Week
of September 17-23, 2001
1.
Special Interest
2. Dance
3. Media
4. Music
5. People
6. Publishing
7. Theatre
8. Visual Arts
9. Arts Issues
Editor's
Note: Last week
ArtsJournal collected more than 50 arts stories related to the
terrorism acts in the United States on September 11. Stories
include news, background, and artists' reaction and interpretation
of the events. We've posted them on a new page at ArtsJournal
which you can access here.
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1. SPECIAL INTEREST
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#specialinterest
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
IS
ART A GENETIC IMPULSE? "Since all human societies, past
and present, so far as we know, make and respond to art, it must
contribute something essential to human life. But what?" Lingua
Franca 10/07/01
COMFORT
IN POP CULTURE: "It used to be the Bible that got quoted
in moments of enormity—and to some extent it still is, as all
the prayer vigils held last week attest. But these days even the
Almighty bows before pop culture's clout. In an unfathomable
event, we turn to entertainment, and from the inventory of its
words and images, we assemble meaning. So it's understandable that
the first response to what happened last week was to seek the
shelter of a show. Many people who went through this trauma felt
like they were in a movie, and those who saw it from a safe
distance could imagine they were having the ultimate IMAX
experience." Village Voice
09/19/01
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2. DANCE
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#dance
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NOT
DANCE ON THE CHEAP: Is Scottish National Ballet abandoning
classical dance in favor of going modern because it wants to do
dance on the cheap? Not at all, says the company's board chairman.
Our commitment to quality remains. Scotland
on Sunday 09/16/01
NORTHERN
PLUCK: The UK's Northern Ballet has had a string of bad luck.
"During the past three years the Leeds-based touring company
has had to cope with the death of its long-time artistic director
Christopher Gable, the departure of his replacement, and arson.
How did it survive such a string of soap opera adversities?" The
Times (UK) 09/18/01
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3. MEDIA
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#media
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TORONTO
FILM FESTIVAL PRIZE: The film Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie
Poulain, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet wins top prize at the
Toronto Film Festival. "The final press conference - usually
a sit-down brunch with much applause and laughter - was a
conventional press conference, attended mostly by Canadians and a
few stranded travellers, and felt less like a celebration than a
funeral reception." The Globe
& Mail (Canada) 09/17/01
- TORONTO
TROUBLE: Last week's terrorism deflated the Toronto Film
Festival. With transportation down, "the result was
massive trouble for the festival's guest office and for major
hotels. Some festival guests couldn't get to Toronto; certain
films had to be cancelled because prints did not arrive; and
many festival guests who were already here found themselves
unable to leave town." Toronto
Star 09/17/01
THE
POWER OF IMAGES: "As several columnists have noted, these
attacks stem in part from a disgust with the modern world, with
the huge and potentially crippling cultural impact our music, our
mores and, inevitably, our movies are having on the traditional
ways of life these people are committed to preserve at all costs.
They see our films as infecting their world, changing their
children's attitudes, in ways they find abhorrent. Given all that,
what can be said for film in these terrible days?" Los
Angeles Times 09/17/01
NOT
SO PERFECT AFTER ALL: Satellite radio has been touted as the
medium's savior: convenient, marketable, and oh, that clear,
digital sound! But, as it turns out, the signal has trouble
reaching rural areas. And big cities. The FCC is trying to help. Nando
Times (AP) 09/17/01
NY
W/O TV: The World Trade Center disaster knocked 10 New York TV
stations off over-the-air broadcast, because the stations'
transmitters were located on the towers. "At least four will
resume transmissions from the relatively remote - and shorter -
Armstrong radio tower on the Palisades at Alpine, N.J. Two other
stations are installing transmitters and antennas atop the
already-crowded Empire State Building - the original home of New
York's TV stations until the taller World Trade Center was
completed in the early '70s." New
York Post 09/17/01
VIOLENCE
SELLS: Are American movie-makers too good at producing
violence on the screen? "We have to face the question of
violence as our country's cultural touchstone. If it's not our
native tongue heard in the movies that we send around the globe,
then it's the language we speak most ardently. The graphic image
of the White House exploding in Independence Day has a
frightening quality, and in hindsight, since the Bush
administration has said the White House was a target of the
terrorists, perhaps suggested the way to unlock the door to our
national nightmares — a horror-movie symbolism that shows the
power of a grand gesture." The
New York Times 09/18/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
REALITY
INTRUDES: "Now, as life begins to return to something
approaching normal, Hollywood has a dilemma: Does it return to its
traditional offerings of blood-and-guts movies while the country
is still hurting? And another question: Will TV shows featuring
terrorists and bomb threats still play? Complicating all this is
the fact that business plain stinks for just about everyone in
media these days." Businessweek 09/21/01
COMING
OF AGE: One Hollywood producer suggests "This could be a
coming of age for our nation. It depends on which way we go. I'd
like to see us start looking at the process of recovery, and if
entertainment has any job, it's to put this suffering in a kind of
context and prepare people for what's next."
