Charleston Symphony, Smaller and Poorer, Will Resume Playing

“After eight months of uncertainty, the musicians of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra have accepted the terms of a proposed new contract that reduces the size of the full-time core from 36 to 24 and shrinks the size of the operating budget from $2.3 million to $1.3 million for the first year.” The new base salary for musicians: $14,000.

Corn Palace, Prairie Dog Town, Holy Land USA – Hard Times for Roadside Attractions

“[T]imes and tastes have changed since the Corn Palace gained fame in 1892, and there is concern about dwindling visits to the attraction, which is key to the economy in [the] southeastern South Dakota town” of Mitchell. “The Corn Palace’s dilemma is similar to that facing other roadside attractions: how to keep current without sacrificing its quirky, small-town character.”

The First WikiLeaks Arts Story: US Diplomat Gripes About CBC

“In a cable dated Jan. 1, 2008, an unnamed U.S. diplomat writes that the CBC has ‘long gone to great pains to highlight the distinction between Canadians and Americans in its programming, generally at our expense'” and that the national broadcaster “pushes ‘insidious negative popular stereotyping’ with ‘anti-American melodrama’ in its entertainment TV programs.”

What’s Wrong With Tate Britain

“Tate Britain has been suffering an identity crisis for a decade, and is embarking on yet another round of therapy. The latest rehang of the collection is being billed as the beginning of an entirely new approach, scheduled to culminate in 2013 when a building programme gives it expanded gallery space and the entire collection will be displayed in chronological order. Yet if that sounds like a cure, the immediate arrangement pulls the patient to the very brink of catastrophe.”