Week
of June 3-9, 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
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A
TOOL TO CHANGE ART: Digital filmmaking is sweeping the
industry. But it is "a cause for misgivings as well as
wonderment. It will kill art before it enhances it. It will
aggrandise businessmen before it enriches audiences. It had to
happen, just as the talkies had to, because technology dictated
it, but not because any creative artist craved it." One thing
is certain - it will change the art of making movies - in good
ways and in bad. London
Evening Standard 06/07/02
JAPAN
- THE NEW CULTURE SUPERPOWER? "Critics often reduce the
globalization of culture to either the McDonald's phenomenon or
the 'world music' phenomenon. For the McDonald's camp,
globalization is the process of large American multinationals
overwhelming foreign markets and getting local consumers addicted
to special sauce. In this case, culture flows from American power,
and American supply creates demand. For the world music camp,
globalization means that fresh, marginal culture reaches consumers
in the United States through increased contact with the rest of
the world. Here, too, culture flows from American power, with
demand from rich Americans expanding distribution for Latin pop or
Irish folk songs. But Japanese culture has transcended US demand
or approval." The Guardian (UK)
06/03/02
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2. DANCE
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#dance
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BOLSHOI
RESCUE: The Russian government has decided to allocate $180
million to fix up the badly-decaying Bolshoi Theatre. "Four
and a half years of rebuilding work would start in 2003,
performances would continue while work was being done, and the
theatre would only be closed for a few months during the
summer." BBC 06/06/02
SPEAKING
UP FOR DANCE: Modern dance needs an advocate. As an artform it
has a lot going against it in developing infrastructures and
acceptance. Contemporary dance is often overlooked in mainstream
culture. But in New York "some 400 dance companies, of every
aesthetic stripe, are at work in the five boroughs. Dance/NYC aims
to give them a unified voice." The
New York Times 06/09/02
KEEPERS
OF THE FLAME: New York is home to two of the world's great
ballet companies. But "as excellent as the two companies
still are on a good night, both seem to be struggling to reinvent
themselves, to reach beyond powerful past identities. Ballet
watchers have complained that ABT is neglecting its heritage - the
profound works of Antony Tudor and the popular ones of Agnes de
Mille. City Ballet's public has complained about the stewardship
of the company that Peter Martins has run since the 1983 death of
its cofounder, George Balanchine. Martins hasn't regularly invited
key keepers of the Balanchine flame back into the fold to teach
the ballets to a generation of City Ballet dancers who never knew
the master. Former company luminaries are instead scattered across
the country." Boston
Globe 06/08/02
ABT
COMING UP FOR AIR? American Ballet Theatre is one of the
country's great dance companies. Also one of its most financially
troubled in recent years. "After a financially trying two
years in which productions were canceled, staff members quit,
donors defected and the executive director was forced to resign,
could Ballet Theater be heading for fiscal and spiritual health?
Apparently not just yet." The
New York Times 06/04/02
BACKSTAGE
AT THE BALLET: Running the backstage operations of American
Ballet Theatre is a complcated manouevre, a ballet of its own,
composed of "scene changes, the size and positioning of the
sets, the wardrobe, lighting design and electrical needs. It
requires coordination with the ballet masters over rehearsal
schedules and artistic changes that crop up over the course of
performances. And it demands adherence to a budget that comes out
of the $4 million a year allocated to production costs."
The New York Times 06/09/02
REPRIEVE
IN FRANKFURT? Last week it was reported that the City of
Frankfurt planned to close Frankfurt Ballet and cancel director
William Forsythe's contract. Now Forsythe says that
"Frankfurt city officials have told him they want his
acclaimed dance company, the Frankfurt Ballet, to continue working
in the city after his current contract ends in 2004. But he added
that a deal was not assured, as the city's finances are in dire
straits." The
New York Times 06/04/02
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3. MEDIA
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#media
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THE
HOLLYWOOD FORMULA: The road to success in Hollywood goes
wherever it takes to be "successful." "The latest
formula for success - the 'brand movie' - is working. This summer,
Hollywood will release 16 big-star, big-budget films described as
brands: films that are sequels, prequels, spin-offs, franchises or
based on universally recognised characters from comic books,
children's books or video games." The
Telegraph (UK) 06/03/02
CAUGHT
IN A WEB: Radio stations are evolving their websites into
listener loyalty centers. "For everything from rating
snippets of songs to answering trivia questions, from knowing
secret codes that are given over the air to viewing ads for
sponsors," listeners can "win points from the country
station that she can use to enter in sweepstakes or to bid in
auctions on such items as DVDs, gift cards and small appliances.
