After a couple of brutal years in which state arts funding was cut, US states are increasing their arts budgets again, says a new report. “While most of the funding changes were 10% or less up or down, there were notable exceptions, including Colorado, up 150.0%; Florida, up 135.7%; the District of Columbia, up 126.0%; and New Jersey, up 51.5%. Of the 56 arts agencies surveyed by NASAA, 44 reported level funding or increases this year, while only 12 suffered cuts.”
Tag: 02.16.05
Dallas Museum Gets $400 Million
The Dallas Museum of Art had a big day Tuesday, getting donations worth as much as $400 million: three extensive art collections, a $25 million Monet, $32 million of endowment funds for acquisitions and a really nice house on Preston Road. The stash of 800 works dating from the 1940s to the present includes giants such as Jasper Johns, Richard Serra, Willem de Kooning and Gerhard Richter. It’s the largest combined gift in the museum’s history and one of the nation’s biggest ever.”
Chicago Theatre League Chief To Step Down
Marj Halperin, the long times head of the League of Chicago Theatres, is stepping down from the job. “Established in 1979 — as the Chicago theater community was just beginning to become a cultural force to reckon with — the League now serves as umbrella organization for about 170 Chicago area commercial, not-for-profit and presenting theaters. It is a community of organizations whose budgets, artistic missions and audiences vary widely.”
Double Discs: Two-Sided Music
If you’re older than 30, you remember when music came on vinyl records and cassettes and you had to turn the record or cassette over to play the other side. Now the CD generation gets its chance. DualDiscs are here: CD on one side, DVD on the other. The cost is about the same as a conventional CD, with prices ranging from $12 to $19.
Publisher Sues P. Diddy For Advance Money
Random House is suing P. Diddy to get back a $300,000 advance for an autobiography the rapper never wrote. The book was contracted for in 1999 and no manuscript is yet forthcoming. “Random House has seldom resorted to a legal course of action with its prospective authors who don’t write the books we have contracted for, but Mr. Sean Combs has left us no choice.”
Foyles To Expand Worldwide
Foyles, London’s much-beloved book shop, has announced that it will expand worldwide, in its first expansion since the 1930s. “The privately owned group will target cities where it can establish as authoritative a presence as it has in London, where its business has been based since 1906.”
Seattle Artists Rally To Fired Director’s Defense
Last week the board of tiny Seattle contemporary art presenter Consolidated Works abruptly fired founding director Matthew Richter without explanation. Now a virtual Who’s Who of Seattle art has signed a letter of protest to the board and the arts community has rallied to his defense.
Roundabout Leaves Theatre League
New York’s Roundabout Theatre has left the League of American Theatres and Producers, which represents Broadway theatres. “Todd Haimes, Roundabout’s artistic director, wasn’t available for comment. Variety quoted him last week as saying only, ‘The league doesn’t serve the needs of a nonprofit theatre operating on Broadway’.”
US Confiscates Art Passports
US Customs agents have confiscated fake passports intended for an art show, saying they might be “harmful if imported.” “The items belonged to an art group headed by Vienna artist Robert Jelinek, and included what the government described as “fantasy passports,” along with ink pads, rubber stamps and ink. They were taken from Jelinek’s luggage Feb. 9 in Detroit as he headed for Cincinnati.”
National Gallery Tops 5 Million Visitors
London’s National Gallery was the UK’s most popular museum attraction in 2004. “With 5 million people marching through the National Gallery’s doors last year, it was the most visited museum in the country, and the second most visited tourist attraction – pipped only by the perennially popular Blackpool Pleasure Beach, according to figures prepared by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions.”