“Since 2005, the Smithsonian Institution has lost $12.3 million in personal property, including 89 laptop computers. A. Sprightley Ryan, the Smithsonian’s inspector general, told a congressional committee Thursday that management had failed to hold employees responsible for pilfering items belonging to the Smithsonian, mostly office equipment.”
Category: issues
Did The Arts Overbuild In America?
“The economic downturn has reined in a lot of these big dreams and has also led to questions about whether ambitious building projects from Buffalo to Berkeley ever made sense to begin with. Some are arguing that arts administrators and their patrons succumbed to an irrational exuberance that rivaled the stock market’s in the boom years.”
Expecting The Worst, Denver Center Survives Better Than Expected
“The report shows plenty of fallout from the current economic downturn: in attendance, ticket revenues, subscribed seats and giving. But there’s nothing approaching disastrous, mostly because of smaller-cast shows and individual sacrifice, such as across-the-board salary cuts of 1 to 3 percent.”
HMV Music, Book Sales Up (As Competitors Go Out Of Business)
“The exit of competitors from the UK entertainment market at the beginning of 2009 has created opportunities to capture sales in markets where these stores formerly overlapped with HMV.”
In Israel, Group Wages Non-Imaginary ‘War On Christmas’
“A new front for religious battles: Hotels and restaurants. The ‘Lobby for Jewish Values’ this week began operating against restaurants and hotels that plan to put up Christmas trees and other Christian symbols ahead of Christmas and the civil New Year.”
In Issuing Visas, ‘Culturally Unique’ Is Subjective
“[I]mmigration law gives an anonymous group of government bureaucrats a lot of cultural clout: They can decide which foreign ballerinas, musicians and artists qualify as ‘outstanding,’ or special enough to deserve a visa to enter the U.S. Ultimately, most applications are approved,” but some complain “that official judgments of artistic merit are often arbitrary.”
NEA Survey: Arts Attendance Has Reached A New Low
The 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts “noted that the downward trend was at least partially due to the deteriorating economic conditions of the past two years, including the rise in the price of gas and an overall drop in consumer spending. But it also emphasized larger shifts in the American public’s relationship to the arts.”
Royal Opera House’s Manchester Plan Clears A Hurdle
The Lowry arts center in nearby Salford has withdrawn its opposition to the scheme, under which the Royal Opera House would have a presence at Manchester’s Palace Theatre. “Opera and musical theatre would be concentrated at the new facility at the refurbished Palace and the Lowry would concentrate on lyric theatre, ballet and dance.”
Calif. Arts License Plates Qualify For A Tax Deduction
“The Franchise Tax Board said in a Nov. 25 letter that individuals can treat as a charitable contribution the difference between the amounts paid for a special arts plate,” proceeds of which support the underfunded California Arts Council, “and a regular California tag.”
A Skateboard Park In The Shadow Of The Watts Towers?
Los Angeles officials who must decide whether the Watts Towers should get a skateboard park as a neighbor “figure to get an earful from advocates for the arts and backers of youth recreation, debating an immediate benefit for youngsters and a longer-range dream of a cultural district, anchored by the towers.”