“A Brandeis University committee examining the future of the Rose Art Museum will recommend today that the museum remain open to the public, eight months after the financially strapped college threatened to shutter the renowned facility…. It does not take a stand on the most controversial part of Brandeis’s plan, the potential sale of its $350 million collection.”
Tag: 09.22.09
National Theatre Audiences Are Biggest In Years
“The highest attendance figures for seven years helped the National Theatre to a £456,000 surplus, its annual report revealed today. … The total programme of 25 productions in 2008/2009 was seen by 817,000 paying audience members,” while “[h]ouses were on average 93 per cent full.”
Michelle Obama, The G-20’s Arts Tour Guide
“While President Obama and leaders from 19 other world economic powers meet at the G20 economic summit in Pittsburgh, Michelle Obama is scheduled to shepherd dignitaries’ spouses through a day of arts-hopping Friday.”
Why The NEA’s Communications Director Got Demoted
“Rocco Landesman, the new NEA chairman, issued a written explanation today ‘to clarify the issues’ surrounding an Aug. 10 conference call in which Yosi Sergant, representing the NEA, invited representatives from the arts world to get involved in President Obama’s United We Serve volunteerism initiative. “
Secret Tape At Heart Of Latest NEA Controversy May Be Unlawful
“Filmmaker and art community consultant Patrick Courrielche has made a quite a splash on conservative talk shows by releasing audio clips and transcripts of a conference call that occurred August 10. … But he has not been been forthcoming about how he came to have the recorded conversations,” possibly because “recording that call was illegal in several states where the participants are based.”
Atlanta Symphony CEO Leaving For Philadelphia (Probably)
Allison Vulgamore, president of the ASO since 1993, has announced her departure from the job for “new challenges.” The Philadelphia Orchestra’s board has made a “unanimous choice” for their organization’s next president, which several sources say is Vulgamore. Yet the PhilOrch staff refuses to confirm the selection, saying only that the search is “ongoing.”
Misunderstanding Same-Sex Love In Ancient Greece
“The very idea of ‘Greek love’ or ‘Greek homosexuality’ as a single social institution comes to seem somewhat misguided as [author James] Davidson shows how very differently people behaved in, say, Sparta, Elis, and Athens.”
What Zumanity Did For Modern Dance In Las Vegas
The influence of Cirque du Soleil’s risqué-ish show for Sin City wasn’t direct, exactly. But a gig with the production brought dancer Bernard Gaddis to Nevada, and he has gone on to found and direct the Las Vegas Contemporary Dance Theater.
At NY Phil, A Different Feel — And A Different Look
“The son of current and former members of the Philharmonic’s violin section,” newly minted music director Alan Gilbert already has “transformed the relationship between the music director and the players.” He has also “radically changed the seating formation,” a major adjustment for musicians.
Female Novelists Crowd Giller Prize Long List
“Female authors of historical fiction dominate the long list of nominees for the 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize – a selection that will likely silence the grumbling that followed the release of last year’s long list, when only three of the 15 nominees were women.” This year, only two of the 12 are men.