A discount ticket program aimed at college students has been quite successful at drawing young adults to arts events in Pittsburgh, but some in the city’s arts community have begun to question whether the cheap (and sometimes free) tickets will ever actually translate into a new generation of paid subscribers. Still, the program represents an important revenue source for performing arts groups in a time of fiscal uncertainty. And the program’s coordinator claims that more and more students lured in by an initial freebie are taking advantage of discount ticket offers.
Tag: 12.09.04
Bringing Twin Artworks Together Again
“A pair of rare multimillion-dollar paintings by the Russian-born artist Wassily Kandinsky were reunited Wednesday at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts after being separated in a crude artistic surgery more than 70 years ago in Munich, Germany. The Minneapolis museum has owned one of the colorful abstractions since 1967, but the other, which was originally painted on the back of the Minneapolis image, fell through the cracks of Europe’s war-torn history and was all but forgotten for nearly a century. Preserved by the family of a Kandinsky friend, the second painting recently resurfaced in Munich and is now on loan to the Minneapolis museum.”
The Art Of War
War has inspired countless powerful works of art over the centuries, but most of it has been created by outside observers rather than by those who actually experience the horror of battle and the triumph of victory. In recent years, however, more and more veterans have been creating artworks to express their lingering feelings about the conflicts in which they were involved, and the results, as shown at a Chicago museum devoted to vet art, are deeply personal and overtly engaging.
Fiscal Turnaround In Detroit
The Detroit Symphony has rebounded from three straight years of deficits and posted a small surplus for the 2003-04 season. “Some factors leading to the positive financial news are unique and unlikely to be repeated. The October 2003 opening of the orchestra’s new home, the Max M. Fisher Music Center, was a once-in-a-lifetime event; the gala that marked the opening netted $1 million.” The persistent deficits led the DSO to replace its executive director last winter, and the orchestra’s musicians agreed to reopen their contract early and make significant concessions to stem the tide of red ink.
Brueghel Masterpiece Nets £3.7 Mil
An action-filled painting representing the pinnacle of 17th-century Flemish artist Pieter Brueghel’s career sold at auction in the UK this week for £3.7 million. The Kermesse of St George depicts the drunken revelry of a village feast day, and has been out of the public eye since 1930, when it was bought by a Belgian family. The new buyer has not been revealed.
Plum Position – Making It In The Movie Biz
Three not-yet-30-something women are making a name for themselves in the movie production business. “In the year since they formed their company, the women have already had remarkable success in a world where their age, sex and relative inexperience might be a handicap.”
Australia Council Strategy – Fewer Projects, More Money
“The idea is to spend more on fewer projects but ones that the council hopes will excite Australian audiences. A $9 million fund will be set up to drive strategic initiatives, which could include more international touring, support for indigenous art and education projects. Heads of art-form boards will be given greater power and will be encouraged to apply to the fund with important projects.”
Critics Blast Australia Council Overhaul
As part of the Australian government’s restructuring of the Australia Council, the Community Cultural Development Board and New Media Arts Board are to be abolished. Critics were quick to pounce: “It’s a fairly appalling decision made by people who clearly have very little comprehension of what contemporary arts is all about. They have shown a complete disregard for any idea of progress.”
Michael Kaiser – Mr. Fix-It
During the last 20 years Mr. Kaiser has made a minor art form of turning around troubled ballet and opera companies, including American Ballet Theater, the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation and the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden in London. His latest accomplishment – resurrecting Dance Theatre of Harlem. “Within five or six weeks, Mr. Kaiser helped the company retire its debts, find a new executive director, expand its board and begin facing the future. ‘I needed to show troubled organizations around the country that you can fix your problems. I take very little credit for the actual implementation. They’ve done it’.”
Carvings Damaged By Taliban Go Back On Display
“A collection of pre-Islamic wooden idols chopped up by the Taliban in 2001 in their drive for a pure Muslim state is back on display in Afghanistan after being restored in a project financed by the Austrian government. The near life-sized idols, some bearing at least a passing resemblance to the mysterious stone statues of Easter Island, went on display this week at the Kabul Museum, which was badly ravaged in Afghanistan’s civil war and Taliban rule until 2001.”