From the Boston Symphony Orchestra:

"Because of James Levine’s withdrawal from the rest of the 2008 Tanglewood Season, the following changes have been made. An updated release and listing is attached.

July 20, 8 p.m.

Stefan Asbury and Erik Nielsen will conduct Carter’s Dialogues for piano and orchestra, Clarinet concerto, the world premiere of Sound Fields, and Variations for Orchestra.

July 21, 8 p.m.

Ursula Oppens will perform Carter’s Matribute

July 22, 8 p.m.

Jeffrey Milarsky and Ryan Wigglesworth will conduct mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey, soprano Jo Ellen Miller, Harpist Ann Hobson-Pilot, the Fellows of the TMC in Carter’s Sonata for flute, oboe, cello, and harpsichord, In the Distances of Sleep, the American Premiere of Mosaic, the world premiere of Mad Regales, commissioned by the TMC, and A Mirror on Which to Dwell.

July 24, 8 p.m.

Oliver Knussen and Shi-Yeon Sung will conduct the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Carter’s Boston Concerto, Three Illusions, and Horn Concerto."

Yes, there are actually people who might not know that there's a (recently) new art museum in town. This banner, which recently went up on the Institute of Contemporary Art, should provide a bit of extra pub.

The news, out of the Institute of Contemporary Art's gala Friday night, is that the museum's capital campaign is over. The final tally: $75 million. (The ICA's original goal was $50 million.)

Oh, and here are a few pictures from the gala.

From left to right: Nick Winton, ICA Chair of the Board of Overseers; Jill Medvedow, Director of the ICA/Boston; Tricia Winton

From left to right: Ron and Karen Walker; Tim Ferguson, ICA Trustee

From left to right: Eliza Osborne, Sotheby’s auctioneer; Ric Scofidio; Elizabeth Diller; Paul Bessire, ICA Deputy Director.

A photo of the band I helped organize for the Peirce School Art Fair.

Here are a few interesting facts:

- Walter Robinson, the editor of Artnet, is also a painter.
- He currently has an exhibition of his work on display at a Chelsea gallery, Metro Pictures.
- The show received a rave review from Charlie Finch in Artnet.

And when I say rave, note the following graph:

"You are going to hear a lot of balderdash about Walter Robinson’s work as forerunners of John Currin, Karen Kilimnik and others. Don’t believe it: they never heard of these paintings and Robinson’s oeuvre proudly stands on its own, sui generis."

I sent Robinson a question:

"Were you at all concerned that having your own writer review your own work in your magazine would appear to be a conflict?"

Robinson's response:

"I’d do almost anything to get attention from dweebs like you! W"

Okay.

For more of an answer, I called Robinson’s boss, Artnet Worldwide president Bill Fine. He noted, first, that Robinson did not edit the Finch piece. Ben Davis, the magazine’s associate editor, oversaw the review.

"Charlie is a freelance guy and a contributor, but we don’t muzzle him or control him,” said Fine. “I suspect Walter would publish it if it were negative.”

Isn’t it unlikely the review would have been negative?

“I think generally speaking most media in the art field, they’re generally publishing positive things. You wouldn’t see a copy of Art in America or ARTnews with all the negatives. That particular show did very well.”

That’s not the point, I told Fine. Isn’t the idea of conflict not merely that there was no conflict but to remove the appearance of conflict?

Fine then told me that Robinson and Finch had a “difficult relationship” over the years.

“I actually brought Charlie into the company. But I think initially Walter probably fired him two or three times in the early going. You know, Charlie’s a real asset to the company. I think he has a lot of eyeballs. The art business is fairly incestuous anyway. You might find that's the story.”

Greg Cook has an excellent overview of the changes coming to Boston's gallery scene. He hints at the "grim" rumors involving potential gallery shutdowns but, as best as I can tell by the confirmed shifts, at the moment we're looking at a lot of musical chairs.

I've been thinking a lot about Douglas McLennan's essay on the newspaper business, and how it relates to what I do.

He makes an excellent point about the advertising kinks the mainstreamers need to work out as they transition into the Tubes. With absolutely no inside knowledge, I'll speculate on why it is taking so long to come up with a solution.

I don't pay much attention to newspaper circulation figures. I mean, I note them when they're released, and wish they were increasing, not sliding. But I don't feel a connection to those numbers. It's not as if writing X number of stories about Y subject is going to shift the tides.

The Net, though, is a different story.

Take my own experience with the Exhibitionist. When I began this blog, I asked the Boston.com folks to send me daily page view figures. I wasn't just curious. I wanted to see how this blog beast worked. I can already hear the snooty, arts-coverage-is-being-dumbed-down lobby responding to the horror of a writer who cares about numbers.

To them, I say this. Newspapers are a business. If we truly care about making sure arts coverage remains a vital part of that business, we need to stay relevant. That means remembering that the stakes at the Boston Globe are different than in a creative writing group, or an independent blog. You can't hide when nobody's reading. Eventually, somebody in charge is going to notice. Then, you're cooked.

Back to the numbers.

It was depressing at first. The Red Sox and Patriots blogs had hundreds of thousands of built-in visitors. In the arts, pop music, TV and movies were the early leaders. The Exhibitionist - a blog about museums, classical music, etc.? Way down the line.

So I started to experiment.

There would be plenty of entries like this, where I dug for information, took on a somewhat complicated subject, and broke "news" on the blog BUT I would also post entries such as this.

I'd then watch the numbers.

The Paris Hilton post, for example, took all of 27 seconds to produce, and didn't even require a right brain warm-up. But it had legs. The Hilton post got linked on Drudge, and who knows how many google news alerts led to my url. In the end, Paris rolled up more than 100,000 page views. Barenboim? That number's hovering around 500, if I'm lucky.

Which doesn't mean the entry wasn't worthwhile, or that I wasted my time producing it. For me, it showed how this dramatic shift, from paper to virtual, is a work-in-progress. Maybe once in a while it pays to feed the numbers beast to potentially drive more traffic to the blog, and, in turn, the newspaper.