Add these reward programs and e-mail blasts to dating hotlines and
other gimmicks, and it becomes clear that music stations aren't
just about the music nowadays (if they ever were) and that many
stations are becoming comfortable with the Web. "
Chicago Tribune 06/04/02
TV
FOR THE VERY YOUNG - A CHANGE: For years some TV producers of
kids shows for the very young believed that attention spans were
so short that shows should be cut up into small segments. The
approach won Sesame Street 79 Emmys over 33 years. But it turns
out video viewing habits for the very young are changing along
with the rest of the population, so the show has gone to longer
stories. The change seems to be working - Sesame Street's ratings
are up 31 percent in the 2-5 age group. The
New York Times 06/09/02
MOVIES
FROM THE 'AXIS OF EVIL': An internet site based in Iran has
set up a nice little business streaming American movies over the
internet. The site has all the latest movies, and charges less
than $1.50 per view. Yes it's illegal, but "legal and
technology experts said Hollywood will be hard-pressed to reel in
a Web site based in a country that is not a party to international
copyright treaties and that has not had diplomatic ties to the
United States since 1979. In fact, tensions surged again early
this year when President Bush lumped Iran in with Iraq and North
Korea as part of an 'axis of evil'." SFGate
06/06/02
CANADA'S
TV ACTORS WANT BETTER DEAL: "Marginalized for decades,
largely impotent in negotiations, and too fearful of personal
backlash to fight back, some of Canada's most distinguished
thespians have recently begun to find their voice." For what?
"The Canadian film-service industry has grown into a
$3.5-billion annual business. But of every dollar spent, technical
crews make between 18 and 22 cents, while actors under the
jurisdiction of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and
Radio Artists (ACTRA) earn just two cents - about $600 a month on
average for each working actor. Most of the rest goes to
producers." The
Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/05/02
MOVING
TO CANADA: A new study "shows that the amount of money
spent to produce films in the United States dropped 17% from 1998
to 2001, while the amount spent on production in Canada grew by
144%." Milwaukee
Journal-Sentinel (AP) 06/04/02
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4.
MUSIC
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#music
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BRITAIN'S
MUSIC MYTH: "Britain has a long and inglorious tradition
of attempting to subjugate the planet by asserting its culture.
This is the perceived superiority upon which an empire was built,
and it should have withered away years ago when we realised
foreign countries didn’t need British tastes to be fully
functional. But old prejudices die hard, and it’s ironic that
they persist in that supposedly rebellious establishment, the
music business." The
Scotsman 06/02/02
SAN
JOSE SYMPHONY GOES BANKRUPT: After trying to revive itself
through fundraising, the San Jose Symphony calls it quits. The
orchestra had already shut down operations last winter but had
hoped to regroup. "The announcement concludes months of
uncertainty about the future of the 123-year-old institution. With
an estimated $3.4 million in debt and just $300,000 in assets, the
symphony seemed increasingly likely to fold. Concert attendance
had fallen off. To make ends meet, the organizers borrowed money
on credit. The symphony's status has been in limbo since it was
shut down last October because of mismanagement and spiraling
debt." San
Jose Mercury News 06/03/02
- PLAYERS
LET LOOSE: "Symphony leaders hope to resurrect the
organization in a new form, but nobody knows when that might
happen. San Jose Symphony players never made a full income
there. Most earned around $24,000." San
Francisco Chronicle 06/05/02
TO
PROTECT (NOT SERVE): "At least two Canadian record
companies will begin testing copyright-protected CDs this summer,
But record executives in Canada and the United States are worried
about possible consumer backlash. If music-lovers conclude that
the sound quality of copyright-protected discs is inferior, or the
discs "gum up" the CD players in their cars or the hard
drives in their computers, or they see the technology as a Big
Brother-style intrusion and restriction by impersonal,
profit-hungry labels, the conventions that have governed the
commercial recording industry for decades could be further
eroded." The
Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/04/02
THE
GENDER ORCHESTRA: Are there "girl" musical
instruments and "boy" musical instruments? A new study
says yes. Boys consistently prefered instruments traditionally
identified as male. "Using accepted British, Australian and
North American classifications, 'male' instruments in this study
were deemed drums, saxophone, trumpet and trombone, as opposed to
the more 'feminine' apparati of flute, violin, clarinet,
cello." The
Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/08/02
SOMEWHERE
BETWEEN SOUND AND MUSIC: It's certainly not a new idea, but
using everyday sound as fodder for music is finding new fans.
