Category: issues

“The $275 million project, which will include the Winspear Opera House, the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, the City Performance Hall, the redesigned Annette Strauss Artists Square and the Grand Plaza, is expected to be ready for performances by 2009. Resident companies will include The Dallas Opera, Dallas Theater Center, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Texas Ballet Theater and Anita M. Martinez Ballet Folklorico and other local arts organizations.”

Theatre, concert and sports event promoters want the British government to outlaw ticket touting. “Some unofficial agencies and auctions deceive and defraud fans as well as charging high prices, promoters say. But the government is not convinced a new law is needed and wants promoters to tackle the problem themselves.”

Norway’s culture minister has announced plans for a $150,000 study of the living conditions of the country’s artists. The eventual aim would be to find new ways for the government to provide support for freelance artists, who frequently move in and out of existing unemployment programs, and often lack retirement savings.

“President Bush will honor authors, musicians and historians from New York and elsewhere on Thursday with the National Medal of Arts and the National Humanities Medal. In an Oval Office ceremony with his wife, Bush will present the Medal of Arts to author Louis Auchincloss of New York, symphony orchestra conductor James DePriest of Portland, Ore., jazz musician Paquito D’Rivera of Bergen, N.J., actor Robert Duvall of Plains, Va., arts advocate Leonard Garment of New York and film animator and artist Ollie Johnston of La Canada, Calif. Also to receive Medals of Arts are jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis of New York, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and dancer and choreographer Tina Ramirez of New York. Singer and actress Dolly Parton will receive the medal at a later date.”

There’s no question that New Orleans’ cultural scene has been devastated by Hurricane Katrina. But Harry Shearer sees signs of life from the city’s artists, even if the money needed to rebuild the big institutions isn’t there yet. “There are messages everywhere of resilience and defiance, of bringing the city back. Live Music is Back!, says one poster. Another announces a series of poetry evenings in a Quarter bistro. When all else is stripped away, the capital-unintensive arts endure, as does the place’s irreducible eccentricity.”

“The Chicago Humanities Festival turned 16 over the weekend, making it one of the most precocious cultural soirees in America. Spotlighting esteemed authors and virtuoso musicians, innovative actors and visionary scholars, the citywide event has grown up fast. What once was a weekend’s diversion now stands as a cultural institution.”

“Members of Cleveland’s arts community are wondering which candidate would do the best job as mayor over the next four years. But a lot of them are having trouble deciding. Even those with a leaning lack any real passion about it. Part of the problem is their perception that arts just aren’t part of the regular campaign discussion.”

“Annual public and private support of existing institutions’ operating budgets is still several million dollars short of the need, and serious gaps persist in the local menu of professional arts institutions. Moreover, San Antonio can’t attain a level of cultural development appropriate to a city of its size without very substantial new investment in capital projects.”

Add Pittsburgh to the list of cities welcoming the Rockettes to town for the holidays. And as usual, the arrival of the touring Radio City show is being greeted by both enthusiasm and trepidation. On the plus side, the show could pump as much as $25 million a year into Pittsburgh’s hospitality industry. But for local arts groups, the Rockettes represent a serious threat to their own holiday-themed programs, and thus to their overall bottom lines.

Kansas City is pumping millions of dollars into renovation projects for two of the city’s venerable performance venues. But a decision to move up the start of one of the projects by a year has arts groups scrambling to find a place to perform during the renovations. “Some blame the construction rush on the city’s desire to book The Lion King, even though the Broadway blockbuster has yet to announce whether it will play [Kansas City] in 2007-08.”