Loosening up - embracing both Sterns, Howard and Isaac - has certainly attracted more clicks. This blog has been praised, and it has been savaged.

In the end, it serves a series of functions for me. I can quickly address national and international arts news, even when the Globe's arts staff is smaller than that of the New York Times. I can (attempt) humor and a conversational tone that doesn't always fit into print. I can also experiment. Will the Paris Hilton post build more regular readers? Or will it merely convince my editors that we need more Paris Hilton posts? Hopefully, the former.

Which, in a roundabout fashion, gets me back to McLennan's post.

So if the Globe goes out to sell an ad for the Exhibitionist, what is it selling? An ad for a site that draws hundreds of thousands of TMZ.com-loving people? Or are they selling ads for a niche site that "breaks" news of an antiquities deal at the Museum of Fine Arts, or posts the on-line travel journal of a Boston Ballet dancer? Those are vastly different products, with vastly different reaches.

In my opinion, the problem isn't putting up a link to an ad buy. It is explaining to those advertisers, steeped in the traditional lingo that's been used by print for decades, why a successful blog might have a little bit of everything.

Don't blame only newspapers for the confusion. Last week, I visited a class at New York University taught by Arthur Cohen. During the discussion, I realized that even the leaders of one of the cultural world's leading marketing firms has questions about this new world. How are traditional journalists going to cover arts news? Where does the Internet come in? How can arts institutions better use the technology to directly reach out to their audiences?

Again, there were no magic bullets. But I didn't feel panic. Instead, I felt comforted listening to a group of intelligent, young, and ultimately interested future cultural leaders as they searched for the answers.

If this article is accurate, the Museum of Fine Arts may have another antiquity problem on its hands.

The issue, as reported by Jori Finkel, is related to a series of recent museum raids:

The investigation could also have broad implications for other museums across the country. In the affidavits filed to obtain search warrants, the agents laid the groundwork for a legal argument that virtually all Ban Chiang material in the United States is stolen property.

In essence, the paperwork states, antiquities that left Thailand after 1961, when the country enacted its antiquities law, could be considered stolen under American law. And since Ban Chiang material was not excavated until well after that date, practically all Ban Chiang material in the United States could qualify.

Why is the MFA in the mix? Because, Finkel reports, it is one of many museums with these artifacts in its collection.

"You Really Got Me." "A Well Respected Man." "All Day and All of the Night." Ray Davies wrote all those, and plenty more. His songs have been covered by everyone from the Black Keys to Yo La Tengo, sold computers and laundry detergents, and pumped life into hipper-than-thou soundtracks ("Juno," "The Darjeeling Limited").

more stories like thisBut that's history, and Davies's long-awaited official solo debut, 2006's "Other People's Lives," didn't offer much hope for the future. Murkily written and overproduced, the record was as bland as a bowl of shredded wheat left out in the rain.

So it's a welcome surprise to hear Davies on "Working Man's Café," a collection of twangy rock that might not stand up with the best Kinks work (what does?) but certainly marks his return as a maker of new music.

Read the rest.

By Geoff Edgers
Globe Staff

A year after a much-criticized decision to cut in half its free Shakespeare production on Boston Common, the Citi Performing Arts Center announced today it will restore some of the lost shows, and travel to Springfield for three performances.

The production of “As You Like It” will run from July 18 to August 3 on the Common’s Parkman Bandstand, and play the Forest Park amphitheatre in Springfield from August 8 to 10.

Last summer, citing a financial crunch, the Citi Center cut the Shakespeare on the Common run from 20 to 7 performances, and the production budget from $1 million to about $500,000. In addition, the Citi Center decided, after the run, not to offer keep on staff Steven Maler, who had put on the Boston Common production since 1996.

This year’s run will cost $660,000, and Maler will direct it as a hired contractor. There will be 15 performances in Boston, and three in Springfield.

Repeat after me. Tom Brady, you are forgiven. Bill Belichick, it's fine you didn't kick a field goal. We are okay.

Now, turn to the real Super Bowl. The Symphony Bowl.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra takes on the New York Philharmonic. I don't want to tell you what happens, but I can promise this. There will be no Ellis Hobbs in the string section.

There is a catch, of course.

The art exhibited in the Montserrat College of Art's "Mini Opus" show must be less than 6 inches long or high. If that's not big enough, you can always pick up a mountable magnifying glass for a few more greenbacks.

"Mini Opus" has been curated by Jessica Lewis, a senior at the college, and features works by alumni, faculty, students and staff. As for the sale: All the works will be sold at a closing reception, Feb. 15, for $10 each.

For more information, visit the Bear Gallery blog.

Charlie Finch, over at artnet, tries to get in the grill of those "bloggies," who he says unfairly attacked former Village Voice critic Christian Viveros-Faune. You can read all of Finch's comments here, but I'll provide a taste.

He states that the bloggers "began to call for "regulating" critical speech like the blue-nosed cryptofascists they are, while ignoring the free market manipulations of the auction houses and blue chip galleries they love to suck up to. This is analogous to a bunch of Boy Scouts pushing an old lady into the street for crossing against the light, while the mugger cruises by in a stolen car."

Read on, and you'll see Finch reference historical examples of critics who also created art. Fair enough, but I'm not sure I'm ready to compare a freelancer who wrote a few decent reviews to George Bernard Shaw.

What's also strange - coming from me, apparently one of those bloggers who thought an art critic should understand the difference between reviewing exhibitions and organizing them - is this reference to the auction houses and galleries we all supposedly like to suck up to.

Isn't artnet a service that provides sales figures and basically charts the art market? This "foggy bloggie" is more likely to post an important chunk of cultural news than sort through receipts from Sotheby's.

If you're 21-38 and single - YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE - the Boston Symphony Orchestra has Repartee. The 40 and over crowd gets Bolero.

But what if you've already found that special someone, and become a breeder?

