Norton Museum of Art director Hope Alswang.Norton names new executive director
After a nearly year-long nationwide search, the Norton Museum of Art’s board of directors has named Hope Alswang executive director of the West Palm Beach museum.
Alswang succeeds Christina Orr-Cahall, who left in May 2009 to become executive director of the Experience Music Project (EMP) Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle. Roger Ward, Norton’s chief curator and and acting director since last May, has been named deputy director.
For the past four years, Alswang has been president and chief executive officer of the Museum of Art of Rhode Island School of Design. Before that, she was executive director of the Shelburne (Vermont) Museum (New England’s largest) and director of the New York State Council of the Arts Museum Program.
“We are every excited to welcome Hope Alswang as the museum’s new executive director,” board chairman William H. Sned said in a statement earlier this week. “Hope has an exceptional reputation not only as a strong administrator, but also someone who loves art and who is able to engage the community in the life of the museum.”
For more information, call 561-832-5196 or visit www.norton.org.
The Hotel Montana, after the quake. (United Nations photo)
FAU departments host Haiti relief concert
Florida Atlantic University’s record label and its peace studies program will join Sunday night for a concert and art gathering to raise money for victims of the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti.
About 230,000 people were killed in the quake, according to the Haitian government, and at least 1 million people were left homeless.
Sunday night’s event, called Dear Haiti: Notes of Peace and Compassion, will showcase artwork and musicians who record for the Hoot/Wisdom label. Danny B. and Marcus Banks will headline the concert at FAU’s University Theater, and there will also be music by Alton Terry and a jazz fusion band led by Kiki Sanchez.
Artwork from FAU artists will be displayed and sold in a silent auction, and there will be letter-writing stations for attendees who want to send messages to Haiti. Special guest for the evening will be Sandra Devoe, project coordinator for Food for the Poor, a Coconut Creek-based international relief organization that says it feeds 2 million people a day.
The art-and-music event begins at 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free, and all proceeds go to Food for the Poor’s efforts in Haiti. For more information, call 929-2340.
Online film festival offers $50,000 prize
Bigstar.tv, a global online film networking community and digital platform distributor for independent cinema, plans to award a grand prize of $50,000 cash at its first film festival.
Coral Gables-based Bigstar has aligned with the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival (FLIFF) to assemble two panels of judges for the competition. FLIFF has brought together a jury of 20 industry professionals, including FLIFF president and Chief Executive Officer Gregory von Hausch and senior programmer Bonnie Leigh Adams, for preliminary screenings of all entries, which will culminate with the selection of 10 finalists.
A jury of celebrities including Steve Guttenberg, Ian Ziering, Victor Nunez and more to be announced will screen the 10 finalists and announce the winners on March 31, 2011.
The Bigstar Online Film Festival (BOFF) is open to short films of any genre that are 5 minutes or less. Additional details are available at www.bigstar.tv now through Dec. 31. Entry fees are $25 per film.
The winning films will be presented at Cinema Paradiso, FLIFF’s year-round art-house theater. Visit www.FLIFF.com for more information.
– Compiled by Skip Sheffield and Greg Stepanich