Tag: 03.16.06

MFA Officials To Meet With Italian Officials

Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts director Malcom Rogers will go to Italy to meet with officials over Italian claims that the MFA has looted objects in its collection. “What we hope comes out of this is the exchange of information, information we have not received yet. Right now, we don’t even have a list of the objects the Italians believe were looted and sold to the MFA.”

Curtis Gets A New Chair With A True Philly Pedigree

Philadelphia’s prestigious Curtis Institute of Music has a new board chair. H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest, 75, will take over the leadership of the school’s board in June, just as Curtis is also welcoming new director Roberto Diaz. Lenfest, pne of the city’s most active arts supporters, donated $6 million to Curtis last year. He is also chairman of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the American Revolution Center.

Workshop Denies Bias, Wonders At Controversy

New York Theater Workshop continues to insist that the dustup over the cancellation of “My Name Is Rachel Corrie” is nothing more than a misunderstanding, and not, as some critics would have it, a deliberate attempt to silence certain theatrical voices. “Whether a misunderstanding or not, how the workshop, an artistically bold and popular company, found itself in such an embarrassing public jam still baffles [the company’s directors,] who said they did not know the extent of the public relations damage and financial cost.”

Ground Zero Talks Stall Again; Pataki Blasts Developer

The contentious effort to build something – anything, really – at the site of the World Trade Center terrorist attacks in New York has stalled once again, and city and state officials are fuming. Talks to jumpstart the project broke down after Larry Silverstein, the developer chosen to spearhead the Ground Zero project, reportedly attempted to up the cost of the project by $1 billion. Silverstein insists he did nothing improper, but New York Governor George Pataki was unusually blunt in declaring that “this guy has betrayed the public’s trust.”

Repatriated Klimts To Go On View In LA

“Five multimillion-dollar paintings by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt — looted by the Nazis and recently returned by the Austrian government to the family of Maria Altmann in Los Angeles — will go on view at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art [this April]… The exhibition was initiated by Stephanie Barron, LACMA’s senior curator of modern art, in January after an Austrian arbitration court ordered its government to turn over the paintings to Altmann, whose family fled Vienna in 1938.”

It’s Hard Out Here For A Non-Profit Executive

Nine percent of all U.S. non-profit executives quit their jobs every year, according to a new study, and 75% expect to depart within five years. Among the factors contributing to early exec burnout is the omnipresent problem of dysfunctional boards who either don’t fully engage, or don’t really understand the non-profit mission. “Exacerbating the high-turnover problem is the lack of succession planning” at many non-profits.

Is Chicago Ruining Its Neighborhoods?

There’s no question that Chicago boasts some of America’s best architecture. But a high-quality backdrop makes it all the more obvious when an architectural mishap has occurred, and Charles Leroux worries that they’ve been happening a lot lately. “The biggest architectural blunder is the devastation of the city’s neighborhoods by bad residential structures tossed up to take advantage of the real estate boom. Some communities have been rendered almost unrecognizable by condoing, townhousing and McMansioning.”

Piracy Crackdown

“Twenty-nine people have been arrested [in the UK] in the biggest ever operation against those who make and sell counterfeit CDs, DVDs and computer games. A six-month investigation has seen representatives from the record, film and software industries working with police and trading standards officers… They were also targeting those committing benefit fraud, reflecting the growing increase in the level of cooperation between the government and the so-called ‘creative’ industries.”

Art Sprawl

Atlanta has been one of the fastest-growing cities in America for over a decade now, and its boom has sparked an arts building explosion as well. But unlike in many other cities, much of Atlanta’s new arts infrastructure is spreading to the suburbs, and these aren’t small-town projects. A $145 million performing arts center is rising in suburban Cobb County, and millions more are being sunk into various projects around the metro area.