Amersterdam’s Rijksmuseum, or national gallery, is getting a makeover. The new design “envisions spacious, bright exhibition halls, better facilities, and a grand entrance hall large enough to shelter guests from the characteristically wet Dutch weather – instead of having them wait in the lines that now stretch outside the building for most of the year. The $230 million renovation, scheduled to run from 2004 to 2008, will be the most extensive since the original four-towered building by Pierre Cuyper opened in 1885. It was then the southern entrance to the city and accommodated only a tenth of the 1.2 million visitors it now receives each year.”
Tag: 06.24.03
Leon Uris, 78
“Uris died Saturday of natural causes at his home on New York’s Shelter Island, photographer Jill Uris said from her home in Aspen, Colo. Energetic and unafraid, the author was as much an adventurer as a writer, traveling tirelessly and sometimes risking his life. In researching `Exodus,’ he logged thousands of miles and ended up reporting on the 1956 conflict in the Middle East.”
Norwegian Painting Returned
A prized JC Dahl painting stolen in Norway a couple of weeks ago has been returned by the thieves. They “either got cold feet or decided the painting was more of a liability than an asset for them. They returned it using a local commercial radio station, P4, as intermediary.”
Another Plan To Ax California Arts Council
The latest budget proposal in the California state legislature calls for the elimination of the State Arts Council.
A Tale Of Two Dance Companies
Joan Acocella compares and contrasts American Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet as their seasons wind down. “As A.B.T. gets more innocent, for better and for worse, New York City Ballet gets more sophisticated, for worse.”
Banding Together – Small Theatres Make A Large
Four small Dallas theatre companies are banding together, hoping to find a way to share a home and resources to help them prosper. The idea is to give the companies resources of a larger organization that they wouldn’t have by themselves. “We all want to grow our companies – to take them to the next level. What we’re hoping in our starry-eyed optimism is to have the benefits of a large organization and the integrity of a smaller one.”
Arise, Sir Iggy!
Last week the French government made rocker Iggy Pop an Officer of Arts and Letters. Really? Iggy’s cool, but is he really a high-cultural luminary worthy of honors from the French Ministry of Culture? “Iggy’s kudos appear to be utterly serious, as part of an attempt to seem as cool as possible. The further out of style a ministry is, the more it must stretch to ‘get game,’ and incongruous results are almost guaranteed. The problem is not uniquely French…”
Indian Government Nixes Taj Mahal Mall
The Taj Mahal glows with light at dawn and twilight. But “before the Indian government stepped in at the weekend, the 17th century marble monument’s source of illumination was in danger of being cut off by a tourist complex of shopping malls, restaurants, multiplex cinemas and other entertainment facilities. Construction on the project, less than 300 metres from the Taj Mahal, began in November but was halted by the Indian government, which said the new structure could divert the river during monsoon rains and damage the base of the monument.”
British Museum At 250 – Lowkey
“The 250th anniversary of the founding of the British Museum has been a low-key affair. Three years ago the plan was to honor the occasion with the opening of a new $55 million Study Center in a nearby building. But lacking money the museum sold the property. So instead of a glitzy inauguration, this month’s anniversary festivities are built around music, dance, lectures and exhibitions. Yet for all that the mood inside the museum’s sprawling neo-Classical home in Bloomsbury is not glum. Credit seems due to Neil MacGregor, 56, who last year took over as the museum’s director.”