Dance Theatre of Harlem is reopening its school, a few months after the company shut down to reorganize. The reopening is made possible by $1.6 million raised in the past month. A third of that amount is attributed to New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. “This remarkable institution has represented the best of New York. With its shutting down, “you could immediately sense the void.”
Tag: 12.01.04
Best Of Nothing
Who looks at those best-of-the-year book lists? “Every year, literary editors feel that there is nothing their readers want more than a group of superannuated literary types telling them what they have enjoyed during the previous 12 months. There is no evidence that anyone reads these self-satisfied musings, but the papers persist anyway, competing desperately for the glitziest names.”
France Puzzled By Louvre’s Expansion Plans
Why did the Louvre decide to expand in “one of France’s most impoverished regions, due to be built on the site of a derelict coal pit. Lens is currently a cultural desert, famous only for its football team and its deserted coal mines. The city, around 40 miles inland from Calais, was badly hit by industrial crises in the 1990s and unemployment stands at 12.7%, or three percentage points above the national average.”
King Tut Returns
For the first time since 1979, the treasures of Egyptian King Tutankhamen are visiting the United States. “The exhibit, which is now touring Europe, would open in June at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and go on to at least three other American cities. The exhibit will allow the American public the first glimpse in a generation of the ancient Egyptian treasures.”
Union Performers Sue San Francisco Opera
Union performers are suing San Francisco Opera in part over performances at a birthday party for music director Donald Runnicles. “The suit, brought by singers, dancers and production staff members, accused the opera of refusing to go to arbitration or to follow grievance procedures over the charges. ‘They blatantly ignore us. They just kind of do what they want to do, and if it happens to violate the contract, ‘Oops!’ “