Monday's Art Notes

_French maestro Georges Prêtre rehearses with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in preparation for the New Year's Concert in Vienna. It will be the second time that the 84-year-old conductor has been invited to take the podium of the world's best-known and most sought-after classical concert, which is televised and broadcast live in more than 70 countries. Photo by Dieter Nag/AFP/Getty Images_ * Poet and apartheid activist "Dennis Brutus has died in Cape Town at age 85":http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/12/27/us/AP-US-Obit-Brutus.html?partner=rss&emc=rss. We'll have more on Brutus on Art Beat later today. * California's museum troubles continue, with Fresno's "Metropolitan Museum facing serious (potentially fatal) financial straits":http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/1761689.html, and the "official closure of the Claremont Museum":http://www.sbsun.com/breakingnews/ci_14077316 on Sunday. While the Claremont collection will be going into storage, it will still be virtually accessible on their website come January. The museum's founding president says they may be able to reopen in a few years, depending on its economic status. * New York City "imposes a new hefty fee for filmmakers":http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091224/ap_en_ot/us_filming_in_nyc shooting on location, while "indie directors are putting their movies online for free":http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1950005,00.html?xid=rss-arts&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+time%2Fentertainment+%28TIME%3A+Top+Arts+Stories%29&utm_content=Google+Reader#ixzz0axTuGERW. * Being caught in the midst of both an economic crisis and the constant crush of communication and media are among the defining terms of "what it means to be an American artist today":http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-artists27-2009dec27,0,6838924.story, say various artists (including Ed Ruscha) in the LA Times.