Christian Science Monitor 09/21/01
INDEPENDENT
FAILURE: Independent film producer Shooting Gallery was hailed
as one of the most innovative, successful indie producers. Founded
with $7,000 in 1991, Shooting Gallery epitomized the ethos of
guerrilla filmmaking, in which hustle and chutzpah-and artistic
freedom-made up for lack of financial resources." But with a
string of successes and awards, how did the company lose $70
million and go bankrupt? Los Angeles
Times 09/23/01
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4.
MUSIC
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#music
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SANITIZING
THE CRISIS: Clear Channel Communications, one of the world's
largest media companies, has circulated a memo to its radio
stations across the U.S. "suggesting" the removal of
some 150 songs from station playlists in the wake of last week's
attack. Program directors have been left to wonder what could
possibly be objectionable about the Beatles' "Obla-Di Obla-Da"
or Louis Armstrong's "What A Wonderful World." St.
Paul Pioneer Press 09/18/01
ZINMAN
DEPARTS BALTIMORE IN A HUFF: "In a move that has startled
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra musicians and staff, David Zinman has
resigned his title of 'music director emeritus' in protest of the
BSO's current artistic direction, specifically a decline in
programming of works by contemporary American composers. He also
has canceled previously scheduled appearances with the orchestra
in March." Baltimore Sun 09/17/01
- BUT
WILL IT MATTER? Zinman's departure from Baltimore breaks a
long-standing code among conductors - never speak ill of your
successor. But do his charges of the dumbing down of the BSO's
programming hold water, or is Zinman the one who comes out
looking silly? Baltimore Sun
09/18/01
THE
GRANDEST VERDI: What is the appeal of Verdi? "The appeal
of Italian opera is difficult to put into words, but it has
something to do with the activation of primal feelings. Operatic
characters have a way of laying themselves bare, and they are
never more uninhibited than at the climax of a Verdi
tragedy." The New Yorker 09/17/01
TORONTO
SEEKS A NEW LEADER: As the Great American Music Director
Search draws to a close for most orchestras in the U.S., one of
Canada's most prestigious ensembles is hoping to snare a gem from
the enormous crop of promising maestros who, for one reason or
another, don't show up on American radar screens. The Toronto
Symphony Orchestra has faced a slew of problems in the last
several years, but with a renovation of their much-maligned hall,
the return of their nearly-deposed principal cellist, and the
potential for an exciting new stick-waver, things may be looking
up. Two candidates will conduct the TSO this month. The
Globe & Mail (Toronto) 09/18/01
UNDERSTANDING
WAGNER: Conductor Daniel Barenboim leads an examination of
Wagner and politics in Chicago. "Wagner may forever remain
controversial in Israel, but his music, predicated as it is on a
fusion of all the art forms, is a given of Western high art. The
classic status that so long eluded him is now his. His operas are
basic to the international repertory, even if the world has never
had more than a handful of singers equal to their almost
superhuman vocal demands." Chicago
Tribune 09/23/01
AIDA
CANCELED: The annual Egyptian performances of Aida at
the pyramids have been cancelled after tour groups called off
their trips. Ironically, last year's performances also were
cancelled, because "organisers said they wanted to focus
resources on this year's shows, which would have coincided with
the centenary of Verdi's death." BBC
09/20/01
MUSIC-AID:
Musicians are out raising money for disaster relief. "Michael
Jackson, for example, hopes to rustle up more than $50-million for
victims of the disaster through sales of What More Can I Give,
a song he wrote six months ago for his album Invincible but
didn't use. He wants to record the song with a Live-Aid-like
supergroup to include Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys and Mya
from Destiny's Child, among others. Whitney Houston's label is
rereleasing her Superbowl recording of The Star-Spangled Banner
as a CD, with royalties to firefighters and police in New
York." The Globe & Mail
