Friday's Art Notes

_People look at Denmark's iconic "little mermaid statue":http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/world/europe/28copenhagen.html at the Danish pavilion at the site of the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai. After the 2008 Beijing Olympics, China is planning to stage the largest World's Fair yet as the latest demonstration of its growing global clout. The six-month exhibition starts on May 1. Photo by Philippe Lopez/ AFP/ Getty Images_ * The next artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will be choreographer Robert Battle, via the "New York Times":http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/29/arts/dance/29plan.html?ref=arts. Battle will succeed Judith Jamison, who was "profiled on the NewsHour earlier this year":http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/blog/2010/01/monday-on-the-newshour-judith-jamison-and-the-alvin-ailey-american-dance-theater.html. * Comedian Conan O'Brien gives his first interview since his departure from NBC on an upcoming episode of '60 Minutes', via the "Los Angeles Times":http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2010/04/conan-obrien-speaks-out-on-60-minutes.html. * A contest to make the European Union's Charter of Fundamental Rights more poetic has been called off, via the "Associated Press":http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jIGP8l-_mvuQ8_COO6lLvlJDBBmQD9FCP0N82. * The Christian Science Monitor "examines an oft-overlooked collection of paintings":http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/DC-Decoder/2010/0429/Long-after-cold-war-artists-paintings-of-Soviet-weapons-remain at the Smithsonian -- art commissioned by the "Defense Intelligence Agency":http://www.dia.mil/history/art/militaryArt.htm to depict Soviet weapons in informational brochures.