Week
of June 9-15, 2001
1.
Special Interest
2. Dance
3. Media
4. Music
5. People
6. Publishing
7. Theatre
8. Visual Arts
9. Arts Issues
10. For Fun
1.
SPECIAL INTERESThttp://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#specialinterest
BLACKLISTING
THE AGED: "The latest
Writers Guild statistics—compiled in 1998—find that out of the
122 prime-time TV series, 77 of them did not employ a single writer
older than 50. Five years earlier, only 19 of them didn't. Over-50
writers make up one-third of guild membership, but only 5% of those
writing on episodic comedies. Three years later, it can only be
worse." So the over-50s are suing. Los
Angeles Times 06/10/01
TRUTH
ABOUT BLURBS: So who cares about Sony's made-up movie critic?
Movie pr types do much worse every day. "The simplest trick in
the ad man’s book is the one word quote. 'Astonishing!'
'Brilliant!' 'Thrilling!' 'Beautiful!' Invariably you are meant to
assume that the ripe adjective is describing the movie itself. But
it’s just as likely that it was the star’s shoes that were
'beautiful,' the book the movie was based on that was 'brilliant,' a
single sequence that was 'thrilling' and a particularly egregious
bit of miscasting that the critic found 'astonishing.' A good rule
of thumb: any word preceded by … and followed by … is no more to
be trusted than a campaign promise by our current president."
MSNBC (Newsweek) 06/14/01
2. DANCEhttp://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#dance
SO
HARD TO SAY GOODBYE: Dance is as much sport as art, and the toll
it takes on the human body is comparable to that of any athletic
endeavor. Because of this, dancers face a reality that most other
performing artists never do: they will have to give up what they
have trained their entire life for when their life is only half
over. For many dancers, the decision to retire is the most painful
one they will ever make, and the much-beloved principal dancer of
the Pennsylvania Ballet has had to make it this year. He offers an
inside look. Philadelphia Inquirer
06/14/01
THE
ENGLISH NATIONAL'S NEW DIRECTION: After eight years of the
flamboyant Derek Deane at its helm, the English National Ballet
takes on Swede Matz Skooga as its new director. "Skoog is the
antithesis of Deane. Soft-spoken, self-effacing and courteous, the
bespectacled Swede describes himself as a team player. He talks
about the philosophy of creative management as if he were leading a
seminar — 'Art is where society experiments with new ideas and we
have to be part of that'.” The Times
(UK) 06/12/01
SIZING
UP STRETTON: Ross Stretton leaves as director of the Australian
Ballet as he takes over London's Royal Ballet. What does the RB have
to look forward to? Among his notable achievements, he "urged
dancers to tackle their work with more energy and commitment...he
attracted new audiences, especially younger ballet-goers. And he
encouraged Australian choreographers to make ballets with Australian
themes." Sydney Morning Herald
06/15/01
BABCOCK
CALLS IT QUITS IN BOSTON: The saga of Boston Ballet's troubled
management continues. Jeffrey Babcock's stormy tenure as CEO of
Boston Ballet came to a close yesterday, as the controversial
director announced his intention to become dean of Boston
University's School of the Arts. The departure leaves the embattled
company without any senior management as it struggles to find a new
artistic director. Boston Globe 06/13/01
NERVE
TO QUIT: Deborah Bull, one of Britain's top ballerinas, says
she's quitting dancing because of an escalating case of performance
nerves. She'll retire into a job as artistic director of the Royal
Opera House's new studio theatres. Sunday
Times (UK) 06/10/01
3.
MEDIAhttp://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#media
HAS
POP CULTURE LOST ITS BUZZ? Have the US TV networks lost touch
with their audiences so profoundly that they're collectively
unable to come up with a single new concept in which any
significant number of viewers are interested? Is Viewer Apathy the
cultural equivalent of Voter Apathy? More to the point, is what we
see reflected in the mirror of popular culture a representation of
who we really are these days, or just an image of who they think
we are, or require us to be?" The Guardian (UK)
06/15/01
A
CHICKEN/EGG THING: Does Hollywood's fare lead us down the path
to brain rot? Or do we get the movies we want/deserve? "In
short, are we living in a lively age of motion-picture pleasures -
or are we witnessing what some critics call the dumbing down of
American cinema?" Christian
Science Monitor 06/15/01
THE
ABC MESS: The Australian Broadcasting Company is in turmoil,
and the blame is being laid on embattled director Jonathan Shier.
