Aussie Arts Funding Increase
The Australian government has pledged an increase in arts spending of $19 million over the next four years. But some are disappointed. A report last year recommended a $9 million a year increase. And there are strings attached to the money that is offered. “The Federal Goverment’s pledge, which averages out to $4.75 million a year, falls a little short, and comes with strings attached – it is contingent on the states and territories matching the amount dollar for dollar.”
Protesting Arts Cuts In New Jersey
Some 500 arts supporters gathered in New Jersey’s state capital to protest proposed cuts in the state’s arts budget. The governor had originally proposed eliminating arts funding, but has recently suggested that half the cut might be restored. “This is a national calamity. It’s going to leave us a poorer and dumber nation. And we’re dumb enough.”
In The (Culture) Zone
A proposal in the New York state legislature would create culture zones in cities. “The program would provide for designation of culture-zone areas, and calls for tax incentives for owners to improve properties and provide low rents for artists. Local governments would receive the ability to identify specific geographic areas that would benefit from ‘enhancements to the local arts community’.”
A Colony Of Their Own
The MacDowell Colony is one of about 100 artist colonies in the US that offer refuge for artists. “The 20 or 30 artists in residence at any given time gather each evening at Colony Hall, the large administrative building, for a family-style meal (served promptly at 6:30 p.m.) and informal activities such as pool and ping-pong. Other than breakfast, it’s the only time they are likely to see one another. The rest of the day the “colonists,” as the artists are called, scatter to some 30 studios that dot the rolling, wooded property. There they sculpt, paint, write, design, or compose. They don’t even have to account for how they spend their time.”
Book Sales Plunge In March
“The word circulating throughout much of publishing in recent weeks was that March was one of the worst sales months in a very long time.” Preliminary figures suggest sales were down 11 percent in bookstores.