Monster Mash: NEA’s new grant money; Broads donate $2 million more to MSU museum; arts attendance falls

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-- New money: The National Endowment for the Arts said it would grant cities as much as $250,000 apiece for urban design projects that promote the arts. (Bloomberg)

-- If you build it: Eli and Edythe Broad donate an additional $2 million to their planned art museum at Michigan State University. (MSU State News)

-- Downward trend: A survey by Americans for the Arts shows a drop in arts attendance nationwide. (Washington Post)

-- Expanding: The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston unveils the design for an ambitious $118-million expansion created by architect Renzo Piano. (Boston Globe)

-- Honored: Edward Albee will receive an award from the Writers Guild of America. (TheaterMania)

-- Reclusive: South African playwright Athol Fugard explains why he lives in San Diego. (San Francisco Chronicle)

-- Financial insecurity: New York cultural funding could take a hit under a proposed 2010-11 state budget. (New York Times)

-- Dismissed: A jury has rejected a public relations consultant’s contention that he was slandered in a termination letter written by the head of the African American Museum. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

-- And in the L.A. Times: Martin Scorsese talks with LACMA’s Michael Govan; Laserium’s comeback stumbles in Hollywood; more on the California Science Center case.

-- David Ng