Scottish Arts Overhaul May Be DOA

“The Scottish Executive is likely to turn its back on ‘Culture Scotland’, the arts super-quango proposed in its £600,000 policy review, according to those who recommended its creation… A leading member of the Cultural Commission, believes there is little appetite for the sweeping changes it recommended earlier this year. It proposed abolishing the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen in favour of two new agencies, Culture Scotland to handle policy and the Culture Fund to manage the cash.”

Richmond PAC Leader Takes A Pay Cut

“Virginia Performing Arts Foundation President Brad Armstrong has taken a $100,000-a-year pay cut in hopes of eliminating a ‘distraction’ for the planned downtown arts center.” The city’s mayor and other critics of the project have frequently made reference to the salaries being earned by the project’s top executives. “Armstrong’s decision to reduce his pay from $275,000 to $175,000 was” completely voluntary, according to sources on the PAC’s board, and the same sources say that the president’s job was never in danger.

New York’s New Boldness

The Freedom Tower may be looking ever more like a lost cause, but “four years on, there is an architectural renaissance in New York that would have been difficult to imagine in the weeks that followed 9/11. Since the 1960s, the shape of New York’s skyline has been under the control of savvy developers who made fortunes erecting uniform brick apartment towers and boxy office buildings. Architects wanting to do something new had little choice but to look to Europe or Asia. This is changing: New York is once again becoming a city where adventurous architecture can happen.”

Meet The New Paris Review

Nearly everything about the rickety old Paris Review has been brushed off and upgraded to a shiny new standard as part of a summer-long restructuring led by Philip Gourevitch that makes the new Review seem practically … corporate. The new issue is larger than the old one, slim and elegant and more magazine-like, printed on buttery paper. Rather than featuring graphic artwork, the cover displays a sepia-toned photograph of a solemn little child in galoshes—the adorably plump Salman Rushdie as a boy in Bombay, looking serious beyond his years and cute enough to eat.”

New Orleans Radio In Exile

New Orleans public radio station WWOZ isn’t broadcasting over airwaves these days, but the station, now calling itself ”WWOZ in exile,” is still online through the generosity of New Jersey community station WFMU, which is hosting the webcast. ‘We’re playing archival material right now. You may get to hear shows from DJs who haven’t been on the air in decades’.” As well, “since shortly after the hurricane and the levee break that flooded the city, the community station has focused on becoming a true community resource.”

A Chicago Full Of Wonders

What are the “Seven Wonders” of Chicago? The Chicago Tribune asks readers and got “some 4,000-plus nominations for the 14 finalists, and more than 38,000 ballots cast for the final seven. Knock that total down by a few hundred for some ballot stuffing (obvious when the wording is exactly the same time after time). Stuffers included many voting for Steppenwolf Theatre, the Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) temple in Bartlett and Fame, the city’s oldest sailboat, but that’s so Chicago.”

Louisiana Phil Reforms In Nashville

Members of the Louisiana Philharmonic, scattered around America after Katrina, are gathering up in Nashville to perform a benefit concert. “It’s about hope for them. The notion that they are all together, making music together, will be an incredible thing. It’s about raising some money, but it’s also about healing their souls.’ Mark O’Connor will be guest soloist for the concert, which is scheduled for national broadcast on National Public Radio.”

Kennedy Center Holds Hand Out To Struggling Orchestras

The Kennedy Center is expanding an initiative to provide management help to more than two dozen struggling small and mid-size orchestras. “Sustaining the American Orchestra,” the new initiative, is an effort to design strategies that will change the way many orchestras do business. Initially the center will work with 23 orchestras, ranging from the Indianapolis Symphony, which has a $23 million budget, and the St. Louis Symphony, a $21 million budget, to the Reno Philharmonic and Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, both with $1 million budgets. The Kennedy Center is using a model it developed three years ago to help minority-run dance, theater and music companies.