Rightly so, says one critic. But who hired him? And why was
someone with so little experience tapped for the job? Audiences
are down, programming is a shambles and staff are deserting.
Where's the ABC board, and the government that oversees
everything? Sydney Morning Herald
06/14/01
HOLLYWOOD
NORTH: Toronto is awash in movie productions. "The influx
of television and film production from the United States because
of tax incentives and the cheap dollar has plainly altered the
city's hotels and restaurants and served as an economic boon to
the city of 2.5 million. But some people see a downside to the
boom and wonder whether Toronto hasn't overextended itself to
accommodate film and television production companies." The
New York Times 06/12/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
JUST
SHOW THEM THE MONEY: "When local television stations
assemble their daily schedules, the idea in theory is to put
together a lineup that will be most attractive to viewers within
their community. Yet increasingly, stations appear to be falling
back on a somewhat different equation, one based not on what will
garner the most eyeballs but who will pay the most money."
Los Angeles Times 06/12/01
THE
CANNES OF TV: The international TV world is gathering in
Banff, Canada. "Founded in 1979 after a decade of struggle to
put in place the building blocks for a viable industry, the Banff
Television Festival emerged as the place for innovation,
excellence and opportunity." The
Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/09/01
4.
MUSIC http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#music
PRICING
OUT THE MARKET: Attendance at Chicago Symphony concerts has
been dropping for several years. Ticket prices have risen - to a
top price of $185 a seat - to make up the income, and the
orchestra has started a price/demand system, where ticket prices
rise or fall depending on the demand. The idea isn't going over
very well with some fans... Chicago
Tribune 06/10/01
QUEL
SCANDALE! Want to get the latest academic dish on musical
dirt? The New Groves Dictionary pokes its nose into the stories
behind the music. "Sex – at least sex outside conventional
marriage – is now considered an essential element in biography,
a defining characteristic. Academic scholarship being as trendy as
hemlines, The New Grove II, as it's being called, is plugged into
the zeitgeist." Dallas Morning
News 06/10/01
COUNTING
THE MUSIC: Recording sales used to be measured in a highly
suspect fashion, open to the biases and manipulations of those in
the recording business. But ten years ago Soundscan brought
science to the process and completely changed the ways sales are
counted. Los Angeles Times 06/09/01
ARE
YOU HEARING WHAT YOU'RE HEARING? "Although it remains an
issue that most venues prefer not to discuss, the use of
'electronic enhancement' is widespread. No euphemism can disguise
the fact that what audiences hear is, in part, relayed through
speakers." The Telegraph (UK)
06/09/01
CLIBURN
WINNERS: For the first time, there are two gold medalists at
the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Stanislav
Ioudenitch of Uzbekistan and Olga Kern of Russia have won the 11th
Van Cliburn in Fort Worth. Dallas
Morning News 06/11/01
THE
FEMALE BARRIER: Amazingly, American conductor Marin Alsop is
the first woman to land a top job with a British orchestra - the
Bournemouth Orchestra. "It's exciting and horrifying
at the same time," she says. "Her horror is at the fact
that it has taken until this year to appoint a woman as chief
conductor of a British symphony orchestra." The
Guardian (UK) 06/11/01
HOW
MOZART DIED? There are about 150 theories about how Mozart may
have died. The latest? A tainted pork chop. "The composer,
who died in 1791, showed the symptoms of a disease caused by
eating badly-cooked pork infected by a worm, an American doctor
has said." BBC 06/11/01
PIRATE
BOOM: A new study says that "36 per cent of the global
market for recorded music is now taken by pirate recordings.
Worldwide sales of pirate CDs rose from 450 million units in 1999
to 475 million in 2000." Gramophone
06/12/01
EAST
MEETS WEST: For centuries, the musical traditions of Asia and
Europe were so different as to defy any attempt to bring them
together. But as art music struggles for survival in the West, it
is often innovators from the Pacific Rim who are reinvigorating
the form, bringing Eastern ideas to "classical"
convention. Audiences and musicians alike are seeing the enormous
potential in such cross-cultural partnerships. Andante
06/01
TOO
MUCH IS NEVER ENOUGH: You probably think that you appreciate a
fine stereo system as much as the next guy. You have no idea. That
is, unless you are one of the select few audiophiles who has ever
spent more on a home sound system than most people spend on a
house. Call it a fetish, call it a subculture, call it insane
overkill - these enthusiasts live to find the perfect sound. Washington
Post 06/13/01
DUMBING
DOWN JAZZ: "The annual downpour of summer jazz across
North America is a reminder of how little attention this
continent's first distinctive contribution to world culture gets
in the other three seasons. The bucketload of funky, swingin' but
barely improvisational music on offer makes you wonder how well we
remember what jazz is, or was." The
Globe & Mail (Toronto) 06/14/01
- CLAP
TRAP: "Perhaps the weirdest thing about jazz concerts
is the clapping. Back in the smoky past, someone was overcome
by enthusiasm for a solo, and at its conclusion applauded
vigorously, despite the music still being in full swing.