(Canada) 09/21/01
BEETHOVEN'S
DOCTOR: A retired Melbourne gastronenterologist has spent
years diagnosing Beethoven's physical maladies. He's " always
had an interest in suffering, and 'Beethoven is the suffering
composer par excellence.' He was attracted to the idea of applying
his medical skills to Mozart and Beethoven to better understand
how their health and moods affected their music." The
Age (Melbourne) 09/19/01
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5. PEOPLE
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#people
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ISAAC
STERN, 81: Isaac Stern, one of the leading violinists of the
mid-20th Century and one of the most powerful voices in the music
world, has died. He was a founding member of the National
Endowment for the Arts and spurred the drive to save Carnegie Hall
from the wrecking ball. Washington
Post 09/23/01
SAYING
THE WRONG THING: Composer Karlheinz Stockhausen said in a
German radio interview Monday that last week's attacks on the
World Trade Center were "the greatest work of art imaginable
for the whole cosmos. Minds achieving something in an act that we
couldn't even dream of in music, people rehearsing like mad for 10
years, preparing fanatically for a concert, and then dying, just
imagine what happened there." The comments didn't play well;
four concerts of his music that were to have formed the thematic
focus of the Hamburg Music Festival this weekend were promptly
canceled. Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung 09/19/01
- SORRY
FOR COMMENTS: Composer Karlheinz Stockhausen has
apologized for comments he made comparing last week's attack
on the World Trade Center to a work of art. The City of
Hamburg canceled four concerts of his music this week. "Stockhausen
told Hamburg officials he meant to compare the attacks to a
production of the devil, Lucifer's work of art." Nando
Times (AP) 09/19/01
PAVAROTTI
IN COURT (AGAIN): Pavarotti goes to court to defend charges of
tax evasion. "Italian prosecutors allege that Pavarotti still
owes the government unpaid taxes for the period 1989 to 1995 -
despite the tenor's payment of 24 billion lira in back taxes (£7.8m)
in 2000." BBC 09/17/01
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6.
PUBLISHING
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#publishing
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THE
DUTY OF THE WRITER IN TIME OF CRISIS:
Is it
irrelevant, in a time of tragedy and horror, to try to write a
novel? Many writers - John Updike, Rosellen Brown, Tim O'Brien,
Joan Didion, Ward Just, Robert Stone, and Joyce Carol Oates - have
been asking themselves that question. "While many temporarily
questioned their work, they ended up affirming to themselves the
value and purpose of what they do." The
New York Times 09/20/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
ALL
OF PUSHKIN IN ENGLISH, AT LAST: Of major Russian literary
figures, Alexander Pushkin is the least read outside his home
country. The problem is that he is so difficult to translate. Now,
after years of editorial wrangling and politicking, the final
volumes are ready in the first complete edition of Pushkin's works
in English. The Moscow Times
09/21/01
NO
MORE SATURDAY NIGHTS: Saturday Night, created in 1887
and Canada's oldest magazine, has been put out of its misery. The
magazine was shut down last week by new owners. It hadn't made
money in 60 years. "The reason, say industry experts, is that
a series of desperate publishers and editors squandered the
franchise's name and loyal readership base. Projected losses
ranged from $10-million to $12-million dollars for the magazine
for this calendar year alone." The
Globe & Mail (Canada) 09/22/01
COMFORT(?)
IN NOSTRADAMUS? "Within hours of the suicide missions
that toppled the World Trade Center's twin towers in New York on
Sept. 11, there was a rush in Toronto's libraries on a single book
- not on the Qur'an, not on the Bible, not on any historical study
of the ancient struggle between followers of Islam and Christ. The
book everyone wanted contains the prophetic quatrains of
16th-century visionary Nostradamus, who, according to rumours
burning up the Internet, had predicted the tragedy with stunning
accuracy. The prediction was later disproved."
