*Live on the Web: Forum on how to measure artists' economic impact

In the arts, composers, writers, painters, sculptors and performers grab all the glory, but they also serve who sit and wonk.

And we, the people, are invited to watch 'em in action Friday as the National Endowment for the Arts presents a live webcast of its daylong Cultural Workforce Forum. From 6 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, an assortment of academics, federal bureaucrats, and staffers from private think tanks and research organizations will assemble in Washington, and in cyberspace at www.nea.gov. They'll attempt to elucidate, ponder and talk about how to broaden and improve the statistical evidence supporting the notion that what those composers, writers, painters, et al do is not just fluff and filigree, but part of the dollars-and-cents fiber of the country.

Panel topics include "What We Know About Artists and How We Know It," featuring an economics professor from Northeastern University, an executive from the AFL-CIO, and arts researchers from the NEA and Columbia University; "Putting the Research to Work";  and "Widening the Lens to Capture Other Cultural Workers."

Arts organizations fishing for funding have tried to play the economic-engine card for years, amassing enough studies and surveys on arts spending and its multiplier effects to fill a bookcase.

But there's at least one recent, specific reason for arts advocates to be seeking better data to support their case:

Sarah Jessica Parker, Thom Mayne, Anna Wintour named to Obama's arts committee

If eclecticism was the goal for Barack Obama in choosing members for the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, then he has succeeded hands down, judging from today's announcement of 25 appointees.

Ranging from Hollywood actors to veteran cultural leaders, the committee members represent a wide spectrum of American culture and entertainment.

Among the most famous names on the list are actors Sarah Jessica Parker, Edward Norton, Forest Whitaker and Alfre Woodard, "Vogue" editor Anna Wintour, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, theater director George C. Wolfe and architect Thom Mayne.

Established in 1982, the committee's mission is to work with organizations including the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities to encourage partnerships between the public and private sector on cultural projects. The committee also seeks to initiate and support cultural programs, according to its official website.

In September, Obama named three people to lead the committee: television producer George Stevens Jr., theater producer Margo Lion and New York University's Mary Schmidt Campbell.

Other new appointees to the committee who have Southern California ties include Bryan Lourd, managing director of Creative Artists Agency; Andy Spahn, an entertainment industry consultant; and Christine Forester, a former architect who runs her own marketing company.

-- David Ng

Photo: Sarah Jessica Parker. Credit: Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times

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Obama expected to sign bill to increase cultural funding

For once, some good news on the cultural funding front.

President Obama is expected to sign a bill this weekend that will increase funding for the nation's main cultural bodies to their highest levels in nearly 16 years.

This week, Congress approved the Interior Appropriations Bill for the 2010 fiscal year. Among other things, the bill provides funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities at $167.5 million for each agency.

Earlier this year, Obama had proposed a 4% increase in the NEA's 2010 budget, to $161.3 million from its current level of $155 million. The agency's new 2010 budget goes beyond what Obama had proposed, representing an 8% increase over this year.

But Congress nixed the president's proposed $171.3 million budget for the NEH. The agency will receive the same amount as the NEA for 2010.

The NEA has also received additional federal funding through Obama's economic stimulus package.

In June, the House of Representatives approved budgets of $170 million for both the NEA and NEH. But a Senate committee called for $161.3 million each. The final budgets were negotiated this week in Congress.

Rocco Landesman, the new head of the NEA, told Culture Monster recently that he didn't think that his agency would receive more funding than what had already been proposed.

Christmas in October, Rocco.

-- David Ng

Photo: President Obama. Credit: Joshua Roberts / EPA

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Monster Mash: Jean Nouvel's MoMA tower approved; NEA funding boost; Michael Jackson museum?