Fear not. Today, the BSO announced the Concerti Club, "enabling the entire family to most fully enjoy the concert orchestra experience via family concerts that provide specially designed pre- and post-concert activities that all take place at Symphony Hall, as well as family-friendly Boston Pops programs."

The first family concert is Feb. 2, at 10:15 a.m. and 12 p.m. Tickets are $195 per pair, and $390 for four.

For more info, go here.

It's that wonderful time of the year when arts organizations zap your e-mail box with requests. Today's comes from the Huntington, which reminds us that:

Live theatre is a unique experience, shared by a community of people eager to laugh, to escape, or to simply be entertained. Whether you're being transported to an unfamiliar world or becoming reacquainted with your past, the theatre provides you with food for your mind and your soul, time with your friends and family, and good conversation fodder for days afterward.

Want to give? Click here for more info.

The Washington Post exposes another case of free-spending in the museum world. Read to the end, as the final lines are priceless.

Boston's arts year in review. And Boston's year in dance.

A classical music critic reminds us why he, and we, should like classical music.

Matthew Guerrieri, in Slate, on Stockhausen.

Here's the Boston Foundation's "Vital Signs" report.

Yes, it's snowing, and it's a heavy snow to shovel, and I've got a cast on my leg, etc., etc.

But it's hard not to feel blessing when the google alert arrives with the account of "An MIT wedding." I'm not one to criticize other people's affairs. So I won't. I'll just direct you to this fantastic blog entry of the Sept. 15 pairing of Mollie B. and Adam. She's a PhD student in developmental neurobiology and... and former captain of the cheerleading squad! He was "a cute curly-haired aerospace engineering major" when they met.

What else should you know?

"Instead of throwing rice at us after we left the church, our guests threw paper airplanes. Adam designed the airplanes in Solidworks, optimizing for easy foldability and distance."

Oh, and their first dance was to "Everything I Do (I Do It For You)" by Bryan Adams.

Nothing excites the news desk like nude hockey players. Okay, perhaps a juicy library board meeting. Today, my story on Kurt Kauper, and his imagined nude portraits of retired Bruins legend Bobby Orr, can be found here.

There's also a slide show.

Kauper's gallery also has a slideshow for the exhibition. The pictures there are, ahem, a bit more complete.

An added note of interest that didn't make the piece.

Kauper told me that he sought, and received, permission from the Pro Hockey Hall of Fame to reproduce the images (non-nudes) he found on hockey cards.

For example, here's Orr's 1971-72 card.

Here's Kauper's painting.

Item 1: The Greeks drop charges against former Getty curator Marion True (below).

And now for an interview:
LACAYO: Should the Met have gone about things differently when it made acquisitions in the past?
DE MONTEBELLO: I don't know, should Enrico Dandolo not have taken the horses of San Marco [from Constantinople] in 1204?
- Part 1 and Part 2

I'm not sure what to make of this, but it appeared in my e-mail in box, so I pass on. The Clark Art Institute's publicity folks relay that today, in Rome, "leaders of American and Italian museums and cultural organizations to discuss ways to foster improved cooperation between the two countries that would lead to enhanced intellectual and cultural exchange."

The meeting was co-organized by the American Academy in Rome and the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute of Williamstown, Massachusetts.

I e-mailed to ask which American museum types were there.

Maxwell L. Anderson, Director and CEO, Indianapolis Museum of Art
Don Bacigalupi, Director, Toledo Museum of Art
James Ballinger, Director, Phoenix Art Museum, (Immediate Past President,
Association of Art Museum Directors)

Michael Brand, Director, J. Paul Getty Museum

Michael Conforti, Director, The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute
(President-elect, Association of Art Museum Directors)

Carmela Vircillo Franklin, Director, American Academy in Rome

Prof. Thomas McGinn
Andrew W. Mellon Professor-in-Charge of the School of Classical Studies
American Academy in Rome

Anne-Imelda Radice, Director, Institute of Museum and Library Services
(U.S. Government Cultural Funding Agency)

Adele Chatfield-Taylor, President, American Academy in Rome

James N. Wood, President and CEO, The Getty Trust

Word comes from the Institute of Contemporary Art that Jessica Morgan, once a curator at the museum, has signed on to become an adjunct curator at the ICA. Morgan's full-time gig remains curator of contemporary art at the Tate Modern.

Nicholas Baume, the ICA's chief curator, told me that the decision to extend the invitation to Morgan came as the museum tried to determine who it might want to work with in the future. Morgan seemed a natural, he said. Keep in mind that next year the ICA will bring in "The World as a Stage," a show Morgan organized for the Tate. Baume said she will put together a solo artist show - he said it's too early to name the artist - for the ICA in 2009.

Morgan won't be on the ICA's fulltime staff, but the relationship will be "ongoing," Baume said.

"We’re looking at who would be interesting to guest curate shows, and we thought right away of Jessica," he said. "And we thought, she’s more than a one off guest curator. We should recognize that and it just evolved very naturally."

CultureGrrl has the facts, and a commentary on Alan and Simone Hartman's jade sale at Christie's. The second part of the collection brought in $25.7 million, well over the pre-auction estimate.

A few other comments:
- Modern Kicks
- Tyler Green
- Richard Lacayo

Saturday night, still resisting the Oxycontin, I blew through Steve Martin's memoir about his development as a stand-up comic. There's a lot to like about this book, even beyond it being possible to consume in a single reading session. For our purposes, I'll just post a chunk of this 1966 meeting with Aaron Copland, who met with the then-unknown Martin and a friend who was researching a college paper.

"We knocked on the door, Copland answered, and over his shoulder we saw a group of men sitting in the living room wearing what looked like skimpy black thongs. He escorted us back to a flagstone patio, where I had the demanding job of turning the tape recorder on and off while Phil asked questions about Copland's creative process. We emerged a half hour later with the coveted interview and got in the car, never mentioning the men in skimpy black thongs, because, like trigonometry, we couldn't quite comprehend it."

Sam Allis catches up with James Levine, who the Globe columnist admires despite admitting "I've ground my teeth to powder over the years from the likes of Carter and Schoenberg."

