Category: today’s top story

For nearly a century, the orchestra has been one of the globe’s great classical ensembles. “Now, facing chronic red ink and houses only two-thirds full, the orchestra is suddenly unsure of what it wants to be. A new president, board chairman, and music director-designate are in place, embarking on a strategic planning process to reassess every inch of the organization.”

Luke Jennings’s list includes the expected (Astaire, Pavlova, Nijinsky), the current (Acosta, Cojocaru), and the surprising (Josephine Baker, Michael Clark). Among the missing: Baryshnikov, Nureyev, Savion Glover, Ginger Rogers, and pretty much the entire world of modern dance. Let the arguing begin …

“This is a very important moment to express [L.A.’s] strength, our multiculturalism, our creativity. The museum fits the bill as that sense of center. That’s probably one of the things that drew me to this museum — this civic opportunity in this big, beautiful, complicated city.”

“The Washington National Opera, facing financial challenges and questions about its future, is exploring a merger with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. … The center would assume the opera’s assets and liabilities, and the opera would cede to the center approval on artistic and budgetary matters.”

The New York dance presenter’s lease on its 8th Avenue headquarters, with annual rent of $1, expires in 2016. The Joyce had committed to occupying a planned arts center near Ground Zero whose construction seems ever more remote; meanwhile, the 8th Avenue site’s landlord, Eliot Feld’s Ballet Tech Company, wants to charge rent closer to market rate.

Donald Rosenberg said Plain Dealer editor Susan Goldberg repeated arts association claims that his “credibility was in question,” that he had “become predictable,” that his “reviews were premeditated” and that he had “a closed mind.”

“The culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, today confirmed plans to abolish the UK Film Council. … The move is part of a raft of DCMS cost-cutting measures that involve the merger, abolition or streamlining of 16 public bodies.”

“Rather than relying on a disparate band of artists, First Amendment campaigners, local-radio enthusiasts, music historians, archivists, and the like, the nation’s cultural life would have a defender with the weight of the executive branch behind it, and the power to discipline and compel corporate behavior.”

“How likely is it that arts and culture workers will have a real voice in policy deliberations, if their clout doesn’t come down to cash? Celebrity, moral suasion and stats about economic impact are nice assets to deploy, but does anyone think they provide the kind of access or standing enjoyed by the oligopolies?”

An angry controversy has broken out over a video by Melbourne artist Jane Korman which shows her three children and her Holocaust-survivor father dancing at Europe’s most notorious death camp to Gloria Gaynor’s disco anthem, “I Will Survive.”