Enthusiasm being as contagious as measles, others emulated the
outburst, until the exception became the rule and it was
mandatory to clap solos. Now they are clapped regardless of
merit." Sydney Morning Herald
06/14/01
OH,
NO, WHAT ARE THEY DOING HERE? Microsoft and its
"MSN Music" service have struck a deal with a major
music encoding company, and appear to be poised to make their
download service as indispensable as all of Microsoft's other
products. Meanwhile, MP3.com
added its millionth song to its online library, and introduced
a new premium service. Wired &
Nando Times (AP) 06/14/01
YOUNGEST
CONCERTMASTER: After months of speculation, Washington's
National Symphony has picked a new concertmaster. She's Nurit
Bar-Josef, 26, "currently the assistant concertmaster of the
Boston Symphony Orchestra. She will become one of the youngest
players in this country to be concertmaster of a major
orchestra." Washington Post
06/15/01
5.
PEOPLE http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#people
SOMETHING'S
SOAPY HERE: A month ago a young Canadian theatre director
disappeared on a trip to New York. This week he mysteriously
walked off a plane from Lisbon in New York, claiming to have no
memories of the past three weeks. "It's been so bizarre. You
think amnesia and everyone laughs and thinks of Days Of Our
Lives. We were so ecstatic to find out he was alive."
Ottawa Citizen (CP) 06/14/01
MEL
BROOKS, AS YOU'VE FREQUENTLY HEARD HIM BEFORE: In the unlikely
event that you haven't heard Mel Brooks talk about The
Producers, his recent interview with Terry Gross of NPR's Fresh
Air in online. His modesty is at best elusive, but his humor
is not. [.ra format; requires free
player from RealAudio] Fresh
Air (NPR) 06/13/01
STILL
FIDDLING ON THE ROOF: Zero Mostel was the first, but Theo
Bickel is the one who endures. He's been playing the lead in Fiddler
on the Roof semi-regularly for 34 years, some 1700
performances. Not surprisingly, Theo and Tevye have a lot in
common. Boston Herald 06/11/01
WOODY
ALLEN IN COURT AGAIN: Woody Allen is suing a long time friend
and financier of his movies, claiming she owes him profits from
eight of his projects from the 1990s. The
New York Times 06/11/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
6.
PUBLISHING http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#publishing
APPEALING
TO A HIGHER READER: Conventional wisdom is that intellectual
books don't sell well. Yet Louis Menand's tome The Metaphysical
Club documenting the lives and influence of William James,
John Dewey, Charles Sanders Peirce and Oliver Wendell Holmes, has
quickly hit the best-seller lists, selling out its first U.S.
printing of 25,000, and is well into its second run. The
Globe & Mail (AP) (Canada) 06/15/01
INTELLECTUAL
FAILURE: The Australian Review of Books was a noble
experiment to appeal to Australian intellectuals. But that it
failed is "all too indicative of what is wrong with the
intellectual-literary-artistic scene in Australia. It is dominated
by politics and partisan hatreds, as well as irrational obsessions
with figures like Rupert Murdoch. Sydney
Morning Herald 06/14/01
THE
CRITICS REVIEWED: Three critics with reputations for being
tough reviewers have their own books coming out - and one can see
other critics polishing up their critical responses. The new
authors will just have to suck it up if the reviews are harsh.
"To be reviewed harshly is painful. If you are a critic you
are expected to shut up if it happens to you." The
New York Times 06/14/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
READING
BERLIN: Berlin's first International Festival of Literature
opens with 100 writers from around the world. "The program
ambitiously sets out to present the literatures of the world as
comprehensively as possible, with the underlying hope that
quantity will automatically translate into quality at some
point." Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung 06/13/01
THE
MARRIAGE OF NAPSTER AND E-BOOKS: Audio books are going high-tech.
