“In the two weeks since a fire destroyed offices and damaged galleries in its original house, the Phillips has managed to open a new exhibition, keep to its original date for a string quartet concert later this month and proceed with another major exhibition in October.”
Tag: 09.16.10
Long-running Beaverbrook Art Ownership Case Resolved Out Of Court
“One of the longest, most bitter and expensive legal disputes in Canadian cultural history has come to an end with an out-of-court settlement that confirms the Beaverbrook Art Gallery’s ownership of 85 artworks valued by some at more than $100-million.”
Oscar Wilde’s Intimate Letters To Be Auctioned
The letters appear to reveal Wilde “propositioning” a magazine editor at a time when homosexuality was illegal. Alan Judd from Bamfords auction house said they are important as they “help to fill in pieces of Oscar Wilde’s tempestuous jigsaw”.
Surprise: Columbus Symphony Ends Season With Surplus
As recently as March, symphony leaders were projecting a possible deficit as high as $1.5million for the year ended Aug. 31. “This is a remarkable turnaround in a short amount of time.”
Google’s New Music Store – What Doies It Mean For Artists?
“The internet giant is circulating a proposal among major labels for an a la carte download store and a subscription-model, cloud-based storage locker, with the company supplying a web-based music player and a mobile application for playback of tracks.”
Hollywood Does Fat People
“I had people say that fat people aren’t attractive and that nobody wants to see fat people on television,” he said. “I said, ‘Well, do you know anyone who is fat?’ ‘Oh yeah,’ they said, ‘my mother is, my sister and brother is.’ So, I told them that if everyone in this room knows someone who’s in that situation, isn’t that your audience?”
Mass Exodus, Money Woes at Festival Ballet Providence
“The managing director of Festival Ballet Providence and seven board members resigned this week over a difference in ‘artistic vision’.” Meanwhile, “Carmen, which was supposed to be staged next month, has been moved to February, because the company is not in a financial position to mount it now.”
Some Good News on Iraqi Antiquities: Impounded Cuneiform Tablets Return Home
“The unlikely journey of 362 cuneiform clay tablets and plaques began in ancient Iraq as far back as 2030 B.C. But they would pass through modern Dubai and Newark, survive a government seizure and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, before finally winding up back at their birthplace, fittingly, almost nine years to the day after 9/11.”
The Airport with a Library (In Civilized Holland, Of Course)
“Opened with little fanfare over the summer, the [Schiphol] library – the first ever at a major international airport – has 1,200 books in more than two dozen languages, all by Dutch authors or on subjects relating to the country’s history and culture.” Fittingly, the library is tucked next door to the airport branch of Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum.
A Theater Critic at New York Fashion Week
Charles Isherwood: “It’s a comedy of manners to rival anything on a Broadway stage, as the black-clad, clumping-shoe-wearing fashion folk gossip and greet one another and trade impressions as the cricketing of camera shutters spritzes the (usually hot) air. … But all too often, once the lights dim and the models walk, the entertainment evaporates.”