Toronto Star 09/22/01
BERYL
BOMBS OUT OF BOOKER: Beryl Bainbridge has been the odds-on
favorite to win this year's Booker Prize after she was listed on
the prize's longlist. But the shortlist is now out and she didn't
make it. Finalists include Peter Carey, Ian McEwan, Rachel
Seiffert, Ali Smith, Andrew Miller, and David Mitchell made the
cut. This is the first year that judges revealed the 24 books on
the longlist. The Guardian (UK)
09/18/01
- IS
THE BOOKER FIXED? "There is a well-established London
literary community. Rushdie doesn't get shortlisted now
because he has attacked that community. That is not a good
game plan if you want to win the Booker. Norman Mailer has
found the same thing in the US - you have to 'be a citizen' if
you want to win prizes. The real scandal is that Martin Amis
has never won the prize. In fact, he has only been shortlisted
once and that was for Time's Arrow, which was not one
of his strongest books. That really is suspicious. He pissed
people off with Dead Babies and that gets lodged in the
culture. There is also the feeling that he has always looked
towards America." The
Guardian (UK) 09/18/01
BOOK-BOUND:
Fall is usually packed in the publishing business. But this fall
will be different as publishers postpone releases. "Not just
personally but professionally, everyone in the business has felt
repercussions from Tuesday's mayhem. Nobody would dare complain at
a time like this, but sales will probably suffer as readers focus
on other things for a while - among them reading's old nemesis,
television. Where people are finding time to buy and read books,
nonfiction is predominating, as people struggle to learn more
about how this could have happened." San
Francisco Chronicle 09/17/01
SHORT
SHRIFT: "Canada must produce more short stories per
capita than any other literary outpost in the galaxy, and the book
reviewers of the nation are trembling under the weight." So
enough. Enough. Let's call a ban on the genre. "The fact is
our literature is at risk of becoming so small-boned, so petite,
so lacking in ambition that it disappears up its own exquisite
backside." Saturday Night
(Canada) 09/17/01
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7. THEATRE
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#theatre
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WHEN
THE TOURISTS STAY HOME: It's grim on Broadway. Shows are going
bankrupt and five are closing. Six others, including several
long-running productions, are on the verge of shutting down.
"A show like Rent, for example, needs to bring in
about $40,000 a day to meet its costs. Its sales since the attacks
have ranged from $1,800 (on Sept. 11) to $14,000 (on
Wednesday)." The New York Times
09/21/01 (one-time registration
required for access)
- PAY
CUTS INSTEAD OF LAYOFFS: To keep big Broadway shows from
closing, theatre unions make deal with producers - "a 25
percent across-the-board pay cuts for cast and crew at five
shows - Chicago, Rent, The Phantom of the Opera, Les
Miserables and The Full Monty. The cuts will be in
place for four weeks beginning next week. If business does not
improve, they can be renegotiated." New
York Post 09/21/01
- PRODUCERS
PIN HOPES ON THE ROAD: With business so bad on Broadway,
producers are hoping that touring road shows will be their
"lifeline." Meanwhile, some touring productions have
abandoned air travel for the ground. Chicago
Tribune 09/21/01
- THEATRE
DISASTER: Broadway's "total income fell more than 60
percent from the previous week." Theatre.com
09/20/01
- THEATRE
IN A TIME OF TERROR: "My feeling is that at no time
in our lives have we needed the theater more, and my hope is
that the suffering theater community itself will take heart
knowing how close it is to our own hearts. Can any of us
imagine a world without theater? Only one of darkness. When
the theaters went dark for two days last week, there was no
choice. But the traumatized city seemed darker still. Theater
has always been our eternal refuge, embrace, hope, solace and
home." New York Observer
09/20/01
A
WOMAN TO TAKE OVER THE ROYAL NATIONAL? There's a high-level
and highly-secretive search under way for someone to succeed
Trevor Nunn as artistic director of the Royal National Theater,
"arguably the most important arts organisation in
Britain." Given the current demands of the position, "I
can't help thinking it's less likely to go to a middle-class
Oxbridge-educated male than to a dynamic, persuasive female."
The Irish Times 09/20/01
DON'T
MESS WITH THE SHAKESPEARE: Theatre unions hate the idea,
Prince Charles has expressed his displeasure, and critics are
lining up in opposition to Adrian Noble's plans to restructure the
Royal Shakespeare Company. "At the heart of the protest lies
a total dismay at the RSC's abandonment of ensemble repertoire:
the belief that you go to Stratford to see a resident company in
an accumulating programme in three theatres. Until recently it was
the company's core philosophy." The
Guardian (UK) 09/19/01
THEATRE
OF TERROR: "How a new generation of theater artists will
respond to the shattering events of that day remains to be seen.
Because of the long process involved in getting a work from the
page to the stage, the playwrights' response will not be
immediately evident. However, artistic directors are already
looking at their own programming - at shows that they had already
announced, as well as plays from the repertoire of world drama -
for work that will give refuge, illumination and inspiration to
their audiences." Hartford
Courant 09/23/01
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8.
VISUAL ARTS
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#visualarts
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SELLING
ART TO RAISE MONEY: The Church of England has decided to sell
a collection of valuable paintings housed by the church in Durham
since the mid-1700s. They're reported to be worth £20m.
