Week
of March 4-10, 2002
1.
Special Interest
2. Dance
3. Media
4. Music
5. People
6. Publishing
7. Theatre
8. Visual Arts
9. Arts Issues
10. For Fun
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1. SPECIAL INTEREST
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#specialinterest
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FORMAT
LOCK: The soundtrack to the movie O Brother has sold
more than 4 million copies, was one of 2001's 10 best-selling
albums, the year's best-selling country album, and it won a Grammy
last week for best soundtrack. A live tour of music from the movie
has sold out quickly. And yet, you won't hear any of the music on
American radio. Why? It has something to do with formats... Denver
Post 03/04/02
SPUTTERING
AT THE CHURCH OF POP CULTURE: "The first breath of
cultural freedom that Afghans had enjoyed since 1995 was suffused
with the stuff of commercially generated popular culture. The
people seemed delighted to be able to look like they wanted to,
listen to what they wanted to, watch what they wanted to, and
generally enjoy themselves again. Who could complain about
Afghans’ filling their lives with pleasure after being coerced
for years to adhere to a harshly enforced ascetic code? The
West’s liberal, anti-materialist critics, that’s who." Reason
03/02
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2. DANCE
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#dance
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A
ROOM OF THEIR OWN: Mark Morris' new company studio complex in
Brooklyn seems luxurious (Morris has a whirlpool in his office so
he can sit in the tub while he's takling meetings, and the
company's changing rooms "rival the ones at Yankee
Stadium"). But ''The building isn't luxurious,'' Morris
insists. ''It just has everything we need. It only seems fancy
because other American dance troupes, except for the big ballet
companies, have nothing like it.'' Boston
Globe 03/10/02
APPRECIATING
THE LESS-THAN-PERFECT: "Classical ballet has to a large
extent remained the province of perfection, at least in New York
City. Jobs are hard to come by for dancers who do not have the
properly slender, elongated bodies." But who's to say that
"flawed" bodies can't be wonderfully expressive?
"The loud-and-proud presence of imperfection on the dance
stage can be unnerving, and certainly seems to be giving the self-
appointed guardians of the imperfect a new lease on life."
The New York Times 03/10/02
DANCE
- A TRADITION OF POVERTY: To be a classical dancer in Cambodia
is to live in poverty. Even dancers at the Royal University of
Fine Arts - "for everyone who performs and teaches here, art
and poverty go hand in hand. Almost penniless, the dance school
can barely afford to pay them, and many live second lives as shop
assistants, market vendors, seamstresses and motorcycle-taxi
drivers." The
New York Times 03/09/02
BEATING
UP THE PIT BAND: "It is widely held that ballet music is
inferior to opera music, that the orchestra rarely plays its best
for ballet, and that ballet music attracts the dimmer, less
expensive conductors." But maybe that's the perception
because of the way ballet scores are conducted.
