L.A. Arts Month officially kicks off today

Los Angeles likes to call itself the "creative capital of the world" -- a boast that is certain to raise eyebrows in cities like New York, San Francisco, London or Paris.

But could the claim actually be true? A recent study titled the 2009 Otis Report on the Creative Economy says one in every six people in the L.A. region is employed in a creative field. In addition, L.A. organizations in the creative field earned an estimated  $121 billion in revenues in 2008, while those in Orange County accounted for an estimated $18 billion.

The study's definition of "creative field" is broad and includes the entertainment industry, as well as digital media and self-employed artists. (The study was conducted with the participation of the L.A. County Economic Development Corp. -- not exactly a neutral party when it comes to shaping public awareness of the region.)

Whether you believe L.A.'s claim to cultural supremacy, it's hard to deny how far the city has come in the fields of arts and culture. Today, the city officially kicks of L.A. Arts Month, an annual celebration of the area's visual and performing arts. Organized by more than 30 local arts groups and political organizations, the event is essentially a concerted marketing effort to raise awareness of the area's cultural offerings.

We'll have more from this morning's official kick-off ceremony later today. But for now, check out some of the L.A. Arts Month events, exhibitions and performances happening around town this month.

-- David Ng

Photo: A view of the central garden at the Getty Center. Credit: Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times

Monster Mash: Minaret defies Swiss ban; Cleveland Orchestra nears strike; nude Olympic hockey sculpture

-- Thumbing his nose: A Swiss man has built a minaret on top of a warehouse in defiance of the country's recent law banning such structures. (The Wall Street Journal)

-- Labor unrest: Musicians of the Cleveland Orchestra could strike as contract negotiations with management intensified this week. (The Cleveland Plain-Dealer)

-- Eye-catching: A sculpture depicting a nude hockey player will greet athletes at a gay meeting place at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. (Outsports)

-- Digital discovery: A new computer process can distinguish artistic fakes and imitations. (BBC News, via ArtForum)

-- Star turn: William Petersen is set to star in the Steppenwolf Theatre Company's production of Samuel Beckett's "Endgame," which will open in April. (Playbill)

-- Staying on: Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton have extended their contracts as co-artistic directors of the Sydney Theatre Company through 2013. (Sydney Morning Herald)

-- Political statement: Spain has unveiled a new video installation by artist Daniel Canogar to celebrate the country's presidency of the European Union. (Reuters)

-- PR stunt? Pianist Leif Ove Andsnes performed a concert at the Apple Store in New York's Upper West Side. (The New York Times)

-- And in the L.A. Times: Remembering the Fountain Theatre's Bennett Bradley; Dubai tower officially opens; the musical "Come Fly Away" sets a Broadway date.

-- David Ng

Photo: A minaret built in defiance of Swiss law in the town of Bussigny-pres-Lausanne. Credit: Laurent Gillieron / EPA

Theater company for teens receives major costume donation

The holiday season may be over, but a Los Angeles-area  theater education program just received a major gift in the form of a huge collection of costumes.

Phantom Projects said this week that it had become the recipient of the entire inventory of the Costume House. The value of the collection has been appraised at $500,000, according to Phantom artistic director Steve Cisneros.

The La Mirada-based Phantom Projects Educational Theatre Group produces youth-oriented theater projects that aim to engage local students in the performing arts. The company stages classic plays and new works throughout its season.

The Costume House in Irvine has a collection that includes full wardrobes for nearly 50 stage productions, including "Guys and Dolls," "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" and "The Wiz." The Irvine business was founded by Kathy Gillespie, who has decided to retire and donate the inventory.

Company leaders said they intended to make money for the theater company from the donation by opening a costume rental shop that will charge less than mainstream shops. They  plan to open the shop in the spring.

The 13-year-old Phantom Projects stages many of its productions at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. It also tours with its shows to various schools in Southern California. The group's next production at La Mirada will be "The Bluest Eye," based on the Toni Morrison novel, which will run Feb. 25.

-- David Ng

Credit: Phantom Projects

Slain L.A. theater director-producer Ben Bradley is remembered

Bennett Bradley of Hollywood’s Fountain Theatre won awards for directing and producing plays that burrowed deeply into the African American experience, but friends and colleagues remembered Monday that he savored and contributed to nearly all of the arts.

Bradley, 59, was found stabbed to death early Saturday evening at his Mid-Wilshire apartment. Police are investigating Bradley’s death as a robbery and murder.

