“Ruth Mackenzie, currently an adviser on cultural policy to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, is to become the director of the Cultural Olympiad. She has also been general director of the Manchester International Festival (MIF) and the artistic director of the Chichester Festival Theatre.”
Tag: 01.13.10
Stolen Monet Found In Poland After Ten Years
In September 2009, authorities at the National Museum in Poznan, Poland discovered that a thief had removed the original of Beach at Pourville (the nation’s only Monet) from its frame and replaced it with a copy painted on cardboard. Now Polish police have announced that they have recovered the painting and arrested a suspect.
Corporate HQs Do Affect Charitable Giving (But Not Exactly The Way You’d Think)
A research team has “determined that corporate headquarters did have an effect on local donations – to the tune of $3 million to $10 million per corporation. However, the biggest impact wasn’t direct donations from the corporations, but from the well-off individuals they employ (and pay generously).”
A Chinese Map Of The Americas From 1602
The map “is the work of Matteo Ricci, an Italian Jesuit missionary from Italy. One of the first westerners to live in what is now Beijing in the early 1600s, Ricci was famed for introducing western science to China, where he created the map in 1602 at the request of Emperor Wanli.”
Obama, The Musical!
“A musical about Barack Obama’s ‘Yes we can’ election campaign premieres in Germany this weekend, including love songs by the president to his wife Michelle and duets with Hillary Clinton. Even John McCain and Sarah Palin are given stage time.”
Edward Hall Is Named A.D. Of Hampstead Theatre
“Hall, son of former National Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Company director Peter Hall, is best known for his work with all-male Shakespeare company Propeller, which has recently staged well-received productions of The Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night and The Merchant of Venice.”
Why Having A Bookstore Matters To Laredo, Texas
As Laredo loses its only bookstore, the need for a local brick-and-mortar bookseller may seem unclear to outsiders — but not to the locals.
Knox Burger, Editor Turned Literary Agent, Dies at 87
“A 1999 guide to literary agents described him as ‘a lean, bald, craggy-faced man with a game leg, which he assists with a cane, an expression usually either amused or sardonic, a gruff manner that can sometimes seem downright brusque, and a reputation as one of the truly upright men in the business.'”
Memoir About Life With Pinter Illuminates His Plays
“There’s a fascinating account of a dinner with Tom Stoppard where Pinter says that he doesn’t plan his characters’ lives and then asks his fellow dramatist: ‘Don’t you find they take you over sometimes?’, to which Stoppard firmly replies: ‘No.’ That says a lot.”
Why Opera For The Cinema Caught On
“Anyone who has seen clips from the Met’s old closed-circuit telecasts will realize that improved technology is the reason opera is a hot commodity in movie houses now but wasn’t back then. … But any innovation has its detractors.”