The Telegraph (UK) 03/10/02
TALL
TALES OF DANCE: Last week Yana Booth was crowned Miss Great
Britain 2002. Her real training though was almost two decades as
the only British dancer at the Bolshoi Ballet school. So why isn't
she dancing? She's tall. "In the ballet world Yana - six-foot
tall and a curvy 36-26-36 - stands as much chance of making it as
Barry White. Even the fact that her Bolshoi studies were sponsored
by the film star Sharon Stone hasn't eased her plight. 'When I
graduated I wrote to every dance company in Europe. Most of them
saw my measurements on the CV and didn't even call me in for an
audition. I was desperate'." The
Telegraph (UK) 03/07/02
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3. MEDIA
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#media
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TV
FOR ADULTS: The BBC's launching of a new arts channel has been
controversial - who needs an "arts ghetto?" But
"halfway through its first week, BBC4 looks like the best
thing that has happened to television for a long time. It gives
the novel impression of being a channel produced by adults for
adults. True, it sometimes resembles radio with a camera in the
room, but that is more daring than the brand of television in
which movement and noise are valued above intelligence. If you
don’t employ bells and whistles, witlessness is not an
option." The
Scotsman 03/09/02
SAG
REELECTS GILBERT: The Screen Actors Guild has reelected
Melissa Gilbert president in a special election. "Gilbert
captured 21,351 of the vote to Valerie Harper's 12,613 in a record
turnout for a highly publicized race. The election has been one of
the nastiest battles in the history of Hollywood unions, marked by
accusations and name calling involving some of the industry's
best-known actors." Los
Angeles Times 03/08/02
- WHAT
NEXT? "Despite an aggressive campaign, Harper, 61,
was unable to convince members that her opponent allegedly was
too cozy with agents, studios and others Hollywood unions at
the expense of SAG. Gilbert's margin of victory far exceeded
what it was in November, when she pulled in 45.3 percent of
the vote compared to Harper's 39.4 percent." Los
Angeles Times 03/10/02
RECORD
YEAR FOR MOVIES: Hollywood had a record year at the box office
in 2001. "Films including Harry Potter, Shrek and Lord
of the Rings helped the box office hit a record high of $8.41
billion, well above 2000's $7.7 billion. The report by the Motion
Picture Association of America (MPAA), which represents
Hollywood's major movie studios, shows that films are costing less
to produce." BBC 03/06/02
A
FIRST - DVDs SURPASS VHS:
For the first time since the DVD debuted nearly five years ago,
DVD sales and rentals have outdone the more traditional
videocassette format. Couple that with the fact that more than 26
million DVD players are in homes nationwide, and it's no wonder
that the figures are so staggering. In 2001, DVDs generated more
than $4.6 billion in sales compared to just $3.8 billion for
VHS." Nando
Times (Scripps Howard) 03/04/02
A
RETURN TO MOVIE MUSICALS? The success of Moulin Rouge seems
to be leading the way to a predictable revival of the popularity
of the movie musical. Studios are looking for attractive ways to
package the new round of musicals, including using actors not
known for their singing (as in Rouge) and debating whether
revivals of classics like Chicago or development of new,
modern musicals is the best way to go. USA
Today 03/08/02
TURKEY
BANS FILM IT FUNDED: The Turkish Culture Ministry helped fund
a movie it hoped would compete for a Best Foreign Film Oscar. But
now the government has banned the movie in Turkey "on the
grounds that it highlights Kurdish nationalism and portrays the
Turkish police in a poor light." The
Guardian (UK) 03/05/02
IS
TRADITIONAL ANIMATION DEAD? "On the surface, traditional
animation is in trouble: witness the continuing layoffs at Disney,
cradle of this 20th century art form. Rival studios Warners and
Fox are still smarting from their humiliating attempts to emulate
Disney's 1994 triumph with The Lion King by setting up
their own animation studios." Steve Jobs says traditional
drawing is over - computers do it better. Calgary
Herald 03/03/02
MOVIE
TIME IN NEW YORK: New York is planning to build a $375 million
movie studio complex. "The 15-story Studio City will offer
more than an acre of Hollywood-style backlot on the ninth floor,
with a view of the New York skyline and the Hudson River. Planned
on a West Side block between 10th and 11th avenues and 44th and
45th streets, the tower will provide production studios, equipment
and offices to film, television and advertising companies."
Backstage (AP) 03/02/02
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4.
MUSIC
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#music
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ARE
WE ALL JUST THIEVES? "Despite a plethora of problems that
have nothing to do with the Net, media executives are obsessed
with the idea that their customers are shiftless pirates who want
their wares for free. The world got a chance to sample this
mind-set at the Grammys last week, when National Academy of
Recording Arts and Sciences head Michael Greene hijacked his own
awards ceremony to rant Queegishly about music downloading, 'the
most insidious virus in our midst.' (So much for HIV.)"
