Inside Arts

• Recent donations have added another $1.25 million to the Blanton Museum of Art's building campaign. Judy and Charles Tate of Austin contributed $300,000 on top of an earlier donation of $200,000. Richard Durbin has given $100,000 in honor of his wife, Carolyn Bohrer Durbin. Foundation gifts include $350,000 from the Eugene McDermott Foundation, $250,000 from the Lowe Foundation, and $100,000 from T.L.L. Temple Foundation. The total raised to date is $67.9 million, with a goal of $83.5 million. The museum will open in February 2006. -- Jeanne Claire van Ryzin

• The deadline for entries for the Faces of Austin multimedia project in the new City Hall has been extended to Dec. 6. Coordinators seek one- to 15-minute length films or videos that portray various aspects of Austin. Submit entries to Janet Seibert, Civic Arts Coordinator, Cultural Arts Division Economic Growth & Redevelopment Services Office, 301 W. Second St. Austin, Texas 78701, 974-7860, janet.seibert@ci.austin.tx.us. -- J.C.v.R.

• The Austin Museum of Art currently accepts submissions for possible inclusion in '20 to Watch: New Art in Austin,' the second in a series of triennial exhibitions. Artists must live within 50 miles of Austin and never had a solo show in a major mainstream exhibition venue. For submission guidelines e-mail info@amoa.org or stop by the museum at 832 Congress Ave. -- J.C.v.R.

• Composer Cy Coleman never achieved the wider fame of Stephen Sondheim or Andrew Lloyd Webber, but he wrote some marvelous, comfortably old-fashioned musicals, all produced in Austin -- 'Wildcat,' 'Little Me,' 'I Love My Wife,' 'Sweet Charity' (recalled from a sizzling Austin Musical Theatre edition), 'On the Twentieth Century,' 'Barnum,' 'City of Angels' and 'Will Rogers Follies.' He died last week at age 75, apparently from a heart attack. -- Michael Barnes

• Seems Austin Lyric Opera artistic director Richard Buckley is a one-man operatic rescue squad. His recent Chicago Lyric Opera production of 'Aida' recalled 'a golden age of Italian opera,' writes Associated Press writer Mike Silverman. 'Buckley did a marvelous job of bringing out the more lyrical moments in the score, starting with a prelude played unusually slowly and eloquently.' Buckley's rendition of Richard Strauss' 'Elektra' opens at Bass Concert Hall on Jan. 7. -- M.B.