Arts Writer Phyllis Garland, 70

Phyllis T. Garland was the first tenured woman on the faculty of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She was an articulate and passionate writer about music, and taught at Columbia for 31 years. She served as administrator of the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University when the program began.”

The Age Of Innocence (Or Just Naivete?)

“This will be remembered as the age in which the internet was still trusted… despite the fact that Wikipedia’s entry about Kazakhstan was recently amended to list Borat the fictional Kazakh reporter as president. [What once] promised to be a symphony of knowledge is turning out to be a monotone of static. When a computer and a search engine are considered as good as a degree, the result is a culture of shallow knowledge.”

Big Raise Coming In Liverpool

As its home city prepares for its moment in the spotlight at Cultural Capital of Europe, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic has reached agreement on a 21% pay raise for its musicians. The RLPO’s base wage lags far behind the UK’s top orchestras – even at the end of the new contract, musicians will earn just £25,000 per year – but the deal is being seen as an indication that the orchestra has stabilized fiscally after several years of restructuring.

Smooth Sailing In Indy

The Indianapolis Symphony has reported a budget surplus for the third year in a row, and increased overall ticket sales by nearly 10% over last season. “The ISO musicians and management also recently ratified a new three-year contract that went into effect retroactively to September 4. The new agreement calls for ISO musicians’ salaries to increase between 3% and 5% annually, for a total of 12.6% over three years.”

Old TV Finds New Market

“Old TV shows sell modestly – in the thousands – compared to the millions of units a hit contemporary series can sell on DVD. But sales often fall off quickly for these trendy hits while older series keep on slowly selling, especially as gifts. But there are challenges in putting out vintage series. It can be hard to find existing footage in good condition. Not all shows survived.”

Iconic Eakins Is Sold; Now Comes The Aftershock

“At least twice in the 1970s and 1980s, deep-pocketed buyers came knocking on the doors of Thomas Jefferson University seeking to purchase Thomas Eakins’ The Gross Clinic.” Alumni soundly rejected those offers, but they weren’t consulted this time. “University trustees announced Friday that they had agreed to sell the painting for $68 million. The news, said David Paskin, senior associate dean at the university, hit Jefferson ‘like a nuclear blast.’ Yesterday, students, faculty members and alumni were still reeling from the shock, which caught everyone off guard, angering not a few by its seeming stealth.”

2,000-Year-Old Shipwreck Yields Amphora Bonanza

“A shipwrecked first-century vessel carrying delicacies to the richest palates of the Roman Empire has proved a dazzling find, with nearly 2,000-year-old fish bones still nestling inside clay jars, archeologists said yesterday. Boaters found the vessel’s cargo of hundreds of amphoras in 2000 when their anchor got tangled with one of the two-handled jars. After years of arranging financing and crews, exploration of the site off the coast of Alicante in southeast Spain began in July….”

Harvard Museums Reassess Plan For Temporary Home

“The Harvard University Art Museums is reconsidering plans to turn a former bank building in Allston into its temporary home when it closes the Fogg and Busch-Reisinger museums for renovation in 2008. … The original plan called for housing the majority of the 250,000 objects in the university’s collection at the former bank building. At 25,000 square feet, the second site is less than a third the size of the former Citizens Bank building.”

Why The Arts Need Public-Sector Investment

“Our founding fathers understood the value of the arts. In the Massachusetts Constitution, John Adams called upon legislators to ‘cherish the interests of literature . . . to encourage private societies and public institutions . . . for the promotion of . . . arts, sciences, commerce, trades.’ … Art and business. Art and government. These pairings are not as awkward as they’re made out to be.”