Week
of April 28 - May 4, 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 INTEREST
WHY
PEOPLE DON'T LIKE NEW MUSIC: It's not because they don't like
music. "For most people, the appeal of music rests not in
originality but in precisely the opposite - in the number of memories
it can access. Put another way, although music is capable of reflecting
as wide a spectrum of human experience as any other art form,
in practice it is more limited, in that its value rests in its
ability to provide an illusion of constancy in a changing world."
The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/02/01
LURE
OF THE NEW: Why is controversial contemporary art so popular
today? "Politicians, fear-ridden arts bureaucrats and sensation-seeking
media have got it wrong: the main reason that exhibitions of contemporary
art keep on being popular is, I suggest, because they are answering
public needs. That is, at least some of the art is engaging with
the most important issues of our time, and doing so in full-blooded
ways." Sydney Morning Herald
05/02/01
DOESN'T
COMPUTE: Every school in the world seems to be on the technology
hunt, trying to get as many students as possible in front of computers.
But one expert wonders why. "They've been around for so long
that we should be seeing the benefit but the results just don't
seem to be there." Sydney Morning
Herald 05/04/01
EASY
TARGETS: Threats by US senators and the Federal Trade Commission
to regulate distribution of music it deems unsuitable for young
listeners has free speech advocates steaming. Why is this regulatory
issue so popular when there's no hard evidence supporting a clampdown?
Village Voice 05/02/01
- A
HISTORY OF MUSIC CONTROVERSY: From Peter Paul and Mary to
Stairway to Heaven to Louie Louie, politicians
and parents have found something to get uptight about. Today's
"threat to society" is tomorrow's classic - a chronology.
Village Voice 05/02/01
2.
DANCE
BACK
IN THE BLACK: After posting a big deficit last year, the Australian
Ballet made some profits this year, earning 72 percent of its
income at the box office. Sydney Morning
Herald 05/03/01
AILEY
FINDS A HOME: "Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is
going to have a colossal eight-floor new home in Hell's Kitchen.
A $47.5 million building... will replace the 43-year-old company's
cramped, rented quarters." New
York Post 05/01/01
- AILEY
PLANS: The Alvin Ailey company wants to build a new home
for itself in New York and Mayor Rudy Giuliani wants to contribute
to the cause. "The building would be the largest space
in the United States devoted exclusively to dance, Ailey officials
said." International Herald
Tribune 04/28/01
BIRTH
OF A COMPANY: Michael Medcalf "had no experience as an
artistic director, no money in the bank and no financial backers.
Despite his lack of credentials and resources, he had plenty of
other attributes: talent, enthusiasm, energy, a dynamic personality,
a willingness to work hard and an eagerness to collaborate with
other members of the dance community." And Cleveland Contemporary
Dance Theatre was born. The Plain
Dealer (Cleveland) 04/29/01
3.
MEDIA
WRITERS
SETTLE: Hollywood producers and writers settle on a new contract,
averting a much anticipated strike. "The agreement was valued
by the Writers Guild of America and the industry's Alliance of
Motion Picture and Television Producers at about $41 million over
three years, less than the nearly $100 million writers had hoped
for." Los Angeles Times 05/05/01
REINVENTING
PUBLIC TV: American public broadcaster PBS is trying to reinvent
itself. It's essential - the network is facing increased combination
from all sorts of specialty channels, and its core audience has
shrunk. The changes, though, are controversial. Christian
Science Monitor 05/04/01
TV's
RACIAL GAP STILL A CANYON: A new study of the racial makeup
of television's prime time programming reveals that integration
is still beyond the grasp of the major networks. The lack of multiracial
casts is particularly noticeable in the first hour of prime time,
which is supposed to be the "family hour." Los
Angeles Times 05/01/01
ANOTHER
WEEK IN LA: "AOL Time Warner boss Gerald Levin last year
earned stock options worth $153 million, $53 million more than
the entire Writers' Guild membership is seeking over the next
three years. The studio heads - none of whom earned less than
$60 million last year - seem happy to endure strikes that the
LA mayor's office estimates will cost the Los Angeles economy
$6 billion. And while the majors are counselling fiscal austerity,
Disney is spending $5 million (a tax- deductible expense) on its
Pearl Harbor premiere - to be held on a specially-converted
aircraft carrier - just as it announces 4,000 layoffs, the kind
of fuck-you, scorched-earth management of which Walt would heartily
approve." The Guardian (UK) 05/04/01
BUY
AUSSIE? Australia ponders dropping its Australian-content
laws for the Australian Broadcasting Company. The quotas currently
stipulate a minimum amount of Australian-produced content must
be shown. Sydney Morning Herald 05/03/01
GIANT
RADIO: "Radio stations that once were proudly local are
now being programmed from hundreds of miles away. Increasingly,
the very DJs are in a different city as well." And the biggest
of these in America specializes in "dirty tricks and crappy
programming." Salon 04/30/01
4.
