local, national, and international arts news
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For more about national issues for arts leaders looking at the big picture below is our timely scan of news articles from ArtsJournal.com.
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11/13/2008
Matchmaker Finds Patrons for Artists
A new arts fellowship program, United States Artists, has developed a knack for bringing patrons and artists together. The group functions as 'bridge builders' and has won recognition as one of the few new sources of artists’ grants at a time when federal financing from agencies like the National Endowment for the Arts has diminished. But what sets its fellowships apart from other more established award programs is the way the group plays matchmaker between donors and artists. 100 percent of donors money goes straight to the artists — something few institutions can say. And donors are, more or less, able to direct their financing.
The New York Times 11/10/2008
11/13/2008
Kennedy Chief to an NYC Opera's Rescue
New York City Opera has announced that Michael M. Kaiser, the president of the Kennedy Center, will be advising that troubled institution in its urgent search for a new director. "With guidance from Michael Kaiser, one of America's leading arts management advisors," Baker wrote in the letter, whose contents were reported yesterday by Musicalamerica.com, "our board and staff are working to identify new leadership and to craft a plan for the 2009-2010 season and beyond." Kaiser will City Opera on planning but will not being paid for his services. Kaiser is a veteran of helping arts groups avoid extinction. His recent book, "The Art of the Turnaround," summarizes the fruits of his experience saving arts institutions. A cornerstone of his philosophy is that arts organizations have to think big and program adventurously in order to flourish. "We have been scared into thinking small," he wrote in a 2002 op-ed in The Post, as performing arts organizations reeled in the economic wake of Sept. 11."And small thinking begets smaller revenue that begets even smaller institutions and reduced public excitement and involvement. No wonder so many arts organizations are announcing record deficits."
The Washington Post 11/13/2008
11/13/2008
Ballet dancers on UK's most wanted list
Ballet dancers, sheep shearers, maths teachers, geologists, chemical engineers, horse trainers, physicists and biologists have been placed on Britain's most- wanted list under an immigration points system announced this week. The scheme is designed to stem the inflow of low- skilled workers from outside the European Union and give preference to entrepreneurs, financial high-flyers and professionals. The first stage, for highly skilled workers, was introduced in February. A points system would allow the government to raise or lower the bar according to the needs of business and taking population trends into account.
Financial Times 11/12/2008
11/05/2008
Obama's Culture Plank
Senator Barack Obama writes poetry, gets props from Bruce Springsteen and Jay-Z, and is the first White House contender to include a far-reaching arts plank in his platform. The proposals range from increased support for arts education and the National Endowment for the Arts, to changing the federal tax code for artists. Obama began forming his culture plank in the spring of 2007, long before winning the Democratic nomination. He brought together a committee of artists and arts professionals, headed by Hollywood writer, director and producer George Stevens Jr. and Broadway producer Margo Lion. The committee's members include novelist Michael Chabon, Broadway director Hal Prince, musicians Eugenia and Pinchas Zukerman, Museum of Modern Art president emerita Agnes Gund, as well as Robert Lynch, President and CEO of Americans for the Arts.
Bloomberg 10/31/2008
11/05/2008
Arts, social networking and philanthropy
Increasingly, nonprofits like the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Charleston Ballet Theatre, and Spoleto Festival USA are tapping the philanthropic potential of social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. Long term, Charleston's arts organizations say they hope young professionals will be encouraged to support their programs monetarily after learning more about them on the web. "Turning to Facebook is about solidifying our future. It's a way to reach out to people in their 20s and 30s, and entice them to sample our product," says Janet Newcomb, executive director of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra.
The Charleston City Paper 11/05/2008
11/05/2008
Kenya creates 'Obama the Musical'
Obama, The Musical opens this Sunday in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. The hour-long play is hotly awaited in a country where Mr Obama, whose father was Kenyan, is a wildly popular figure. Mr Obama, who has never lived in Kenya and has only come to the country on visits, is a national hero. A local beer has been named after him. The 30-strong cast is made up of young actors and actresses - their average age is 21 - who are very excited to be a part of the production. The play tells the story of Mr Obama's life and stresses the virtues of hard work, selflessness, democracy and public service. The message is especially important for Kenyans. In January, Kenya was rocked by post-election violence that left more than 1,500 people dead and 300,000 homeless. The play will run until 5 November. There have already been invitations to perform in the UK and South Africa.
BBC 10/31/2008
10/31/2008
Ex-Director To Repay Smithsonian
W. Richard West Jr., who retired last year as founding director of the National Museum of the American Indian, has agreed to reimburse the Smithsonian $9,700 for payments that he should not have received. Other expenses might have to be reported to the Internal Revenue Service as income on his tax returns. Members of Congress requested a report after The Washington Post reported in December that West spent more than $250,000 in institution funds over the previous four years on premium transportation and plush lodging in hotels around the world, including more than a dozen trips to Paris. Top Smithsonian officials have repeatedly said that the institution's spending excesses were corrected with reforms in early 2007 following the resignation of then-Secretary Lawrence M. Small after concerns were raised about his salary, housing allowance and certain expenditures. The report found international travel mixed business with personal vacations.
The Washington Post 10/29/2008
10/31/2008
NEA to Nurture 7 Varied New Plays
The National Endowment for the Arts has announced the selection of seven plays to be funded as part of its New Play Development Program. The pilot project, which is being administered by Arena Stage, is designed not only to underwrite new works already in progress but also to spot successful collaborations among artists, theaters, communities and other entities that might be used as models. Selected as NEA Outstanding New American Plays are two works that, with the companies nurturing them, will receive $90,000 each toward further development and full productions. Five works in earlier stages of development will receive $20,000 each, as NEA Distinguished New Play Development Projects.
The Washington Post 10/29/2008
10/31/2008
CBC Radio Orchestra goes multimedia
The CBC Radio Orchestra's final concert is less than a month away, but the 70-year-old Vancouver orchestra will carry on after its official farewell concert on Nov. 16, with a new name and an expanded mandate. The reformed entity will will expand beyond conventional broadcasting into webcasting and other types of Internet distribution. Officials decribe the new entity as "Canada's multimedia orchestra," a term that appears on the group's rudimentary website (broadcastorchestra.ca). "It will mostly be digital broadcasting," said Labelle, a venture capitalist whose current principal venture is an online software platform named ZeFridge. "What we want to do is bring the orchestra close to Canadians, and to everyone, since there are no borders on the Internet." Trudel said a full program for the NBO's first season will be announced around the time of a fundraising concert in the spring of 2009. Regular performances will begin next September.
Globe and Mail 10/30/2008
10/29/2008
Google settles online books lawsuits
Google has reached a landmark agreement with authors and publishers to make millions of books available online, in a deal that includes a $125m payout and the end to lawsuits filed by companies including Penguin. The agreement comes after two years of negotiations between the parties and will mark the end of two lawsuits against the Google Book Search tool. Today's agreement settles a class action lawsuit filed by the Authors Guild in September 2005 challenging Google's plans to digitise, search and show snippets of in-copyright books and to share digital copies with libraries without explicit permission. A month later five major members of the Association of American Publishers – McGraw-Hill, Pearson Education, Penguin, Simon & Schuster and John Wiley – filed a separate suit on similar grounds. The deal today, described in a joint statement by all parties as "groundbreaking", will see online access granted for millions of in-copyright materials "and other written materials" in the US through Google Book Search. Rights holders will be able to control the pricing of online content and access to books.
The Guardian 10/28/2008
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