"They are works in the series Jacob And His Twelve Sons by
the 17th Century Spanish painter Francesco de Zuberán, a
contemporary of Velasquez and El Greco." Church officials say
the sale will "raise much-needed funds, particularly for the
north east." BBC 09/21/01
SAVING
ANGKOR WAT: "Angkor Wat in Cambodia, said to be the
world’s single largest archaeological site, is being worked on
by a multi-national force of restorers. "In this
free-for-all, there might well be the temptation to experiment on
new techniques and chemicals, in the knowledge that there will be
little monitoring of what is being done." But things are
harmonious. "This is largely thanks to the efforts of UNESCO,
which recognised Angkor as a World Heritage Site in 1992 and
formed an International Co-ordination Committee (ICC)." The
Art Newspaper 09/20/01
THE
MODERN REACH FOR THE SKY: The great modernist skyscrapers
weren't built just to be big. They were meant as a statement
repudiating decoration and clutter. "A building should not
derive meaning and character from the historical motifs that
cluttered its skin, but from the direct, logical expression of its
purpose and materials. This was the edict of functionalism,
that—as Louis Sullivan put it—'form follows function'.” The
New Criterion 09/01
ROTTEN
RODIN: Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum major show of Rodin
sculptures is likely to be remembered as Canada's most
controversial and most frustrating exhibition of the year.
Controversial because of the disputed nature of the sculptures and
the show's lousyt scholarship. Frustrating because the art in this
show gives no sense of its context. The
Globe & Mail (Canada) 09/22/01
THE
HORROR OF IT ALL: The last 50 years in British art have been a
battle for realism. And violence. "It is no coincidence that
two of the most important artists since the second world war
should both dramatise extremes of violence in an attempt to
heighten our awareness of our own mortality. In fact, you could
argue that the most important British art of the past 50 years has
been preoccupied with the subject."
The Guardian (UK) 09/22/01
THE
ARCHITECTURE OSCARS: What's wrong with a prize for
architecture? "Like the Booker, which exists mainly to sell
more books, or the Oscars, whose primary purpose is to decorate
cinema posters, the Stirling Prize is mostly about marketing. The
prize was dreamed up during one of those waves of self-pity to
which architects are prone. What hurts is not that nobody loves
them, it's that everybody ignores them. Enter the Stirling Prize,
an event made to get architecture out of the ghetto. Let's get on
television, let's show that we matter." The
Observer (UK) 09/23/01
HOCKNEY'S
HERESY: David Hockney's theory that Ingres worked from a
projection of an image brought the "predictable, dismissive
response: Hockney was mad, he had a bee in his bonnet. To which
the artist calmly replied when we recently spent an evening
discussing the subject: 'Well, I know something that they don't.'
Now, with the publication of this book, he lets the rest of us in
on the secret. And his contentions are pretty astounding - not
merely that some artists used certain bags of tricks, but that,
effectively, the photographic way of looking at the world, through
optical equipment, pre-dates, by centuries, the invention of
photography itself." The
Telegraph (UK) 09/22/01
THAT
BURNING IMAGE: What images will come to symbolize last week's
World Trade Center disaster? There were too many pictures all at
once. "Typically, words precede the creation of iconic
images. A story is told, then a picture forms. What is an icon,
after all, but art's equivalent of the word made flesh. But the
word comes first. Icons illustrate existing faith and doctrine,
which is often inchoate until the picture comes along and suddenly
sorts out the disarray. Then, a gathering critical mass of people
sees the image and collectively knows, 'That's it!' " Los
Angeles Times 09/17/01
$10
MILLION IN PUBLIC ART LOST IN ATTACK: "Experts familiar
with the public art displayed in and around the World Trade Center
estimated its value alone at more than $10 million. Among the
prized works were a bright-red 25-foot Alexander Calder sculpture
on the Vesey Street overpass at Seven World Trade Center, a
painted wood relief by Louise Nevelson that hung in the mezzanine
of One World Trade Center, a painting by Roy Lichtenstein from his
famous "Entablature" series from the 1970s in the lobby
of Seven World Trade Center, and Joan Miro's "World Trade
Center" tapestry from 1974." San
Francisco Chronicle 09/18/01
RENEGING
ON ART: A man runs up a bill of more than $1 million at
Sotheby's tribal art sales, then refuses to pay the bill later.