F. Scott was right. The rich really are different than you and I. For starters, they can turn to Warren Buffett for advice.

The New York Times dips into the Murakami show, and asks whether it's right for a museum to accept support from a commercial gallery with a clear stake in an artist's work.

Did anybody really think the Celtics would go 82-0?

Fresh off the press release pile:

"United States Artists (USA), a national organization that provides direct support for living artists, today announced the recipients of fifty USA Fellowships for 2007 totaling $2.5 million. This marks the second year of the USA Fellows program, which annually awards fifty $50,000 unrestricted grants to artists of all disciplines from across the country, in recognition of the caliber and impact of their work."

And now, what we care about: Local recipients were architects Monica Ponce de Leon and Nader Tehrani of Office dA, and musician Evan Ziporyn (below).

A Pops date with John Mayer? Possibly. Inside commentary on The Wedding. ("It was a great party!) All of it, and more, on the updated KeithLockhart.com.

In the "Ask Keith" section, the Pops conductor lists his favorite conductors, offers his take on the European and American musicians, and explains the difference between the Pops, Boston Symphony, and Pops Esplanade Orchestra.

And then there's this picture of Lockhart with Rosemary Carderi, and Patrice Pollard, who took in the VIP experience.

I took a nice roll through Harvard Square today. Yes, my wife, knowing 36 consecutive hours of in-house contemplation would likely not lead to much positive energy, borrowed a wheelchair and pushed me around the Charles River. It was a kind gesture, to say the least.

The reads.

Just last week, I re-hooked up the Sirius, post-car accident, and heard Stern riffing on The Zs. Alex Ross has the clips, though it should be noted that it is Fred, not Howard, who disses John Cage.

Would you believe my almost brand new, 160 gig iPod broke this morning. Good timing.

At Soho, a fitting commentary on Norman Mailer.

Reading Jeremy Eichler's review, I almost feel as if I can't keep myself from limping into Symphony Hall Tuesday night.

Ever read a story in which it is hard to feel for any of the characters? Here's one.

Drew Faust, Harvard's president, has created an arts task force to be chaired by English Professor Stephen Greenblatt. American Repertory Theatre boosters take note: Greenblatt, a noted Shakespeare scholar, has worked with Charles Mee on the ART's upcoming production of "Cardenio."

The task force, according to Harvard's press release, is "charged broadly with examining the role of the arts in a research university, in a liberal arts education, and at Harvard specifically. It will explore the role of arts both within and beyond the curriculum, as well as how Harvard can encourage connections between arts activities and science, technology, humanities, and other related fields. The committee is asked to consider as well how other parts of the University, such as the American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T.), the museums, and the Graduate School of Design (GSD) can be more fully integrated into a vibrant arts culture at Harvard. As it charts answers to these broad questions, the committee is also asked to consider what administrative, financial, and physical structures will be needed to advance the goals identified."

You can read the press release in its entirety, but I'll choose to focus on one quote from Faust:

"Our extraordinary strengths in the arts remain fragmented, less well-understood, less well-supported, and less integrated than their importance warrants. … The arts play a central role in the lives of so many students and faculty at Harvard, yet their role in the life of the University remains uncertain and undefined. I hope that this task force will attempt such a definition.”

Others on the task force:

Homi Bhabha, Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities, director of the Humanities Center, Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Melissa Franklin, Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics, Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Peter Galison, Joseph Pellegrino University Professor, director of the Collection of the Historical Scientific Instruments

Jorie Graham, Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory, Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Alfred Guzzetti, Osgood Hooker Professor of Visual Arts, Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Madelyn Ho ’08, chemical and physical biology, recipient of Harvard Artist Development Fellowship in Dance, Harvard College

John Kelly, 2004-2005 Fellow, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study

Joseph Koerner, professor of history of art and architecture, Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Emily Hargroves Fisher Professor of Education, Graduate School of Education

Jack Megan, director, Office for the Arts, Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Helen Mirra, assistant professor of visual and environmental studies, Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Helen Molesworth, Maisie K. and James R. Houghton Curator of Contemporary Art, Harvard University Art Museums

Ingrid Monson, Quincy Jones Professor of African-American Music, Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Mohsen Mostafavi, dean, Graduate School of Design (January 2008)

Dan Pecci ’09, English and American literature and language, secondary field in drama, recipient of 2006 Phyllis Anderson Prize in Playwriting, Harvard College

Hashim Sarkis, Aga Khan Professor of Landscape Architecture and Urbanism in Muslim Societies, Graduate School of Design

Diana Sorensen, James F. Rothenberg Professor of Romance Languages & Literatures and of Comparative Literature, dean for the Humanities, Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Marcus Stern, associate director, lecturer on dramatic arts, American Repertory Theatre and the A.R.T./ MXAT Institute for Advanced Theatre Training

Damian Woetzel M.P.A. 2007, principal dancer, New York City Ballet, John F. Kennedy School of Government

This is easily the story of the day. MIT has sued architect Frank Gehry for negligence, "charging that flaws in his design of the $300 million Stata Center in Cambridge, one of the most celebrated works of architecture unveiled in years, caused leaks to spring, masonry to crack, mold to grow, and drainage to back up."

In a soon-to-be-published interview I did with former Boston University boss John Silber, he flat out calls Frank Gehry a "fraud." Silber and I were talking about the whole starchitect movement, in relation to his upcoming book, "Architecture of the Absurd: How 'Genius' Disfigured a Practical Art." In the book, he singles out MIT's Stata Center as starchitecture gone bad. Never mind the look, which Silber doesn't appreciate. The roof leaks!

Here's what Silber told the Globe for today's story:

"It really is a disaster."

After learning of the lawsuit yesterday, Silber said Gehry "thinks of himself as an artist, as a sculptor. But the trouble is you don't live in a sculpture and users have to live in this building."

If you missed it Saturday, we ran an update on the Harvard University Art Museums situation. The news: The Allston museum has been put on the backburner, and the renovation on Quincy Street - that's home to the Fogg - has been given the go ahead.

