“Individual donors are surpassing companies as the U.K.’s biggest arts benefactors. They are giving museums, concert halls and opera houses money to expand, beef up programming, or stay afloat. U.K.-based individuals gave 262.4 million pounds to the arts in 2005 — the latest figures available — almost twice as much as businesses, which gave 153.4 million pounds, according to Arts & Business, a London-based charity that links the arts with business donors.”
Tag: 07.17.07
Hefty Sales For Hirst, But Still No Buyer For £50M Skull
“Damien Hirst, whose London show closed this month without a sale of his diamond skull, has found buyers for 130 million pounds ($265 million) of art at the White Cube galleries, said exhibitions director Tim Marlow. A split shark fetched 10 million pounds, three ‘crucified’ sheep sold for 6 million pounds, and talks to sell the skull were ‘ongoing,’ Marlow said in a telephone interview yesterday.”
Sanitation, Yes, But These Designs Aren’t Junk
New York City Sanitation Department architect Mike Friedlander “is to receive a special award from the city’s Art Commission ‘for the quality of design that he consistently brings to the Department of Sanitation’s capital projects.’ … It is nice to be acknowledged, given that Mr. Friedlander is far more accustomed to having to defend his projects. He said it was not easy convincing community boards that anything having to do with garbage would not necessarily be an eyesore or a smelly blight on the neighborhood.”
Battle Over Parker Anthologist’s Copyright Back In Court
A long-running lawsuit, now returning to trial, pits “Stuart Y. Silverstein, a Los Angeles lawyer who researched and assembled 122 previously uncollected poems and verses in the book ‘Not Much Fun: The Lost Poems of Dorothy Parker,’ against Penguin Putnam, which published ‘Dorothy Parker, Complete Poems,’ and used Mr. Silverstein’s book as a source for the last chapter without giving him any credit or paying him any royalties.”
Suit Accuses Warhol Foundation Of Driving Up Prices
“In the 1990s,” the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts “was dogged by accusations of financial chicanery, resulting in investigations by the state that led to bitter probate hearings but ultimately no charges. Now, however, a New York filmmaker, who owns a minor Warhol, has used those accusations as a loose springboard for a lawsuit,” which “contends that the foundation has waged a 20-year conspiracy to bend the art world to its will and, by way of ‘enforcers,’ ‘secret meetings’ and doctored files, has tried to win ‘total domination’ of the Warhol market.”
Bee Replaces Slain Mouse On Hamas Kids’ TV
“Hamas television, which was criticized for a Mickey Mouse-like character named Farfur who spouted anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish nostrums at children, has replaced the mouse with a bee named Nahoul, who says he is Farfur’s cousin. Farfur was beaten to death by an Israeli who wanted his land on the previous episode of the children’s show ‘Tomorrow’s Pioneers.'”
Forward Poetry Prize Releases Shortlist
“Britain’s richest poetry awards today choose by far the youngest poet in their history as a finalist for their most sought-after prize. He is Luke Kennard, 26, whose book of verse The Harbour Beyond the Movie is shortlisted for the £10,000 Forward prize for the year’s best collection.”