earlier this year Nottingham’s Galleries of Justice won the first £100,000 Gulbenkian Prize for Museums. Judges called the museum’s outreach programme “astonishing and thrilling and frighteningly good”. Now the museum is facing closure because it can’t pay its bills. “Without core funding, the future of the best museum in the country is in doubt and it is contemplating having to break up the teams of experts it has built.”
Tag: 07.14.03
Is PBS The “Ralph Nader” Of Television?
“PBS is the Ralph Nader of U.S. television. It is honest and unbridled by commercial interests. It knows the difference between right and wrong; its news and documentary programs are agenda- and convergence-free. Like Nader, PBS has the unavoidable stigma of dreary smugness. Americans know Nader is a smart fellow, but they sure won’t vote for him. They know PBS is good for them, but they rarely watch. Everyone should watch PBS, really, but its audience remains a fraction of other networks’.”
Blockbusteritis
Are audiences growing tired of blockbuster sequels? “Nearly 30 of this year’s big Hollywood films are sequels, but in the US ticket sales are down and there is a feeling that what seemed like a magic marketing notion no longer works. The big three screen offerings last weekend were sequels: Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blue, and Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle. According to the box office monitor, Nielsen EDI, sales were down 15 per cent on last year’s July 4 holiday weekend.”