In place of that box full of cassettes, now there's a direct download
to your MP3 player. "The thing has no moving parts. You can
throw it against a wall and it still works. It's far superior
to buying or renting or ordering it by mail, and maybe having
to pack it up and send it back. And it's cheaper, too."
Atlanta Journal-Constitution 06/12/01
FEED
STARVES WITH SUCK: Two eminent web publications - Feed
and Suck - shut down operations Friday as the internet
shakeout of content sites continues. Suck was known for its
irreverence, Feed - often linked to here on ArtsJournal - for its
thoughtful consideration of ideas.
Inside.com 06/08/01
BUYING
IN TO THE NEW YORKER: So what does it take to get your
writing in The New Yorker magazine? How about a little cash
up front? "According to the May 8 edition of the industry
e–newsletter PW Daily, to follow in the footsteps of
Nabokov, Cheever, Updike and Salinger all you have to do is 'ante
up a premium ad fee. That's what it will take to buy an
advertorial excerpt in the pages normally reserved for the
superliterati'." Mobylives
06/11/01
SERIAL
WRITING: Fifteen prominent Irish writers collaborate on a
novel, each contributing a chapter to the project. It's not a
great book, but "the committee approach adopted in Yeats
Is Dead! capitalises on something which many of us have
secretly known for some time: most contemporary Irish novelists
are best appreciated in small doses." The
Sunday Times (UK) 06/10/01
AN
ORIGINAL AS RAW MATERIAL: There is a long tradition of artists
appropriating characters or ideas out of other artists' work and
enlarging, expanding or retelling the work from a different
perspective. So how is novelist Alice Randall's retake of Gone
with the Wind any different? The
Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/09/01
7.
THEATRE http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#theatre
WHAT'S
NEW IN MOSCOW: "Throughout the 1990's, a time when
Russian culture, society and politics were in turmoil, Russian
directors largely ignored contemporary plays and retreated to the
stability and familiarity of the classics." Now a
contemporary play - hated by critics but a major hit with
audiences, looks like a signal that contemporary theatre is
reviving in Russia. The New York Times
06/09/01 (one-time registration
required for access)
THEATRE
OLYMPICS: "which originated in 1995 in Delphi, Greece,
and continued in Shizuoka, Japan, in 1999 before coming to Moscow
this spring — is bigger than ever. Nearly 150 productions from
35 countries as far-flung from Russia's capital as Colombia and
Australia are being presented during the 70-day
extravaganza." The New York Times
06/09/01 (one-time registration
required for access)
PERSONAL
STRUGGLES: The sudden resignation of Connecticut's Long Wharf
Theatre artistic director Doug Hughes is a sign of the changing
power structures in the American regional theatre movement...
Hartford Courant 06/10/01
- SEASON
CRUMBLES: With Hughes gone, some actors pull out of the
upcoming season. Now four of next season's eight plays are out
of the lineup. Hartford Courant
06/10/01
SHORT
(OF CASH) VIC: London's Young Vic theatre asked for £6
million from the Lottery fund but got only £250,000. "We
really have a crisis. The building is falling down. It was built
in 1970 as a series of breeze blocks on top of each other, a
temporary structure. We have to spend £80,000 each year on
repairs just to keep the building open. We had been led to believe
we would get more." The
Independent (UK) 06/13/01
BOUNCED
FROM BROADWAY: The Bells are Ringing closed on Broadway
last weekend, but 18 members of the company have complained that
their checks bounced. "In a business where many deals are
still made with a handshake and a good name is perhaps an
entrepreneur's most valuable asset, this is shaping up as a public
relations nightmare for the producers." The
New York Times 06/13/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
8.
VISUAL ARTS http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#visualarts
PERCENT
FOR WHAT? Since 1979 the City of Chicago may have spent $15
million on its Percent for Art program. Or maybe it didn't. The
Public Art Program apparently hasn't kept records of how much it
has collected or what it has commissioned. Most alarming is the
director's explanation of his accounting: "It's the city. We
juggle money all the time." Chicago
Tribune 06/13/01
GERMANY
RETURNS ART TO GREECE: Germany is returning some of the art in
its museums to Greece, which has been fighting to get it back.
"Berlin’s Pergamon museum will send Greece ten sections of
the Philippeion monument, built between 338 and 336 BC.
Germany will also help restore the monument at Olympia, the
sanctuary and site of the Olympic Games." The
Times (UK) 06/14/01
WORLD'S
BIGGEST ART FAIR: The art world is in Basel this week.