Incidentally, my search for background information on the Fogg led me to the facility rental page. Quick quiz:

How much to rent out the courtyard, and experience the 17th Century "furnishings, oriental rugs, and stained-glass windows" that "create sophisticated intimacy in the Jacobean period Naumburg Room?"

Yes, a cool eight grand.

Which is nothing when you consider the Institute of Contemporary Art's rates. For $15,000, you get "exclusive use of and access to the entire museum." (Sorry, no individual space rentals.) Tempting, eh? Of course, I'd be a bit nervous about the insurance required, a "minimum combined single limit of liability or not less than $1,000,000 per occurrence and $2,000,000 aggregate."

I assume that covers the glass elevator.

Starting today, you can see Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops for free, as part of the Boston Symphony Orchestra's first Internet TV program. To launch, go here.

The "Oscar and Tony" show - featuring music from Hollywood and Broadway - will also include scenes from a recording session, interviews with Pops musicians, and a conducting lesson with Lockhart. With the broadcast, the BSO becomes the first orchestra to launch its own Internet TV show.

Here's an earlier story detailing the Net effort.

I almost thought I'd had enough of the on, off situation but along comes Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby. If you're an art world insider, you probably won't agree with what he has to say. But you would be served to listen. Because Jacoby represents a large group of people, i.e. people who think art should be about more than setting up a light on a timer.

An excerpt from the piece:

Either you are sophisticated or cynical enough to gush over the emperor's wonderfully postmodern and transgressive new duds, or you are one of those reactionary rubes who get all hung up on the fact that the emperor actually happens to be naked. If talent and skill aren't required to produce a work of art, if a striving for truth or excellence or beauty has nothing to do with artistic greatness, if craftsmanship and effort matter less than attitude and gimmickry - in short, if there are no standards, then why not fawn over an "artist" who "works with rubbish?" Why not bestow a prize named for J.M.W. Turner - the greatest landscape painter in English history - on a chucklehead who crumples sheets of paper and films people vomiting?

Martin Creed won the Turner Prize in 2001 for his installation. (photos by ESSDRAS M. SUAREZ/GLOBE STAFF)

Orchestras typically don't send out press releases when they lose players, and that's the case with Marvin Moon, the young viola player with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Moon, who is in his 20s, is heading to his native Philadelphia to serve as a section violist.

I'm glad I checked in with Greg Cook. He's got a series of useful nuggets, including the impending retirement of Williams College Museum of Art curator Deborah Rothschild, and the appointment of Edward Saywell as director of the Museum of Fine Arts’ west wing, which, as Cook points out, "will give him a leading role in the institution’s contemporary art programming." (Saywell had served as an assistant curator of prints and drawings at the MFA.)

Tyler Green is all over the St. Louis Art Museum's wheeling-and-dealing, a process we're familiar with in Boston.

Ken Johnson's exit has been noticed, in Seattle, these parts, and you'll even find a genuine picture of the art critic's head here.

And here's a taste of the reformed Van Halen, courtesy of YouTube.

For the last few weeks, those of us who have known that Ken Johnson, the Globe's art critic, would be leaving to return to New York City have been trying to put off the inevitable. But with Johnson's final day approaching, it is time to face reality.

Ken is leaving, and we're sorry to see him go. (Just to head off the "Globe is cutting arts staff" stories, arts editor Scott Heller says that the paper will replace Ken with a full-time critic, and is going to start interviewing candidates over the next few weeks.)

I asked Ken to explain his decision mainly because I knew he was happy at the paper.

From Ken:

"With mixed feelings I will be leaving the Globe at the end of this month. I'm moving back to New York, and I'm returning to writing art criticism for the New York Times as one of its principal freelance critics. Though not a staff job, it's a slightly better position than the one I had before I came to the Globe, and it offers opportunities for professional growth and diversification that I feel I cannot pass up. I'll also be doing some part-time teaching: This semester I'm running a seminar in criticism and theory with students in the MFA studio art program at Hunter College; and in the spring, I'll teach a seminar for the School of Visual Art's MFA program in criticism and writing.

Much as I've enjoyed and profited from my time in Boston, one of the things it taught me is that no other place that I've lived in has felt as much like home to me as New York. So although it pains me to leave unfinished business in Boston, that's where I'm going to go and stay."

A few Ken Johnson specials:

- On John Walker.
- The new Institute of Contemporary Art's first exhibition.
- Summer of Love.
- Christoph Büchel, and Mass MoCA.
- Sara and Gerald Murphy, at the Williams College Museum of Art.

Here are two wonderful images of the Patriots coach, one modeling night vision glasses, the other as Darth Vader. Because clearly, the Patriots have become the evil empire to the rest of the universe, i.e. a team America hates because of how easily it beats you.

Finally, an intriguing post on Patriots owner Robert Kraft's awkward Rosh Hashanah service.

The Walker has decided who will replace old friend Kathy Halbreich: Hirshhorn Museum Director Olga Viso.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune's Mary Abbe outlines one of Viso's challenges in her piece:

"In the fiscal year ended June 30, attendance at Walker shows and programs fell to 330,230, down 15 percent from the previous year, while attendance at the adjacent Minneapolis Sculpture Garden was 281,060, down 2 percent."

- The Center for the Technical Study of Modern Art (CTSMA) at the Harvard University Art Museums scores a major gift of artist Barnett Newman's studio materials and "related ephemera." As the HUAM release states, "these materials, most of which have never been seen outside of Newman's studio, include painting tools and supplies, damaged or unfinished paintings and multiples, drawings, sketches, notes and models, as well as paint trials and canvas fragments."

- Donna Desrochers, now former public relations manager at the Peabody Essex Museum, has taken over the pr job at the Institute of Contemporary Art. Ann Petruccelli, once media relations manager for Boston Ballet, returns to the city from her post at Carnegie Hall. She will be the publicist for the Celebrity Series.