"A California group called Matmos makes pieces of music
entirely out of the recorded sounds of plastic surgery being
performed. A British technician called Matthew Herbert makes dance
music entirely out of the sound of a McDonald's meal being
unwrapped and consumed. They are both part of a trend sometimes
known as 'glitch,' which is music made without any instruments,
entirely of found sounds, which are then arranged into musical
patterns. Glitch is primarily about what fun can be had with
samplers and computer-editing programs, but it is also about
bridging the gap between pop music and conceptual art."
The Globe & Mail (Canada)
06/08/02
THE
NEW CHOPIN: When Chopin wrote his 24 piano preludes, he
experimented with a 25th in E-flat minor, but abandoned it. Now a
University of Pennsylvania professor has reconstructed the piece.
It "shows a degree of experimentalism we hadn't known before.
At the same time, that's why it doesn't work. You've got the
experimentalism in sound, but the chord progression isn't that
strange." The
Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/08/02
GENDER-TYPING:
There are more and more female classical music critics writing
today. It's a field traditionally dominated by males. But
"isn't it funny that her increased acceptance in the ranks of
critics — that is, among the shapers rather than receivers of
opinion — happens to coincide with the striking decline, purely
in terms of space, of classical music coverage in news outlets
across the nation?" Andante
06/06/02
RESISTANT
TO PROTECTION: Recording producers want to protect their music
from piracy and unauthorized copying. They might be able to
accomplish it by embedding codes that prevent digital copying. But
there's one big problem - music consumers, the kind that actually
buy music, won't buy protected discs. What to do?
Wired 06/06/02
BLACK
MUSICIANS M.I.A.: Coalitions of musicians have been working to
change the kinds of contract deals they get from recording
companies. Notably missing from the efforts? Black musians.
"There is the perception of those [black] artists who do know
about these movements, who do get to hear about them—and many
have not—that this is a white movement, that this is something
that white people are doing. And there is a distrust of white
people and their intentions." Village
Voice 06/04/02
SAME
OLD SAME OLD: American orchestras have announced next year's
seasons. So why do so many of them look alike? Same pieces, same
presentation. "What makes our orchestras' schedules look so
repetitive is not only that they repeat one another but also that
they keep repeating a few well-tried formulas, right through their
programming." The
New York Times 06/02/02
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5. PEOPLE
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#people
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HOW
LEW WASSERMAN RUINED THE MOVIES: He was mourned as a legend
this week. But "missing from all the gushy epitaphs is an
example of a single great picture that got made because of
Wasserman's vision. "If the only movies playing at your local
cineplex are Spider-Man and the new Star Wars epic, Wasserman
deserves much of the blame. Even during the drug-induced
brilliance of 1970s Hollywood, Wasserman's taste at Universal was
always conservative, middle-aged, and middlebrow: no Coppolas, no
Altmans, no Scorseses." Slate
06/06/02
RATTLE
IN CALIFORNIA: Star conductor Simon Rattle hasn't performed in
the Bay Area since 1988. But it turns out the new Berlin
Philharmonic chief is a regular visitor - his kids live there.
Tonight he performs as a pianist with his son. In a rare American
interview he tells Joshua Kosman that he never really considered
leading an American orchestra. "I know that with any American
orchestra, I would've had to spend a lot of my time fighting for
existence, reminding people why we had to be there and taking much
more of an educational role than I wanted to take on at this time
in my life." San
Francisco Chronicle 06/07/02
JANSONS
TO LEAVE PITTSBURGH: Conductor Mariss Jansons is quitting as
music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony after the 2003/2004
season. "Jansons' long-standing disappointment over low
attendance at Heinz Hall concerts was not given as a reason for
leaving, said PSO officials, nor did he mention any of his recent
frustrations with orchestra musicians over artistic direction. And
while he's previously expressed the feeling that the arts get too
little respect in Pittsburgh, orchestra officials said Jansons
made no mention of that in announcing his departure."