When he didn’t show up to lead a 5 p.m. rehearsal of the Fountain’s West Coast premiere of “The Ballad of Emmett Till,” the show’s stage manager went to his home and found his body, said Stephen Sachs, the company’s co-artistic director.

Bradley had been working with a particular passion on the drama by Chicago playwright Ifa Bayeza about the 1955 murder of a 14-year-old black boy from Chicago who was killed for supposedly whistling at a white woman while he was visiting Mississippi.

The play was first staged in 2008 at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and ran 21/2 hours. Over the last year, Bradley worked with Bayeza to strip the show down to a fast-paced 90 minutes, played by five actors instead of 13.

“It was Ben’s passion that convinced me to do this play,” said Sachs.

The show, scheduled to open Feb. 6, will go on. Shirley Jo Finney, who worked closely with Bradley on other past Fountain productions, will take over as director.

Twyla Tharp's Frank Sinatra-fueled 'Come Fly Away' confirms Broadway date

Confirming rumors of a Broadway engagement, producers of "Come Fly Away" -- a new musical using the vocals of Frank Sinatra -- said today that the show will open March 25 at the Marquis Theatre in New York.

Directed and choreographed by Twyla Tharp, the musical tells the story of four couples and the various romantic permutations they assume during an evening at a crowded nightclub. The production uses vocal recordings featuring Sinatra, as well as a live 19-piece big band on stage.

Songs included in the musical are “Fly Me to the Moon,” “My Way” and “That’s Life.”

The musical had its world premiere in September at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta under a slightly different title: "Come Fly With Me."

A spokesperson for the Broadway production said no official reason has been given for the change in title.

At the time of the Atlanta world premiere, producers were planning on taking the show on a national tour in the summer of 2010. But their plans have clearly changed. There is no official word if the production will eventually travel to other cities.

"Come Fly Away" will begin previews on Broadway on March 1. There is no word on casting yet.

Tharp has previously adapted the music of Sinatra for the stage in the productions "Once More Frank," "Nine Sinatra Songs" and "Sinatra Suite."

-- David Ng

Photo: Frank Sinatra, with his wife Nancy, in a 1946 photograph. Credit: Los Angeles Times

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Following difficult year, ACT establishes first endowment

Like many performing arts institutions, San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater has had a difficult past 12 months. The company cut its budget by approximately $1.5 million in early 2009 and eliminated three high-level positions, including its associate artistic director.

While things are not exactly rosy for the company, it's fair to say that 2010 has gotten off on the right foot. ACT said today that it has established its first-ever endowment -- the result of a five-year effort, titled The Next Generation Campaign, that has raised close to $31 million.

"The endowment gives us the ability to take artistic risks. We don't have to be a slave to the box office," said Tim Whalen, the company's director of external affairs who helped to spearhead the campaign.

Prior to forming an endowment, ACT said it relied solely on annual income from ticket sales, tuition and contributions to sustain its season programming and actor training. It said that it can now use interest from the endowment.

ACT said it raised $30,939,236 by midnight on Dec. 31. However, Whalen told The Times that not all of that money is going into the newly created endowment.

Official height -- and new name -- revealed for Dubai tower

 

We finally know just how tall the tallest building in the world is. We've also learned that it's got a new name.

As part of festivities today marking the opening of what had until now been known as the Burj Dubai -- Arabic for "Dubai Tower" -- officials announced that the skyscraper reaches a full 828 meters, or 2,717 feet, into the sky.

That's nearly 1,000 feet taller than the second-highest man-made structure on the planet, Toronto's CN Tower. The Dubai tower's developer, Emaar Properties, had up till now kept the number secret, partially to build up some mystery around its debut.

Dubai officials also announced that in something of a surprise they'd decided to rename the skyscraper the Burj Khalifa, in honor of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the leader of neighboring Abu Dhabi, the wealthy oil-rich capital of the United Arab Emirates. (The sheikh is also president of the UAE.) It was a curious and perhaps favor-currying choice, since Abu Dhabi has already twice helped rescue Dubai -- to the tune of more than $20 billion -- as it struggles to renegotiate the debt it piled up during an ambitious expansion over the last decade.

-- Christopher Hawthorne

Photo: The Burj Dubai during festivities to mark its opening. Photo credit: Martin Rose/Getty Images

A small Jewish museum acquires Chagall crucifixion painting at a bargain price

A little-known painting by Marc Chagall has taken the international spotlight after a small museum in London revealed over the weekend that it has purchased the work at a bargain price.

