“In an effort to create a $20 million endowment for the support of its permanent installations in New York and Texas, the Donald Judd Foundation has decided to sell about 35 Judd sculptures at Christie’s in New York on May 9.” But not everyone is happy about the idea…
Tag: 02.24.06
ABC To Take “Housewives” International
Trying to capitalize on the US success of “Desperate Housewives,” Disney “plans to produce four local Latin American editions, each with its own cast and cultural flavor. Spanish versions of the show will in Argentina, Colombia and Ecuador, and a Portuguese version will air in Brazil.”
Gallery Owners Win Dispute Against Thomas Kinkade
An arbitration panel ruled against the so-called “Painter of Light.” “The dealers and other ex-dealers allege that Kinkade used his religious beliefs — and manipulated theirs — to induce them to invest in Thomas Kinkade Signature Galleries, independently owned stores licensed to deal exclusively in his work. They also allege that they were stuck with unsalable inventory, forced to open additional stores in markets that could not sustain them and undercut by discounters that sold Kinkade prints at prices they were forbidden to match. And they accuse the artist of scheming to devalue Media Arts Group before he took the company private for $32.7 million in early 2004, renaming it Thomas Kinkade Co.”
iTunes: One Billion Sold
Apple’s iTunes store has sold one billion songs online. “Despite those gaudy numbers, analysts say at 99 cents a song, Apple’s iTunes business roughly breaks even. That’s because after paying its partners, such as the music labels, Apple receives only about 25 cents to 30 cents per song. Add in operating costs and the business hovers around the break-even point.”
A Homeless National Theatre Is A Happy National Theatre
Scotland’s new National Theatre has made a “bold and even canny decision to do away with a building. There will be no huge central structure, no expensive capital project in Edinburgh with architects and contractors and the attendant spiralling costs. Certainly, avoiding shelling out millions on annual building costs – as our National Theatre does – affords it more room to create the work. Moreover, being homeless is a liberating move.”
Hong Kong Culture Center May Still Go Ahead
Hong Kong’s Secretary for Home Affairs Patrick Ho says the giant cultural center planned for Kowloon is not dead. He said the new plan will “balance demand and supply. Some consultants have informed the government that in planning for cultural venues and artistic venues, it is frequently supply-driven rather than demand-driven. But then again, we believe it is prudent to listen to the voice of the community in their artistic aspirations.”
Auty: Make The Case For Arts Funding
Why more arts funding? So asks Giles Auty: “Hurling money at art has, of course, been a popular pastime in Western countries for as long as I can remember. It is the process, in fact, once memorably described to me by an English painter, Bryan Wynter, as ‘paying for van Gogh’s ear’. No other brief description encapsulates so wonderfully the notion that guilt-ridden rich societies ought to discharge a fiscal and moral debt to a group of mysterious people they may have unconsciously wronged or ignored.”