Category: issues

“In an era when billionaires such as Bill Gates and Richard Branson devote fortunes to fighting diseases and global warming, arts groups are struggling to keep up. They have an ally in Robert Redford. The Academy Award- winning actor and Americans for the Arts, an advocacy group that lobbies for more funding for the arts, have teamed up to urge corporations, foundations and individuals to think of the arts as a way to address educational, health and environmental problems rather than as a competing philanthropic cause.”

“The Smithsonian Institution yesterday replaced Gary M. Beer as chief executive of the museum complex’s embattled business unit after an inspector general’s report found he had abused his institution-issued credit card and billed thousands of dollars in expenditures that were unauthorized or lacked evidence of a business purpose.” Beer has been told to reimburse the Smithsonian for $30,000 worth of charges.

“The battle is not the classic New York story of landlord against tenants. Instead, it pits longtime residents, many of them elderly and still working in the arts, against a concert hall they love. Carnegie Hall intends to house its growing education programs in the towers after extensive renovation to begin in 2009.”

“eBay is fast becoming the funding scheme of choice for struggling but savvy young artists. Online trading is helping keep emerging talent afloat until the Booker, Turner, Oscar or Mercury comes calling. More and more budding cultural leaders of Britain are turning their edgily attired backs on the notion that you have to suffer for your art. Why waste time in bedsits and on the dole when all you need is a laptop and some spare time to raise cash in the comfort of your kitchen?”

Completion of restoration of the venerable Bolshoi Theatre will be delayed by a year due to unexpected issues. “Workers have stabilized the foundations with hundreds of piles and reinforced its walls and columns with steel bars. Modern stage technology will be installed and backstage areas will be repaired as well.”

“Rather than being a fellowship for mid-career arts journalists, it will now be a membership organization for mid-career arts journalists, advocating for the increased quality – and quantity – of arts reporting and criticism in all media.”

“Why did the ranking notion get such a firm grip on the American college-going population in the first place? Blaming U.S. News for discovering a niche vacuum in the market and filling it with a plausible offering is popular, but doesn’t really answer the underlying question.”

“Whenever the Oregon Cultural Trust is covered in the news, and this round is no exception, boilerplate is included about early failure to meet too-lofty fundraising goals. Maybe it’s time to let that history lie, because even taking into account inevitable press-release spin, and even though there is still not enough money in the Oregon arts-funding pot, dear reader: The news is good.”

Seattle Opera has been led by Speight Jenkins for 24 years. Now he’s made plans to step aside after the 2013 season, when he’ll be 76. The Seattle Symphony has been led by Gerard Schwarz snce 1985 and shows no signs of leaving. So how do you plan for transition of leadership?

“Over recent years, Shell has sponsored the National’s innovative Connections programme, producing theatre for young people by leading playwrights. It was a project that, as Nicholas Hytner said, had everything: ‘exciting new plays, committed and inspired performers and an audience that wants to be challenged, provoked and entertained’. But it took the support of a multinational oil company to make it possible. Not everyone is comfortable with this sort of creative relationship.”