“The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts crested a fundraising benchmark this week: 100 donors have given at least $1 million or more toward construction of the $275 million facility in the Arts District. When it’s finished, the complex will include the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, Annette Strauss Artist Square and city-funded City Performance Hall, all of which will be unified by a 10-acre Performance Park.”
Tag: 08.17.07
Museums and Auction Houses – When Opposites Attract
“Until recently, museums and auction houses were — and were perceived to be — opposite sorts of institutions, their values so different as to preclude cross-fertilization. But in the past decade or so the wall between museums and auction houses has become porous. This trend, although a rainmaking boon for the auction houses, might in the long run wind up making life more difficult for museums.”
How Computers Are Changing The Writing Process
“If Shakespeare had had a hard drive, if the plays had been written with a word processor on a computer that had somehow survived, we still might not know anything definitive about Shakespeare’s original or final intentions — these are human, not technological, questions — but we might be able to know some rather different things.”
Online Novels Are Booming In China
In China, “writing and reading novels online has become the hobby of an estimated 10 million youth. Yet unlike the music world, where MP3s are threatening to kill off CDs, online novels in China are helping physical books fly off the shelves. Print versions of popular online works sell by the millions and publishers, as well as authors, are cashing in.”
Edinburgh Film Fest – Nevermind
“The decision to move the Edinburgh International Film Festival away from its traditional home in August during the omnipresent Edinburgh Festival is a tacit admission that the film festival has become a non-event.”
Has The Edinburgh Fringe Grown Too Big For Itself?
“Even great shows, with great reviews, have not been getting the crowds. It’s the first time I have felt there are too many shows in Edinburgh.”
The Four-Concertmaster Orchestra?
After searching for a new concertmaster, the Seattle Symphony says it will have four. “How very Seattle! This is the city where there’s often a reluctance to make the tough decisions, whether in transit controversies or sports issues; the city where we seem to take forever to reach consensus, and the result is two major sports stadiums, side by side.”
Colorado Opera Team Steps Down
“General director Peter Russell and artistic director James Robinson announced Thursday they will step down after shepherding the organization into a new opera house while boosting its national reputation and annual budget.”
Max Roach On Jazz
“What makes the performance is the dialogue created between you and everybody around you spontaneously. And you have to interact with everybody up there, interacting and reacting, throwing out ideas. Jazz is a purely democratic music. It’s collective creativity where somebody introduces something and we all get a chance to say something about it.”
Eli Broad Predicts The Art Market
“Many of the buyers of contemporary art have been hedge-fund managers and other investors who obviously are having a difficult time and have lost lots of money. The art market will soften, and an adjustment in values will take place, but it may not happen for six months to a year.”