Newsweek 03/11/02
WHY
THE MUSIC INDUSTRY SUCKS: Last week's Grammy Awards
demonstrated lots of reasons why the music industry is in such
trouble. "Record executives must be among the slowest
learners on the planet. Only 5 percent of major-label releases
make a profit; a big company needs to sell 500,000 copies of a CD
just to break even. Hmm: could any of this have to do with dumb
decisions? Virgin Records bought Mariah Carey for $80 million in
2001, only to give her an extra $28 million last month to go away.
Meanwhile, Sheryl Crow and Don Henley have felt compelled to found
the new Recording Artists’ Coalition, an organization of
high-profile performers hoping to protect musicians from their own
labels." Newsweek 03/11/02
- THE
GRAMMYS WAR ON DOWNLOADERS: Recording Academy president
Michael Greene would rather blame fans who download music over
the internet for the industry's problems: "No question
the most insidious virus in our midst is the illegal
downloading of music on the Net. It goes by many names and its
apologists offer a myriad of excuses. This illegal
file-sharing and ripping of music files is pervasive, out of
control and oh so criminal. Many of the nominees here tonight,
especially the new, less-established artists, are in immediate
danger of being marginalized out of our business." Grammy.com
02/27/02
LEARNING
FROM THE PHILLY DISASTER: Was the opening of the Philadelphia
Orcehstra's new concert hall a "fiasco"? The LA Times'
Mark Swed says yes, and directs a warning to all those who open
new halls in the future - learn from Philly's mistakes. From
impatience to programming to over-long opening speeches,
Philadelphia is a textbook case of how not to open a new home.
Los Angeles Times 03/04/02
OVER
THE EDGE:
Though the Brooklyn Philharmonic has been much-praised
artistically over the years, its financial operations have always
been marginal. The slowing economy and September 11 only pushed
the orchestra closer to the edge. Then, when the organization
tried to cut costs by scaling back its concerts, the musicians
revolted... "My biggest frustration is if we're not playing
together as an orchestra, what are we?" The
New York Times 03/05/02
BUSINESS
WITH PLEASURE: When Linda Hoeschler arrived at the
Minnesota-based American Composers Forum in 1996, the group was in
financial and organization trouble. Thanks to a savvy business
approach, the organization has grown into a national presence and
"its annual budget has climbed from less than $300,000 to
more than $3 million. Fifteen staff members now administer more
than a dozen programs, dishing out hundreds of grants annually and
providing a range of other services to a swelling membership of
more than 1,400 composers." Minneapolis
Star Tribune 03/10/02
COPYRIGHT,
COPYRIGHT, WHO'S GOT THE COPYRIGHT? A federal judge has told
the record labels suing Napster "to produce documents proving
they own the copyrights to 213 songs that once traded for free
over the song-swapping service. It's a last grasp to limit
monetary damages in a case that has slowly gone against Napster
since the service went offline in July." Nando
Times 02/06/02
WRECKING
LA SCALA? Critics are sounding the alarm over La Scala's
renovations to its venerable home. "According to architect
Mario Morganti and other experts, the renovation will cause more
damage to the theater than did the Allied bombing during World War
II. The process, he said, will be 'more of a demolition than a
restoration. Only an empty shell will survive'."
Andante 03/08/02
GOING
IT ALONE: The London Symphony's Grammy win last month with a
recording it produced on its own, is challenging the traditional
recording industry model. "To get these albums, marketed at
about $8 to $9 per disc, into the hands of consumers, LSO Live
employs distributors in Britain and Japan, and as of late,
Harmonia Mundi U.S.A. But more significant, the orchestra is also
selling the CD's directly through Internet outlets, including its
own (www.lso.co.uk). To date,
sales of "Les Troyens" have exceeded 30,000 sets." The
New York Times 03/10/02
COMPUTER
MUSIC ONSTAGE: Tired of seeing sheet music fall or blow away
during performances, Harry Connick Jr. bought computers for his
band on which scores scroll by. Now he's received a patent for the
"system and method for coordinating music display among
players in an orchestra." "Oh man, it's made my life
easier," Mr. Connick said. "Before, I would write out a
song by hand and give it to a couple of guys in the band who are
copyists and they would figure out the instrumental sections. It
could take days. Now I can write a new score in the morning and
everyone has it on his computer screen in the afternoon. Imagine
if a Duke Ellington or a Stravinsky had had a system like
that." The New York Times
03/04/02
HOMAGE
A SLAVA: Mstislav Rostropovich has led an extraordinary life.
