A new Washington DC hotel sends its staff on training – with ballet dancers. “At the Hotel Palomar, book the “ballet suite” with its barre and wall of mirrors and you’ll become a patron of the arts: An (undisclosed) portion of the room fee will be donated to the Washington Ballet.”
Tag: 06.20.06
SF Gets First New Public Library In 40 Years
The city of San Francisco is opening its first completely new branch to open in 40 years. “For residents and workers in Mission Bay, it will be not only a place to borrow books but also a place to gather — the kind of public center that established neighborhoods take for granted.”
Chirac Opens Tribal Art Museum
The museum, in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, is French president Jacques Chirac’s legacy to France. “The museum displays indigenous art from Africa, Asia and Australasia. But the project has been controversial. It opens as France debates how to heal the scars of its colonial past and accept a multi-ethnic nation.”
LA Culture Chief Steps Down
Margie Reese “tried to hold the grant program steady as dollars dwindled from $13.3 million during her first full year running the department to the current $9.6 million — a 28% decrease. She also tried to maintain after-school arts classes in city-run neighborhood arts centers, feeling they were especially important for kids in poorer neighborhoods who could latch onto the arts to develop their talents and stay out of trouble. A defining moment for Reese came in 2004, when the budget office of then Mayor James K. Hahn proposed disbanding the Cultural Affairs Department as a cost-saving measure. Using her megaphone quietly, she rallied enough support to persuade City Hall to reconsider.”
Comparing The Charms Of Satellite Radio
Eleven million Americans are now listening to satellite radio. “All these programming and equipment innovations are taking place while broadcast radio does almost nothing to protect its lucrative – but threatened – franchise. The drive-time commercial cram on broadcast radio remains one of the biggest frustrations of the Denver commute: When you punch all six presets and hit a commercial on every one, satellite sounds better all the time.”
Putting Tech Change In Perspective
Feeling overwhelmed by the pace of change and the flood of new things to deal with? “Impressive change took place between 1950 and 2000, with the arrival of the computer, the Internet, cell phones, moon landings. But this period was no more impressive than 1810 to 1860 in which telegraph, railroads, the reaper, new printing technology, among other things, hit.”
Peter Oundjian Hired As Artistic Advisor To Detroit Symphony
Oundjian is also music director of the Toronto Symphony. In detroit “Oundjian will focus on artistic planning, helping select repertoire, shaping upcoming seasons and devising special initiatives such as festivals or other ventures. Oundjian (UN-jen), who was previously engaged to conduct two weeks in Detroit next season, will lead three weeks in 2007-08. The move promises to deepen the scope and ambition of DSO classical programming, which in the eyes of some aficionados and DSO players has lacked imagination during the transition after former music director Neeme Jarvi stepped down in 2005.”
The Tri-Continental Play
Play on Earth is “the world’s first attempt to stage a theatrical event in three separate continents at the same time. The scheme is the brainchild of Station House Opera’s artistic director Julian Maynard Smith, who has pioneered the art of linking up live theatrical performances via the internet.”