Tag: 05.28.03

Public TV Station Sells Show To Commercial Television

For the first time, Boston public TV station WGBH, the leading producer of programming for public television, has signed a deal to produce a program for a commercial channel. ”My objective is to make ‘GBH the leading producer of educational programming for kids on TV. ‘We would always try to produce for public television first. But if there is no room on their schedule or money, we’ll go where we need to go.”

Right For The Site

“Site-specific theatre is not new; indeed, it arguably has its roots in the happenings of the 1960s. What’s striking is the number of site-specific pieces on the scene and, more notable, the variety, each work with its own philosophical underpinnings. To wit: An existing play placed in a particular setting and, as such, enhanced or reimagined in some way – in fact, the site may be a part of a play’s revised aesthetic. Or a work fashioned to suggest something about a site, or a site and narrative that inform each other in a theatrical manner.”

Lord Of The Rings Musical To Be Most Expensive

A new musical in London’s West End is expected to be the most expensive show ever to hit London. “An £8 million musical version of ‘The Lord Of The Rings’ is to premiere in London. An adaptation of Tolkien’s trilogy is due to open at the beginning of 2005 and will cost £1.5 million more than ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’, until now the biggestbudget musical in the capital. Eventually it is hoped the production will roll out across the world.”

Charitable Giving To Arts Plummets

“With the stock market, the economy, and corporate earnings all lagging, charitable giving is in a huge slump. Total U.S. giving by individuals, companies, and foundations is likely to fall this year by about 22%, or about $47 billion, to $165 billion, estimates Charity Navigator, a New Jersey-based organization that tracks and rates charities according to their financial efficiency. Museums and other nonprofit arts organizations are being slammed the hardest: Gifts to such organizations are expected to fall by one-third, to $8 billion this year, down from $12 billion in 2002. The reason arts organizations are being clobbered so hard is pretty obvious. When faced with having to pare their giving, most people and companies reduce arts donations before they cut back on support for organizations such as the Salvation Army.”

NPR + Slate Team Up For New Show

National Public Radio is teaming up with online magazine Slate to produce a new daily midday magazine show. “Not only is it an unusual media partnership, the NPR/Slate production, a one-hour weekday program called ‘Day to Day,’ is the first programming collaboration NPR has had with a commercial outlet in its 33-year history.”

Some Questions About What Foundations Actually Give Away

“Profligate spending may not be the rule for charitable foundations, institutions founded by wealthy individuals to fund good causes – and take advantage of hefty tax breaks. But recent disclosures about the lavish habits of a few foundations have turned up a more common, and perfectly legal, scandal: the small portion of their assets that foundations actually give to charity. Under federal law, private foundations must donate a mere 5% of their assets each year to remain exempt from virtually all federal and state income taxes. But even that modest requirement is undercut by rules that let foundations count administrative expenses, such as rent and salaries, as part of the 5%.”

Americans for the Arts Sues Over $100 Million Lilly Bequest

Americans for the Arts was promised $100 million from the estate of Ruth Lilly. But the bequest was made in Eli Lilly stock and the stock declined precipitously. So the organization is suing the bank managing the money. “The lawsuit alleges that National City Bank of Indiana, instead of selling the stock shortly after the creation of the trusts in January 2002, held on to the stock through most of the year, a period when the share price tumbled from $75 to $47. The result, he says, “was a decline in the overall value of Ruth Lilly’s gift to Americans for the Arts of some $25 million.”

Apple, Downloadable Music, And The Hackers

So far music fans have downloaded 3 million songs on Apple’s new iTunes music store. “This is an impressive figure considering the limited access that music fans now have to the service. Less than 1 percent of the country’s home computers are Macintoshes that are compatible with the iTunes Music Store, and only a fraction of those have a broadband connection to the Internet.” But now there are complications. Hackers have figured out how to copy songs from one computer to another, and now Apple is disabling features…