"Once a year, for a week, this quaint little city in the
corner of Switzerland becomes a fondue pot of culture. All the big
dealers dip in as it plays host to the world’s biggest modern
and contemporary art fair. The scene is truly international and so
is the language — which is money. Behind the schmoozing and
smiles, you see the glint of the hard sell." The
Times (UK) 06/15/01
AND
IT WON'T EVEN KILL YOU: Jam a bunch of quarters in the slot,
pull the knob, and reach into the dispenser for a refreshing (if
habit-forming) pack of... art? Yes, art - step right up and meet
the Art*o*mat, a converted cigarette machine that dispenses
pocket-sized pieces of art for the consumer on the go. Coming soon
to a museum, grocery store, or laundromat near you. Washington
Post 06/14/01
VISUALIZE
FRANCE: A new French government study of the visual arts world
warns that "French contemporary artists are being pushed out
of the world market because of stifling state patronage, a lack of
private collectors and a failure of imagination." The
Times (UK) 06/13/01
ART
THAT DICTATES ART: Frank Gehry's influence on museum design is
to elevate buildings to the level of showy pieces of art. But what
of the art inside? The new architecture dictates the art by the
nature of its strong personalities. And surely that isn't good for
art... The New Republic 06/13/01
VENICE BIENNALE REVIEWS:
- VENICE
BIENNALE OPENS: "From the almost 300 artists showing
in this 49th Biennale - 130 chosen by Szeeman, and 156 by
curators in each of the 63 countries represented at the
festival - you get about a half-century's worth of styles,
ideas and notions about what good art can be." Washington
Post 06/10/01
- THE
OVERCROWDED BIENNALE: The Venice Biennale is up in full
cacophony. "As elsewhere in Venice, the crowd is now the
problem more than ever. Has the Biennale grown too big? The
gardens in Castello, its historic heart and home, have no more
space for national pavilions. The ancient Arsenale, with its
sprawl of disused yards and workshops, fill up as every new
space becomes available. Meanwhile the Biennale spreads ever
more widely through the city." Financial
Times 06/12/01
- MODEL
EXPERIENCE: "Fine painting, fascinating video, acres
of photographs, a sculpture or two and plenty of
self-indulgence - the Venice Biennale offers a perfect
snapshot of the art world today." The
Telegraph (UK) 06/13/01
- NOT
PLEASANT: over-crowded, under-inspired — and over-run
with little golden turtles. The
Times (UK) 06/13/01
- BIENNALE
WINNERS: A list of artists
winning prizes at this year's Biennale. ARTForum
06/10/01
LET
THERE BE LIGHT: A new exhibit produced jointly by museums in
Amsterdam and Pittsburgh examines the role of light, both natural
and artificial, in art history. The curators contend that the
direction of visual art was changed forever by the development of
gas and electric lights, and make a direct link between the
oft-competing worlds of science and art. The
New York Times 06/13/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
TATE-HATER:
Hilton Kramer laments the Tate Museum and the toll of success.
"This ill-conceived project clearly represents the spirit of
the age, which in art and in life is besotted with an appetite for
destroying what is good by enlarging it to a scale of extinction.
It puts us on notice that in the twenty-first century we shall
need no wars to devastate our monuments to the past. Our cultural
bureaucrats have shown themselves to be fully capable of
performing the task for us." New
Criterion 06/01
REMAKING
LONDON: London's mayor's beliefs about his city's future can
be summarized as "either London buckles down and starts
building skyscrapers with the abandon of a Shanghai or a Hong Kong
or else Britain heads for the economic third division." In
his drive to remake the capital, he considers the preservationist
English Heritage "the biggest threat to London's future since
the Luftwaffe." The Observer (UK)
06/10/01
9.
ISSUES http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#issues
PROTECTING
NATIONAL CULTURES: Canada lays out a new plan to protect
national cultures. "The centrepiece of the plan is the
International Network on Cultural Policy, a working group of
culture ministers from 46 countries who will meet in September in
Switzerland with the intention of creating an international
'instrument' to govern trade in cultural products. It will remove
cultural industries, including television and film, from the
purview of the World Trade Organization." The
Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/11/01
LOOKING
A GIFT HORSE... Two years ago a "textbook-printing
magnate announced that he would provide funding - eventually
totaling $100 million - for the construction of an arts complex on
a mostly city-owned block downtown." A great and generous
deal. But one that has its detractors, suspicious of a private
project with no public oversight. Metropolis
06/01
BOLSHOI'S
TOP MAN RESIGNS: "The Bolshoi theatre's artistic director
has handed in his resignation - only nine months after being
brought in to restore the institution's flagging fortunes. Gennady
Rozhdestvensky announced he was leaving after critics mauled the
Bolshoi's production of Sergei Prokoviev's opera The Player."