- Allan Rohan Crite has died. The tenative plans are for an evening wake on Friday, Sept. 14th 6-8 p.m. at J.S. Waterman & Sons, 580 Commercial Street in the North End. There's also a funeral service planned for Saturday morning, Sept. 15th 11am-12:30pm at Trinity Church-Copley Square, Boston, MA.

Apparently, the Alex Matter camp has a perfectly logical explanation for the painting it says was destroyed by a cat, but Harvard scientists determined had been damaged by some sort of sharp tool. Try both. At least that's the account given to Cook late Sunday by Mark Borghi, the gallery director enlisted by Alex Matter after he found the now famous wrapped package of drip paintings.

Borghi's explanation, posted on Cook's site, is fascinating. If true, it paints a bizarre picture of this whole process. Normally, fine art is handled with white gloves, stored in a climate controlled chamber and protected by guidelines no registrar dares diverge from. Now picture Borghi, realizing the restorer he hired did a hack job, frantically trying to remove the paint with an Exacto knife. As they say, don't try this at home.

The Clark Art Institute has a $300 million endowment, more art than it can put on its gallery walls, and is eager to expand. The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, a 15-minute drive away, has plenty of extra space and needs cash.

So yesterday the two institutions, one which opened in 1955, the other just eight years old, announced a deal to provide the Clark with nearly 30,000 square feet of storage and exhibition space on Mass MoCA's campus in downtown North Adams.

The lease deal for three former factory buildings will increase the Clark's visibility, and provide the museum with a sensible place to branch out into more contemporary art exhibitions, Clark director Michael Conforti, said. For Mass MoCA, the arrangement will pump money into the museum's tiny endowment and perpetually strapped annual budget.

Read the rest.

The Clark Art Institute announced today it will pay the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art "seven figures" and more to take over 30,000 square foot on the MASS MoCA campus. The reason for the deal - a long term lease that's renewable - is clear. The Clark needs more space, and MASS MoCA needs more money.

More details in tomorrow's newspaper...

A woman from Richmond Public Relations sent along a note today letting me know that the firm now represents Portland's 937 Condominiums. "Set to open in the fall of 2008, 937 will be a 16-story mixed-use luxury residential condominium, located in the heart of Portland’s stylish Metropolitan Pearl District market."

Portland, Maine? Oregon? And why me?

Instead of punching delete, I asked.

She wrote back: "I'm so sorry! I had you down as an architecture reporter. I am guessing this is/or was not true? Would it be possible to point me in the right direction?"

Nope. (Well, I didn't say that.) Instead, I wrote, "well, this is the Boston Globe. Where are those condos?"

"The condos are located in Portland, Oregon," she wrote. "However, I thought your real estate/architecture reporter might be interested in case they are doing any national trend stories."

Delete.

Sadly, our final entry from Boston Ballet dancer Romi Beppu ... stomach issues, a real Queen, and a final stop in Hemingway's old haunt.

For the first Beppu blog, go here.
For the second Beppu blog, go here.
Part three is here.
Part four is here.

Monday August 13th
With bus call at 4:15pm and class at 5:45pm, many of us head into Girona’s old city. Architecture of buildings, cobblestones walkways, quaint cafes set up outdoors under beautiful archways, and a grand cathedral. We are performing at the Festival in Perelada, but are staying one hour away in the city of Girona.

Bus finally pulls into the festival in Perelada. The drive getting there seems to pull us farther and farther away from the comforts of civilization. “Where are we?!?! Oh, oh, I see a cow! Oh, look sunflowers!”….Katelyn informs the group…. “Where is the castle?”

By this point we are all getting a little giddy, a little grumpy and just want to get of this overheated bus. What we thought would be a 35 minute bus ride turns into an hour bus ride out of the city and into the countryside accompanied by the varieties of farm-like aromas. These pungent, eye-brow raising scents would follow us to the theatre and greet us in waves throughout our stay in Perelada, especially during class, in between combinations. Heat and foreign smells often brought feelings of nausea and discomfort. A few dancers experienced abdominal cramps and sickness during our stay here. The heat, frequent travel, lack of adequate sleep and “who else knows what was in that tortilla?” could have been factors for temporary illness. Tempe was the dancer who suffered the most, but she stayed strong and pushed through like a trooper for a beautiful performance of Serenade and 4 T’s.

The festival in Perelada will be our last outdoor theatre on this tour, and probably the best as far as design, set up, stage space and flooring. The dressing rooms were spacious with sinks, running water, actual toilets and functioning showers. A fully equipped production office with wi-fi, air conditioning, and all the amenities we’d have in an indoor theater was made possible for us- outdoor under what seemed like tents set up atop stable metal posts. The festival celebrated its 21st year in existence and it has housed many prestigious ballet companies, musical artists and such. We were honored and excited to be part of it this year and as added bonus to have Roland Petit presented to us before curtain and to perform our Balanchine program for him. Post performance party was held just beside the theatre in a beautiful garden hosted by the festival directors. Many of our own Boston Ballet supporters were there to greet and congratulate us having flown in from Boston to see the shows in Perelada and Mallorca, showing their support. It was a great feeling to see familiar faces and hometown fans. We all partied until 2:30am (bus call back to the hotel in Girona) and continued the party on the second level of the double decker bus all the way back to the hotel.

3:30am Basta! Ready for bed! See you in Mallorca!

Thursday, August 16th
Arrive at Hotel Isla Mallorca. Although the flight itself is only about 30 minutes from Barcelona, the travel day is again long and taxing. The busing to the airport, checking in, waiting to go through security and all of the other annoyances that one must deal with when flying is magnified three times when traveling with 60 other people. Kirsten, our company manager, is the one who call the shots as far as knowing which gate to go to, what bus we are boarding, travel problems, meeting times and locations, theatre issues, and the list goes on and on. It’s a tough job with a lot of responsibility and stress but she delivers with an answer to almost any question or problem. Her no nonsense demeanor and straight-forward style get us through the tiring travel days. Thanks Kirsten, you are the best!

