ARTS & CULTURE
“Cuno illustrates museums’ role.” By Juliana Biondo. Yale Daily News. February 23, 2010. James Cuno,, president of the Art Institute of Chicago, spoke Monday at the Yale University Art Gallery about the evolving role of museums. Students and elderly museum-goers, many with note pads and pencils in hand, listened to Cuno talk about the meaning and role of antiquity, nationalization and globalization in today’s art world.
“Museum attendance up, income down, survey says.” No by-line. Los Angeles Times. February 26, 2010. Most of the nation’s museums reported better attendance during 2009, but that didn’t necessarily salvage the bottom line, says the American Assn. of Museums, which conducted an online survey last month and released its results on Friday. About 57% of the responding museums reported better attendance than in 2008; about a seventh of the respondents said they’d seen an increase of 20% or more, and 25% said attendance was up by 5% to 20%. But the bad economy took a toll. The money museums earn from admission fees and other visitor spending typically covers only a third of overall costs, according to the association, a Washington-based nonprofit service and advocacy group. Attendance gains notwithstanding, 67% of the 481 museums in the survey said they had felt financial stress during 2009, and 26% characterized that stress as severe (bad, but not the worst since 2004) or very severe (the worst since 2004). About half the museums (49%) said their revenues had dropped from 2008, and only 27% said income had increased. “The overall picture … is better than we expected, given the general state of the economy,” said Philip Katz, the assistant research director who wrote the report.
“Bon Jovi Visits Homeless Shelters For Nonprofit Research.” By Gene Johnson. Huffington Post. February 27, 2010. Jon Bon Jovi’s new tour is bringing the veteran rock star to venues he doesn’t usually visit on the road. A shelter for hardcore alcoholics in Seattle. A tour of Skid Row in Los Angeles. Perhaps a squatters village in Sacramento. That’s because this tour in support of Bon Jovi’s latest release, “The Circle,” is also a fact-finding mission. The singer plans on visiting as many homeless shelters and programs as time allows in hopes of getting ideas and inspiration to shape his own work with the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation, a Philadelphia-based charity that fights homelessness by building affordable housing, establishing community kitchens and cleaning up vacant lots in blighted neighborhoods.