MUSIC
CRUMBLING
BASTILLE: Paris's Bastille Opera House, which isn't very old,
is deteriorating and in need of expensive repair. "It's all
falling apart, at great speed, so we put up the nets. The question
now is, do we replace all 40,000 [slabs of exterior stone] - somewhere
between 60 and 100 million francs - or do we only replace the
ones that are defective, which means going up there and doing
'tap tap!' on each of the 40,000?" International
Herald Tribune 05/03/01
THE
NEXT BILBAO? Officials of Philadelphia's Regional Performing
Arts Center planned a New York "coming out" for their
project last night, inviting critics from around the country to
see a presentation on the center. "The New York event, which
was months in the making, had been designed to position the city
as the new Bilbao and the concert hall as its Guggenheim Museum,"
and despite the resignation of the project's director a couple
days before, the Philadelphians stayed on message. Philadelphia
Inquirer 05/03/01
- DIFFICULT
LABOR: The new arts center is plagued with problems. Money,
of course, is problematic. And none of the major arts groups
- the Philadelphia Orchestra included - has signed leases to
perform in the hall. "Fees, of course, have been a major
issue - although most groups have now accepted the fact that
the arts center has reneged on its promise that rents in the
two new halls would be no higher than rents paid by the groups
in their current facilities." Philadelphia
Inquirer 05/03/01
NAPSTER,
AIMSTER, WHAT'S IN A NAME? Aimster is "a Napster-like
file sharing program that piggybacks on America Online's messaging
service." Not surprisingly, the record industry wants it
shut down. Meanwhile,
a web-survey report says Napster use is down more than forty
percent since it added song-blocking technology to comply with
a court order similar to the one threatening Aimster. Still, it
may all be in vain.
Another young computer whiz appears to have figured out how
to shut down the on-line sharing of music files. New
Jersey Online (Reuters), Siliconvalley.com, and Washington Post
05/03/01
BIG
HURT FOR BIG MUSIC: "For all its global marketing clout
and lock on the biggest stars, Big Music is actually in dire straits.
Sales are plunging in the United States, the world's most important
market, and no one has yet figured out how to stop the erosion
or to make serious money from on-line distribution. The dream
of reaping Internet riches from vast music libraries is turning
into more of a nightmare for music's heavyweights. They have yet
to provide the content or the means of delivering it effectively."
The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/02/01
END
OF AN ERA? Washington's largest classical music radio station
has dropped weekly Metropolitan Opera broadcasts. The Met performances
are the longest-running program on radio and are carried nationally
by hundreds of stations. "But despite the strong support
of a small niche audience for the art form, large commercial stations
like WGMS, which has the fourth-highest listenership in the Washington
area, have been moving away from opera and vocal music in general."