He is a cellist who has not only performed some of the most
important music written for the instrument in the 20th century but
has also been directly involved in its creation. However, it is as
a political dissident - and now almost a modern icon - on a par
with Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Andrei Sakharov that Rostropovich
has made the most impact on the wider public consciousness."
The Guardian (UK) 03/02/02
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5. PEOPLE
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#people
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HUGHBRIS
- CRITIC UNDER GLASS: Australian artist Danius Kesminas
compacted the rental car Time Magazine art critic Robert Hughes
was driving last year when Hughes had a car accident, sealed it in
glass, and added objects meant to comment on Hughes' life.
"Mr. Kesminas was able to create Hughbris by tracing
the wreckage of Mr. Hughes's car to a dealer who was about to melt
it down. He persuaded the dealer to swap it for three cases of
beer and worked for several months to convert the scrap metal into
a comment on the event." The New
York Times 03/07/02
LEBRECHT
LEAVES TELEGRAPH: The London Telegraph's contrarian arts
columnist Norman Lebrecht is quitting the paper to jump to the
Evening Standard where he's charged with making over that paper's
cultural coverage. Lebrecht has written many doom and gloom
stories about the state of arts business in his nine years at the
Telegraph. But he says no one should think him pessimistic about
art: "I have never felt more excited about the artistic
future - at least for those arts that can open their eyes and
master change while time remains." The
Telegraph (UK) 03/06/02
ROY
SITS IN PRISON: Booker Prize-winning author Arundhati Roy is
is jail in India. "In a judgment furiously derided by her
fellow writers, the two-judge bench said it had no alternative but
to jail the 40-year-old novelist because she had shown 'no remorse
or repentance'. Justice RP Sethi said her crime deserved a longer
sentence but he was treating her magnanimously because she was a
woman. The court fined her 2,000 rupees (£30) and warned her she
would be jailed for a further three months if she failed to pay
up. Last night Ms Roy, who is in New Delhi's sprawling Tihar
prison, was debating whether to pay the fine or defy the court's
two elderly judges by remaining behind bars."
The Guardian (UK) 03/07/02
GOODWIN
HITS BACK: Speaking at a Saint Paul college, embattled
historian Doris Kearns Goodwin insisted that her reputation will
survive the current plagiarism charges being leveled against her.
While admitting that she had made grave mistakes in allowing
unattributed passages to make their way into her books, she
declared, "I know absolutely that I have dealt fairly and
honestly with all my subjects." Minneapolis
Star Tribune 03/08/02
SLATKIN
STAYING AT NATIONAL: Leonard Slatkin has renewed his contract
as music director of the National Symphony for three more years.
By then he will have led the orchestra for 10 years. "Slatkin's
present contract was set to expire at the conclusion of the
2002-2003 season." Washington
Post 03/05/02
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6.
PUBLISHING
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#publishing
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BEWARE
OF TECHNOLOGY:
Disney chief Michael Eisner told the Association of American
Publishers that technology is one of their biggest threats. "Eisner
charged that technologists have been dragging their feet in
developing methods to block piracy, while they sell equipment that
abets illegally copying. Eisner said that while he favors letting
the private sector try to find a solution to illegally copying,
the government may need to step in if technology companies do not
begin addressing the issue more aggressively."
