Leading British writers are meeting with the government to express concerns that “the proposed new law on inciting religious hatred will stifle artistic liberty. Salman Rushdie and more than 200 writers of various faiths signed a letter from the writers’ group English Pen which was sent to the home secretary, Charles Clarke, earlier this month seeking an “urgent” meeting with him.”
Tag: 01.13.05
Study: Arts Workers Pay Sucks (The Details)
“The new study finds that only 10 percent of Illinois arts leaders receive any employer contribution whatsoever to their retirement savings. Other fringe benefits are in similarly short supply. And a striking 50 percent of Illinois arts groups make no contributions to the costs of their employees’ health care. The study finds arts managers to be mature, highly educated and highly skilled. Nonetheless, it finds, their tenures tend to be shorter than in other non-profits, and their paychecks relatively small. Although higher than the national average, the average salary in Illinois for a non-profit arts leader is $49,911. Workers at major cultural institutions, of course, earn significantly more. Still, the most frequent salary amounts were $35,000 and $25,000.”
Blogging Books
Where to find good writing on books? How about Bookslut? “She [Jessa Crispin] will review books or talk about books that maybe aren’t the biggest best sellers out there, but she loves them. It goes right back to Jessa and the personality she injects into it. It’s attractive to both users and industry folks alike. The combination of the reviews and the blog is very powerful.”
Mozart – Portrait Of A Tired Man
What did Mozart look like at the age of 34? Not good. “At the age of 34, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a chubby, greying man with heavy bags under tired eyes, according to a painting which has been authenticated this week by German art experts.”
Adams’ Atomic Opera Gets A Date
John Adams’ new opera about the nuclear bomb has a debut date at San Francisco Opera. “I basically don’t have much interest in opera. But I do think it’s an art form that can grapple with the deepest, most unknowable subjects. ‘Doctor Atomic’ is about that moment in history, July 6, 1945, when we went from being a species that inhabited the planet along with other species and with the flip of a switch became capable of destroying it.”
SFMoMA At Ten
It’s been ten years since San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art opened in a new building. “Beyond the flaws and virtues that were on display from the start, the building’s craftsmanship shines more clearly with age. And it is now self-evident that Swiss architect Mario Botta designed with an eye to the future, not just the opening-day crowd and critics.”
Aboriginals Consider Suing Museums For Remains
Aboriginal groups are contemplating suing British museums to force them to return ancestral remains. “Many British institutions have been returning body parts over the past decade, but several of the largest and most prestigious, such as London’s Museum of Natural History and Duckworth Laboratory in Cambridge, continue to refuse to release remains.”
Alaskan Museum Counting On “Bilbao Effect”
Fairbanks, Alaska’s Museum of the North is expanding, hoping to generate some Bilbao-type publicity in the hopes of becoming a tourist destination. “Other museums that have created what we call signature buildings have experienced the same ‘Bilbao effect,’ where the building becomes a destination. I said, ‘We really need to do this because we need to get tourists here in the summer to help us pay our bills.”‘
Royal-Shakespeare-In-A-Can
The Royal Shakespeare Company is building a temporary 1,000-seat theatre in a car park in Stratford-upon-Avon, using a technology more commonly associated with oil rigs…
Judge: Whitney Thief Walks
Over the strong objections of prosecutors, a Manhattan judge yesterday sentenced a Whitney Museum of American Art employee to probation and community service for stealing more than $850,000 in ticket receipts.