Ottawa Canada's Venerable National Film Board Is Losing Its Funding (What, We Worry?) "The cuts appear grave: Less assistance to filmmakers; three to four fewer major projects per year; 73 jobs eliminated. And the Cinérobothèque in Montreal and the Mediatheque in Toronto - popular storefront attractions that offer personal stations for watching 10,000 NFB titles and public screenings - will be closed by September. All this for an institution that last year alone garnered two Oscar nominations. Yet within the film board itself, there's a sense of renewal." The Globe & Mail, April 17, 2012

Philadelphia Barnes Foundation's General Counsel Brett Miller Found Dead "Just weeks before the opening of the Barnes Foundation's new museum in downtown Philadelphia, the institution's general counsel Brett Miller has died. His body was found this weekend at his home, a spokesman for the museum has confirmed." The Art Newspaper, April 16, 2012

London British Library pays $14.3M for Cuthbert Gospel
The British Library has paid £9 million ($14.3 million Cdn) to acquire the St. Cuthbert Gospel, a remarkably well-preserved survivor of seventh-century Britain described by the library as the oldest European book to survive fully intact. CBC, April 17, 2012  

Rome Italian Government To Sack National Contemporary Art Museum's Board "Less than two years after the opening of Maxxi, Italy's national museum of contemporary art, the Italian Culture Ministry last Friday initiated procedures to replace the board of directors of the foundation that manages the museum with a government-appointed administrator." The New York Times, April 16, 2012

Mali Re-Thinking What Makes Art 'Authentic,' As A New York Critic Visits Mali Holland Cotter: "In the West we have a particular definition of authenticity and a mania for it as a standard for art, especially art that we envision as elemental, unmodern, unspoiled. We gauge genuineness in terms of age, rarity, uniqueness, history of use, motives for creation. But in Africa, as often as not, authentic is simply what works, socially and spiritually: for example, the way each Dogon tourist dance keeps a larger dance, and Dogon identity, alive." The New York Times, April 17, 2012 

Christchurch, NZ A Cardboard Cathedral For Quake-Ravaged Christchurch, NZ "Shigeru Ban's £2.7 million temporary replacement - known as the Transitional Cathedral - has a lifespan of between 20 and 30 years, is 25-metres tall and constructed from cardboard tubes on a timber and steel A-frame." Construction should be completed by December. The Architects' Journal (UK) April 16, 2012

Engineers Argue That Christchurch's Original Cathedral Can Be Saved "A prominent group of engineers say it is 'technically feasible' to restore the Christ Church Cathedral" - badly damaged in last year's earthquakes - "and have launched a 100-signature petition to halt the demolition." City officials had determined that the late-19th-century structure was too badly damaged to be safe, and the local Anglican Diocese says that reconstruction to current codes would be too costly. The Press (Christchurch, NZ) April 17, 2012

International Paradise lost: Can we keep nonprofits from failing? Brooklyn Philharmonic CEO Richard Dare argues that "the underlying business model of the nonprofit is too inadequate, and the need for our services is too fast-growing, and society's understanding of the situation isn't all that it might be. And we're afraid to say the word 'business' in the same sentence as the word 'art' for fear of alienating both our artists and their supporters. And we're afraid to admit we have a problem and so we close our eyes and try to believe in an irrational business plan that is so stupid and so inadequate that any first year entrepreneur can ... see right through it." Huffington Post, April 5, 2012