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
06/07/02
STRITCH
SOUNDS OFF: Producers of Sunday night's Tony Awards were
generally ruthless about pushing winners to keep their speeches
short. Most wrapped up the talking as soon as they heard the music
nudge them when their two minutes were up. One who didn't, and was
caught mid-sentence was Elaine Stritch. "The 76-year-old
Broadway star was thanking her producers when the orchestra
started playing over her speech...'Please, don't do this to
me'," she pleaded as the telecast cut to commercial.
"Backstage, Stritch, crying and shaking with anger, said, 'I
am very, very upset. I know CBS can't let people do the Gettysburg
Address at the Tonys, but they should have given me my
time'." New
York Post 06/03/02
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6.
PUBLISHING
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#publishing
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BRING
ON THE YANKS: The British literary world's upset about
Americans being included in the Booker Prize is a joke. "Does
anyone over there really believe that American lit'ry fiction in
this Year of Our Lord 2002 is so superior to that of Britain,
Ireland and the Commonwealth that it would swamp the Booker
competition? What have these people been reading, or smoking? What
a joke! The plain fact is that in recent years serious or
'literary' fiction from Britain and the Commonwealth has broadened
and deepened, in scope and quality alike, even as comparable
fiction from the United States has shriveled into what is rapidly
becoming self-parody." Washington
Post 06/03/02
READING
INTO FESTIVALS: Nothing new about literary festivals, of
course. But they're getting bigger and more popular. "If the
literary festival, whether played out in a windblown
north-of-the-border square, in the foothills of the Black
Mountains or on the Suffolk coast, represents the public face of
contemporary letters, then it also doubles up as the chief agency
for establishing its hierarchies and pecking orders. Far more so
than best-seller charts, the literary festival is an infallible
guide to who's who and what's what in the world of books, and who
cuts it with the punters." The
Guardian (UK) 06/08/02
ABOUT
IDEAS, RIGHT? Sometimes literary festivals mutate into
something other than events about books. "This year the 16th
Hay Festival seems less a wholesale celebration of literature than
a salute to almost every intellectual and practical pastime known
to human life – archaeology, biotechnology, cookery,
horseracing, art and much else too." The
Independent (UK) 06/05/02
SYDNEY'S
NEW LITERARY STAR: "The Sydney Writers' Festival, has,
perhaps, finally found a legitimate niche in the city's
increasingly crowded cultural calendar, with audiences this year
expected to reach an all-time high of well over 40,000. With an
increasingly high profile courtesy of a clever programing mix, the
obligatory star guest names, healthy media attention and an even
healthier book-buying local market, there is talk that the event
may even be outgrowing its relatively new docklands home."
Sydney Morning Herald 06/03/02
INSURING
PROBLEMS: Add to the woes of independent booksellers the
growing cost of insurance. Insurance premiums have risen sharply
this year, and some independents fear this may put them out of
business. Publishers
Weekly 06/04/02
WEB
FREE POETRY: Poetry in print is a problem - it's expensive to
publish and it has a limited audience. But "on the web,
distribution is no problem: it's all available 24/7, and everyone
is equal, at least theoretically. There is the perfect book-buying
system in Amazon, there are online poetry magazines and
newsgroups. The publishers have websites so you can see what's
available (bookshop poetry sections can be very patchy). Perfect
in theory. How does it measure up? Google produces 7.25m pages for
"poetry." The Guardian (UK)
06/06/02
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7. THEATRE
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#theatre
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BROADWAY'S
OFF-YEAR: The numbers are in and they're not pretty. "A
total of 10,958,432 tickets were purchased during the season, a
decline of 7.9% from last year, when it reached a record-breaking
11.5 million. It was the first time the numbers fell below
11,000,000 since the 1995-1996 season. According to an in-depth
analysis of the season's statistics released last week by the
League of American Theatres and Producers, the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks, the softening national economy, and 'the ensuing
demographic changes of theatregoers' - meaning fewer tourists in
New York City - are all to be attributed for the decline." Backstage
06/05/02
THE
GOAT/MILLIE TAKE TOP TONYS: Go figure - Thoroughly
Modern Millie wins Best Musical at Sunday night's Tony Awards,
but "the critically acclaimed but offbeat Urinetown: The
Musical won for direction, score and book of a musical."
