Seattle Repertory Theatre is the latest arts organization to make cutbacks. “Managing director Benjamin Moore said a full-time work force of 102 annual and seasonal employees will go down to 93, and the number of productions next season will decline from nine to six. Moore is projecting income of between $6.5 million and $7 million next season, down from revenues of $8 million this year.”
Tag: 04.04.03
A Graffiti Park? Lock ‘Em Up And Throw Away The Key
A Los Angeles group holds a graffiti party and want to build an “aerosol art park with an art supply store and big canvas panels. Once embraced by the mainstream and given a legal place to work, poor graffiti artists could stop risking their lives tagging freeway signs and start holding museum openings.” But a Los Angeles Times editorial makes fun of the idea: “Please, hold the breathless praise for graffiti artists.’ They have defaced the sides of too many elementary schools, scarred the trunks of beautiful old sycamores, destroyed sorely needed benches in already scarce parks. In neighborhoods used as canvases for graffiti, people tend to call it vandalism, not art. They don’t throw a party; they call the police.”
Security Concerns Strand Seattle Sculpture
One of Seattle’s most-loved sculptures – and the namesake for Seattle band Soundgarden – is on the grounds of a government facility – the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration campus. That means, since September 11, the public has not had access to it because of increased security. And the sculpture is degrading, because NOAA doesn’t have a budget for upkeep. So what will happen to an important piece of public art? “We’re not a museum. Taking care of art is not a priority. We’re not going to let any of these sculptures fall over, but our mission is science and research, not art.”
Pasadena Playhouse – How One Theatre Makes The Cut
Pasadena Playhouse is cutting staff and changing its schedule in an attempt to shore up its budget. “Donations to the playhouse in 2002 fell short of a $1.4-million goal by $300,000, and the 2003 season has attracted 9,842 subscribers, compared to 11,249 at this time last year. As a result, out of 43 full- or part-time staffers, 10 whose salaries were higher than $35,000 took temporary pay cuts of 20% starting in late January. Two box office workers were laid off, after the box office and telemarketing offices were merged. The playhouse’s director of development left in February and has not yet been replaced. The playhouse’s publications editor was laid off, a publicity firm’s contract was not renewed, and the playhouse newsletter was suspended.”
Deal On Webcasting Royalties
The recording indsurty and bug webcasters have made a deal on royalty rates for internet music streaming. “The two sides agreed Thursday on how much big webcasters like Yahoo!, America Online, Microsoft and RealNetworks must pay to broadcast songs over the Internet during 2003 and 2004. The new deal, if approved by the U.S. Copyright Office, will allow the two industries to avoid a lengthy arbitration process to set the royalty rates.”
Recording Industry Sues Students For File Trading
The recording industry has sued four students who run Napster-like file-sharing sites at three universities. “The suits ask for the highest damages allowable by law, which range up to $150,000 per copyright infringement or, in other words, per pirated song. If awarded, the judgments could run in the millions of dollars. ‘Frankly, we are hopeful this round of lawsuits will send a message to others that they should immediately cease and desist’.”
Legislators Propose Recording Contract Reforms
The recording business has to deal with declining sales and piracy threats. But it also is coming under attack by legislators who – in response to disgruntled musicians – are proposing new laws to regulate recording contracts with musicians. Musicians have been complaining that recording companies have not properly accounted for how they pay musicians…
As Dana Gioia Sees His New Job…
In the latest of a series of interviews this week, new National Endowment for the Arts chairman Daniel Gioia says: “The worst thing I could do is come to Washington and pontificate on things artistic and political. I plan to serve by building a huge new consensus to support the arts. I am not going to do that by dividing people, by polarizing people. Arts education – by which he means broad-based proselytizing for the arts – is not a left or right issue, a Democratic or Republican issue. It’s good civic common sense.”
Who Is Dana Gioia?
“He is a graduate of Stanford and Harvard who dislikes elitism, a newly minted member of a Republican administration who speaks a Whitmanesque language of populism and free expression. Gioia is also a poet who dresses like the successful businessman he once was (before retiring to be a full-time writer), and his poetry is as immaculate as his suit. Yet there is a strange dissonance between a man in a tie and a mind capable of imaginative excursions into the head of a young killer or the heart of a lonely woman. It’s glib, however, to say he’s a man of contradictions.”
The Dictator’s Filmmaker
“North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il has a passion for cinema. But he could never find a director to realise his vision. So he kidnapped one from the South, jailed him and fed him grass, then forced him to shoot a socialist Godzilla…”