With a generation of seasoned postwar directors beginning to retire, at least 21 U.S. museums — including the Bass Museum of Art in Florida and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington — are searching for new directors, nearly double the usual vacancy rate
Tag: 01.10.08
Johnny Can’t Read. So What?
“The Office for National Statistics reveals that a quarter of people in the UK haven’t read a single book in the past year – a figure that has sent the government into a tailspin.” A catastrophe? “You won’t find ministers in a tizzy about non-attendance at art galleries or theatres. So why are books so elevated?”
Why UK Publishers Are Censoring Their Children’s Wares
“Presumably motivated by the fear of ‘corrupting’ young minds and offending readers, publishers have edited and elided passages and pictures with a politically correct zeal resembling Soviet agitprop.”
Miami Performing Arts Center To Be Renamed
Miami’s Carnival Center for the Performing Arts, named for Carnival Corp., the cruise-ship operator, will be renamed the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County. Why? Arsht gave the center $30 million.
Striking Writers Cancel Their Own Awards Show
The Writers Guild of America, West, which is the Los Angeles-based wing of the guild that represents some 10,500 writers, had planned to announce winners of awards for film and television screenplays on February 9, but said in a brief statement that its awards gala would not be held until the strike ended.
What de Montebello’s Reitirement Means To The Met Museum
“de Montebello’s impact has been as much broadly cultural as aesthetic, something that can be said of no other departing museum director. At a time when museums pander to get visitors, either by flogging, yet again, the long-dead Impressionist horse or by selling their souls to popular culture with exhibitions of motorcycles or electric guitars, the Met has drawn in its public the old-fashioned way — routinely offering it intellectually substantial fare.”
“Mayor Of Hollywood” Dies At 84
“Johnny Grant, the avuncular honorary mayor of Hollywood who travelled the world as Tinseltown’s No. 1 cheerleader for more than a half-century, has died. He was 84.”
Giving Each Other The Shaft(esbury)
“One of Canada’s largest film and television production companies, Shaftesbury Films Inc., is embroiled in a battle for control that pits the company’s co-chief executive officers against each other. The dispute has landed in an Ontario court…”
TV Viewers Not Interested In Writer-less Awards Show
“The People’s Choice Awards lost nearly half of its TV audience after it had to put out a pre-recorded programme instead of the usual live ceremony… People’s Choice organisers were forced to change their plans last month after the Writers Guild of America refused to let its members write for awards shows.”
Russian Exhibition Given Final Approval
“An exhibition of major artworks in London has been given the final go-ahead by the Russian authorities.” The show had been in danger of cancellation due to Russian fears that some of the works, which were taken from private collections after Russia’s 1917 revolution, could be seized while in the UK. Parliament agreed to implement a new law to prevent seizure and allow the show to go on.