In the Arts: Travel Restrictions Nix N.Y. Philharmonic’s Cuba Trip
October 2, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
The New York Philharmonic has canceled its planned trip to Cuba later this month because the federal government barred the orchestra from taking a group of patrons along, The New York Times reports.
The trip was to have been funded by $10,000 contributions from about 150 board members and other donors who were to accompany the Philharmonic to Havana, where it was slated to play two concerts at the invitation of the Cuban government. A State Department spokesman said that while U.S. sanctions against Cuba permit artists to enter the island nation, under current provisions the patrons would be considered tourists, “and we don’t license tourist travel to Cuba.”
In other arts news, The Washington Post reports on the proliferation of small opera groups cropping up in Baltimore to fill the gap left by the demise of the Baltimore Opera Company.
The New Yorker reports on the surprise $10-million bequest to the Museum of Modern Art by Michael H. Dunn, a small-town Vermont resident who died two years ago.
And the Omaha Theater Ballet and School announced it will close at the end of the 2009-10 season, leaving the state of Nebraska without a professional dance company, reports the Omaha World-Herald.
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