American state governments are going after arts funding with a vengeance. “In Arizona, where the state Commission on the Arts has received $5.1 million in each of the last two years, a joint legislative committee on Jan. 27 proposed zeroing out that spending in 2003-04. The committee also proposed emptying the state’s $7-million arts endowment and spending the money elsewhere.”
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New Jersey Arts Groups Brace For Cuts
Cultural leaders are predicting that if New Jersey eliminates all its arts funding, as threatened, that 100 cultural organizations could fold. Arts groups would have to slash programs, and many would take a decade to recover. “The 20 to 30 arts leaders who sat through the half-hour meeting told the governor that the impact would go beyond quality-of-life issues.” Studies have shown that the arts annually generates $1 billion in economic activity in New Jersey.
Indie Booksellers Push States To Collect Online Sales Taxes
Independent booksellers are lobbying states to collect taxes from online book stores that have a physical presence in those states. That would mean that books ordered through Barnes and Noble’s online store would have to collect sales tax. “The issue remains whether or not online stores and their real world namesakes have a business relationship that would trigger a tax liability.”
Matisse Book Stolen From Greek Museum
A rare book featuring illustrations by Matisse has been stolen from a Greek museum. “The book’s cover was left behind and replaced with an art magazine that contained images of the French master. Because of its identifying number and missing cover, the stolen material would be difficult to sell at auction.”
Three Prokofiev Works Performed For The First Time
Three pieces by Prokofiev are being performed for the first time, 50 years after the composer died. “They include a Soviet anthem, a march and two movements from a ballet score which have been unearthed by a musicologist working at Goldsmiths College, London.”
Evaluating The WTC Finalists
Critic Herbert Muschamp writes that the choices are clear. “Daniel Libeskind’s project for the World Trade Center site is a startlingly aggressive tour de force, a war memorial to a looming conflict that has scarcely begun. The Think team’s proposal, on the other hand, offers an image of peacetime aspirations so idealistic as to seem nearly unrealizable.Compared with Think’s proposal, Mr. Libeskind’s design looks stunted. Had the competition been intended to capture the fractured state of shock felt soon after 9/11, this plan would probably deserve first place. But why, after all, should a large piece of Manhattan be permanently dedicated to an artistic representation of enemy assault? It is an astonishingly tasteless idea. It has produced a predictably kitsch result.”
Cleveland Museum To Get Big Upgrade
The Cleveland Museum of Art will unveil a major expansion plan this week, as designed by architect Rafael Viñoly, whose proposal “calls for demolishing nearly half of the museum’s existing complex before rebuilding and expanding the museum’s “footprint” and gallery space.” The renovation will cost $225 million and is scheduled to be completed in 2008. But the museum will have to delay the project if it cannot raise at least half of the money by the end of next year.
Now What?
In Montreal, where the media had Kent Nagano all but appointed as the new music director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, shock and dismay have greeted news of Nagano’s appointment to the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. The MSO itself never even acknowledged that Nagano was its top choice, but this may be a case where perception is more important than reality. “While other conductors, such as Eliahu Inbal, Yakov Kreizberg and Emmanuel Villaume, have been mentioned as possible successors to Charles Dutoit, none has created interest to compare with the public frenzy that greeted Nagano.”
More Than $2 Trillion, But Nothing For PBS?
The budget that President Bush sent to Congress this week tops $2 trillion, and is already being criticized for being overly generous to to many constituencies, given the current state of the national economy. But public television stations nationwide are wondering where they can sign up for some of the president’s fiscal generosity, after discovering that the budget calls for the elimination of funds designed to ease the transition of such stations to digital broadcasting, as mandated by the FCC. Without the funding, many public stations in rural areas have claimed that they will be forced off the air.
Thinking Big In Toronto
“The Toronto Arts Council yesterday unveiled an ambitious, 10-year program designed to raise the level of awareness of the arts in Toronto and, more important, to put the city’s struggling arts organizations on a more financially stable keel.” A recent study revealed that there is a gap of almost CAN$45 million between what arts groups in the city have, and what they need to function. The new program will create an ambitious and large-scale fundraising structure which will hopefully close that gap by 2012, if all goes according to plan.