In the Arts: European Culture Giants Reach Out to Overseas Donors

Major European cultural entities are taking cues from their U.S. peers in seeking private support, according to The Wall Street Journal. Institutions such as the Louvre, Amsterdam’s Rijkmuseum, and Russia’s Mariinsky Theatre are increasingly establishing overseas “friends” groups and offering more and more varied perks to big international donors, among other steps.

Also: The Daughters of the Republic of Texas, the group charged for more than a century with caring for the Alamo museum, has expelled two members who formed a rival organization to promote the Texas independence shrine, writes the San Antonio Express-News.

Erin Bowman and Dianne MacDiarmid have criticized the organization’s management of the San Antonio facility and in July chartered Friends of the Alamo, an independent, nonprofit fund-raising agency.

In other arts news, the financially troubled Washington National Opera has announced staff and programming cuts, The Washington Post reports. The organization will eliminate eight positions and reduce it schedule from six to five productions, shrinking its budget from $32-million to $26.5-million.

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