The Bowers Museum showcases the work of Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher in 'Passages.'

Photographers Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher have devoted 30 years and 12 books to the traditions, culture and people of Africa -- a faraway land that they have brought closer to home by teaming with the Bowers Museum for the exhibit "Passages," currently on display.

Keith Haring works from their Miami collection furnish a Palm Springs Art Museum exhibition.

"The advantage of not being able to produce art is that you can spend all your energy looking at art," said Don Rubell, whose family of self-confessed contemporary art fanatics is perpetually in search of the next addition to its 5,000-piece collection. Pleased to have uttered a complete sentence without being interrupted by Mera, his wife and collecting partner of nearly 45 years, he eased into a knowing smile as she jumped in to explain how their collecting obsession works.

How the director worked on the movie 'The Reader' while readying 'Billy Elliot: The Musical' for Broadway.

The giant-sized, multicolored dancing dresses that play a central role in "Billy Elliot: The Musical" make up the kind of dream sequence that could very quickly fill your nightmares.

Many regard El Sistema, or the System, as a model for music instruction and for helping the young develop into productive citizens.

The Don Bosco Communal Center looks much like any other social services agency building in any hardscrabble barrio anywhere in Latin America.

Well, I too was at the aforementioned Slow Journalism panel, passing the USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism "helper" baton to John. Though I think the Slow label lends itself too easily to bad jokes, I agree with Doug's idea that many... Jeff Weinstein http://www.artsjournal.com/outthere/

"Through the program, participating students share their own culture as they learn about cultures from all around the world - by sharing their artwork," says OneWorld's Paul Hurteau. Each participating class/school/group submits 30 pieces of student artwork to be sent by OneWorld to a variety of schools around the world, and each group gets 30 pieces back. Participation fee for U.S. classes/schools/groups is $50 per exchange; registration form is available at OneWorld's Web site. OneWorld Classrooms is a nonprofit that has involved over 8,000 classrooms worldwide since 1999. More than 40 countries have participated, from Albania to Uganda.

Gramophone's poll of music critics names the world's top 20 orchestras. "Seven American orchestras, four German and three Russian make the list, which is topped by the Royal Concertgebouw of Amsterdam. The mighty Berlin Philharmonic and the refined Vienna Philharmonic are second and third respectively."... ArtsJournal

First Obama, now the Chicago Symphony. "Gramophone asked classical music critics from the U.S., Europe and Asia to come up with their top 20 favorite orchestras. After the lists were compiled, the Chicago Symphony came out on top in the U.S." It beat out six other American orchestras that also made the cut.... ArtsJournal

"So Christmas is once again lurching towards us with all the stealth of a Salvation Army band and as I look around at what the arts have to offer I'm left with the same nagging question I have every year - how do we manage to make art about Christmas so boring?"... ArtsJournal

"Donald Finkel, a noted American poet whose work teemed with curious juxtapositions, which in their unorthodoxy helped illuminate the function of poetry itself, died on Nov. 15 at his home in St. Louis."... ArtsJournal

"Philadelphia, which created the nation's first public-library system, had the good fortune to receive 25 of Carnegie's libraries. But if Mayor Nutter goes through with his crisis plan to shrink the library system by 11 branches, the city will lose four representatives of its original Carnegie legacy. What will happen to Carnegie's four temples of knowledge is anyone's guess."... ArtsJournal

"The art market's crash -- for that is what it is -- threatens to remake the art world. In the past few weeks, auctioneers, dealers, artists and collectors have changed strategies and policies, and it's likely that future changes will be even more sweeping. ... Here, a look at how the art-market retrenchment will affect its players...."... ArtsJournal

"Some of Rome's most visited museums and monuments are staying shut as ticket-booth workers and security guards stage a one-day strike amid fears of job cuts. The city-owned company that manages museums in the Italian capital - Zetema - says the walkout has closed several venues."... ArtsJournal

"Playwright Michael Yawney spent the last three years crafting a comedy about Anita Bryant's 1977 campaign to repeal Miami-Dade County's first gay-rights ordinance. Yawney never expected that on the eve of its world premiere Thursday in Miami, 1,000 Homosexuals would be so relevant."... ArtsJournal

"A survey by the members of the Conférence Internationale des Arts de la Scène (CINARS) suggests that up to 600 out-of-country performances by 36 Canadian arts organizations could be cancelled in the absence of two cultural diplomacy programs and a stalling economy."... ArtsJournal

"Now I'm no Palin supporter, but I think it's a good thing that Palin and Wurzelbacher are writing books. Because by choosing to write books, as opposed to becoming talk show hosts, or country singers, Palin and Wurzelbacher are tacitly endorsing two of the things that Blue America loves the most, and which Red America has often disdained: freedom of expression and reading."... ArtsJournal

"Patricia Cornwell, author of the best-selling 'Scarpetta' thrillers, will establish a conservation scientist position at Harvard to further close examinations of art materials." The university's Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies helped Cornwell with research on her 2002 book, "Portrait of a Killer," in which she argued that painter Walter Sickert was Jack the Ripper.... ArtsJournal

"When the National Museum of American History reopens on Friday after two years and $85 million of renovation, it may begin to shed its reputation as one of the more cramped and confounding corners of the Smithsonian Institution. ... [A] central five-story atrium now streams with daylight, promising other forms of illumination as the visitor heads off to the new or refreshed displays, with others to open in the next few months."... ArtsJournal

"The Baryshnikov Arts Center has (finally!) officially purchased the 299-seat Jerome Robbins Theater adjacent to the three floors that it owns in the 37 Arts building. The closing was yesterday - thanks in part to $2.5 mil from the Jerome Robbins Foundation, matched by Baryshnikov, the BAC paid in cash!" The Wooster Group will be a resident company in the multidisciplinary space.... ArtsJournal

"Amid news that the Museum of Contemporary Art is facing a financial disaster -- and unconfirmed reports that MOCA trustees are pursuing a merger with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art -- leaders of other Southern California cultural institutions have reacted with dismay. ... Although rumors of MOCA's woes have traveled through art circles for weeks, the drastic measures under consideration came as a shock to many arts leaders."... ArtsJournal