Category: issues

The Bolshoi has been threatening to disintegrate for years. The original theatre was built between 1821 and 1825, then destroyed by fire and rebuilt in 1853. In 1920, the building started to shake during a performance. They fixed that with a concrete base beneath the floor – which affected the acoustics. In 2002 a second world war bomb was discovered beneath one of the theatre’s entrances. But it wasn’t until last year’s closure that anyone realised exactly how serious the situation was. The foundations had sunk by 20cm. There were areas of brickwork that, when the restorers tried to take them apart, crumbled to the touch.”

Milwaukee’s United Performing Arts Fund, which raises money for 17 area arts groups, set an in-house record with its annual campaign, collecting $10.26 million for the year. “More than 6,000 people donated to UPAF for the first time during the campaign, which ran from March 2 to Tuesday, and one in four existing donors increased his or her support.”

Former Getty president “Barry Munitz agreed to pay retired Getty board Chairman David Gardner nearly $300,000 to write a coffee-table book after Gardner left the foundation’s board in 2004. Plans for the book, which was to commemorate the Getty’s 25th anniversary, were canceled in March, a month after Munitz resigned amid turmoil at the nonprofit foundation — but not before Gardner had collected $178,000 over 19 months for little work.”

In Iran, Ramin Jahanbegloo turned “a small office in an arts and culture NGO into something of an international salon. Through force of will and a gregarious personality, he persuaded some of the world’s most famous intellectuals to travel to Tehran, where they were treated like rock stars.” Now Jahanbegloo is in jail. “He was arrested at Tehran airport on April 27, between a sojourn in India and a trip to a conference in Brussels, and locked up in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, where detainees are routinely subject to torture and abuse. Formal charges have not been laid, but Iran’s minister of intelligence said Jahanbegloo was picked up because of ‘relations with foreigners’.”

The $120-million building will be home to the Canadian Opera Company and the national Ballet. “Opening day was full of oohs and aahs from more than 600 politicians and dignitaries who floated up and down the facility’s illuminated glass staircase and lingered in the five-storey transparent atrium that puts the city — and opera-goers — on display.”

Lincoln Center’s plaza is to get a makeover, even if the changes seem more like tweaks than a redo. “In addition to a slightly modified fountain, the designs call for a new grand staircase stretching over an underground drop-off point for cars. Currently people heading to a Lincoln Center performance from the east side of Broadway must cross 11 lanes of traffic just to reach the sidewalk, then ascend a short staircase and traverse two lanes of cars dropping people off. Taxis must stop for crossing pedestrians, creating a line of cars and congestion at curtain time.”

“Just what is it about this small island that has bitten us? Why we should identify Cuba as such an exotic paradise or centre of cultural attraction is hard to define. The quality that seems to be driving interest isn’t its literature, its politics or its food: it’s the music. And that is much more deeply rooted in British culture than you might at first think.”

Minnesota’s Twin Cities have seemingly always enjoyed a thriving cultural scene far larger than a medium-sized metropolitan area could reasonably be expected to support. The quiet secret to the region’s artistic success has been a long history of private stewardship, spearheaded by a succession of ultra-rich benefactors who have poured a sizable chunk of their net worth into orchestras, museums, and theaters. There have always been doomsayers who warn that once the existing generation of philanthropists dies off, the Twin Cities arts scene will wither on the vine. But recent evidence suggests that a new generation of supporters is ready and able to take the reins.

“A key Senate Republican has asked the Bush administration whether Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence M. Small should continue to head the national museum complex… The letter is the latest in a series of clashes between Congress and the Smithsonian. Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa cited ‘Small’s involvement in the extensive financial fraud’ reported by federal regulators at Fannie Mae (the Federal National Mortgage Association), where Small worked before moving to the Smithsonian in 2000. Grassley also noted that the museum’s finances and executive compensation packages are being scrutinized by the Smithsonian’s Office of the Inspector General.”

“The heads of the Royal Opera House, National Theatre and the Tate are among those who have joined forces to urge the government not to cut investment. They want the current level of funding to stay, despite fears the Treasury may have other spending priorities.”