Is academia getting out of the public broadcasting business? “In the past two years, educational licensees in Los Angeles, Detroit, Seattle/Tacoma, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Portland, Ore., and a number of smaller markets have sold or transferred control of pubcasting stations.” Why? Money. “Educators are selling stations because of their budget woes—to get station subsidies off their backs and/or gain an influx of capital.”
Tag: 08.23.04
Iowa Writers’ Workshop To Lose Director
“Frank Conroy, the longtime head of the celebrated Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa, will step down at the end of the year.”
Pittsburgh Center For The Arts Suspends Operations
With $1 million in debt, the 59-year-old nonprofit has closed its doors and laid off its 13 staffers.
The Abbey At 100
Dublin’s Abbey Theatre has a legendary past and, under Artistic Director Ben Barnes, a stable present. But as it stands on the brink of its second century, what lies ahead is less than certain.
A Roll Call Of Orchestral Mediocrity
Which are the UK’s worst orchestras? wonders Norman Lebrecht. “Competition has never been so fierce. Beyond London lies a marshland of orchestral mediocrity. With the gleaming exceptions of Manchester’s Halle where Mark Elder has wrought wonders, and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra which has adjusted under Sakari Oramo to post-Rattle quietude, the rest of the civic and regional bands are in varying states of disrepair, the legacy of a generation of industrial failure.”
First You Steal The Famous Artwork. Then What?
“When James Bond villain Dr No displayed Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington in his lair, he launched the myth of masterpieces being ‘stolen to order’ for criminal masterminds.” But in reality, “there are limited possibilities for a thief with a famous stolen painting on his hands.”
Broad Vision – A Museum Donor Who Calls The Shots
When philanthropist Eli Broad gave the LA County Museum of Art $50 million for its building project, he also won the right to pick the project’s architect. “Relations between museums and donors get especially dicey during building campaigns, when dreams of grandeur call for creative fundraising and arm-twisting. But in a philanthropic culture that prides itself on snagging big money without ceding control, the L.A. museum’s plan is a special case. The effort to transform LACMA’s melange of buildings into an elegant unity strikes a precarious balance of power with the major donor.”
Looking At What’s Original (And How You Decide)
This summer the Globe Theatre in London produced Shakespeare using the original olde English pronunciations. And at the Proms, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment performed Wagner in period-instrument configuration. “Both were revelatory. Both pointed toward new ideas for staging Shakespeare and Wagner, and both perhaps suggested new ideas about the very nature of spoken and sung drama today.”
(Another) Banner Ad Museum
A Web designer has made her collection of 15,000 banner ad samples publicly available on her Web site. So what makes a good banner ad? (Is there such a thing?)
Art Of The Hotel
“Hotel art, once the mainstay of washed-out reproduced masterpieces and the butt of bad jokes, has recently acquired a bold new lease on life. Forget the Frette linens, celebrity chefs and Aveda bath products. To stay on top of the game, luxury high-end chains and boutique hotels must now provide their guests with cultural stimulation too, which is why a growing number of hoteliers in Canada and around the world are investing in serious modern-art collections to spice up their designer lobbies.”