Publishers
Weekly 03/04/02
THE
SECOND GUTENBERG REVOLUTION:
Gutenberg's Bible signaled a revolution in the dissemination of
information back in the 16th century. Now it signals another. The
Library of Congress, which owns one of three copies of the Bible,
has started a project to "photograph, scan and digitize every
binding, endsheet and page of the three-volume Bible. 'We're
hoping to take digital technology as far as it goes and bring this
book to life. We hope to make this book more accessible than
even Gutenberg did'." Wired
03/04/02
DEFENDING
THE SELF-PUBLISHED: Why do so many critics treat
self-publishing as if it were the greatest threat to an
intelligent society? "The sheer magnitude and intensity of
vitriol poured upon those who would dare to enter the holy realm
of the published seems totally out of proportion with its object.
Self-published books are truly the snuff pornography of the
publishing world: universally condemned as crude, exploitative,
offensive, and even dangerous, while at the same time rarely if
ever seen." GoodReports 03/03/02
GATSBY
IS TOPS: A new survey of top authors, critics, and actors has
declared that Jay Gatsby is the greatest literary character of the
20th century, narrowly edging Holden Caulfield of Catcher in
the Rye fame. Vladimir Nabokov's Humbert Humbert makes the
list as well, but, in a stunning snub, Douglas Adams's Arthur Dent
is nowhere to be found. National Post
(AP) 03/08/02
THE
COST OF STEALING: Plagiarism isn't just about the
perpetrators. The writers whose work is stolen sometimes made
enormous sacrifices to get their research to the page. One
historian/writer extensively plagiarized by Stephen Ambrose has
spent a career of hardship researching his work for books about
World War II. It's like having your life stolen. Baltimore
Sun 03/10/02
- MATHEMATICALLY
PLAGIARISTIC: "John L. Casti, a science writer who
teaches at the Technical University of Vienna and at the Santa
Fe Institute in New Mexico, has been accused of lifting a
substantial number of extended passages from other sources in
his latest book, "Mathematical Mountaintops: The Five
Most Famous Problems of All Time" (Oxford, 2001). Mr.
Casti's book, written for the lay reader, describes
mathematicians' explorations of complicated ideas involving
maps, numbers and spaces. But along the way Mr. Casti's
research apparently got a bit out of hand."
The New York Times 03/09/02
ALL
PART OF THE (BOOK) DEAL: "In our luminary-fascination
society, the book deal is an accouterment to instant or durable
celebrity, so reflexive a part of fame that when people see a new
name in the news they just know a book is sure to pop up. And
usually they are right. With a few notable exceptions, there is
little to be said for the value of these books. Still, they have
always been one of publishing's sexiest genres. People apparently
are both fascinated and appalled by the large money advances they
bring." The New York Times
03/07/02
DEGREES
OF WRONGNESS: Let's not lump the plagiarizing transgressions
of historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Stephen Ambrose together.
Goodwin "admirably insists that 'professional standards for
historians need never be sacrificed in popular history' and has
conscientiously tried to protect her reputation. Ambrose has in
effect conceded that his writing isn't scholarship—and thus has
felt free to shrug off his critics." Slate
03/05/02
CHAMPIONING
THE UNDERGROUND: Is the literary establishment corrupt,
awarding its prizes and grants and favors to one another? The
Underground Literary Alliance thinks so. The newly-formed group
has been attacking what it considers injustices of the system -
writers who are awarded NEA grants and then sit on panels to award
other grants, wealthy recipients of awards intended to go to
writers who need a basic income so they can write..."It's a
kind of advocacy group to stand up for writers, and the interests
of underground writers, number one, but maybe writers in general
also. You do have writers organizations out there, but they
revolve around writers who don't need help." MobyLives
03/05/02
BUT
I THOUGHT EVERYONE BOUGHT 17,000 COPIES OF HIS OWN BOOK: David
Vise wanted to promote his book. So he went on tour, appeared on
TV shows, set up a web site. All the usual stuff. Then he went one
step further. "Vise also bought between 16,000 and 18,000
copies of his own book from an online bookseller,
Barnesandnoble.com, and then returned most of them in a confusing
