The market for high-end string instruments has become so absurdly expensive in recent years that most soloists are dependant on the good will of wealthy benefactors to purchase and loan them a Strad or del Gesu. But for Min Lee, one benefactor just wouldn’t have fit the bill. The rising young violinist plays on a 1704 Guarnerius fiddle purchased for her at a cost of $500,000 after an extraordinary public/private fundraising campaign spearheaded by the government of her native Singapore.
Tag: 05.24.05
CTC Finishes One Drive, Starts Another
The Minneapolis-based Children’s Theatre Company, which won the Tony Award for best regional company in 2003, has completed a $27 million capital campaign four months ahead of schedule, and announced a special “encore” campaign aimed at raising another $3 million by year’s end. The fundraising has been largely targeted to cover construction costs on CTC’s new expanded home, designed by architect Michael Graves. The extra fund drive will seek to bolster the company’s endowment.
OSM Strike Drags On
How serious is the strike at l’Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal? In the two weeks since the OSM’s musicians walked off the job, the two sides have not met at the bargaining table even once. Still, things have taken a slight turn towards compromise, and negotiations could resume later this week. Meantime, the musicians are keeping busy not only with picket lines, but with the usual free concerts designed to drum up support and keep connections to the larger community open.
Group Ends Disney Boycott
The fringe American Family Association has ended a nine-year boycott of Disney, saying the AFA’s point had been made. “The organization objected to movies like 1995’s Kids being made by Disney through its Miramax subsidiary, as well as the company’s decision to grant benefits to the common-law spouses of homosexual employees. It also wanted to put an end to gay-themed events at Disney’s parks.”
American Textile Museum To Sell Its Home, Reduce Hours
The American Textile History Museum in Lowell Mass. is reducing hours and selling its building. “The museum, which draws about 50,000 visitors a year and has an annual budget of $2.2 million, originally opened as the Merrimack Valley Textile Museum in North Andover in 1960. It spent about $8 million to renovate a former manufacturing building in Lowell and, after being renamed, opened in the 160,000-square-foot space on Dutton Street. But it didn’t raise enough for the move to offset the increased costs. That has forced the museum to draw regularly from its endowment, which has plummeted from $7 million in 1999 to its current $2.8 million.”
Canada’s South African Connection
Traditionally, Canadian partners in movie production have come from the US, France and Britain. But recently, a more active partner has moved onto the scene: South Africa, “described by the folks who shoot there as a cinematographer’s dream because of its varied topography, fabulous light and eternal summer.”
A New Tone For The Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale’s new director has big changes planned in an attempt to bring some order to the event. “Bringing a touch of rigorous business thinking to proceedings, he has announced a programme for the next three years, starting with next month’s edition of the festival, which he hopes will present “a clearer picture of where we are, and how we got there” to the world. This year’s 51st Biennale, directed by two Spanish curators, María de Corral and Rosa Martínez, (the first co-curatorship, and the first women to do the job), is already much slimmed down in terms of artists involved: just 91 contenders will bring their work to the city.”
Paul Ricoeur, 92
Paul Ricoeur, the great French humanist philosopher, died last Friday at the age of 92. But “it is Tuesday already, and nobody in the American media has insulted Ricoeur yet. What’s going on? Have our pundits lost their commitment to mocking European intellectuals and the pointy-headed professors who read them?”
Cincinnati Museum Plans Big Changes
The Cincinnati Art Museum wants to make its biggest renovation and expansion in its 119 years. The museum hasn’t raised any money yet, and doesn’t have an architect chosen, but “envisions more galleries to show off rare collections. More gathering spaces for more than 270,000 visitors a year. High-tech, multimedia educational facilities. A modern library open to the public. And a virtual museum that is as accessible as the real thing.”
Are Cheap Supermarket Books Killing Literary Quality?
“Cheap books are apparently the spiritual equivalent of universal suffrage, and by offering works by Dan Brown, Patricia Cornwell and Tony Parsons for a pound or two below the prices levied by traditional outlets, Tesco and its friends are “democratising” the book trade. Moving on to the wider implications of our supposedly democratised culture, as a general rule whenever a participant is offered more “choices”, whether in the number of book outlets, TV channels or radio stations, the end result will be to depress the overall quality of the available material.”