“Brandeis University announced that it will form a committee to consider the future of its Rose Art Museum, which university trustees voted to shut down on Jan. 26 with the goal of selling art to raise money.”
Tag: 03.04.09
Yerba Buena Center Raffles Off A House
“The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is raffling a $2.4 million dream house, making it the most expensive home ever raffled off in California. The charming Edwardian home, [4,000 square feet] with detached guesthouse, is located just steps from Golden Gate Park in San Francisco’s Inner Sunset neighborhood.”
Portraits Of Constable’s Parents Identified
“Anne Lyles, Tate curator and authority on the work of Constable, and writer and critic Martin Gayford, have confirmed that a portrait of Ann Constable, Constable’s mother, is by the artist. They have also provisionally re-identified a portrait of Constable’s father, Golding Constable that was previously thought to depict his schoolmaster.”
New Theatre Planned For Site Of Shakespeare’s Playhouse
“Plans are underway to build a 400-seat, state of the art theatre on a graveyard just metres from the site of Shakespeare’s original playhouse in London. The £5 million venue will be built on land attached to St Leonard’s church in Shoreditch.” Opening is expected in 2012.
Recession Hits Artists Disproportionately Hard
“According to new research announced today by the National Endowment for the Arts, working artists are unemployed at a higher rate than other workers, and at a rate that is rising more rapidly than other professions. Presumably as a result, more artists are leaving their profession.”
UK Regional Theatre Staffers Consider Nationwide Strike
The BECTU union has requested a 5% pay increase for its members, while the Theatrical Management Association is calling for a pay freeze. With talks having broken down, the union has written all of its local representatives, asking “whether they would be willing to engage in a campaign of industrial action, up to and including strike action, to achieve an acceptable pay increase.”
Imelda Marcos, Photographer’s Muse
The famously acquisitive former First Lady of the Philippines is the subject of a five-photo series, “The Imelda Collection,” on display this weekend at the Pulse Contemporary Art Fair in Manhattan. Sample image: “She lounges in shark-infested waters on an inflatable raft belting out the song on the sheet music in her hand. On the tiny island behind her stands a giant gilt high-heeled shoe.” (Yes, she posed herself.)
The Battle Goes On At Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra
With a musicians’ strike just entering its sixth month, the WCO has cancelled two further concerts at the end of March. (Three youth concerts on March 18 will go ahead as announced.) The main issue is that management wants to cut the number of guaranteed rehearsals and performances per year from 75 to 45 or fewer, though the per-service fee would remain the same.
Despite Economic Turmoil, A New Shoestring Opera Company Is Born
“Last year, when [Rebecca Greenstein and Bryce] Smith were performing in a children’s cabaret, they realized that their summer calendars were wide open. So just as terms like ‘credit default swaps’ were becoming part of the language, they created the Opera Manhattan Repertory Theater, a company for young and emerging singers.”
Playwright And Screenwriter Horton Foote, 92
“In a body of work for which he won the Pulitzer Prize and two Academy Awards, Mr. Foote was known as a writer’s writer, an author who never abandoned his vision even when Broadway and Hollywood temporarily turned their backs on him.”