Chagall's "Apocalypse in Lilac, Capriccio" (1945) was purchased in October at a Paris auction by the London Jewish Museum of Art for 30,000 euros (approximately $43,300), according to reports. Some experts believe the work is worth more than $1 million.

The museum, which was founded in 2001, bought the gouache painting in what is being described by reports as a secret operation intended to keep major art institutions in the dark.

"If they had taken part, they would have bid the price up far beyond the museum’s budget," said a report that ran in the London Times.

The surrealist painting depicts the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and features a deliberately anachronistic Nazi official at the bottom of the canvas. Chagall is said to have created the painting -- one in a series -- as a commentary on the persecution of Jews by the Third Reich.

"Apocalypse in Lilac" is set to go on display this week in London's Osborne Samuel Gallery.

Monster Mash: Fountain Theatre director Bennett Bradley slain; artwork stolen in France; Canada won't seize Dead Sea Scrolls

-- Homicide: Bennett Bradley, a theater director at the Fountain Theatre in Hollywood, was found stabbed to death Saturday at his home. (Los Angeles Times)

-- Without a trace: Nearly 30 works of art, including pieces by Pablo Picasso and Henri Rousseau, were reported stolen from a private villa in the south of France over the weekend. (Agence France-Presse)

-- Diplomatic standoff: Canada has refused to seize the Dead Sea Scrolls on a request by the government of Jordan while the artifacts were on display at Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. (CBC News)

-- Acquisition: The London Jewish Museum of Art has purchased a work by Marc Chagall at a bargain price. (The Times)

-- Covering up: The Erotic Heritage Museum in Las Vegas has placed pasties over depictions of female nipples in an outdoor mural. (Las Vegas Sun)

-- Sending a message: Playwright Edward Albee was one of the demonstrators protesting the incarceration of Chinese writer Liu Xiaobo at a rally in front of the New York Public Library. (Bloomberg)

-- New job: Paul Roth has stepped down from his position as curator of photography and media arts at the Corcoran Gallery of Art to become the executive director of the Richard Avedon Foundation in New York. (DCist)

-- Also in the L.A. Times: Architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne discusses the Burj Dubai skyscraper; an exhibition of Olmec art will inaugurate LACMA's new Lynda and Stewart Resnick Exhibition Pavilion.

-- David Ng

Photo: Fountain Theatre's Bennett Bradley, left, and Simon Levy in 2000. Credit: Los Angeles Times

Big giant heads are coming to LACMA

Olmec civilization emerged roughly 3,000 years ago in the eastern lowlands along Mexico's Gulf Coast in what is today the region of Veracruz and Tabasco. In many ways it provided the foundation for all Mesoamerican art, much the way ancient Greek art did for subsequent European culture.

Still, Olmec society today remains very much a mystery. For example, no one is quite sure what the monumental, 10-ton stone sculptures of helmeted human heads were used for -- although it is certain that anybody who came upon one at a time when the wheel was not yet in use and carving implements were rudimentary would know he was in the jaw-dropping presence of extraordinary power.

So it's exciting to learn that a major Olmec exhibition will inaugurate the new Lynda and Stewart Resnick Exhibition Pavilion when it opens in October (exact date TBA) at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Only two major exhibitions of Olmec art have been seen in the United States -- one at Princeton, the other at the National Gallery -- both in the mid-1990s. Many American museums, including LACMA, have some important Olmec objects on view, but the great survey collections are all in Mexico.

'East of West L.A.': a photographic journey

It’s been a long-joked-about phenomenon that many Angelenos consider East Los Angeles any area east of La Brea Avenue and that some Westsiders seldom wander east of the 405.

Poet and photographer Kevin McCollister has journeyed through most of those streets and captured the images in his book "East of West L.A." A select few of the 55 photos include shots of Venice and the Santa Monica Pier, but "in my mind," said McCollister, "they qualify as East in spirit and are not the epitome of glam that is attached to the Westside."

His version is not the cliché L.A. story, feathered with fortune and celebrity. His photos are counterintuitive as to what many people think of when they think of Los Angeles: a news vendor, the 4th Street bridge, the Los Angeles River or a homeless woman wearing a Burberry scarf.

On his days off from the Writers Guild, McCollister would rise with the dawn and wander the streets, back alleys and vacant lots, absorbing the city in its raw, naked form with all its imperfections. "I wanted to show a counterbalance, another viewpoint of the city," he said. "It can be beautiful but not always in an upper-class way." And he conceived a new project: to walk all of the city’s streets. A regular stop was the area around Our Lady Queen of Angels. "It's always a hive of activity with street vendors and the homeless mixing with a lot of very devout churchgoers," said McCollister.

