Category: issues

Eight months after opening, “the Durham Performing Arts LLC [has] made a profit of $1,004,265, of which 40 percent, or $401,706, is to be shared with the city, which owns the building.” (Who says the arts aren’t an economic engine?)

“Despite the reduced resources however, more than three-quarters of the survey respondents said the field of philanthropy would become stronger and more strategic as a result of having weathered the financial crisis.”

“Passengers on the 9:00 am train from the suburban community of Modiin to Tel Aviv put away their morning tabloids and iPods to listen to a talk from Professor Hanoch Gutfreund [of Hebrew University of Jerusalem] on ‘Einstein’s love letters.’ The lecture was the first of the university’s ‘scientists on the rails’ programme.”

Britain’s culture secretary, Ben Bradshaw, “said Tory culture policy was totally aligned with the commercial interests of Rupert Murdoch’s News International and predicted the central tenet of British cultural policy – the arm’s length relationship between the arts and government – is about to be swept away.”

“Giant Magnet, formerly known as Seattle International Children’s Festival, has let go its executive director of 14 years. … The 23-year-old organization is known mainly for its nearly weeklong festival featuring performers — theater artists, puppeteers, dancers, musicians — from around the world.”

“In large part because of the huarango [tree], the Nazca flourished from the time of Christ to about AD 500. They are renowned not just for their geoglyphs — the giant drawings, whose purpose remains a mystery — but for their pottery and textiles.”

“In a freewheeling conversation…, Mr. Landesman was true to form–brashly candid. But his provocative words in both [a recent Brooklyn] speech and our discussion suggest that he doesn’t see what’s looming between him and the goal–political opponents, waiting to tackle him.”

Yo-Yo Ma, Edward Norton, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kerry Washington, Forest Whitaker, Anna Wintour and Alfre Woodard are among those tapped for the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, a largely ceremonial panel.

“Most board members I meet are scared and frustrated and most staff members believe their board members are not being as generous or as helpful as they should be during this crisis.”