Category: issues

Atlanta’s new Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre opens in September. But is the building being fitted with wood from endangered species? “The Cobb center’s makoré wood comes from a dwindling number of trees unique to West African rain forests. Several international conservation organizations include the tree on threatened species lists and issue warnings of possible extinction. Makoré is not, however, on watch lists influenced by the U.S. timber lobby.”

Detroit is currently embroiled in a debate over what to do with now-vacant Tiger Stadium, with preservationists facing off against those who believe that what the beleagured city really needs is a fresh start. “To follow the Tiger Stadium debate (or the drawn-out fights over the old Madison-Lenox Hotel in 2005 and the vanished Hudson’s store in the ’90s), one might think that preservation is an ugly and divisive process that pits building huggers against cold-hearted developers and city officials. In reality, preservation is bankable, realistic, widely accepted — and key to the revival of Detroit.”

Orange County, Florida, which includes Orlando, has approved a $1.1 billion plan for a new arena, performing-arts center and major Florida Citrus Bowl upgrades in downtown Orlando. The arts center will include three state-of-the-art performance halls. “It’s a monumental day for Central Florida. History will look back on this day in the same light as when Walt Disney decided to bring his theme park to Central Florida.”

“Co-founder Oprah Winfrey’s Oxygen network is being sued by American Youth Symphony, the producer of ‘America’s Hot Musician,’ for $100 million. AYS claims the cable network frustrated its attempts to air the paid program to the point where its production was canceled by the producer.”

“Many of Iraq’s artists have joined the flight that has decimated the country’s intellectual reserves. For those who remain, it is a constant struggle to keep producing work that few will ever see and most cannot afford.”

“Nestled into the fog and forest of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, the California Academy of Sciences aims to be the world’s largest eco-friendly public building when it reopens in 2008… Architect Renzo Piano used a textbook’s worth of enviro-engineering tricks for the seven-year effort, an almost total teardown and rebuild. At $484 million, it’s one of the most expensive museum projects in a century.”

Increased competition and a changing national conversation that emphasizes pop culture and disdains anything viewed as snooty are forcing arts groups to embrace “branding” techniques designed to get them noticed by an increasingly distracted public. Where once a museum or a symphony orchestra might not have worried much about its logo, or even bothered to have a slogan, such things are considered indispensable tools for luring ticketbuyers today.

“Lawrence and Kristina Dodge’s gift will be fully realized once the center raises $20 million in matching donations. The couple’s gift brings the total raised for the Building on the Vision campaign to just over $176.5 million. The center still needs to raise about $63.5 million to pay for its expansion, which consists of a 2,000-seat, state-of-the-art concert hall, a 500-seat theater, rehearsal space and a restaurant.”

“Though the Smithsonian created a freestanding business unit to boost profits from [its in-house museum stores] and other operations eight years ago, the shops are now so poorly run that the Smithsonian said this week it is considering hiring an outside vendor to run the museum stores… Consultants say weak marketing, dull presentation and the absence of in-store events plagued the shops.”

The arts are a hot ticket in Madison, Wisconsin, where the local opera company is about to hike some of its tickets past $100 for the first time, and other local arts groups which have begun selling tickets for next season “are reporting brisk subscription sales that rival or surpass last year’s by substantial percentages… [providing] more proof that the growing and increasingly competitive arts scene in Madison is still not showing any sign of a shakedown or contraction from being overextended.”