Tag: 11.07.04

Munch Museum: Bolting Art To The Walls

Oslo’s Munch Museum might be closed until next summer as the museum deals with recommendations for new security measures. “National and international art icons must be shielded using glass bolted onto the wall. The remaining pictures must be fastened onto the wall or made so heavy that they are difficult to run away with. The report also suggested metal detectors, a surveillance control room, a labyrinth to delay possible robbers and an automatic gate to lock them in.”

Baltimore Museum To Unveil Big Expansion

Baltimore’s American Visionary Art Museum gets a major upgrade this month with the unveiling of the “Jim Rouse Visionary Center, a sweeping, $9.3 million expansion of AVAM that will open to the public in a week and a half. Set in a 28,000-square-foot historic building that was originally a whiskey warehouse, the three-story center will double [AVAM’s] footprint.”

Should Smithsonian History Museum Be Representing Current Events?

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History has put up a new display dealing with the current war in Iraq. Some historians disapprove. “Treatment of current events without benefit of historical distance and analysis is a risky enterprise… the choice to include the operations in Iraq under the “Price of Freedom” title “presents a partisan view of the current war and is counter to our neutral public mission.”

Chicago Symphony Has A Deal

The musicians of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra have overwhelmingly ratified a new three-year contract which will raise their base salary to $114,000 by 2007, keeping them among the ranks of the highest paid orchestras in the world. The deal also provides retirement incentives for older members of the ensemble, and allows the CSO to reduce the full complement of musicians from 111 to 106 through such attrition. There will be no reduction in the number of musicians on stage for any given concert. The musicians also agreed to pay a higher share of health insurance costs. The agreement comes a week after the musicians had cleaned out their lockers in anticipation of a possible strike.

Philly Mayor Brokers “Framework” For Orchestra Deal

The musicians and management of the Philadelphia Orchestra have agreed on what Mayor John Street is calling a “framework” for a new collective bargaining agreement, following a week of intensive negotiations mediated by the mayor himself. The details have yet to be filled in, but Street says he expects a deal to be done within the next 7 to 10 days.

A Hoosier Surplus

The Indianapolis Symphony ended the 2003-04 season with a balanced budget after two consecutive years of red ink. The orchestra eked out a $5,466 surplus on a budget of $24 million, following a year in which the ensemble’s musicians agreed to contract concessions and the annual fund increased by $400,000.

Encores? What’s Wrong With A Little Extra Sugar?

“Yes, encores are as predictable as a Nor’easter in January. Yes, crowd members not only can predict that there will usually be an encore, they can sometimes name at least one song that will be performed — for Prince, it’s ”Purple Rain”; for Patti LaBelle, it’s ”Over the Rainbow.” Still, encores are part of the unwritten covenant between artist and audience. It’s dessert, the last bit of sweetness to polish off a stunning meal. The main show finishes, the fans stomp and scream, fire up their lighters if they’re feeling kitschy, and when the artist feels he has been duly adored, he returns like a conquering hero.”