Washington Post 05/02/01
HARD
TIMES FOR CHAMBER MUSIC: "It has never been harder since
Haydn's time to make a living as a string quartet. But the challenge
is yielding a gamut of fresh ideas as quartets struggle to reinvent
their genre." The Telegraph (UK)
05/02/01
UNEASY
RELATIONSHIPS: "Even orchestras which commission one
new piece per season or less love to trumpet their supposed forward-thinking
ways, in the vague hope that such brief bursts of enthusiasm will
make up for nearly a century of deep ambivalence towards modern
composition." But the relationships between composers, conductors
and musicians is often uneasy or ambivalent. Sequenza/21
04/27/01
GETTING
OUT THE AUDIENCE: There was a time when tickets to Hartford's
visiting orchestra series were so prized they were handed down
from generation to generation. Lately that hasn't been the case,
and even when the acclaimed Concertgebouw Orchestra recently appeared,
it filled only about a third of the house. Now a music lover has
decided to do something very personal about the situation.
Hartford Courant 04/29/01
CLASSICAL
MUSIC'S PROBLEM? "Mainstream music lovers are said to
be indifferent or openly hostile to contemporary music. As long
as classical music is perceived to be in the preservation business,
it should come as no surprise that potential new audiences, who
are instinctively drawn to new works in other fields, dismiss
classical music as dated and irrelevant."
The New York Times 04/29/01
(one-time registration required for access)
PLUS:
Taliban have banned all non-religious music in Afghanistan
~
Guarneri String Quartet makes its first change in personnel
(after 37 years)
5.
PEOPLE
THE
CONDUCTOR WITH TWO FACES: In Boston, Keith Lockhart is conductor
of the Boston Pops and known for his relaxed, informal style.
In Salt Lake City, Lockhart is music director of the Utah Symphony,
and a much more serious pillar of the community. The skiing is
better in Utah. Boston Herald 05/04/01
IT'S
TAX TIME: Pavarotti thought he'd settled his tax difficulties
with the Italian government last year. But no - this week he goes
to trial. "The biggest-earning opera virtuoso in history
is accused of dodging £13 million between 1989-95." He could
face three years in jail. The Guardian
(UK) 05/02/01
THE
MARKETING OF CHARLOTTE CHURCH: The teen singing sensation
is making a tour of America, and everything's been calculated
for maximum hype. Who cares if the classical world is turned off
by the marketing, say her managers. "One reason she's controversial
is that she's not really classical. I call it `popera'."
Chicago Tribune 05/03/01
SILENT
GENERATION: The United Nations has appointed French mime Marcel
Marceaux as an international ambassador "promoting the needs
of older people in society" Euronews
04/28/01
6.
PUBLISHING
DEUX
TOO MUCH: The family of French writer Victor Hugo are trying
to block publication of a book that has been dubbed "Les
Miserables II." "The novel, which has been described
as a blasphemous betrayal by its critics, contains many of the
characters from Hugo's famous portrayal of social injustice in
revolutionary France." BBC 05/04/01
ACCESSIBLY
RARE: Only a few scholars and wealthy collectors have access
to rare manuscripts and book. They're too fragile to be handled.
"Providing access to rare books while trying to preserve
them is 'the biggest problem libraries (with special collections)
have." Digital technology may help. Wired
05/03/01
THINK
OF IT AS PIZZA FOR YOUR BRAIN: "Last week, Cathy Kelly
became the Romantic Novelist of the Year, winning £5,000 and very
little respect from the critics. This is par for the course in
the world of romantic fiction: you earn a lot and die unnoticed...
All the genre novels have a hard time in literary circles... but
special abuse is reserved for the romantic novel. It's the junk
food of the literary appetite." The
Guardian (London) 05/01/01
A
CELEBRATION OF WHAT? National Poetry Month was a real bust.