series of transactions. This unusual tactic has prompted
suspicions that he was trying to manipulate bestseller lists by
creating phantom sales, which Vise firmly denies." Washington
Post 02/07/02
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7. THEATRE
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#theatre
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OF
BRAND NAMES AND CRISES: The Royal Shakespeare Company seems to
lurch from crisis to crisis. "Is something rotten in the
state of Stratford? Is it a genuine company? Or is it simply an
umbrella organisation trading on a brand-name and housing a number
of discrete, increasingly isolated projects?" The
Guardian (UK) 03/06/02
TWO
QUIT ROYAL SHAKESPEARE: Controversy continues to dog the Royal
Shakespeare Company. In the past week two directors have quit the
company over "artistic differences." "The departure
of Edward Hall, son of the RSC's founder Sir Peter Hall, follows
that of the rising young star David Hunt. Both quit even before
rehearsals began for five Jacobean plays which are supposed to
epitomise the RSC's new appetite for adventure." The
Guardian (UK) 03/06/02
ROYAL
SHAKESPEARE IN DC: The UK's Royal Shakespeare Company is
taking up residence at the Kennedy Center in Washington for the
next five years. "Tthe residency will be underwritten by
$250,000 from Prince Charles, who is president of the RSC
board." Washington Post 03/05/02
THE
REAL WILLY: A new documentary goes looking for the
"real" Shakespeare. It's "about the so-called
Marlovians, the folks who say that Marlowe was the guy, as opposed
to Francis Bacon or Edward de Vere, inter alia. Or, for that
matter, the rustic actor named William Shakespeare who commonly
holds the laurels." Salon
03/02/02
ACTORS
GET MONEY FROM LIVENT: When the Livent theatre empire went
crashing into bankruptcy in 1999, it owed a lot of people a lot of
money. Including actors. Now "Canadian Actors' Equity
Association has cut cheques for 163 members, proceeds of a
$157,200 cash settlement from the now-defunct Livent."
National Post 03/06/02
MISS
ME KATE: A one-woman play about actress Katherine Hepburn at
Hartford Stage has attracted a lot of attention. This week
Hepburn's family called the play "trash." Some critics
feel that the actress's life "has been sanitized, protected
and manipulated over the years and a fresh light is welcome after
decades of image polishing. Others feel this is a rush to
appropriate a life before its final curtain." Hartford
Courant 03/10/02
WHAT
ABOUT A SCOTTISH NATIONAL THEATRE? Scottish theatre is looking
for a new direction. "A Scottish National Theatre is
proposed. The suggested model, a commissioning body with neither a
theatre building nor its own permanent company, remains a
controversial one. Ultimately, like the ever-present issue of
funding for Scottish drama, the future of the project lies in the
hands of the politicians." The
Scotsman 03/09/02
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8.
VISUAL ARTS
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#visualarts
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LOVING
TO HATE YOU... The Whitney Biennial, the show everyone loves
to hate, is open. "The biennial is, by nature, a giant
version of a gallery group show, a kind of art fair with curators.
So you can ask only so much of it. In its present edition, though,
more than half the work is of lingering interest — a high
average." The New York Times
03/08/02
STOLEN
ART RETURNED TO POLAND: A year and a half ago museums all over
the world struggled to get lists of art they owned of questionable
provenance posted publicly. The goal was to identify any art that
had been stolen by the Nazis in World War II. Most lists haven't
yet turned up any claims. Now the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
has identified and turned over to a Polish museum a "late
medieval Persian or Mughal canopy that was looted from a Polish
collection by the Nazis and has spent most of the last three
decades in storage." Los Angeles
Times 03/07/02
PAY
PER VIEW: Though others may buy physical pieces of art,
artists retain copyrights to their work. After 18 months of
negotiations, Australia's auction houses have agreed to pay
artists a fee whenever images of their work are used to illustrate
sales of the work. "The rates range from $50 for one-eighth
of a page for works estimated to fetch up to $2000, to $187.50 for
a full-page illustration of higher-priced pictures."
