Research shows that less than 10 percent of the money Americans give to charity addresses basic human needs, like sheltering the homeless, feeding the hungry and caring for the indigent sick, and that the wealthiest typically devote an even smaller portion of their giving to such causes than everyone else.” So how do you justify giving money to the arts? And why should donors get tax breaks?
Tag: 09.06.07
Women’s Museum Chief Resigns Unexpectedly
“Judy L. Larson, director of [Washington, D.C.’s] National Museum of Women in the Arts, has resigned her post, according to the museum. Larson, one of the museum’s longest-serving directors, took the helm of the museum in September 2002… Under Larson, the museum completed a $25 million endowment campaign and celebrated its 20th anniversary.” No reason was given for her departure.
SFMOMA’s Chief Offers Calm, Competence
“Probably only art world insiders felt relief when Neal Benezra took over as director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art five years ago last month. Since his arrival, he has quietly capitalized on the international respect SFMOMA enjoys as a collaborator on traveling exhibitions, while smoothing out museum operations from within.” Now, after half a decade of stabilizing a precarious institution, Benezra says that the museum is on the verge of realizing bigger plans.
Ambassador Jazz
The US State Department has long made use of American artists, writers, and musicians as “cultural ambassadors,” sending them around the world to (hopefully) improve the image of the larger country just by doing what they do. In recent months, the program has been focusing on exporting jazz, that quintessentially American musical form.
Chicago Lyric To Get $10m Bequest
Chicago Lyric Opera has been penciled in for $10m from the will of longtime patron Nancy Knowles. The money probably won’t be coming anytime soon – Knowles is in her 70s and in good health – but when it does, it will be the largest single gift in the company’s history.
Questionable Taste, Sure, But Oh, That Voice!
Anthony Tommasini says that Luciano Pavarotti will be remembered not only for helping to turn opera into a stadium concert event, but for a voice so unmistakable, so effortless that no one could ever mistake it. “For intelligence, discipline, breadth of repertory, musicianship, interpretive depth and virile vocalism, Mr. Pavarotti was outclassed by his Three Tenors sidekick and chief rival, Plácido Domingo. But for sheer Italianate tenorial beauty, Mr. Pavarotti was hard to top.”
Philly Museum Looking For More Space
The Philadelphia Museum of Art, long forced to squeeze too much art into too small a space, is opening a newly expanded building across the street from its stately main digs this week. “The renovated building is the first phase of an ambitious plan to expand and update the Philadelphia Museum.”
Apple, Starbucks Unveil Major Partnership
“Over the next couple of years, nearly 6,000 Starbucks coffee shops will be turned into digital entertainment centers selling music and movies on Apple’s behalf — the perfect complement to Apple’s wildly successful chain of retail stores. If the rollout proceeds as planned, the deal could be a paradigm shift, a big nail in the coffin for the CD, and for brick-and-mortar music stores.”
Madison PAC Closes (No, Not That One)
“With an expired lease and inability to handle rent arrears and an increase, the Madison Center for Creative and Cultural Arts has announced it has closed. The grass-roots arts center… stands virtually in the shadow of the [much larger] Overture Center,” a new performing arts center that opened two years ago to much acclaim.
New Kimmel CEO Settles In
Anne Ewers has her work cut out for her as the new CEO of the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, a city well-known for being awfully stingy about funding the arts. “She’s spent her first two months on the job soaking up the details of Philly’s arts scene. That means schmoozing with politicians, foundations and the influential money players, most of the heads of the Kimmel’s resident companies, and meeting one-on-one with its 35 board members.”