Where will tomorrow's audiences come from?

Orchestras and choirs used to reach out to children with concerts that were basically junior versions of the adult experience. A grandfatherly conductor would address a sea of little faces and then turn away to lead his ensemble in a variety of classics. The experience was meant to be edifying and educational. For many in the audience, however, it proved to be pretty boring.

Times have changed.

 In Los Angeles and other areas with active music outreach communities, groups large and small are trying to engage the young with programs that are lively, hands-on and more down-to-earth.

Eli Villanueva (pictured) and his colleagues are helping students put on "The Marriage of Figueroa," a whimsical blend of Mozart and California history, as part of an L.A. Opera program designed to teach the basics of opera and performance in a language children understand.

The Burj Dubai and architecture's vacant stare

One of the odder, more complicated moments in the history of architectural symbolism will arrive Monday with the formal opening of the Burj Dubai skyscraper. At about 2,600 feet high -- the official figure is still being kept secret by developer Emaar Properties -- and 160 stories, the tower, set back half a mile or so from Dubai's busy Sheikh Zayed Road, will officially take its place as the tallest building in the world.

Designed by Adrian Smith, a former partner in the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the Burj Dubai is an impossible-to-miss sign of the degree to which architectural ambition -- at least the kind that can be measured in feet or number of stories -- has migrated in recent years from North America and Europe to Asia and the Middle East. It is roughly as tall as the World Trade Center towers piled one atop the other. Its closest competition is Toronto's CN Tower, which is not really a building at all, holding only satellites and observation decks, and is in any case nearly 900 feet shorter.

Monday's ribbon-cutting, though, could hardly come at a more awkward time. Dubai, the most populous member of the United Arab Emirates, continues to deal with a massive real estate collapse that has sent shock waves through financial markets around the world and forced the ambitious city-state, in a significant blow to its pride, to seek repeated billion-dollar bailouts from neighboring Abu Dhabi. Conceived at the height of local optimism about Dubai's place in the region and the world, this seemingly endless bean-stock tower, which holds an Armani Hotel on its lower floors with apartments and offices above, has flooded Dubai with a good deal more residential and commercial space than the market can possibly bear.

And so here is the Burj Dubai's real symbolic importance: It is mostly empty, and is likely to stay that way for the foreseeable future. Though most of its 900 apartments have been sold, virtually all were bought three years ago -- near the top of the market -- and primarily as investments, not as places to live. ("A lot of those purchases were speculative," Smith, in something of an understatement, told me in a phone interview.) And there's virtually no demand in Dubai at the moment for office space. The Burj Dubai has 37 floors of office space.

Happy 2010 from Culture Monster

As we prepare to welcome a new year, we'll take this moment to remind you that you can keep up with Culture Monster in 2010 on Facebook at facebook.com/culturemonster and on Twitter at twitter.com/culturemonster or follow @culturemonster.

And be sure to follow the Monster team: @KnightLAT, @markswed, @HawthorneLAT, @charlesmcnulty, @lfung, @sherrystern, @boehmm, @davidkng,

 Cheers and Happy New Year.

-- Culture Monster

Video: BBC Symphony; Photo: Untitled (Perfect Lovers) by Felix Gonzalez-Torres. Credit: © 2006 The Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation courtesy the Andrea Rosen Gallery.

The arts in 2009: Memories were made of these

Oh, what a year it was.

Economic woes wreaked havoc with arts organizations large (Los Angeles County Museum of Art,  Los Angeles Opera) and small (Actors' Gang).

People came into our lives (Gustavo Dudamel, Susan Boyle) and people departed (Julius Shulman). 

There were controversies (Krystian Zimerman, OCMA painting sales) and reasons to celebrate (Museum of Contemporary Art's turnaround, Lynn Nottage wins the Pulitzer).

So as 2009 winds down, walk with us through the year that was. Grab a glass of champagne, click on the photo gallery, and join us in toasting the year.

-- Lisa Fung

Follow us on Twitter: @culturemonster

An offer of free museum admission (for some)

Membership has its privileges, and one of them is free admission to local museums.

Bank of America is offering free admission to participating museums Saturday and Sunday as part of its Museums on Us program. Customers must present their Bank of America ATM, credit or check card plus a valid photo ID to gain free admission.

Participating museums include the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Autry National Center of the American West, the Museum of Latin American Art and MUZEO.

Other local institutions in the program are the Palm Springs Art Museum, the Riverside Art Museum and the Living Desert in Palm Desert.

