Good Morning:
A $116 million gift from a single billionaire will now indefinitely fund the National Gallery’s program for loaning art to museums across the country (Washington Post). Same week, Cape Cod’s 42-year-old Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater is suspending operations, citing an “increasingly challenging philanthropic environment” (TheaterMania). The top of the pyramid is getting reinforced; the middle is cracking.
The pattern repeats. Brazilian cinema development exists because one philanthropist, Olga Rabinovich, personally funds it (Variety). San Diego, meanwhile, is cutting its arts budget and calling it fiscal discipline (San Diego Magazine). The arts economy is reorganizing around a thinner spine of individual benefactors — and Nashville is about to break ground on a $1B+ Bjarke Ingels-designed performing arts complex that underlines the point (WPLN).
The political weather keeps tightening. Lee Bollinger is proposing a NATO-style defense pact for universities under federal pressure (InsideHigherEd), and the FCC has opened a new probe into gender identity content in children’s TV (Deadline).
LACMA’s new Geffen Galleries open, and the LA Times calls the result a “revisionist fever dream.” In a good way? (Los Angeles Times).
All of our stories below.