What's an auction house to do? The Art
Newspaper 09/17/01
ROYAL
ART HISTORY: England's Prince (and future king) William's
"decision to take history of art at university has created a
major dilemma for the relatively small community of academic art
historians in UK universities. William will focus an unprecedented
spotlight on the discipline but, in doing so, he may only
reinforce the stereotypes the subject is so desperately trying to
rid itself of." The Guardian (UK)
09/18/01
ANTI
ART-EATING: Bugs are causing so much damage of museum
collections, the British Museum is convening a major conference on
what to so about the problem. "Moths, flees, booklice,
woodlice and termites are among bugs that thrive on organic
matter. Entire objects — even entire collections — have been
lost in museums and libraries." The
Times (UK) 09/17/01
NEW
YORK'S OUTSIDE(R) ART: Last week's World Trade Center tragedy
"has already created, virtually overnight, a new category of
outsider art: the astounding impromptu shrines and individual
artworks that have proliferated along New York's streets and in
its parks and squares. Alternating missing-person posters with
candles, flowers, flags, drawings and messages of all kinds, these
accumulations bring home the enormity of the tragedy in tangles of
personal detail." The New York
Times 09/19/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
ANOTHER
SMITHSONIAN MUSEUM DIRECTOR QUITS: Spencer Crew, director of
the National Museum of American History, is leaving to become
chief executive officer of the National Underground Railroad
Freedom Center in Cincinnati. Although he is "the fifth
Smithsonian museum director to leave since Lawrence Small became
secretary of the institution 21 months ago," Crew insisted
his departure was "not related to the decisions or management
style of Small." Washington
Post 09/20/01
CONQUERING
STATUE: A three-stories-high giant statue of a conquistador
astride his horse is set to be erected in the Texas city of El
Paso. "There's only one hitch. Don Juan de Onate is no
graceful symbolic Lady Liberty welcoming the huddled masses but a
real-life perpetrator of atrocities, who thought nothing of
ordering his men to chop off the legs of uncooperative Indians and
was eventually condemned by his own superiors for using 'excessive
force'. More than four centuries after Onate forded the Rio Grande
at what is now El Paso with 300 Spanish-speaking settlers hungry
to make their fortunes, his name for many still has an ugly and
bloody resonance." The Telegraph
(UK) 09/19/01
ATLANTIS
MAY HAVE BEEN RIGHT WHERE PLATO SAID IT WAS: A speculative
survey of the coastline of Western Europe 19,000 years ago - when
the sea level was 130 meters lower than now - shows "an
ancient archipelago, with an island at the spot where Plato
described Atlantis." It's just beyond the Pillars of
Hercules, what we now call the Strait of Gibraltar. The
New Scientist 09/19/01
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9.
ISSUES
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#issues
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BUSH
NOMINATES HAMMOND TO HEAD NEA: Michael Hammond, the dean of
the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, has been
nominated as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. The
69-year-old Hammond is a composer, conductor, and former Rhodes
scholar "whose interests include medieval, Renaissance and
Southeast Asian music." He has been Dean of the Rice school
since 1986. Washington Post
09/20/01
RESPONDING
TO TERRORISM: Why haven't artists responded with more
eloquence after last week's terrorism? "What we sorely needed
was to hear from a composer, a poet, an artist who could, in an
instant, release pent-up sentiments and illuminate the stricken
landscape. Art, however, has lost the facility for rapid reaction
or even considered response. What Picasso achieved in Guernica
and Brecht in Mother Courage is no longer acceptable, or
perhaps available, to painters and playwrights of the postmodern
age." The
Telegraph (UK) 09/19/01
TURNING
ASIA-WARD: "Since the time of European settlement,
Australia's cultural focus has been firmly on Europe and the
United States, with a number of our most brilliant artists having
arrived as refugees from Germany and Eastern Europe following
World War II. But a host of new Asian-inspired drama and dance
productions and exhibitions highlight the increasing influence the
nearby region is having on the local arts scene." The
Age (Melbourne) 09/20/01
TELLING
THE TERROR STORY: "The story that has emerged is modelled,
almost scene by scene, on a disaster movie. There's the clearly
witnessed long shot of the attack, the confusion below, people
fleeing toward the camera. Archetypal heroes (Mayor Rudolph
Giuliani, the firemen) emerged, as well as a foreign villain (Osama
bin Laden). The scene was set for the next act, the battle between
good and evil, an apocalyptic yet redemptive process. How this
cultural narrative has been chosen is worth examining."
The Globe & Mail (Canada)
09/22/01
IMMIGRATION
SERVICE AS CULTURAL ARBITER: When artists visit the US to work
they have to apply for a work visa. Yet who at the INS is deciding
which artists are culturally significant and which aren't? Such
decisions aren't always made thoughtfully. Studio
360 [audio file] 09/11/01
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