Friday, Aug. 17th
Free day in Mallorca means shopping and Playa for many of us. After breakfast we hop a taxi and head into the city for some shopping before siesta. No luck for shopping this time, the stores are beginning to repeat. There’s only so many Zaras and Mangos (popular Spanish clothing chain) that one can go to even if there are huge “rebajas” (sales) going one. We press on and head for the beach at Cala Major. “Oh my- this is like Waikiki beach, I immediately think, as we walk on the burning sand and dodge the multi-colored beach towels strewn all over the sand with just about every personality, body type and degree of sunburn possible. The water is warm and comfortable. Not quite cool and refreshing for my taste but warm enough to jump in and out without shocking your system. We spend the rest of the afternoon frolicking in and out of the water, lying on the sand, writing postcards, reading and cat-napping. Ah, this is the life!

8:30pm
Dinner with Boston Ballet Friends group at Castillo Hotel Son Vida. How do I describe this place? Literally, the lap of luxury. I am told that Paris Hilton stayed in one of the suites in this swank hotel.

Mallorca continued…………….
Boston Ballet Friends are there to share dinner with us and give us tips on buying Mallorcan pearls as we sip on wine, nibble on jamon y melon and enjoy the view of the city.

Saturday, Aug. 18th
The Queen is coming! The Queen is coming! Yes, indeed the queen of Spain, members of the royal family and her security were present for our La Sylphide performance in Mallorca. She was more than gracious as she came backstage after the performance to congratulate the company and show her appreciation for us and the show. It was a stunning performance to a completely sold out audience.

Tuesday, Aug. 21st;
San Sebastian, the 7th and final city of Boston Ballet’s Spanish tour! Rainy, overcast and FREEZING! Why didn’t I pack a jacket?!?!? With an average temperature of about 19? C many of us take the opportunity to do a little more shopping for warmer clothes of course. Aside from the weather, San Sebastian is a small, but beautiful city. The Parte Vieja, the older part of the city sits against the water where fresh seafood is brought in. At the top of the Parte Vieja lies a gorgeous baroques type cathedral. Again, across the Rui Urumea is the newer part of the city, where the Auditoria Kursaal (our theatre) sits. Less than a decade old, it is a huge, modern looking (in comparison to the rest of the buildings in the city) structure that one can’t miss.

Both performances of La Sylphide are a success once again as we wrap up our stay here in Spain.

Boston Ballet meets the Queen.

It's been one of those final, busy summer weekends so I'm just getting an update up now. But for those who missed 'em, two stories:

The Attorney General's office has contacted the Citi Performing Arts Center in light of its issues.

The Alex Matter pictures, those controversial works he believes were done by Jackson Pollock, go on display Saturday at Boston College.

I'm still on the fence. I mean, how can I not go and see Van Halen with Diamond Dave back on board? (Tickets for the Boston gig go on sale tomorrow.) Well, I've got two good reasons. That cheesy performance of "Jump" with the Pops a couple years back. And the bluegrass version. Or maybe that his recently rediscovered hair resembles a Velveeta soaked tumbleweed. Now I've got another reason to stay away. For some odd reason, Van Halen seems to be trying to erase the legacy of Michael Anthony. He's the guy who played bass for the band for three decades before VH's announcement that Eddie's teenage son, Wolfgang, will talk over. I've got no bone to pick with "Wolfie." But if the boys are really trying to airbrush Anthony off album covers, slice his name from songrwriting credits, and use pre-recorded vocals to replicate his backup singing, I'm concerned. I mean, didn't Robert Plant and Jimmy Page ever tell these guys the golden rule or rock 'n' roll: Nobody cares about the bassist.

The Citi Center has sent this letter to about 15,000 supporters, members, and donors. Here's the full text.

An Open Letter from the Citi Performing Arts Center

As you no doubt are aware, recent media reports have raised questions about the governance and the management of the Citi Performing Arts Center, including compensation matters, the Center’s Free Shakespeare program and its strategic plan for the future. For all of us who care deeply about this great institution, these reports were troubling and, in our view, ignored the Center’s long and successful track record of bringing outstanding theater, dance, and music to the public as well as its historic and ongoing leadership in providing broad-based access to arts education.

As an organization dependent on funding from charitable foundations, government entities and the public at large, we recognize our responsibility to be as transparent and open as possible. In that spirit, we are writing to provide you with additional information about the issues covered in the recent reports and to reassure you – our members and supporters – of our steadfast commitment to offering the highest quality of performing arts and educational programs to the public.

Executive Compensation

The first issue concerned the compensation of our President and Chief Executive Officer, Josiah Spaulding Jr., and the assertion that the Center agreed to pay Joe a stay bonus “not long before” the Center decided to decrease the number of performances of the summer’s Free Shakespeare on the Common program.

In fact, the decision to award Joe a stay bonus was made in 2001. At the time, the Compensation Committee’s goal was to assure that the then Wang Center would be optimally positioned to face significant challenges for an additional five years. The committee recognized not only Joe’s extraordinary performance and leadership during the previous fourteen years but an increasingly competitive environment brought on by several factors: the arrival in Boston of giant for-profit players in the entertainment industry like Clear Channel, the proposed renovation of the 2400 seat Opera House and heavy recruiting from national performing arts centers with CEO vacancies.

Joe’s bonus was paid in July 2006, pursuant to the terms of his 2001 contract, and in recognition of his having fulfilled his commitment to remain at the Center during the entire contract period. Although recognized as a lump sum cash payment of $1.238 million in FY07, the payment reflects a yearly bonus of $200,000 for fiscal years 02 through 06, plus accrued interest. The payment came from accrued reserves.

It is important to note that the fact that Joe’s contract included a stay bonus was not news; the amount of the bonus as well as when it would be paid was reported on by the Boston Globe more than two years ago. Simply put, it was misleading to link the bonus payment, which fulfilled a contractual commitment made six years ago, to recent program decisions in connection with the Center’s annual operating budget.