Bank of America said it will sponsor other free admission weekends, including Feb. 6-7, March 6-7, April 3-4 and May 1-2.

Monster Mash: Degas artwork stolen in France; 'Finian' to close; a new Leonardo painting?*

-- Art theft: A pastel work by Edgar Degas, titled "Les Choristes," has been stolen from a museum exhibit in Marseille, France. (France 24)

-- End of the road: The critically acclaimed Broadway revival of "Finian's Rainbow" is set to close on Jan. 17. (Playbill)

-- Speculation: Rumor has it that the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston is in possession of a painting believed to be by Leonardo da Vinci. (Washington Post) 

-- Architectural restoration: A Milwaukee home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright will be refurbished thanks to a federal grant of close to $400,000. (Milwaukee Sentinel-Journal)

-- Ongoing dispute: A court will review whether Spain can be sued in a U.S. court by a California man in a case concerning art seized by the Nazis. (Bloomberg)

-- Found: Police in Italy have recovered a small toy guitar created by Pablo Picasso that had been reported missing. (BBC News)

-- Stepping down: Skip Pahl, who led the Oceanside Museum of Art for nearly a dozen years, is retiring. (San Diego Union-Tribune)

-- Reprieve: The Broadway revival of "Ragtime," which was set to close on Jan. 3, has been extended one week. (Theatermania)

-- And in the L.A. Times: Cirque du Soleil helps bring attention to Orange County's Great Park.

-- David Ng

* A previous version of this post incorrectly referred to a stolen Degas artwork as a painting. It is a pastel.

Photo: Edgar Degas' "Les Choristes," or "The Chorus Singers." Credit: Agence France-Presse

Cirque Du Soleil is momentum for Irvine's Great Park

The circus coming to town hasn’t been big news for decades, but there was an interesting wrinkle Wednesday, given where Cirque Du Soleil chose to pitch its tent in Orange County for a January run. Following a two-month stint in Santa Monica, the company’s new production "Kooza" arrived in Irvine, setting up shop at what is likely Southern California’s least known, yet arguably fastest-growing public entertainment space: the Orange County Great Park.
 
During the last two years, Great Park operators have quietly transformed a 22-acre sliver of their  landscape adjacent to the 5 Freeway into a relatively unremarked upon beehive of grass-roots entertainment.
 
At a time when public entertainment venues are, at best, holding their own, and, at worst, on the wane, the Great Park’s calendar is burgeoning. The budget supporting events has ballooned to $2 million annually and the site now features a mix of permanent and temporary doings, most of them -- "Kooza" excluded -- free to everyone who comes by. Among the offerings:
 

Theater review: 'Ricky Jay: A Rogue’s Gallery' at the Geffen Playhouse

Want a sure bet for an evening of classy entertainment? Then put your money on Ricky Jay, Hollywood’s favorite sleight-of-hand artist whose facility with a deck of cards (among other talents) offers consistent audience payoff in his latest one-man show at the Geffen Playhouse.

Just be sure to check your pockets as you exit the theater. “Ricky Jay: A Rogue’s Gallery” features the quick-fingered performer doing what he does best -- namely, performing tricks (cards, mentalism) and recounting odd bits of historical esoterica derived from his personal collection of artwork.

It all makes for an eclectic but also disjointed and occasionally rambling show. (The production, which played in Chicago earlier this year, is billed accurately as “An Evening of Conversation and Performance.”)

Jay seems at times to be coasting a bit on his own fame, as if he is in career-retrospective mode. But his effortless stage presence and dazzling technique make it easy to forgive the cobbled-together nature of the performance.

Working again with David Mamet, who is jokingly credited as “director of prison operations,” Jay gets right down to business. Seated at a bistro table on a mostly bare stage, the performer takes us on a virtual tour through his cabinet of wonders, intent on flaunting his knowledge of its every bizarre piece of arcana.

Architecture's abysmal year

MSNBC confirms what every architect in Los Angeles and around the country already knew: 2009 was an absolutely gruesome year for the profession and for related trades. 

According to the site's year-end tally of job losses, no field was hit as hard as architecture. Figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the number of "employed architects" in the U.S. dropped from 230,000 through three quarters of 2008 to 189,000 at the same point in 2009.

Following architects on MSNBC's list of job losses were carpenters at No. 2. Construction workers ranked No. 7. 

There was a long-term glimmer of hope, however: BLS projections suggest that employment in architecture and engineering will grow about 10% through 2018.

-- Christopher Hawthorne

Photo by flickr user Martin Stabenfeldt.