Art in the News - 2015
Read the latest arts news
On Wednesday, August 12, the Des Moines Register published an op-ed by John Pappajohn titled "The Arts Mean Business in Iowa." The op-ed comes several days ahead of the Iowa Arts Advocacy Caucus, held on August 14 and co-hosted with the Iowa Arts Council, Iowa Alliance for Arts Education, BRAVO Greater Des Moines, NAMM, and the United States Conference of Mayors.
When it opens in the fall of 2016, Sacramento’s new downtown arena Golden Center 1 will be home to five public art installations worth $9.3 million. While Sacramento City Council initially received praise for integrating public art in the new arena, they received much backlash in March 2015 when they first selected New York City artist Jeff Koons’s Coloring Book sculpture—with a price tag of $8 million.
Illinois is entering its second month without a passed budget after Governor Rauner vetoed the Legislature’s proposed Fiscal Year 2016 budget—the Legislature did not support the governor’s reforms and surpassed state revenues by $3 billion. To cut down on government expenses due to the budget stalemate, Gov. Rauner ordered the closure of state facilities which include five state museums.
Stephen Colbert announced that he would fund every single request made by South Carolina public school teachers on the website DonorsChoose.org. The total donation clocked in at $800,000 and covered almost 1,000 projects at more than 375 schools.
A newly released half-hour documentary tells the story of The Science and Technology High School in Springfield, Massachusetts, where dropout rates are so high and standard test scores so low that the state rates it Level 4. At Level 5 the state has the right to take over the school and possibly send its 1500 students out into the city’s struggling public school system.
Poet Laureate of San Antonio Laurie Ann Guerrero has added another title to her name: Literary Arts Director/Writer-in-Residence at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center. The Center cultivates, promotes, and preserves traditional and contemporary Chicano, Latino, and Native American arts and culture through multidisciplinary programming, and is one of the largest community-based organizations in the US.
On Friday, July 31, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced that the city will further develop its three designated arts and entertainment districts—Station North, Highlandtown, and Bromo Seltzer Tower.
A coalition of construction company firms in Oakland, Ca. is suing the city over its public art ordinance, which requires construction firms to spend between 0.5% and 1% of any construction project’s budget on public art. Called the Building Industry Association of the Bay Area (BIA), the coalition represents about 300 builders, contractors, suppliers, and others within the Bay Area housing sector.
British theater company Little Earthquake gave 100 primary school children the creative reins for a recent original production, granting them the opportunity to be centrally involved in the play’s development, creation, and promotion.
Composer Jimmy López will make his operatic debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago this winter, largely thanks to the decision to upload his vocal music onto YouTube. After an extensive quest for a composer to musically adapt Ann Patchett’s novel Bel Canto to the operatic stage, Lyric Opera came across Lopez’s samples on YouTube and immediately contacted him.
