One of the leading candidates to replace Katherine Reid as director of the Cleveland Museum of Art has withdrawn his candidacy. Charles Venable, deputy director for collections and programs at the museum, apparently withdrew from consideration last week, though he hasn’t said why. Venable is the second potential director to duck out of the search – in September, the director of Atlanta’s High Museum also said he would no longer be a candidate.
Tag: 11.07.05
Chicago’s Young Humanities Fest Grows Up
“The Chicago Humanities Festival turned 16 over the weekend, making it one of the most precocious cultural soirees in America. Spotlighting esteemed authors and virtuoso musicians, innovative actors and visionary scholars, the citywide event has grown up fast. What once was a weekend’s diversion now stands as a cultural institution.”
Is Exclusivity The Future Of CD Retailing?
As record companies and retailers struggle to adapt to the new, tech-heavy world of music consumption, a phenomenon has emerged that is gaining popularity in the industry, even as it is decried by consumers. A number of pop music’s most sought-after acts have recently partnered with specific corporations for “exclusive” sales deals, wherein consumers can only purchase the new CD at a specific store, at least temporarily. Others have offered retailer-specific versions of a new CD with bonus material unavailable elsewhere. The idea is to drag music consumers away from their computers and back into the stores, and it seems to be working.
Crucial Dance Preservation Group Near Collapse
“Since it was founded in 1940, the Dance Notation Bureau has been at the forefront of dance preservation, and it has one of the most important collections of dance scores in the nation. But on Oct. 28, it laid off five of its six staff members, including its executive director, Ilene Fox… Dance notation, using a system of symbols called Labanotation and functioning much like a music score, enables dances to be recreated accurately long after a choreographer has died. The bureau’s library houses more than 700 scores for dances by choreographers from George Balanchine and Doris Humphrey to Bill T. Jones and Mark Morris… For now, the library remains active and accessible. But the institution is on the ropes.”
Going To War With The Critics
Composer Joseph Brooks’s newest musical, In My Life, has been running on Broadway for three weeks now, and judging from the terrible reviews and lackluster box office it has attracted, you might expect that it would shortly be folding up its tent and disappearing into the ether. But Brooks is apparently quite a determined sort, and he has taken the unique step of mounting a dizzying blitz of advertising designed to counteract the bad press and build buzz for a show which, to this point, has generated none on its own. Is the massive ad buy working? Well, that depends. Ticket sales are undeniably up, but the show is still losing money hand over fist.
And For The Second Offense, They Cut Off Your Mouse-Clicking Finger
“A Hong Kong man has been jailed for three months for film piracy after he shared movie files over the internet. The authorities say he is the first person in the world to be prosecuted for passing on files using a popular file-sharing program called BitTorrent.”
Free School? It Can’t Come Soon Enough For Music Students.
The $100 million gift that is allowing the Yale School of Music to go tuition-free is making waves across the classical music industry, and has the potential eventually to elevate Yale to the ranks of America’s elite conservatories. Officials at schools like Juilliard and Curtis have long known the value (and necessity) of making music education as cheap as possible – most professional musicians will never make a great deal of money, and many are driven out of the profession altogether by the need for a steady paycheck. “Half the former art and music students surveyed by college lender Nellie Mae in 1998 had debts bigger than their salaries.”
Posthumously Rich
Helsinki’s major daily newspaper has recently taken an interest in how much money Finland’s artists and musicians manage to pull down in a year. What it discovered is that the country’s wealthiest artist has been dead since 1957. Jean Sibelius, the composer whose music defined Finland throughout the 20th century, is still earning royalties on performances of his music, most of it coming from abroad. Last year alone, Sibelius’s heirs received €1.5 million in royalty payments, making the deceased composer Finland’s most financially successful musician by far. The continuing windfall is ironic, since Sibelius had a terrible time managing money while he was alive, and frequently struggled to earn enough to take care of his family.
Indiana Jones Is Out
Italy’s aggressive push to make claims on art it says was looted has American museums anxious. “The bad old days of Indiana Jones-style museum acquisition no longer fly. Countries have laws regarding the exportation of artwork, and what’s legal in one country may not be in another. And even if it’s legal, it may not be ethical. Many in the art world say the media blitz surrounding the Italian charges makes this a defining moment.”