All it did was focus attention on how much disrepair the art of
poetry is in. Why are things so bad? "The dullness of today's
poetry has become so pervasive, such a given, that we have to
force ourselves to remember that poetry is not at all dull by
nature." GoodReports 05/01/01
AFTER
A LONG THINK: Just as the new Norton Anthology of Theory
and Criticism was about to go to print, it was discovered
that the tome was about 300 pages too long. "After two weeks
of debate and intellectual horse-trading, a new table of contents
emerged. Twenty-one thinkers, including Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
and Elaine Showalter, vanished from the collection entirely; selections
from three others were trimmed." Chronicle
of Higher Education 04/30/01
HOW
TO BE GREAT: Why are the Great Books great? "It does
not rest on William Bennett's assertion that the great is great
because 'it is the best that has been thought and said.' The greatness
of the great does not and cannot rest on a question-begging platitude."
Context 04/01
CALLING
ALL AUTHORS: "IPublish.com is a combination publishing
house, bookstore, writing school, online writing community, talent
search show and lecture hall all in one. And integrating all those
elements into one site has taken the better part of a year."
Wired 04/30/01
CUTTING
BOOK REVIEWS: Some of the most prominent American newspapers
are reducing or cutting their book sections. Why? The newspaper
business is currently in a down cycle and newspapers are looking
for ways to slim down. "Publishers generally cite finances
— costs have gone up and readership down. Plus, book sections
rarely bring in much advertising — in fact, less now than formerly."
Mobylives 04/29/01
DROPPING
THE HABIT? A major new Australian study measures the reading
habits of students. "While 45 per cent of primary school
students enjoy reading, read frequently and see reading in a positive
light, only 24 per cent of secondary students are as enthusiastic.
Older boys are more likely than girls to find reading boring and
nerdy." Sydney Morning Herald
04/30/01
PLUS:
Harry
Potter books have sold 100 million worldwide and been translated
into 42 languages.
7.
THEATRE
WE
ALREADY GAVE YOU A BUCK... The Florida State legislature cuts
Miami's Coconut Grove Theatre allocation by $500,000 (the theatre's
total budget is $5.4 million). "I have to repeat and repeat
again, the theater is already receiving a substantial subsidy
with its $1-per-year lease. . . . I'm sorry, but in good conscience
I couldn't allow my colleagues to give additional money to the
Playhouse. They have accountability issues that still need to
be attended to." Miami Herald
05/04/01
TIMING
IS EVERTHING: A flood of new shows is opening on Broadway.
“The producers of Broadway shows are convinced that they have
to open close to Tony time. They want that boost of publicity
after the nominations, and the boost from the show itself.”
MSNBC (Reuters) 05/04/01
IT'S
NOT A MUSICAL, BUT... It's turned into a hot season for Broadway.
First The Producers becomes the biggest thing to hit the
street since The Lion King. Now it's time for drama. August
Wilson's King Hedley II finally made it to Broadway and
the reviews are ecstatic. "You will hear some of the finest
monologues ever written for an American stage, speeches that build
gritty, often brutal details into fiery patterns of insight."
The
New York Times 05/02/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
PRODUCERS
SCORES:
The Producers isn't just popular - now it's scooping up nominations
for awards, winning 14 Drama Desk nominations yesterday, including
Outstanding Musical. New York Post
05/02/01
- BUT
IT'S FOR MY DYING MOTHER... Ticket demand for The Producers
is intense. The show is sold out for months, but people are
calling the box office with all sorts of stories, including
several "dying request" tales. New
York Post 05/02/01
KIDS,
INCORPORATED: Children's theatre is a tricky business, and
companies that put on truly great productions without resorting
to cliched slapstick or pretentious preaching are few and far
between. One of the nation's best children's theatre companies
is in Silicon Valley, and this month, it will face one of its
greatest challenges: replacing the man who has made the troupe
what it is today. San Jose Mercury
News 05/01/01
A
NEW ERA FOR BROADWAY? Does the success of The Producers
signal the beginning of a new era on Broadway? "The Producers
isn't just a hit; it's a fully-fledged event in a city that thrives
on such things, and its cultural repercussions look sure to be
felt in English-speaking theatre the world over, although given
its subject matter, the show seems an unlikely export to Germany."