-- Reaching for the sky: A new tower, pictured, for the Museum of Modern Art designed by Jean Nouvel has received approval from New York's City Council. (Associated Press)

-- Budget bill: Congressional negotiators have approved a spending bill that would set the 2010 budgets for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities at $167.5 million each. (Chronicle of Higher Education)

-- If you build it...: Michael Jackson's father and the mayor of Gary, Ind., want to build a museum honoring the late pop star in his hometown. (CNN)

-- Protest: An advocacy group for blind and deaf actors disapproves of the casting of Abigail Breslin in the upcoming Broadway revival of "The Miracle Worker." (New York Times)

-- Large-scale effort: Canada is launching a nationwide cultural campaign designed to increase awareness of the arts. (The Globe and Mail)

-- Mysterious smile: A giant reproduction of the "Mona Lisa" goes on display in a shopping center in Wales. (BBC News)

-- Salvageable: Architect Ole Scheeren said that the part of Beijing's CCTV building that was damaged in a fire earlier this year can be repaired and doesn't need to be torn down. (Associated Press)

-- And in the L.A. Times: Photographer Roy DeCarava passed away in New York at age 89. (Los Angeles Times)

-- David Ng

Photo: A rendering of architect Jean Nouvel's tower for MoMA. Credit: Atelier Jean Nouvel / Associated Press

Culture Monster's 13 things to do on Halloween

Should the spirits move you to celebrate Halloween or Day of the Dead, arts offerings in the L.A. area abound, from the mildly scary to the incredibly creepy. Culture Monster has scared up a lucky 13.

1. THEATER OF THE MACABRE

Judging by its name alone, Zombie Joe's Underground Theatre is the perfect fit for Halloween night. And having experienced some of its shows, we can vouch that the North Hollywood company -- which operates out of a tiny storefront space on Lankershim Boulevard -- more than lives up to its scary-sounding moniker.

Consider yourself warned: The company, which has its roots in French dramatist Antonin Artaud's theater of cruelty, produces plays that are not for everyone. Disturbing imagery and seemingly possessed actors collide to form a unique dramatic experience that is more akin to macabre dance than traditional theater.

This Halloween season, the company is showing Adam Neubauer's "Not With Monsters," a new drama that it describes as a madcap race through time and classic movie monsters as a troubled horror writer receives a strange and disorienting visit.

And just in case you were wondering: Zombie Joe is a real person -- and you may get a chance to meet him if you attend the show.

-- David Ng

"Not with Monsters," ZJU, 4850 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. 8:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Ends this weekend. $15. (818) 202-4120.

Continue reading for Nos. 2-13....

Monster Mash: Met will return Egyptian artifact; Bay Bridge remains closed; smuggled antiquities seized

-- Diplomatic gesture: The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will return to Egypt a piece of an ancient shrine that it purchased from a collector. (Associated Press)

-- Architectural mishap: The Bay Bridge linking San Francisco and Oakland is closed indefinitely after strong winds snapped two rods and a crossbeam. (San Francisco Chronicle)

-- Gotcha: Customs agents have seized two ancient Italian artifacts that were smuggled into the U.S. and offered for sale in New York. (Associated Press)

-- Election season: David Mamet's "November" will have its West Coast premiere at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco on Nov.15. (Playbill)

-- Historical record: The Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace was once a target for the IRA, according to archives. (Telegraph)

-- Finding a home: Martin McDonagh's "A Behanding in Spokane" will open March 4 at Broadway's Schoenfeld Theater. (Variety)

-- Unveiling: Oxford's Ashmolean Museum is set to reopen Nov. 7 after a nearly $100-million renovation. (Bloomberg)

-- Organizing labor: The Society of Composers & Lyricists, which includes about 1,200 members, is considering unionizing. (Variety)

-- And in the L.A. Times: The first part of a multi-volume DVD retrospective of Plácido Domingo's career hits the shelves in November. (Los Angeles Times)

-- David Ng

Photo: A fragment from an ancient shrine that the Metropolitan Museum of Art will return to Egypt. Credit: Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities / Associated Press

LACMA and KCET among nation's top fund-raisers -- back in the good old days of 2007-08

The Chronicle of Philanthropy has identified the 400 U.S. charities that raised the most money during the fiscal year reflected by their 2008 tax statements.

Twenty-seven arts and cultural institutions made the top 400 for 2008 -- 14 museums, three performing-arts centers, one opera company (the San Francisco Opera, which was boosted by its largest-ever donation, $40 million), seven public broadcasters, the New York City Public Library and the New York Botanical Garden.

Buoyed by a then-high-flying fund-raising campaign for its expansion and renovation, including a $45-million gift from Stewart and Lynda Resnick (pictured), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art came in 167th overall and fourth among museums, collecting $126.1 million in donations. The local public television station, KCET, squeezed onto the list at No. 399, raising $47.9 million.

