Category: issues

“Three months after its grand opening gala, the $7.5 million Arsenal Center for the Arts in Boston is struggling to book its new space and facing the resignations of two top officials. The Arsenal Center for the Arts serves as the home for New Repertory Theatre and the Watertown Children’s Theatre and also contains spaces for art shows, classes, and dance performances.”

“The latest evidence comes from Bilbao, Spain. where another tournament pitting world-class grandmasters against state-of-the-art computers ended in a semi-rout. The machines won five games, drew six and lost only once against the likes of Ruslan Ponomariev, Alexander Khalifman and Rustam Kasimdzhanov.”

Some say there aren’t enough audiences and artists to support the 45 arts centers already in operation in New Jersey. Still others point to the competitive fund-raising climate and worry if there are enough donors and dollars to support both the new and existing venues. people think the arts are this great economic engine for your community, and they can be. But can they all be?”

“Today, America’s work force is divided into three parts: about 25 percent are the ‘smart people’ who are educated and also have special career skills; another 25 percent are the ‘walking dead,’ victims of mergers or technological change and [who] need to acquire new skills in order to change jobs or even careers… and up to 50 percent are the ‘techno-peasants,’ poorly educated adults with few if any special career skills.”

“MySpace pulls it all together. It’s where, for free, you can make your own Web page and direct people to it. Start your own blog. There’s instant messaging and music downloads. It’s spam-free for the moment, packed with music and comedy, growing by 4 million people a month and easy to use. It’s that huge audience, primarily teens and young adults, that’s pushing the latest revolution in the music industry. More than 550,000 musicians have MySpace pages, with the ability to get heard, play gigs and make a living without radio, TV or even having a CD in stores. Previously unknown bands, comedians and other entertainers now take their case directly to fans.”

“At stake is a $50,000 tax bill — a portion of the colony’s total tax bill on its 450-acre compound — and MacDowell’s status as a tax-exempt organization. That status, which the colony has had since it was founded in 1907 as a community of artists, has long been affirmed by the town’s selectmen. The town recently changed its mind on that score, however.”

Did the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum sell its soul to the devil this week with the announcement that it would screen the latest Harry Potter flick in its IMAX theater? “The screening decision had nothing to do with education, or enlightenment, or any of the other grand ideals public museums have always been built around… no one is even pretending that this is about anything other than getting as much cash as possible, as quickly as possible.”

Upstate New York’s Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC), attempting to dig out from years of questionable management and a wave of awful publicity, has announced that it will eliminate its $3 million debt using funds from its endowment. The organization, which plays host to a popular summer festival featuring the Philadelphia Orchestra and New York City Ballet, also says that it will have a balanced budget for 2005, its first black ink in 15 years. SPAC came under heavy fire for its management practices earlier this year in an independent report that led to the resignation of the center’s chief executive and much of its board.

“After the money, the clubs, the drugs, the beaches, the models, the art deco, the swanky hotels and the TV series, Miami has got the culture. Last weekend, the city hosted Art Basel Miami Beach (ABMB), the largest art fair in the Americas, welcoming 195 galleries from all over the world, and following on the heels of the Miami International Book Fair, the largest in the US.”

“The Cleveland Arts Prize took a powder and is coming back strong. Or so the organization hopes: After a year’s hiatus in which leaders rethought the award’s mission and approach, the 45-year-old prize will return in 2006 with an emphasis on emerging artists and public input… Created in 1960 as a project of the Women’s Club of Cleveland and now an independent nonprofit organization, the prize has for decades recognized the achievements of established, often renowned, Northeast Ohio artists and arts leaders… Established artists will continue to be saluted with two prizes of $2,500 each. But the organization’s largest award now will be a $5,000 prize for an emerging Northeast Ohio artist.”