The Observer (UK) 04/29/01
REINVENTING
THE NATIONAL: As Trevor Nunn leaves as director of Britain's
National Theatre, a reevaluation is in order. "The National
should do what it uniquely can do, what it was brought into existence
to do - create a living, evolving organisation offering the whole
range of world theatre, subject to perpetual reinvention and rediscovery."
The Observer (UK) 04/29/01
8.
VISUAL ARTS
LIVING
LARGE IN LONDON: Surely London is the most fun place to see
art these days - and to be an artist. Even New Yorkers are beginning
to acknowledge as much. And it's not just about the Tate Modern...
The New York Times 05/03/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
SAVING
RUSSIA'S ART TREASURES: The Hermitage in St. Petersburg houses
one of the world's largest collections of art. It's also an uncatalogued
and endangered collection. The Canadian curator who was asked
for advice fell in love with the place, quit his job, and now
regards saving the Hermitage collection as a crusade. Ottawa
Citizen 05/02/01
PLEASE,
CAN I BORROW THE KEYS TO THE CAR? Being curator of the Whitney
is a dream job that many people believe they could do better than
the incumbent - whoever that happens to be. Current curator is
Lawrence Rinder. But maybe it isn't such a dream job after all
- lousy pay, lots of criticism and unable to have final say on
what shows you'll do. Then there's this tidbit from the man who's
in charge of plotting the museum's aesthetic course: "We
can't have art in our offices. Only the director can. It's too
dangerous because the work could get damaged." Uh-huh.
The New York Times 05/02/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
BEHIND
THE FACADE: When it opened just over a year ago, Los Angeles'
Latino Museum seemed to have everything going for it. "But
below the surface, everything was in turmoil. The museum was racking
up debt. Operations and exhibitions were run on credit; employees
were not being paid and morale was plunging. As a stopgap, the
California Legislature reallocated $1.6 million in educational
and capital grants for salaries and daily expenses. But Gov. Gray
Davis vetoed the plan." Now the museum has closed.
The New York Times 05/02/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
JUST
ADD A STARBUCKS®: The Detroit Institute of the Arts is the
latest in a string of American museums to announce that massive
renovations will be necessary for it to continue to draw the public
to its exhibitions. "Once reflecting an academic atmosphere,
today's museums are attempting to become modern-day meeting places
for informal discussions about art, history and science."
Detroit Free Press 04/30/01
KIDS
RULE! Even as most museums scramble to attract enough visitors
to pay their costs, children's museums are experiencing an unprecedented
boom. The U.S. has nearly six times as many children's museums
as it did a quarter century ago, and attendance has exploded in
the last decade, with 33 million people visiting one of the nation's
215 such museums in 2000. Washington
Post 05/01/01
PAINTING
FOR NATIONAL PRIDE: The National Gallery of Australia has
bought a Lucien Freud painting from the artist for $7.4 million.
"The significance of Freud's gritty figure painting After
Cezanne is being compared by some to the gallery's 1973 purchase
of Jackson Pollock's Blue Poles." The
Age (Melbourne) 04/30/01
- PRIDE
GOETH BEFORE A FREUD: Is the world indeed made up of museums
that have a Lucien Freud and those which don't (and it matters
that much)? Clearly the Aussies take their acquisition of a
Freud as a matter of national pride.
The Age (Melbourne) 04/30/01
RUSSIAN
ART THEFT: "Relatively rare during Soviet times, thefts
of art, manuscripts and antiquities now bedevil Russian authorities.
They occur not only at museums, such as the theft last month of
a $1 million painting from the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, but
also at churches, government buildings and private homes across
the country. Organized criminal groups adept at extortion and
prostitution have added art theft to their repertoire."
Chicago Tribune 04/29/01
ALL
ABOUT THE MARKETING? Almost 5.5 million people jammed into
the new Tate Modern in its first year of operation (busting the
2-2.5 million pre-opening projections). "Ironically, being
such a success has brought Tate Modern problems. Queues 200 deep
for food; lavatories stripped of paper; grubby marks on the chic
white walls; people saying you can't move, you can't get in."