Overall, the 400 champs of fund-raising managed to eke out a 1% gain over the previous year during 2008. Since the recession officially began in December 2007, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, most charities would have spent about half their 2007-08 fiscal years with the wind at their backs and half with it blowing in their faces. But the typhoon didn't hit until September 2008, when the books already had closed for most of the organizations in the Chronicle's report.

Next year's report will reflect that damage. To get a peek ahead, the Chronicle surveyed 100 of the charities that made its 2008 list and found they were predicting a 9% drop in donations.

Berlin Wall segments arrive in Los Angeles

You could drive to 5900 Wilshire to see segments of the real Berlin Wall, which have been donated to Culver City's Wende Museum of the Cold War and will be part of the museum's Wall Project, commemorating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Or you could rely on Culture Monster for a first glimpse of the segments being installed after dark Thursday (photo above)  in time for a little ceremony Friday hosted by museum founder Justinian Jampol, City Councilman Tom LaBonge and Wolfgang Drautz, Los Angeles consul general for the Federal Republic of Germany.

Together the 10 sections (40 feet) of the original Berlin Wall represent the largest chunk of the original wall outside Germany.  They can be viewed free through Nov. 14, as an adjunct to the symbolic recreation and fall of the Berlin Wall that will take place across Wilshire Boulevard on Sunday, Nov. 8, from 11 p.m. to midnight.

-- Diane Haithman

Photos: Segments of the original Berlin Wall installed at 5900 Wilshire. Credit: Michael B. Whalen

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Wall Project to close Wilshire Boulevard at midnight instead of afternoon

The writing's on the wall in Berlin

Monster Mash: Twist in Warhol theft case; Bill Gates gives $10 million; Frank Stella ID's fake

-- Mysterious: The owner of 11 stolen Andy Warhol paintings said he is choosing to waive the insurance policy that he owns to protect the paintings. (Los Angeles Times)

-- Big gift: The Gates Foundation is giving $10 million to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. (The Washington Post)

-- State secret: Sotheby's declines to disclose to the SEC the method it uses to set executive pay, citing its rivalry with Christie's. (Bloomberg)

-- Counterfeit: Frank Stella said through his attorney that a painting attributed to him is a fake and should be destroyed. (Las Vegas Sun)

-- Getting dirty: MOCA Tuscon is under fire from local conservative politicians who are upset over the museum's deal with the city on its upcoming move. (Artnet)

-- Extreme art: Film critic Roger Ebert revisits his interest in  artist Chris Burden. (Chicago Sun-Times)

-- Financial difficulties: The Indianapolis Museum of Art furloughs its staff in an effort to cut costs and keep free admission for visitors. (Indianapolis Star)

-- Big project: Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, is working on plans for a new contemporary art museum designed by Jean Nouvel. (ARTnews)

-- Penny-pinching: Art is becoming more difficult to insure at fairs as reinsurance companies grow wary of insuring too much art in a single place at any given time. (The Art Newspaper)

-- Also in the L.A. Times: Ed Ruscha talks about President Obama's taste in art. (Los Angeles Times)

-- David Ng

Photo: A police notice of artwork by Andy Warhol that was stolen from an L.A. home. Credit: LAPD / EPA

Artist and academic Joseph Lewis III named dean of UC Irvine's School of the Arts

Joseph Lewis III, a former chair of Cal State Northridge's art department who also supervised  public art projects for L.A.'s Cultural Affairs Department, was named Thursday as dean of UC Irvine's Claire Trevor School of the Arts.

Lewis, 56, will take his new post at the beginning of the spring term next March, ending a five-year tenure as dean of the School of Art & Design at Alfred University, about 100 miles from Buffalo in western New York -- where the university's communications director reported that it began snowing Thursday, with an advisory of four to six inches today

In a statement announcing the appointment, UCI's chancellor, Michael Drake, cited Lewis as "both a recognized artist and a gifted administrator."

Lewis said it isn't the warm weather that's bringing him back to Southern California after eight years (he left Northridge in 2001 to become dean of the School of Art and Design at New York City's Fashion Institute of Technology), but the chance to tap into all the experience accumulated during a genre-hopping creative career that has included acting, songwriting, performance art, photography and fine arts. Family is a factor too: Lewis said his wife, Phuong, a master's degree candidate in business administration at Alfred, hails from Corona, and they'll be close to her family. The couple has a 5-year-old son, Joey.