“Two weeks ago, standing in front of a Tate Modern art icon, Tony Blair is grandstanding for an audience of cultural grandees, boosting the government’s funding record on the arts. Ere the champagne had time to warm or the canapes to curl, some government barbarian manages to dribble out the dire news that there will be a cut, effective April 1st. No press release, no consultation, no time for Professor Frayling, chair of the Arts Council England, or Peter Hewitt, its secretary general, to prepare even an emollient word.”
Tag: 04.04.07
Funding Cut For London Lit Mag?
Arts Council England begins squeezing funding recipients, including the small literary London Magazine. “The council, in case you hadn’t noticed, has embarked on a national debate about arts funding, where its money goes, and the accountability of those who bestow and receive it. Clearly this debate ought to encompass that minuscule fraction of the budget devoted to literature.”
Ross: Classical Recording Is Bigger Than Ever
There has been an avalanche of stories recently about how classical music recording is dying. So Alex Ross does the math, counting releases and recording companies in the 1980s with those on a similar list today. “Conclusion: The major labels are much smaller than they used to be. But classical recording is bigger than ever.”
Sold? Not Sold? The Pollock Case Gets Weirder
Earlier this week, the New York Times reported that Alex Matter had sold some of a trove of disputed Jackson Pollock paintings. “But Matter has repeatedly stated he has no plans to sell the works. And the filmmaker, whom the Times could not reach for its story, told the Globe by phone yesterday that he has not sold any of the paintings.” Then, the story changed once more.
What’s It All About, Humana?
“At the Humana Festival of New American Plays, which takes place every spring in Louisville, Ky., the running joke every year is to come up with that common thread. One year it’s lesbians. Another it’s men in women’s clothing. This year you could say Humana was about male-on-male kissing. Or, like all those other years, you could look past the silly classifications and see that it was about something more.”
Not The Ones That They Wanted
When the producers of the new Broadway revival of Grease decided to drum up interest in the production by launching a televised competition to allow America to select the leading performers, they probably expected that the TV show might tank with a broad public that has little interest in Broadway. But what they may not have expected was the backlash from what few viewers the show did have once the winners were announced. Despite strong box office sales, Ticketmaster was swamped with calls from unhappy viewers wanting their money back when their personal faves didn’t land the leading roles.
Griffin Announces Finalists
The shortlist is out for Canada’s Griffin Poetry Prize, which offers $100,000 and plenty of publicity to the winners. Three Canadians will vie for the $50,000 domestic prize, while three Americans and a Briton vie for the international award.
AGO Gets Uncommon Gift
“An unusual group donation by 20 Italian-Canadian families will pump $10-million into the Art Gallery of Ontario’s ambitious expansion and renovation program… The $10-million, which the AGO has been touting as “a milestone gift,” means the gallery has now raised 87 per cent of the $207-million it budgeted for its Transformation AGO capital campaign. Overall cost of the expansion, to be completed by mid-2008, is $254-million, which includes a $50-million endowment already raised.”
Canadian PM Cancels $49m Of Museum Funding
Toronto’s Art Gallery of Ontario is doing awfully well for itself these days, but even as it rakes in cash from private donors, reports are surfacing that the federal government has reneged on a pledge to come up with CAN$49 million for the museum’s major renovation and expansion project, and that the budget knife was wielded by the highest authority. “At the last minute, just before the final budget documents were sent off to be printed and translated, Prime Minister Stephen Harper stepped in and wiped out the $49 million.”
The Humana Problem
Louisville’s Humana Festival, which spotlights new plays and emerging playwrights, is underway, and theatrical agents and producers are swarming about, looking for the Next Big Thing. But are they looking in the wrong place? “The best of such work invariably takes place among ensemble artists who live and work together in the same city, not among casts imported for an individual production in a high-stakes festival.”