Just why are people so keen to get inside? The
Telegraph (UK) 04/29/01
ADDING
UP BILBAO'S GOOG EFFECT: Bilbao's Guggenheim Museum has transformed
the city. The city's investment has been recouped already, and
"the regeneration of Bilbao and its hinterland reads like
a Who's Who of modern architecture. Sir Norman Foster has designed
Bilbao's new metro. Cesar Pelli, who built New York's World Financial
Centre, has been put in charge of a 35-storey office tower on
the banks of the river Nervión. Santiago Calatrava, one of Spain's
leading architects, designed Bilbao's new airport as well as a
delicate footbridge that spans the Nervión." Financial
Times 04/28/01
PLUS:Ex-chairmen
of Christie's and Sotheby's auction houses have been indicted by
a grand jury in New York ~ African
American Museum is proposed in the US Congress ~
The first city in the Americas is explored in Peru ~ Beirut
is being massively rebuilt at an astonishing pace - and by a single
company ~ Digital
art is in danger of decaying because of lack of conservation
~ Is
the artworld ready for another lurch in style? ~ Sydney's
Museum of Contemporary Art has chosen an architect and a design
for a new building, but critics are unenthusiastic ~ Tallest
sculpture in the world is erected in Ireland ~ Scottish
Museum attendance soars in Glasgow ~ Critics
attack Ufizzi Museum's plan to restore Leonardo's Adoration
of the Magi ~
Guggenheim announces major new website ~ Chicago
Art Institute is tearing down the adjacent ex-home of the Goodman
Theatre to make room for a $200 million addition to the museum
~ Matisse
widow leaves estate to universities and museums.
9.
ISSUES
MORE
MONEY FOR CANADIAN ARTS: "Canadian Prime Minister Jean
Chretien, carrying out a campaign pledge, announced on Wednesday
an infusion of more than half a billion Canadian dollars to boost
the country's cash-strapped arts and cultural sectors.... Chretien
said it was the biggest new investment in the arts in Canada in
40 years." Not
everyone is happy with the idea, however. Some arts groups
think the funding is badly distributed, and some tax experts complain
that it's "welfare for cultural industries, and they question
where the money is coming from in the absence of a federal budget."
iwon.com (Reuters) and National Post
(Candada) 05/03/01
- RESTORING
PREVIOUS CUTS: The increase in support is welcome, of course,
but it must be pointed out that the extra money is something
of a giveback to the arts. "Between 1990-1991 and 1997-1998,
budgetary cutbacks in government spending reduced culture-related
spending at the federal and provincial levels by nearly 7.8
per cent and 2.9 per cent, respectively." The
Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/03/01
- ALL
IS FORGIVEN? The Canadian government's largesse of $560
million support for the arts doesn't hide the fact that in the
past decade Canadian artists have become "a community of
beggars. Even as arts leaders and politicians paid lip service
to the importance of the arts, governments mercilessly slashed
subsidies." Toronto Star 05/03/01
MET
REJOINS LINCOLN CENTER: In January the Metropolitan Opera
shocked its sister organizations at Lincoln Center when it declared
it would pull out of a massive rebuilding effort for the multi-theatre
complex. Now the Met has joined back up on the project.