So the ingredients for Urinetown were better, but Millie
still made the better salad? The New
York Times 06/03/02
LEAST-WATCHED
TONYS BROADCASTS STILL HELPS BOX OFFICE: Last Sunday's Tony
Awards TV broadcast got its lowest ratings ever. Some blame the
nationally televised Sacramento Kings/LA Lakes playoff game
running opposite the awards, which attracted more than three times
as many viewers. Still, plays in contention for Tonys saw box
office sales double Monday after the bradcast. Baltimore
Sun (AP) 06/07/02
GUTHRIE
DECIDES TO GO AHEAD: Though Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura
vetoed $25 million in proposed state funding for the Guthrie
Theatre's new theatre, "the Guthrie Theater board has decided
to continue with design and pre-construction work on its $125
million complex proposed for the Mississippi riverfront in
Minneapolis." The
Star-Tribune (Minneapolis) 06/04/02
FLORIDA
BUSH PLAYS HARDBALL: The State of Florida and Miami's Coconut
Grove Playhouse are in a dispute about money. The governor is
threatening to veto $500,000 allocated to the theatre if the
theatre's board doesn't release the state from responsibility for
$15 million in maintenance for the Playhouse. "On Friday
afternoon, Gov. Jeb Bush's office faxed the Playhouse an 18-line
memo, which caught managers there by surprise. The state, which
purchased the Playhouse property in 1980, leases it back to the
board for $1 a year. But as the landlord, the state remains
obligated to provide maintenance, according to the lease, which
runs through 2063." Miami
Herald 06/03/02
SUCCESS
BOMB:
Sweet Smell of Success was once one of the highest-touted
projects coming to Broadway. And yes, it was nominated for big
Tony awards. But it wasn't enough to stave off closing the show
next week. Backers will have lost their entire $10 million
investment. "Instead of running five years, Sweet Smell of
Success barely limped its way through three months. What
happened?" Washington Post
06/09/02
END
OF AN ERA IN BOSTON: Robert Brustein has ended 22 years
running American Repertory Theatre, and, in critic Ed Siegel's
opinion, "the Boston area loses its most important cultural
leader." His aesthetic changed the way theatre is done in
Boston. Not that everything was a success - Brustein's championing
of new and experimental theatre and his willingness to take
chances led to a lot of duds. But "to put the best light on
it, when you swing for the fences, as ART usually does, you are
bound to strike out more. The hits and misses are all a function
of the ART's aesthetic, one that at its most adventurous is
uncompromisingly postmodernist." Boston
Globe 06/09/02
WHAT
AILS THE TONYS: Frank Rizzo is fed up with the Tony Awards
broadcast. "Last week's show on CBS was simply awful,
registering the lowest ratings ever. Even the one-hour show on PBS
- traditionally the smarter segment - suffered from sameness and
self-importance. It doesn't have to be that way. Remember Rob Lowe
dancing with Snow White in a hideous musical number at the Oscars
years back? Following that humiliation, the Oscars changed. Why
can't the Tonys?" Rizzo offers a list of suggestions to fix
the Tonys. Hartford
Courant 06/09/02
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8.
VISUAL ARTS
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#visualarts
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CUBAN
CLAIMS FOR ART: Many Cuban refugees fleeing Cuba had to leave
artwork behind. "Over the last decade, a growing number of
these works have surfaced outside Cuba and been put up for sale.
Some left the island via diplomatic channels, others were exported
privately and illegally, and some, particularly in the early
1990's, were put on the international market by Cuba itself as it
sought hard currency." Increasingly, the original owners are
making claims for the art. The New
York Times 06/06/02
MET
DOWN: The Metropolitan Museum in New York has seen a big dip
in visitors this year. "The museum has lost about 1 million
visitors this year, down from about 5 million in each of the two
years before." That translates to a drop of 20-25 percent.
Museum officials say the biggest decline is visitors from Asia and
Europe. New
York Post 06/04/02
GROVELING
TO BE LIKED? The newly reopened Manchester Art Gallery is
doubled in size. It's a handsome new building. But "the
displays are presented with a frantically jovial emphasis on
accessibility. The room containing the most recent items, for
example, is labelled 'Modern Art - You Cannot Be Serious', which
is more suitable for a tabloid headline on the Turner Prize than a
serious museum." The
Telegraph (UK) 06/05/02
MISSING
IN ACTION: A more complete list of valuable art items lost in
the World Trade Center collapse is being put together. Among them:
"first editions of Helen Keller's books. Sculptures by
Auguste Rodin. Artifacts from the African Burial Ground, a
centuries-old Manhattan cemetery. Thousands of photographs of
Broadway, off-Broadway and even off-off-Broadway shows."
