Archives for June 2008

It was working just fine before, but now the two-day-old addition to the CultureGrrl Songbook---my "Philippe Baby" singing podcast---is causing the whole blog to crash (maybe my career too).So I've had to take it down, until I figure out how to put it back up again (in the same place, June 2) without these dire repercussions. (If you're lucky, that will be never!) I guess the … [Read more...] about Technology Apology: “Philippe Baby” Crashes UPDATED

Dan Monroe, executive director of the Peabody Essex Museum and chairman of AAMD's subcommittee on antiquities acquisitionThe Association of Art Museum Directors has just taken a giant, astonishingly progressive step forward in the deescalation of the antiquities wars, with its just issued Report on the Acquisition of Archaeological Materials and Ancient Art. This is NOT the … [Read more...] about News Flash: AAMD Tightens Guidelines for Acquiring Antiquities

Philadelphia Art Critic Edward SozanskiThe Philadelphia Inquirer's estimable art critic, Edward Sozanski (above), today warmly appraises the late Anne d'Harnoncourt's significance to the artworld. I was particularly moved, though, by Museum's Heart and Soul, a personal remembrance of the Philadelphia Museum's director by Inquirer writer Melissa Dribben.If all goes according to … [Read more...] about More From Philly Inquirer on D’Harnoncourt: Edward Sozanski, Melissa Dribben and Me

Philippe de Montebello, speaking at yesterday's Metropolitan Museum press lunch, will soon follow the dictate on the sign behind him.A funny thing happened to me on the way to the Metropolitan Museum's press lunch yesterday. When I entered the elevator, there was just one person occupying it. Philippe de Montebello looked as surprised as I was, then promptly informed me:You got … [Read more...] about Succession Obsession: Scuttlebutt at the Met’s Press Lunch

Anne d'Harnoncourt Just as I was about to leave for the Metropolitan Museum came this shocking and unbearably sad news: "Anne d'Harnoncourt, chief executive of the Philadelphia Museum of Art since 1982, died unexpectedly this morning at age 64," Bob Warner of the Philadelphia Daily News reports. "The cause of D'Harnoncourt's death was not immediately available." [FIRST … [Read more...] about Anne d’Harnoncourt, 64, Dies UPDATED

Philippe de Montebello, celebrated in songPhoto: Fred R. Conrad, NY Times, from NYU's press officeWhen I warbled my new old standard, Auctions in New York, last November, I suggested that my first singing podcast would probably be my last. I have no doubt that my resolve to abort my career as a cabaret crooner met with general approval.But I now find myself about to head out on … [Read more...] about “Philippe Baby”: New to the CultureGrrl Songbook