Category: issues

“Performers have warned that the legislation, which came into force last June, is causing pubs and clubs – one of light entertainment’s biggest employers – to close at an alarming rate. This has had a knock-on effect for artists, and they claim that work opportunities have fallen by as much as 50%.”

“Fundraising for the center, which would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, hasn’t begun. Ongoing construction of other buildings at the site — including an office tower, a transit hub and a Sept. 11 memorial — have complicated building prospects. State and city officials are now considering moving the center off the site, on top of a nearby subway station.”

“Fifty-eight percent reported attending live theater during the past 12 months, 41 percent a performing-arts festival, and 34 percent a live concert. Of those who claimed a theater preference, 29 percent favor musicals, 19 percent each said dramas and comedies, and 6 percent opera.”

“New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts has raised two-thirds of its $1.2 billion renovation cost and is confident the rest will be found in time for the project’s completion at the end of 2010.”

“We want our politicians to be sincere, so that we can know they are not hiding anything from us. So all politicians are ceaselessly probed for the little inconsistencies, double standards, concealments and obfuscations that indicate a hypocrite, by opponents who know what damage that label can do. This obsession with sincerity, and loathing of bogus sentiment, has benefited some politicians and damaged others.”

“The walls of the historic Provincetown Playhouse in Greenwich Village will be preserved under a plan released by New York University on Friday… Plans had included a proposal to demolish the building.”

“The Government Accountability Office recommended yesterday that the Smithsonian Board of Regents develop ways to critique its own policies and institute a plan to discipline its members if they neglect their duties.”

“Can the arts be seen as an extreme form of sport, or sport as an esoteric branch of the arts? They certainly share many attributes. It is a commonplace to use the language of aesthetics to describe the accomplishments of a gymnast, or the balletic movements of a tennis player. The arts and sport equally involve obsessive and exhibitionist elements.”

“London’s County Hall, the Grade II-listed former home of both the Greater London Council and the Saatchi Gallery, is to become a three-theatre entertainment complex called the Greater London Theatre.”

The Saratoga Performing Arts Center in upstate New York, which plays home to New York City Ballet and the Philadelphia Orchestra in summer, is getting a $2.5m makeover. SPAC “will replace its 1960s-era brown wood exterior with a wavy, tan-colored facade constructed from recycled paper, sustainable forest products and plastic resins.”