Los Angeles Times (AP) 06/05/02
A
LITTLE ART SCANDAL: A British internet firm offers exclusive
reproductions of "never before published" Old Master
drawings from the British Museum. But of course this isn't right.
"The talk of unpublished, rarely seen material is nonsense.
But the most misleading thing of all is the omission, in this
quasi-official joint-venture parasitic commercial- wheeze website,
of the fact that any member of the public, at any time during
opening hours, can ask to see any drawing or print in the museum's
collection, and that this access is free." The
Guardian (UK) 06/06/02
STOLEN
GIACOMETTI: A Giacometti sculpture was stolen from the
Kunsthalle in Hamburg. "Thieves had used the crowd of about
16,000 visitors on the center's extra 'Long Night' with opening
hours extended until 3:00 a.m. to swap the original bronze for a
painted wooden figure." Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung 06/03/02
WHOSE
HISTORY? Britain has always had a reverence for its history,
and the country is full of historic markers. But "is today's
historic environment - the stately homes, museums, religious
edifices, tourist attractions, heritage centres, preservation
areas - adequately serving the complex intellectual requirements
of a multi-cultural, multi-layered Britain? Not according to a
recent report by the Historic Environment Steering Group. This
commission of great and good heritage experts worryingly concluded
that, 'People are interested in the historic environment.But many
people feel powerless and excluded'." The
Guardian (UK) 06/07/02
THE
FRIDA FAD: "Never has a woman with a mustache been so
revered - or so marketed - as Frida Kahlo. Like a female Che
Guevara, she has become a cottage industry. In the past year,
Volvo has used her self-portraits to sell cars to Hispanics, the
U.S. Postal Service put her on a stamp, and Time magazine put her
on its cover. There have been Frida look-alike contests, Frida
operas, plays, documentaries, novels, a cookbook, and now, an
English-language movie. But, like a game of telephone, the more
Kahlo's story has been told, the more it has been distorted,
omitting uncomfortable details that show her to be a far more
complex and flawed figure than the movies and cookbooks
suggest." Washington Monthly
06/02
RETURN
TO REALISM (DID IT EVER GO AWAY?): Painters and sculptors who
have eschewed abstraction in rendering their particular take on
the visible world have proliferated and thrived, occasionally even
generating a movement—photorealism, for example. Now, emerging
from the last decade’s polymorphous stew of postmodernism,
realist artists are moving back into the foreground. But there’s
just one puzzle: no one seems able to define what realism actually
is." ArtNews 06/02
THE
BRITISH MUSEUM'S LITTLE PROBLEM: "The British Museum has
the collections to make it, with the Met in New York and the
Louvre in Paris, one of the three great museums in the world. It
is also visited by three million tourists a year, a quarter of all
visitors to London, which makes it a showpiece for the capital and
for the country. If it is dim and dusty and closed for business,
it makes the whole nation look bad." So how, with all the
lottery money put aside for culture in the past decade, does the
BM find itself in such precarious financial condition?
London Evening Standard
05/031/02
BRITISH
MUSEUM STRIKE PROTEST: Staff at the British Museum have voted
to strike to protest plans by the museum to cut 150 workers. The
financially-challenged museum is trying to close a £5m budget
shortfall. "National treasures will be hidden away from the
public, galleries will be closed off and less school children will
be educated in the British Museum if the government does not
accept that world-class museums cannot be funded by gift shops and
cafes alone." The
Guardian (UK) 06/08/02
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9.
ISSUES
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#issues
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ENTERTAINMENT
BOOM: The worldwide entertainment industry faced some big
challenges last year - the dotcom bust, an economic slowdown,
September 11. But despite all that, "the worldwide
entertainment and media sector saw spending rise 1.5 per cent in
2001, surpassing the $1-trillion (U.S.) mark for the first time
ever. A new survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers says this is just the
start of a rally that will see spending of $1.4-trillion by
2006." The
Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/06/02
WHAT
HAPPENED TO THE CULTURAL FLOWERING? Fifty years ago, when
Elizabeth took to England's throne, many predicted a flowering of
English culture, a second Elizabethan era. There have been
successes. But "alongside its cultural ascendance, England
has cultivated the highest illiteracy rates in western Europe, as
well as the ugliest cities. Children leave our schools never
having heard of Bach or Leonardo, their fertile minds stuffed with
three-bar tunes and electronic games. Many will reach the end of
their lives never having set foot in the National Gallery or Royal
National Theatre, never having glimpsed the opportunity to
transcend the ordinary." London
Evening Standard 06/05/02
HOLLYWOOD
TO SECEDE? Los Angeles voters will vote this fall on whether
to carve ut Hollywood as its own city, distinct from LA.