BBC 06/14/01
SMITH
OUT AS CULTURE MINISTER: Energetic British culture minister
Chris Smith is replaced in a post-election Tony Blair cabinet
shakeup. Smith's transgression? "The main reason that Smith
had to go was that he had done his job too fast, and too well. So
much so that the rumour mills went into overgrind, predicting that
his department was to be abolished." The
Telegraph (UK) 06/14/01
BLAME
THE OLD WHITE MALES: The chair of the Australia Council lets
the establishment have it on her way out of the job. In a farewell
speech at the National Press Club, Margaret Seares warned that
"as long as the leaders of Australia were predominantly older
white Anglo-Celtic men, vital decisions on the arts would probably
never be implemented." Canberra
Times 06/14/01
THE
ARTISTS TAKE SIDES: Workers at Canada's National Gallery have
been on strike for more than a month, with no end in sight. With
negotiations stalled and the two sides at an apparent impasse,
several prominent Canadian artists with connections to the gallery
are placing themselves squarely in the workers' corner, designing
and creating picket signs for the strikers. The
Globe & Mail (Toronto) 06/14/01
FOR
A MORE CREATIVE CANADA: "Was I hallucinating, or did I
read last week about a proposed commission to study creativity? I
hope I was hallucinating. What's next - a commission to count the
grains of sand on Long Beach? To seek the Canadian identity in the
entrails of native animals?" The
Globe & Mail (Toronto) 06/13/01
HOUSTON
ARTS GROUPS HARD-HIT BY FLOODS: The Houston Symphony
Orchestra, the Houston Grand Opera, the Alley Theater, the Houston
Ballet, and other organizations in the downtown arts district have
suffered extensive losses from week-end flooding. Apparently
hardest-hit was the Houston
Symphony, where "thousands of musical scores and several
irreplaceable instruments were among the casualties in Jones Hall.
Three Steinway concert grand pianos with an estimated replacement
value of $250,000 were ruined." Dallas
Morning News & Houston Chronicle 06/12/01
GERMAN
ART INITIATIVE: Germany's culture minister proposes a new
national culture foundation with the aim of promoting contemporary
art. "He has repeatedly warned against the threat of 'a
discrepancy between repertoire and innovation' in Germany, and
condemned the increasing ossification of cultural politics, with
its emphasis on supporting institutions rather than periodically
promoting specific projects in the short-term." Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung 06/12/01
GETTING
THE PUBLIC INVOLVED IN ARTS: Arts institutions all want public
participation in their programs. A new study from the RAND
corporation "looks at the process by which individuals become
involved in the arts and attempts to identify ways in which arts
institutions can most effectively influence this process."
[.pdf document; requires free
reader from Adobe Systems] RAND
Corporation 06/01
DID
TOM STOPPARD ATTACK ART? Playwright Tom Stoppard recently gave
a speech, and it was widely reported in the British press that he
had denounced modern art, attacking Tracey Emin. But did he?
"I had used my speech to suggest that a fault line in the
history of art had been crossed when it had become unnecessary for
an artist to make anything, when the thought, the inspiration
itself, had come to constitute the achievement, and I would have
been pleased to see this phenomenon get an airing in the column
inches that were devoted instead to parading the death of
shorthand." The Telegraph (UK)
06/15/01
10.
FOR FUN http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#forfun
NAMING
RIGHTS: A book without a title is...well, something pretty
hard to sell. But choosing that right title - and hoping it hasn't
been used by someone else in the meantime - is a tricky business.
Poets & Writers 06/01
CHOCOLATE,
RAW OYSTERS, AND GUSTAV KLIMT? "According to a study by
the Institute of Psychoanalytical Psychiatry, published in Rome
last week, a visit to an art museum -- or even a church -- can get
those erotic feelings flowing. The study of 2,000 museum goers
this spring concluded the lush flesh exhibited in Renaissance,
Baroque and classical masterpieces left at least one-fifth of art
lovers so excited they had a 'fleeting but intense erotic
adventure' with a stranger." Ottawa
Citizen 06/14/01
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