“So did Armory 2011 signal that the model of the art fair as a system for delivering high-end merchandise to the extravagantly well-heeled is passé? Hardly. The change is a reflection of the fact that the auction houses (and their private sales arms) are increasingly wresting four-star goods away from the dealers.”
Tag: 03.09.11
US TV Networks Focus On Older Americans (Now That They’re Boomers)
“The nearly 80 million boomers, who turn 47-65 this year, watch more TV — five to six hours a day, compared with the average of four hours and 49 minutes, according to Nielsen — and control half of U.S. consumer spending, according to the paper. And it highlighted that the average age of the primetime TV viewer this season hit 51.”
Is Reality TV Killing Scripted Shows?
“It’s a little bit embarrassing and a big bowl of sad. And, if you look at it in a certain light, possibly even shameful. Because right in the midst of an unprecedented influx of smaller cable channels getting into the scripted game, a noble but expensive decision, the audience is looking elsewhere.”
Ruining Arbitrage: How the Web Is Hurting Secondhand Bookshops
“[S]couting [for good finds] no longer works. The internet has killed it. Sites like abebooks.com list more than 100m used books, of varying desirability and price. Every dealer now knows how much the other dealers are asking for their wares, with a resulting homogenisation of prices.”
UK Theatres & Galleries Should Give Up Charity Status: Arts Exec
“Arts & Business chief executive Colin Tweedy has called for theatres and art galleries in Britain to consider giving up their charitable status, claiming that charity law is too restrictive and is leading to a risk-averse environment in the cultural sector.”
Paris Opera Ballet’s Next US Tour to Include (Overdue) Chicago Debut
“The Paris Opera Ballet will make its long overdue Chicago debut during a one-week engagement in the summer of 2012 at the Harris Theater. The outing, to feature the full 154-member troupe, will be the first stop on a North American tour, marking the company’s first U.S. performances in more than a decade.”
Why The Public Theater’s Executive Director Quit So Suddenly
“The Public Theater parted ways with its executive director, Andrew D. Hamingson, last month because in the theater’s transfer of shows to Broadway and London’s West End he had exposed it to financial risks without fully informing the board, people involved with the productions say.”
White House Pledges Support For Public Broadcasting Funding
“It wasn’t the most full-throated endorsement — at one point, [White House press secretary Jay] Carney suggested that NPR’s White House correspondent, Mara Liasson, come up to the podium to help with her organization’s defense.”
Vivian Schiller Resigns As NPR Chief Exec
“She was respected by many at NPR for helping re-orient the organization in the digital media age. But she was chastised by the NPR board for her handling of Mr. Williams’s dismissal last fall, and she recognized on Tuesday that the video released by the Republican filmmaker James O’Keefe was a new hurdle for her and her organization.”
Hungarian Government Cancels Big Museum Expansion Project
“Contractors were preparing to create an 8,000 sq. m extension underneath Heroes’ Square where the muÂseum is situated and the museum had secured funding from the EU for the E15m project.”