Monster Mash: Breaking arts news and headlines

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UPDATE: The Getty Center is reporting no damage to grounds, buildings or the collection after firefighters extinguished the blaze this morning.

• A brush fire in the Sepulveda Pass this morning came close to the Getty Center, causing the museum to shut down for the day. Firefighters put up defense lines around the Getty Center after a blaze broke out near the 405 Freeway and Getty Center Drive after midnight.

• Colburn School of Music president Miguel Angel Corzo has abruptly resigned his post. Corzo recently came under criticism for eliminating the school’s Suzuki piano program and for creating parking problems as a result of a new building.

• Art dealer and gallery owner Patricia Faure has died. The art maven was best known for running the Patricia Faure Gallery in Santa Monica’s Bergamot Station and for her involvement with the Nicholas Wilder Gallery in the ‘70s.

• L.A.’s Center Theatre Group is responding to the deepening financial crisis by offering 100,000 tickets at $20 for the 2008-09 season. The offer applies to performances at all three theaters -- the Ahmanson, Mark Taper Forum and Kirk Douglas.

• New York City Opera recently furloughed its employees for two days on concerns it didn’t have enough money to make payroll. The news comes nearly a month after the company laid off 11 employees.

• Architect Norman Foster will redesign New York Public Library’s landmark building on Fifth Avenue. The $250-million project is expected to be completed in 2013.

• A major correction in the contemporary art market appears likely, according to a recent report from Artprice.

• The New Jersey Center for the Performing Arts has received an $11-million gift from Betty Wold Johnson, heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune.

— David Ng