Timely Culture Reporting and Arts Industry News

An Uptick for Broadway
The New York Times - March 31, 2010
By Patrick Healy

Compared to the dark days of the economy during the first three months of 2009, Broadway enjoyed modest improvements in ticket sales and attendance during the first quarter of 2010, according to a data analysis by the Broadway League released on Wednesday. Blockbuster musicals and star-studded productions were especially helpful in boosting the numbers.

Broadway's box-office receipts for plays and musicals totaled $228,529,254 in the first three months of 2010, an increase of 4.4 percent over the amount - $218,972,954 - for the same period in 2009. Attendance over the 13-week period this year rose 1.7 percent, to 2,749,694 from 2,702,691 in 2009. For the full article, click here

Art Institute of Chicago Cuts Some Gallery Hours
The New York Times - March 31, 2010
By Kate Taylor

The Art Institute of Chicago has begun closing some galleries for one to two hours a day in an effort to close a budget gap, Carrie Heinonen, the museum's vice president for public affairs, said. The rotating closures are an experiment so far, but the museum projects being able to save $150,000 annually if they are continued, Ms. Heinonen said. She added that none of the most-visited galleries - like those displaying Impressionist paintings or famous works like Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks" or Grant Wood's "American Gothic" - had been closed and that the museum had received very few complaints. The closures were reported by Time Out Chicago. For the full article, click here

Charles Ryskamp, Director of Morgan and Frick, Dies at 81
The New York Times - March 30, 2010
By William Grimes

Charles Ryskamp, a literary scholar and art collector who was the director of two of New York's most prestigious small museums, the Pierpont Morgan Library and the Frick Collection, for nearly 30 years, died Friday in Manhattan. He was 81 and lived in Manhattan and Princeton, N.J. For the full article, click here

Art Gallery Takes Over La Frieda Meatpacking Plant
Crain's New York Business - March 26, 2010
By Lisa Fickenscher

Gavin Brown's Enterprise's first show in its new space, "Go Vegan" will take place in the same rooms that were used to process beef.

When Pat La Frieda Wholesale Meats moves next month to its new headquarters in North Bergen, N.J., its 10,000-square-foot building in the Meatpacking District will be transformed into an art gallery. Gavin Brown's Enterprise, of 620 Greenwich St., is moving into the space in May.For the full article, click here

Global Arts & Culture News

Japan's Love of Exhibitions Proves Recession-Proof
The Art Newspaper - April 2010
By Javier Pes

Change at the top of the European blockbuster tree in Paris, London and Moscow, but business as usual in New York.

In Paris, London and Moscow young museums have toppled long-established ones from the top of the exhibition tree in each respective city. But globally Japan's museums remain in a league of their own when it comes to organizing blockbuster exhibitions. In The Art Newspaper's 15th annual survey of attendance figures three Tokyo museums and one in Nara, 300 miles south west of the capital, fill the top four places. As in 2008, the average visitor- per-day statistics from Japan are staggering. When the Tokyo National Museum displayed Ashura, one of the nation's most famous Buddhist statues, along with other treasures from the Kohfukuji temple, Nara, on average 15,960 people a day went to see them. In Nara itself, the capital of Japan in the eighth century, almost the same number of people went daily to see Shoso-in treasures, which included objects belonging to Emperor Shomu (701-756), at the Nara National Museum. When the Tokyo National Museum borrowed treasures from the Imperial Collection to mark the 20th anniversary of the coronation of Emperor Akihito, it attracted a "mere" 9,473 visitors a day. For the full article, click here

The New Realities of Haitian Painting
The Wall Street Journal - March 27, 2010
By Miriam Jordan

In the quake's aftermath, artists who once depicted vibrant local life turn to darker themes; 'I had to paint it.'

Jacmel, Haiti - Before the earthquake, Onel Bazelais made colorful Carnival masks and painted scenes of life here in Haiti's cultural capital, Jacmel. These days, the artist's work depicts death, destruction and tent cities. The Jan. 12 quake devastated this seaside town renowned for its French colonial architecture, artistic community and annual Carnival. In under a minute, about 500 of the town's of 50,000 residents were killed, 4,000 were injured and most were left homeless. The sights and sounds of that day still haunt Mr. Bazelais. As with other artisans here, painting has provided an outlet for his still-raw emotions. "This is our new reality," says Mr. Bazelais, 41, pointing to a painting in muddy tones of gray, brown and red that depicts an encampment where hundreds of people are now crammed. For the full article, click here