“The dogged determination of local users to defend their beloved libraries is impressive, but the battle is still barely begun. Currently, some 450 libraries around the UK are threatened with closure, and the number could still rise significantly later this year.”
Tag: 05.11.11
Soundtrack For That Book You’re Reading?
“It may seem like a no-brainer to offer a musical component to a book about a musician, but even a few years ago, in the pre-iTunes era, it would have been prohibitively expensive for a medium-sized publishing house to create such an enhancement. Now, as the book industry struggles in part because of the digital age, the accessibility of that same digital technology becomes an irresistible tool. And the music soundtrack – digitally or not – has become a value-added offering for publishers.”
Why Western Artists Aren’t Protesting Ai Weiwei’s Arrest?
“Young Western artists are producing works that amount to nothing more than footnotes in art history, and then this Chinese artist appears who takes a totally different approach and makes 98 percent of the art world look very, very old.”
Will Philly Pops Survive Philadelphia Orchestra’s Bankruptcy?
Things are not looking good…
Presidential Commission Looks At Arts Education
“Among children of a college graduate, 27% said they had never taken even one arts class, compared with 12% in 1982. For children of high school graduates, the number who’d never had any arts study rose from 30% nearly 30 years ago to 66% in 2008.”
The Boys-In-Ballet Problem
“Ballet needs boys like the National Hockey League needs the peace-loving Amish. Ballet needs boys like biblical scholarship needs women.”
Francesca Zambello Has Big Plans For Glimmerglass Opera
“She has 40,000 tickets to sell, and most will be bought by people who come from somewhere else. So, in addition to putting her own stamp on the opera programming, much needed after several uninspiring seasons under her predecessor, she is busy rebranding the whole experience … with the idea that some vigorous collaboration can turn this agricultural corner of upstate New York into a Destination.”
San Antonio Begins Building New Arts Center (From The Inside Out)
Construction is now beginning on the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, a two-theater complex (1,750 and 230 seats) to be built behind the façade of the city’s 1926 Municipal Auditorium.
Metropolitan Museum Elects New Board Chairman
“A Met trustee since 2001, [real estate developer Daniel] Brodsky, 66, has served on important committees, including those for Finance and Buildings. He is also a trustee of New York City Ballet and New York University.”
Groupon Enters The Concert Tickets Business
“Dubbed GrouponLive, the service, expected to launch in June, is aimed at easing both the perennial problem of filling empty seats at concerts and sporting events, including last year’s big drop in attendance that prompted numerous cancellations and left promoters with a hefty number of unsold tickets toward the end of summer.”