Tag: 11.20.02

A Billionaire’s Gift To A Toronto Museum

Ken Thomson is Canada’s premiere art collector. He’s also Canada’s wealthiest person with a fortune worth $23 billion (CDN). Now 79, he says he plans to give “$70-million in cash and $300 million in art to an expanded and renovated Art Gallery of Ontario,” and that the gifts are only “the start of a series of gifts and loans to that institution.” Tuesday he “staggered the Canadian art world by announcing he would donate in trust an estimated 2,000 works to the AGO.”

New Ethics Standards for Museums

The American Association of Museums lays down new guidelines “for accepting contributions to ensure the institutions maintain their integrity and donors don’t benefit by giving. A museum’s governing authority and staff must ensure that no individual benefits at the expense of the museum’s mission, reputation or the community it serves.”

$100 Million + $80 Million – Soon You’re Talking Serious Money

A few more details about Ruth Lilly’s $100 million gift to Poetry Magazine this week. “According to local court records, Lilly also donated at least $80 million to Americans for the Arts, an advocacy and educational group based in Washington. Its president and CEO, Robert Lynch, said that his group’s annual budget is currently $8 million and that its endowment is less than $1 million.” And this: “In 1981, a court declared Lilly mentally incompetent, and the control of her estate was turned over to her brother, Josiah K. Lilly III. Since his death, her lawyer, Thomas Ewbank has served as her attorney. National City Bank in Indianapolis has managed her estate, now worth about $1.2 billion. Nonetheless, she can make her wishes, Ewbank said.”

Continuing to Build

The arts building boom continues, even though arts groups around America are struggling for money. “Despite terrorist attacks, rising costs, decreases in consumers’ discretionary spending, and myriad philanthropic challenges, the theatrical building and renovation boom is arguably as hot as it was in the 1990s – and not just in New York City.”

Things You’d Think You Wouldn’t Need A Law For:

The New York City Council is close to passing a law which would ban the use of cell phones at public performances, concerts, etc. The definition of “use” in this case would include “allow to ring” as a violation. Violators would be subject to a $50 fine, but there is some question as to how such a measure would be enforced without creating an even greater disruption than a phone.

Things You’d Think Wouldn’t Need To Be a Law

The New York City Council is close to passing a law which would ban the use of cell phones at public performances, concerts, etc. The definition of “use” in this case would include “allow to ring” as a violation. Violators would be subject to a $50 fine, but there is some question as to how such a measure would be enforced without creating an even greater disruption than a phone.

Slimming Down To Greatness

Matthew Bourne is famous for his subversive rewrites of familiar ballets. But as his success got bigger and bigger through the 90s, he got more caught up in keeping his company viable. “It was all getting a bit grand. I felt that I was running an office rather than a company.” So he pulled back. Now he’s back to choreographing low-budget shows…

Opera’s Newly Broad Appeal

“Opera as a subject for film peaked during the silent era, when movies were accustomed to non-stop music and a kind of melodramatic posturing that’s still taken as normal on many opera stages. But there’s no current shortage of film directors willing to do opera in its usual habitat, or even to write and stage new works.” And we’re not talking about filmed versions of La Boheme, either, but new operas written by real composers in collaboration with the directors. Maybe there’s hope for the mass appeal of the high arts yet.