The New York Times 05/04/01
(one-time registration required for access)
THE
NEW CENSORSHIP: Australian censors are having a difficult
time rating new entertainment forms because the amount of embedded
multimedia material has ballooned. A DVD movie release, for example,
can have 900 minutes worth of linked materials. How do you rate
it? The Age (Melbourne) 05/04/01
THOSE
DELICATE NEW YORKERS: So in sensitive New York, the mayor
needs to protect residents from the big bad influence of controversial
art. In London, we'd look, smile, and walk on to the next shocking
thing. The Times (London) 05/03/01
THE
NEXT BILBAO? Officials of Philadelphia's Regional Performing
Arts Center planned a New York "coming out" for their
project last night, inviting critics from around the country to
see a presentation on the center. "The New York event, which
was months in the making, had been designed to position the city
as the new Bilbao and the concert hall as its Guggenheim Museum,"
and despite the resignation of the project's director a couple
days before, the Philadelphians stayed on message. Philadelphia
Inquirer 05/03/01
- DIFFICULT
LABOR: The new arts center is plagued with problems. Money,
of course, is problematic. And none of the major arts groups
- the Philadelphia Orchestra included - has signed leases to
perform in the hall. "Fees, of course, have been a major
issue - although most groups have now accepted the fact that
the arts center has reneged on its promise that rents in the
two new halls would be no higher than rents paid by the groups
in their current facilities." Philadelphia
Inquirer 05/03/01
- ARTS
CZAR QUITS: The president of Philadelphia's $265 million
Regional Performing Arts Center currently under construction,
has abruptly resigned 7 1/2 months before Philly's answer to
Lincoln Center is scheduled to open. Stephanie Naidoff is praised
for bringing a lot of money into the project, but has been criticized
by arts leaders for her inexperience in non-profit management.
Philadelphia Inquirer 05/02/01
THE
FUTURE OF COPYRIGHT: Does the US Digital Millennium Copyright
Law violate the First Amendment by excessively curbing the 'fair
uses' people can make of copyrighted works? Critics say yes, and
federal judges in New York seem interested in hearing arguments.
The outcome of the case will have enormous implications in the
trade of intellectual property. Inside.com
05/02/01
FUNDRAISING
DOWNTURN? How will the current economic downturn affect arts
institutions? "What happens to all the ambitious capital
campaigns under way? The planned exhibitions? The expansions?
Fortunately, museums say, they got while the getting was good,
starting their major capital campaigns while plenty of money was
floating around so that now they are nearing those goals rather
than just beginning to set them." The
New York Times 05/02/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
THE
IDEA OF PROTECTION: "The world is caught up in an explosion
of ideas and inventions. As a testament to the extent to which
they are revered, and their status in the global village, they
now warrant their annual celebration. Last Thursday marked the
first World Intellectual Property Day." Sydney
Morning Herald 05/01/01
SELLING
SOUTH AFRICA: Much of the tourism in South Africa these days
is around Aprtheid-era landmarks. It's a little disconcerting
- and misleading. Daily Mail &
Guardian (South Africa) 04/29/01
PLUS:
Readers Digest Fund turns over $1.7 billion in assets to 13
arts institutions so they can invest the money themselves
~ Smithsonian
head defends his controversial proposals to reorganize the institution
~
British government does away with controversial regional arts
boards ~ Polls
says Scots are tired of bailing out arts institutions ~ Strikes
in Paris forces museums to make admissions free ~ What
will Bill Ivey's resignation as chairman of the National Endowment
for the Arts mean to the NEA?
10.
FOR FUN
DISCERNING
PIGEONS: A Japanese professor of cognitive science "has
managed to get pigeons to recognize whether a painting is a van
Gogh or a Chagall — even if they had never seen it before. He
trained three pigeons for a month by showing them on a computer
screen eight masterpieces by van Gogh and Chagall. Pigeons were
fed when they pecked at pictures by van Gogh. They received nothing
when pecking at a Chagall." Discovery
04/29/01
A
COPYRIGHT STATE OF MIND: When the New York Times Magazine
put together a time capsule to show people in the year 3000 what
life in 2000 was like, they naturally wanted to include music.
But there isn't any music in the capsule. Why? The recording industry
wouldn't give copyright permission. Wired
04/30/01
HAPPY
IT UP: Director Franco Zefirelli is making a movie bio of
Maria Callas. But he doesn't like the way she died. So he's rewriting
her untimely end to make it happier. Nando
Times (AP) 04/29/01
BE
KIND TO ARTISTS: A homeless artist in Bath, England, had a
couple of his pictures chosen for inclusion in a show at the Tate
Britain. There an American couple saw them, tracked the artist
down, and bought him a boat to live on. The
Times (UK) 05/03/01
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