“Each of the five branches – Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps and Navy – has a collection, consisting mostly of paintings and sketches. The Navy’s is the largest, with about 17,000 works, followed by the Army’s 15,000, the Air Force’s 8,800, the Marines with about 8,000 and the Coast Guard with 5,000. They arrange exhibitions at bases and museums.”
Tag: 07.30.03
Aboriginal Art Sales Records
Australian aboriginal art has recorded record sales at auctions in Sydney this week. Most of the sales – an estimated 70 per cent of the works – were sold to international bidders.
Czech-Mate
“Since the fall of Communism in 1989, Prague has emerged as one of the world’s favorite low-price, high-quality locations for filmmakers who want to shave 30 percent or more off the cost of a major production. But as the Czech Republic prepares to join the European Union next May, producers and film service companies here fear that unless they act quickly they may soon price themselves out of the market.”
Baryshnikov Up For “Sex”
Mikhail Baryshnikov is coming to TV – as Sarah Jessica Parker’s love interest in “Sex in the City.” “I seem to have a tendency to do things that people think I shouldn’t do. I think it’s about time to do something my children can’t watch.”
The Met Opera Donor Who Didn’t Get What She Would Have Wanted
Did the Metropolitan Opera use funds from a donor for a production of which she would have disapproved? That’s the charge from representatives of the estate of Sybil B Harrington. “He who pays the piper calls the tune, even if that tune comes from beyond the grave. It’s matter of trust, and arts organisations should take great care that cavalier interpretation of testamentary wishes doesn’t end up putting potential donors off. Meanwhile, the Met can ill afford either the Harrington executors’ demand for restitution of $5 million or the attendant bad publicity.”
Kennedy Center Boss Named US Cultural Ambassador
Kennedy Center chief Michael Kaiser has been appointed asa “cultural ambassador by the US State Department. “Kaiser said he has a different agenda from the artists’. ‘Funding patterns are shifting. In some countries 70 to 80 percent of an organization’s budget was being provided by the government. Government funding is being reduced or not growing. This is a time in history where the arts around the world are in transition’.”