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There’s been little movement on the NTC Foundation’s hopes to be exempted from property taxes. The nonprofit foundation is trying to turn 26 buildings in the old Naval Training Center into the city’s next arts, culture and nonprofit district. But it triggered property taxes unexpectedly when it created for-profit companies to help finance the rehabilitation of historic buildings.
The foundation hoped to get Sen. Christine Kehoe to pass legislation that would specifically exempt the buildings from property taxes. But Kehoe’s office said last week the bill won’t go anywhere until they hear support from the county’s Board of Supervisors and assessor, because the county would lose out on property taxes under the arrangement.
Three supervisors’ offices told me last week they hadn’t heard from the foundation asking for that support. And the County Assessor’s Office said it won’t weigh in one way or another, waiting instead for direction from state lawmakers.
You’re reading the Arts Report, our weekly compendium of the highlights and news from San Diego’s arts world, from our Behind the Scene blog and elsewhere.
Stealing Art:
• Statue thieves have yanked at least 18 sculptures from San Diego County lawns in the last six months, including a 600-pound bronze moose. Some are likely stolen to be resold as scrap metal. “If you get a leg, you get an arm, a moose head, something like that, give us a call,” Sgt. Christina Bavencoff of the Ramona Sheriff’s Substation told the North County Times.
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• A local gallery owner kept up the charade of wanting to buy an important Czech photograph he suspected was stolen so he could return it to its proper home. (Union-Tribune)
Moving On:
• Lanford Wilson, “one of the most important playwrights of the late 20th century,” who studied at San Diego State University, died last week. (Washington Post)
• Jihmye Collins — artist, activist and founding member of San Diego Writers, Ink — died earlier this month. (U-T)
• The Oceanside Museum of Art restructured its staff. (U-T)
• Eveoke Dance Theatre lands the coveted La Jolla Playhouse residency. (U-T)
Made in San Diego, or by San Diegans:
• It was a huge weekend in local theater openings, and U-T theater critic Jim Hebert was all over the county reviewing the shows.
• A local costume designer faced a disrobing challenge for San Diego Repertory Theatre’s “In the Next Room”: Make Victorian-era costumes work for actors to put on — and take off — all onstage.
• We focused our weekly segment on NBC San Diego on that costume effort, too.
• The winning plays from a contest for young playwrights that will be presented next weekend have a common thread: “coping with the hand that you are dealt.” (U-T)
• In a show last Friday at a Normal Heights popsicle store, the fourth-graders at Zamorano Fine Arts Academy exhibited artwork they made in the style of local muralist Isaias Crow.
• Local choreographer Peter G. Kalivas thinks the business model of presenting dance can include presenting in a hair salon or a wine bar instead of on “the elegant, well-lit stage of a big theater.” (CityBeat)
• Three local arts influencers called in some personal connections to bring to San Diego this coming weekend’s Wonderland Dance Festival at UCSD and at downtown’s Sushi. (La Jolla Light)
• Giorgione’s “Portrait of a Man,” hanging in the San Diego Museum of Art, is what one curator calls “San Diego’s Mona Lisa.” (U-T)
• Nic Reveles, San Diego Opera’s education director, drops some knowledge about the opera’s upcoming production of “Der Rosenkavelier.” (SD Opera blog)
Like this:
In a bit of theatrical gender-bending unusual for 1911, the role of Count Octavian (a 17-year old boy) is played by a mezzo soprano. At one point in Act I ‘he’ becomes a ‘she’ again by disguising himself as a maid in order to avoid being caught in the Marschallin’s bedroom: a woman playing a man playing a woman! Victor/Victoria anyone?
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I’m the arts editor for VOSD. Please contact me directly at kelly.bennett@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.325.0531 and follow me on Twitter: @kellyrbennett.