“State-owned paintings worth hundreds of thousands of pounds have been lost, stolen or damaged while on loan to government departments in the UK and around the world over the past four years.”
Tag: 03.01.09
The Case Of The Enduring Agatha Christie
She “remains the most famous of English crime writers, comfortably outselling everyone else in the field, translated into multiple languages and the subject of numerous highly successful film and TV adaptations.”
Big Plans For Chicago
“A hundred years ago, in 1909, Daniel Burnham completed work on a document with the unassuming title ‘Plan of Chicago’ that remains the most effective example of large-scale urban planning America has ever seen.”
Buyer Refuses To Pay For Looted Saint Laurent Art
“A Chinese who bought two sculptures owned by the late fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent at a controversial auction has said he will not pay for the treasures, which were looted from a Beijing palace during the opium wars.”
Porn Industry Suffering In Recession
“The adult entertainment industry is not only seeing its DVD sales plummet as consumers watch more porn online, but the estimated $13 billion industry is also having its own version of a Napster moment – named after the Silicon Valley company that transformed the music industry by allowing users to share songs free online.”
Is Recession Good For Art?
It’s doubtful. As curator Renée Riccardo, whose group show “The Garden at 4 AM” just opened at Gana Art Gallery, notes, recessions mostly just yank young artists’ work off the walls. “If traditional art isn’t selling, galleries aren’t going to show emerging art.”
How We’re Trying To Rewire The Brain
“Metaphorically, the neuroengineering approach brings the study of the brain into the Age of Enlightenment. By isolating, then testing and altering individual parts of the neural system, we can, for the first time, truly understand what those components do. Ultimately, we can enhance an individual function while leaving the rest of the system untouched”
Reliance On Endowments Has Put Some Universities At Risk
“The most frequent argument for having a big endowment is that it’s supposed to tide schools over tough times. It sure isn’t working out that way. Between July 1 and Nov. 30 last year, endowments at 435 surveyed schools lost 23% of their value.”
Minnesota Theatres Shrink To Survive
“Faced with a cratering economy, skittish funders and uncertain support from the state (Gov. Pawlenty proposed a 33 percent cut for the Minnesota State Arts Board in his biennial budget), theaters are being forced to shrink budgets midway through their fiscal years even as they attempt to maintain their traditional audiences and draw new patrons.”
If I Ran The National Endowment For The Arts…
A new NEA chief hasn’t been chosen yet. In the meantime, 30 famous people say what they would do if they had control of the NEA. Anne Coulter? Really?