La Scala opera house is scheduled to reopen December 7. But the construction is still a long way from being finished. “La Scala’s $67 million renovation added precious storage space for sets which will allow the opera house to mount more productions and performances to meet growing demand for seats.”
Tag: 07.09.04
Checking Out The Monets-To-Vegas Deal
A Association of American Museum Directors is examining the deal that sent 21 of Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts’ Monets to a Las Vegas casino last winter. “The AAMD is concerned that commercial initiatives such as this could jeopardise the not-for-profit status of museums in the US and the directors’ organisation is now moving towards self-reform before tax-hungry legislators target museums and end their tax-exempt status. The AAMD guidelines stipulate that ‘In any decision about a proposed loan from the collection, the intellectual merit and educational benefits, as well as the protection of the work of art, must be the primary considerations, rather than possible financial gain’.”
NYT To Serialize Fiction
This summer the New York Times is serializing fiction – starting with The Great Gatsby. “Unlike the way newspapers usually dabble with literature, the Times’ plan originated in the paper’s marketing sector, not among its editors. Each 16-page installment – sandwiched between the book’s cover art and a full-page ad for the series’ sponsor – comes as a tabloid-sized pullout.”
PBS On The Rocks?
About a third of PBS’ corporate underwriting has disappeared in the past three years, including ‘the considerable loss of ExxonMobil’s sponsorship of Masterpiece Theatre, which has yet to be replaced.” So is the public broadcaster a sinking ship?
City Ballet Struggles With Saratoga Residency
New York City Ballet used to draw 80,000-90,000 people in its Saratoga summer residencies. Now it’s more like 55,000. Both City Ballet and Saratoga want to keep the company performing in the upstate New York town, but they differ how to boost attendance…
Please Hand Cancel
“A small London gallery has been told by Royal Mail to destroy prints showing postage stamps of the Queen in a gas mask – and tell them of anyone who owns copies. The series, Black Smoke, Stamps of Mass Destruction, was created last year in protest at the Iraq war by James Cauty, a former member of the art-world pranksters and rock musicians known variously as KLF and the K Foundation.” The UK’s postal service is claiming that the works violate its copyright.
Michigan In New Arts Funding Cuts?
A year after Michigan slashed arts funding, another round of cuts appears to be on the way. “Across Metro Detroit, arts and cultural institutions are surviving — if not thriving — in the face of budget cuts, a sluggish economy and shrinking corporate and private sponsorship of the arts. But with another state budget deficit looming, they’re bracing for the state arts budget to be cut again, if not eliminated entirely.”
Janet Jackson To Broadway’s Bombay Dreams?
“The producers of the $14 million musical about Bollywood, which is hanging in there at the Broadway Theater despite some crushing reviews, have approached the pop singer and half-time flasher about joining the cast at some point, production sources confirmed yesterday.”
When A Mime-Lover Becomes Mayor
Bogota Colombia’s mayor had an unusual approach to getting citizens to behave. He hired mimes to “follow, imitate and mock citizens who committed public incivilities like jaywalking, picking pockets and driving recklessly. So successful were the first mimes that 400 more were trained as “traffic mimes” to monitor pedestrians at street corners. Just how the good citizens of Bogotá responded to mimes holding up signs chiding their manners, I cannot say. To my knowledge no mimes met an untimely end. But the experiment was successful enough to be replicated in Lima, Peru.”
Casino Bill = Philly Design Disaster
Philadelphia is to have casinos under a new measure passed last week. The deal, writes Inga Saffron, is a potential design disaster for the city. “The slots bill, which was rushed through the legislature without the usual opportunities for public comment, strips Philadelphia of planning and zoning powers over its future casinos. Instead, a seven-member, state-run gambling control board will decide the big design issues, from the location of the casinos down to the location of their garage driveways.”