Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre is in financial trouble again. One possible solution? The company is considering merging with another area arts group. Disappointing holiday sales and slumping subscriber renewals have exacerbated PBT’s situation, and the company has been without a managing director since last May.
Tag: 01.16.05
London Gallery Accused Of Prejudice
London’s Hayward Gallery is being accused of racial discrimination in a £65 million lawsuit brought by a Harvard-educated Pakistani painter who says that the gallery lost or damaged 300 of his works. “The lawsuit might sound nearly as quixotic as his approach to selling his art – Geoffrey prices his work according to the relative wealth of his clients – but it is likely to shine an uncomfortable spotlight on the London art world’s treatment of foreign artists.”
Minority Fest Gains Status In Boston
Boston’s African-American Theatre Festival has been around since 2001, but it’s barely registered as a blip on the radar screen of one of the country’s top theatre towns. But “this year the festival has gotten a major boost in visibility and cachet. The Huntington Theatre Company is hosting the festival in the larger of its two new theaters at the Calderwood Pavilion in the South End.”
Baltimore’s Architectural Future Takes Shape
Like many other American cities, Baltimore is in a building boom, and new office towers and residential complexes are rising at a nearly unprecedented rate. “While there is no shortage of new buildings opening in the Baltimore region this year, many simply reinforce the status quo. For those seeking signs of fresh thinking about architecture,” though, there are a number of diamonds in the rough just waiting to be built.
Soprano de los Angeles Dies
“Legendary Spanish soprano Victoria de los Angeles has died in hospital in Barcelona aged 81, her family has said. The singer had been admitted to the city’s Teknon clinic on New Year’s Eve with a bronchial infection. The singer, who was renowned as one of 20th Century’s finest sopranos, retired from the stage in 1979 but continued giving recitals into her 70s.”
Philly Looks To Beethoven. Again.
A lot of eyebrows were raised in the orchestra world when Christoph Eschenbach, an enthusiastic promoter of new music, was hired to be the music director in Philadelphia, a city known for its ultra-traditional musical tastes. A look at the orchestra’s just-released 2005-06 season calendar indicates that some compromise between the two philosophies may be in the offing: the Philadelphians will focus heavily on Beethoven next year, but there will be several world premieres hidden amongst the warhorses.
Yes, But What Do You Do?
Tampa has an art czar. Officially, he’s the city’s Manager of Creative Services, his name is Paul Wilborn, and he makes $90,000 per year, a figure which everyone in the city’s moneyed classes seems to know. Wilborn’s salary is of interest because many observers have had a very difficult time figuring out exactly what it is that he does for the money. “Here’s what he doesn’t do: Raise funds. Distribute grants… His days are filled with meetings, which he attends on behalf of the mayor… His job – albeit unofficially – is also hobnobbing.”
Northern Ballet Cancels Season
The Northern Ballet Theatre is one of only two professional arts groups still operating in Nashua, New Hampshire, and this weekend, two will become one, as the ballet announces the cancellation of the remainder of its 2004-05 season. The company will use the next several months to retool and raise money, with the aim of mounting a 2005-06 season.
Thoroughly Global Glass
Philip Glass has never been what you’d call a populist composer, but neither could the majority of his work be accurately assessed as “minimalist,” a label with which Glass has been tagged throughout his career. Now, on the eve of the premiere of his newest symphony, the composer finds himself embracing a variety of cultural and musical influences that would have been unthinkable even 20 years ago.
Architecture Serving Art (What A Concept!)
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is 200 years old this year, and it has been a year of great change at the venerable Philadelphia institution. Bigger isn’t always better, of course, but thr Academy’s considerable expansion seems to have increased its artistic viability as well. “The museum benefits enormously from the addition of six large gallery spaces, with more to come in a few years. The new galleries not only enable the museum to display considerably more of its permanent collection; they have also produced an unexpected dividend. This is a more agreeable marriage between art and architecture, especially in the institution’s historic building.”