Category: visual

“Over the past quarter of a century, the public sector in Britain has declined while the private sector has boomed. And, as investment in public sector design has dropped, so retail design has enjoyed a field day. Today, there are inspired British designers working in all sorts of areas.”

“A growing contemporary art scene has begun to refresh the city’s cultural profile. Private initiatives in museums and the market are accelerating the pace of change.”

Yukon art isn’t represented in Canada’s National Gallery. “We do try to acquire works from all of the regions in Canada but sometimes it’s just not that possible. I think that the Yukon has very strong artists and that our curators are in contact with many, many of them.”

“In what was advertised as a gift to the citizens of Seattle, a gold-colored sculpture by an unknown artist turned up in Gas Works Park overnight Monday. The papier-mâché guerrilla art sculpture consists of several pieces: a full-size gold-colored man standing on the waterfront surrounded by what appear to be shells, some with the heads of people emerging from them.”

“Charles believes that residents — instead of architects and planners — should have the biggest say in the development of new communities,” and he wants that enshrined in planning laws. “The Prince’s Foundation, Charles’s architectural charity, has already sought greater public input for a string of new developments across Britain. Described as ‘enquiry by design’ (EBD), the approach allows residents to contribute directly to the masterplan of a new development.”

“Robert R. Hammond, an artist and entrepreneur who had no experience in the world of public parks, has been paid about $1.2 million over the last 10 years of the High Line’s development — a vast majority of it since 2005. And his salary of $250,000 a year as president and executive director of the nonprofit he helped found, Friends of the High Line, makes him one of the most generously compensated leaders of the 10 major park conservancies in the city.”

“Ellen V. Futter, the president of New York’s American Museum of Natural History, took a 5 percent salary cut for the year that ended in June 2009, the museum said, as fundraising fell and staffing was reduced.” She earned $1.1 million the previous year. Other AMNH executives also took a 5 percent cut. “While ticketed attendance is up by more than a third since 2005, to about 10,000 a day, the recession has hurt the museum’s other revenue sources.”

What’s more, “[t]he firm doing it is also responsible for a water extravaganza set to Broadway, pop and operatic tunes at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas.” Relax: said firm also did the more subdued fountains at New York’s Columbus Circle, and the designers say they’re very conscious that the Lincoln Center fountain “is an iconic piece.”

“Details obtained through a freedom of information request reveal that, despite the economic downturn, the Government Art Collection has spent £556,911 on acquisitions in the year 2008 to 2009. This is a 34 per cent increase from the previous year and more than double what was spent on artworks in 2006 to 2007. … The GAC is home to approximately 13,600 works of art, from the 16th century to the present day, and … supplies art for official buildings in Britain and around the world.”