The Age (Melbourne) 03/07/02
IN
A FRIGHTFUL MOOED: Some 500 fiberglass cows are set to hit the
streets of London. Yes, it's the invasion of the Art Cows. Animals
on Parade were "originally scheduled last summer: the sites
had been found, the artists lined up - and then came foot and
mouth, and the prospect of cows dressed as ballerinas prancing
against a daily backdrop of reports of smouldering pyres of their
real sisters. The event was cancelled." The
Guardian (UK) 03/06/02
JUST
LET US BUILD SOMETHING: "Being a young architect in
Britain is the ultimate exercise in learning life’s hard knocks.
You spend seven years at college dreaming up arty squiggles to
save the world, then another 20 designing drainpipes in some
enormous firm called BGTHJ, after which every last drop of
youthful ambition is squeezed from you till the pips squeak.
Either that or you go it alone like Eva Castro and Holger Kehne."
Even then, after winning a top prize, it's still a struggle just
to get someone to let you build something. The
Times (UK) 03/06/02
HISTORY
ON THE BLOCK? The Polaroid photography collection includes
12,000 pictures. Its historical importance makes it priceless.
"But when Polaroid filed for bankruptcy in October, it owed
creditors $950 million. The fate of its collection of a
half-century's worth of images by more than 1,000 artists is now
in the hands of a bankruptcy judge in Delaware, where Polaroid is
incorporated." Photography curators are worried the
collection will be broken up and sold. Boston
Globe 03/10/02
GETTING
HUGHES TO VENICE: The invitation to critic Robert Hughes to
direct the Venice Biennale still hasn't been withdrawn, even
though Hughes has publicly attacked biennale politics.
"Italian dailies have speculated that the deal has not been
clinched because Hughes asked too high a fee - the figure of
$US700,000 has been mentioned." The
Age (Melbourne) 03/05/02
- HUGHES
BLASTS BIENNALE: Last week's attack by Hughes was carried
in Neal Travis' column in the New York Post: "I informed
them I was pulling out yesterday. Life's too short to waste
fooling around with ditherers." He complains that the
Biennale is 'a shambles' at this stage and wonders whether it
will even happen." New York
Post 02/28/02
KILLING
PUBLIC ART?
Philadelphia's Percent-for-Art program, which has put hundreds of
artworks on the city's streets, is being challenged. "More
than four decades after the city founded the Percent for Art
Program requiring developers to set aside 1 percent of their
construction budget on public art, a developer is trying to get an
exemption for his multimillion-dollar riverfront apartment
high-rise." Nando
Times (AP) 03/04/02
THE
RUINS OF BAMIYAN: "One year after the Taliban destroyed
two colossal, centuries-old carvings of Buddha, and several months
after the last of the radical Islamic movement's operatives left
the area, this former marvel of the ancient Silk Road remains a
largely desolate ground zero. There are no repair crews, no
guards, nothing to suggest this was a treasure considered by the
United Nations as a world historical monument. The Buddhas long
dominated the mountain valley below, and now so does their
disfigurement." Washington Post
03/06/02
PROOF
OF ART: No more taking sellers of art at their word that the
work they're trying to sell isn't stolen or forged. Insurance
companies have gotten into the act, and auction houses, museums
and galleries are demanding proof for all claims... The
Telegraph (UK) 03/04/03
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9.
ISSUES
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#issues
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TAX
MONEY TO ARTS FAILS ON PROMISED RETURNS? A new Canadian study
suggests that taxpayer money invested in professional sports teams
and the arts do not produce the economic benefits touted by arts
supporters. "The research ... leads inexorably to the
conclusion that the benefits from having sporting or cultural
activities are not nearly as large as their proponents argue. The
multiplier effects are usually small and might even be negative in
some instances. Job creation is minimal."