We also want to underscore that Joe’s annual compensation is comparable to the heads of performing arts centers with gross operating budgets of $25M - $45M. One of the recent press reports inaccurately stated the percentage of the Center’s operating budget that goes to pay Joe’s salary. In reality, Joe’s compensation was less than 2% of the Center’s gross operating budget of $22.9 million in FY 06.

Programming Decisions

Regarding the reduction in Free Shakespeare performances, the Board and senior management team have had to make some difficult but necessary decisions concerning the scale of the Center’s activities. These are challenging times for many performing arts organizations, and we must constantly balance our mission with the need to be fiscally responsible to ensure the Center’s long-term viability.

The Center has invested more than $4 million in Free Shakespeare over the last five years but faces an accumulated loss on production-related expenses during that time of $1.366 million. While our goal was to cut as few performances as possible, this summer’s run reflected a balance involving the total number of performances, the Center’s investment in production values, and the overall artistic vision as reflected by Steven Maler, the founding artistic director of Commonwealth Shakespeare Company. We will continue to evaluate new and different funding sources and possible partnership models that can help us stage Free Shakespeare for years to come and ensure that it remains a vital and key component of our public programming efforts.

Governance

The Center has a detailed conflict-of-interest policy that complies fully with state Attorney General’s guidelines. As part of a governance and reform initiative, the Center’s by-laws and polices were rigorously reviewed this spring by legal counsel from two firms. The Board is responsible for continually reviewing possible conflict issues and addressing them in a timely fashion; it will continue to monitor this with deserving due diligence.

Questions were raised about Board members who at times have provided professional services for the Center, and whose firms have been compensated for this work. This is entirely ethical and hardly unusual. Non-profit organizations and for-profit companies often seek board members who can provide value both in terms of leadership and specific professional expertise. Any work performed by Board members themselves is on a pro bono basis, and any fees charged for work done by their firms represent a standard non-profit discounted rate.

Strategic Plan

We also wanted to share with you the vision of the organization contained in our recently completed strategic plan, which starts with an acknowledgment that all non-profit performing arts organizations must continuously respond to changing market conditions and improve their services.

Two years ago, the Board of Trustees of the then Wang Center embarked on a comprehensive strategic planning process to refocus the Center’s programs and operations. The strategic plan envisions collaborations with many other arts and educational organizations, more self-funding programs, and technology upgrades to better serve our customers, among other initiatives.

Transformative change of this scale and scope is not quick or easy; we think it will take five-to-seven years to see the true results of our work. But we believe that with our talented professional team, your patronage and generous support, the investment of corporate leaders like Citigroup, Boston-area foundations and our public officials, and the vision of this strategic plan, Citi Performing Arts Center will prosper as a distinguished leader among Boston’s arts institutions.

As part of our strategic planning, we have been recruiting new trustees while engaging current trustees to provide them with the greater opportunities to contribute to the institution. Additionally, the Wang Theatre occupancy has increased substantially through a new mix of uses that have included education programs, community activities and performances, corporate events and film industry productions.

Our Leadership

We are mindful of our fiduciary responsibility to our donors and our mission to provide access to and promote appreciation of the performing arts. As the people most knowledgeable about the Center’s finances, governance, and management decisions, and as individuals with a great deal of personal investment in this enterprise, we affirm our Board’s respect for and total confidence in the leadership of Joe Spaulding and his new management team. All of us who have had the honor to work with Joe enthusiastically believe in the integrity, energy and drive that characterize his visionary leadership. We have absolutely no doubt that he is the right leader to revitalize the Center at this time.

This institution has many great strengths and there is no question that it will withstand this period of challenge. We deeply appreciate your continued support as we strive to accomplish the goals of our new strategic plan and work to bring the highest quality performing arts and arts education programs to you, our members, supporters and the public.

John William Poduska, Sr.
Chairman of the Board

On behalf of the Citi Performing Arts Center Officers of the Corporation

John Cook – Treasurer
Charley Polachi – Vice Chairman
Robert Sachs - Chair of Governance
Elliot Surkin - Clerk

At 1 p.m., head to Boston.com to chat Elvis. Or just chat about anything.

Did you ever hear of the Lunders? Perhaps not. Never mind that their collection of art has been appraised around $100 million, and includes works by O'Keeffe, John Singer Sargent, Winslow Homer, Sol LeWitt, and Edward Hopper. Or that they recently decided to give that collection to Colby College. Robbie Brown tries to track down this mystery couple, who just hate it when people make a fuss.

The DeCordova names the Rappaport Prize winner.

The Arlington Advocate has this to say about the Exhibitionist's Elvis book.

Banning headphones for runners? Now that's a good one. The Globe writes about the ongoing debate, as race directors contemplate how, and whether, to enforce the ban.

This is my favorite quote:

"It's like Tom Brady listening to the Who while he's throwing a touchdown pass. Hard-core runners are focusing on racing. If they're wearing those things, they're out there for health," says Paul Collyer, director of the Jerry Garcia Memorial River Run & Walk in Cambridge.

Sure, Paul, except for one thing... Last time I checked, the NFL didn't allow people like me - 36, four-hour marathoner who has never had his vertical jumping ability measured at the Combine - take a few snaps in the A.F.C. Championship game.

For the record, I always run with headphones EXCEPT in a race, when the crowd support and atmosphere are enough to keep me going. But I'm sorry, when it's 5 a.m., pitch-black and the plows are rolling by, you sometimes need "Combat Rock."

Our latest entry from Boston Ballet dancer Romi Beppu ... go go dancers, sweaty bus rides, and won't Miss Kuranaga finally bare some skin?

For the first Beppu blog, go here.
For the second Beppu blog, go here.
Part three is here.

Saturday, August 4th:
Last day in Madrid calls for ….. party! After the last La Sylphide performance we all (most of the company) decide to meet downstairs at 1:15 am for party plans. First stop: Rendall Salsa Club. Nelson knows one of the promoters of Rendall Club and gets all of us in free of charge. It is a small, intimate club with people coupled off and serious salsa action in play. Young, old, big, small, no matter, people are here to get their salsa on. We stay for about half an hour and decide to move on to our second destination: Club Kapital.