Arts, Culture & Humanities

Portland Art Museum to Scale Back Budget, Raise Admission
June 30, 2009

June 25, 2009, The Oregonian — Following a weekend of bustling activity encouraged by the opening of a show on tattoo art, the Portland Art Museum on Thursday became the latest arts group to announce budget cuts and strategic decisions.

U.S. House Hikes Arts and Humanities Budgets
June 29, 2009

USCapitol, June 26, 2009, The Los Angeles Times — The House of Representatives today approved $170-million budgets for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2010: a 9.7% increase for each over their current $155 million. The vote was 254 to 173 for the Department of the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies budget bill, which includes the two cultural grant-making agencies.

Texas Ballet Theater Back in the Black After Successful Fundraising Drive
June 19, 2009

June 18, 2009, The Star-Telegram — With less than two weeks remaining before the end of its current fiscal year, the Texas Ballet Theater has reached its fundraising goal of $2 million dollars — the total that it said was needed over the last six months in order to give the financially strapped company renewed stability as it plans for the upcoming 2009-2010.

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra Sets Ticket Sales Record
June 19, 2009

June 12, 2009, Dallas Business Journal — Symphony orchestras across the country have been among the arts organizations hardest hit by the current recession, but the Dallas Symphony Orchestra sold a record $11 million worth of tickets for its recently completed season thanks to a push that lured first-timers to fill more than 25% of the seats at the Meyerson.

James Irvine Foundation Rewards the Innovators
June 18, 2009

June 17, 2009, The Los Angeles Times — Some time next year, a seeing-eye dog may guide visitors -- even those with no vision problems -- through the galleries of the Hammer Museum in Westwood to a pre-selected painting. In San Francisco, young actors in training may be found rounding up an audience for a play staged in a bar or in the rec room of a juvenile detention facility. Visitors to a museum in Oakland may be asked to tell the curators how they'd like to interact with the art, while in downtown San Diego, they may bump into an artist completing a work in progress.

Studies Show Art Audience Decline
June 16, 2009

June 16, 2009, Washington Post — Two separate national surveys gauging youth and adult participation in the arts reported yesterday that visits to art museums are declining.

Insider Appointed Chairwoman of Lincoln Center
June 9, 2009

June 8, 2009, The New York Times — Katherine G. Farley, a senior managing director at the real estate company Tishman Speyer and head of Lincoln Center’s redevelopment project, has been appointed the chairwoman of Lincoln Center.

Detroit Symphony Gets $1 Million to Boost Fundraising
June 5, 2009

June 3, 2009, DETROIT, Associated Press — The Ford Foundation has given a boost to the struggling Detroit Symphony Orchestra -- a three-year, $1 million grant to help it expand its donor base.

Charities Loosening Strings on Arts Grants
June 4, 2009

June 4, 2009, The New York Times — The board of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation has loosened the strings on some grants to arts organizations to help them weather a severe downturn in fund-raising and income from ticket sales and the like.