National Post (Canada) 03/06/02
SUCCESSFUL
ARTISTS SHOULD RETURN GRANTS? Two American congressmen have
suggested that artists who become commercially successful should
repay grants they received earlier in the careers from the
National Endowment for the Arts. "NEA Acting Director Eileen
B. Mason promised to consider the suggestion. 'I think it would be
terrific,' she told the House Appropriation Committee's
subcommittee on the Interior Department and Related
Agencies." Hartford Courant (AP)
03/06/02
THE
POETRY AND PHILOSOPHY OF HOMELAND DEFENSE: Bruce Cole, the new
chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, believes
that agency "needs to pay attention to its original mandate
and establish its role as a defender of the homeland." To
accomplish that, he has developed a program called "We the
People" which is intended to "encourage scholars to
propose programs that advance our knowledge of the events, ideas
and principles that define the American nation." Washington
Post 02/06/02
FUNDING
TORONTO: Canada's federal government has decided to give
Toronto's largest arts groups $260 million. "The long-awaited
grants are seen by some as the beginning of a cultural rebirth for
Canada's largest city." The arts groups have a long (and
expensive) wish list for the money. National
Post (Canada) 03/02/02
THE
ART OF AFGHANISTAN: You would think, form the press accounts,
that Afghanistan is little more than a bombed out wreck. "I
had come to Afghanistan to see what remained of the country's
culture after the depredations of the Taliban and the devastation
of war. And I was astonished to find, amid the bombed-out ruins of
Kabul, an artistic community that was not only optimistic but
exuberant. Everyone I talked to had extraordinary stories to tell
about the Taliban era, but they had survived that time
surprisingly well, and were taking up much where they had left
off." The New York Times 03/10/02
THE
BERLIN CRISIS: The city of Berlin is € 68 billion in debt -
so much debt that it has to borrow extensively just to pay the
interest on its debt. This has created a crisis for the city's
rich cultural life. "Even today, Berlin has more museums than
rainy days. Not to mention eight full-time symphony orchestras,
several professional chamber music ensembles, and three opera
houses. Each threat of closure or amalgamation is greeted by howls
of protest; the result is that everything is slightly underfunded.
Since those who work for cultural institutions are government
employees and cannot be sacked, most organizations are unable to
respond to requests for budget cuts simply because they have no
option but to continue to pay their staff. Instead, they run up
debts." Andante
03/08/02
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10. FOR FUN
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#forfun
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SICILY
- LAND OF LINCOLN? "Sicily wants to copy Mount Rushmore,
one of the most important memorials to U.S. patriotism. It will
not be an exact copy, of course. What business do George
Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore
Roosevelt have on the Mediterranean island, after all? But the
concept is being openly plagiarized." Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung 03/04/02
A
MORE HARD-CORE ET? Australian film censors have given a
tougher rating for the upcoming reissue of the movie ET
than it got 20 years ago - the movie got a "G" rating
then; now it gets a "PG" tag. "In reflecting
contemporary community standards across all classifiable elements
of the film, the supernatural themes and language could not
currently be accommodated at the G level of classification. It is
understandable that attitudes shift over a 20-year period. This
results in some films receiving different classifications when
classified now." The
Age (Melbourne) 03/06/02
PUTTING
YOURSELF INTO YOUR ART: Australian artist Pro Hart worries
about the authenticity of his work. He believes if you buy a Hart
you ought to get a Hart. So he's "signing" his work with
his DNA. "Hart's DNA is harvested by scraping the inside of
his mouth with a cotton bud to collect cheek cells, which are sent
to a laboratory and processed before being applied to the artwork.
The precise method of application to the works is secret, but the
location of the DNA is put on a database with the work's
particulars - the title, the size and who bought the painting -
for easy identification in the future." The
Age (Melbourne) 03/07/02
THAT
SINKING FEELING: A 360-foot tower, "the centrepiece of
Scotland's most expensive millennial attraction has been forced to
close its doors for at least three months after engineers
discovered it was sinking. The £10 million Glasgow tower at the
science centre on the Clyde was hailed as a unique structure - the
only tower in the world which turns through 360 degrees.
Unfortunately, it is not unique in exhibiting that feature common
to innovative building across the globe: teething troubles."
The Guardian (UK) 03/06/02
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