"Hollywood secessionists have argued that a smaller city, of
160,000 people, would be better able to attack crime, spruce up
the area's famous boulevards and restore Hollywood to its former
glory." Los
Angeles Times 06/06/02
UNCOMFORTABLE
WITH THE "V" WORD: The Birmingham News in Alabama,
has refused to carry ads for a production of The Vagina
Monologues. The paper also won't write about the show, saying
that "our first responsibility is to our paid readers. We do
not want to take the chance of offending anyone." The paper
evidently objects to the name of the show, and is the only
newspaper in North America so far to refuse ads for it. Says one
of the show's promoters: "They told us we could not use the
name of the show in our ad. It's hard to imagine why we'd pay
thousands of dollars for a highly censored ad that doesn't even
mention the name of the show." Black
& White City Paper (Birmingham) 06/06/02
9/11
ON THE FRINGE: This year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival will have
a strong current of 9/11 art running through it. "The attack
resonates throughout the programme. We have been receiving
applications since April and it was obvious this was going to be a
big thing. It is fascinating, it has really shaken the
imagination. The thread seems to be dealing with the emotional
response to the events. This year's fringe is the biggest yet with
almost 1,500 shows from 11,700 artists. A quarter of the shows are
world premieres and 24% are performed by overseas groups, half of
them from the US." The
Guardian (UK) 06/07/02
WHY
THE WORLD DOESN'T TAKE ARTS JOURNALISM SERIOUSLY? Why is arts
journalism marginalized in so many publications? Literary critic
Carlin Romano believes that "until arts journalists and their
supporters examine the intellectual issues of their trade as
seriously as investigative reporters probe their own dilemmas over
protecting sources or going undercover - marching onto op-ed pages
as controversies break, demanding the same attention as American
media dopily devote to sports - they'll continue to be enablers of
their own marginalization." Chronicle
of Higher Education 06/03/02
CAMPAIGN
TO REOPEN ITALIAN THEATRES: There's a campaign in Italy to
reopen some 361 unused theatres and opera houses. "Italy has
still many unused halls, a result of the country's long history of
political polycentrism, which since the early 18th century has
encouraged theater and opera to percolate through society in a
manner unparalleled elsewhere. In countless small cities, a
religious festival or a change of governor could be enough to
bring into being a short operatic season, even if this was limited
to a few performances of a single work. As one writer has
remarked, in the 19th century, opera houses 'were as numerous as
cinemas [are] today'." For one reason or another many
theatres were closed even though they're fit to be used.
Andante 06/04/02
SUPERFUND:
After much political wrangling, various levels of government
finally got their acts together in Toronto Friday and announced
long-awaited funding of $232 million for cultural projects in
Ontario. "Some people appear to have swapped scripts. Now the
rhetoric arts lobbyists have used for years has been co-opted by
the politicians. They confidently promise that museum expansions
and concert halls will create an economic boom, lure millions of
tourists and improve everyone's quality of life. They've become
converts to the faith, based on the notion that an arts boom is
the vehicle to transport all of us to a future of
prosperity." Toronto
Star 06/02/02
ABOUT
NAMES OR ABOUT ART? When Avery Fisher gave $10.5 million in
1973 to Lincoln Center to rebuild Philharmonic Hall, the deal
stipulated that the building would forever carry his name. Now the
hall needs another massive overhaul and Lincoln Center wants to
maybe resell naming rights. "Fisher's heirs are prepared to
go to court to protect the name, although the two sides say they
will meet this week to try to work out an understanding. The
outcome, analysts say, could set a precedent for how
philanthropists and cultural organizations negotiate naming
rights." Nando
Times (AP) 06/02/02
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
10. FOR FUN
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#forfun
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THE
QUEEN'S PARTY: Britain's Queen Elizabeth threw a big party to
celebrate her 50 years on the throne. How big? More than a million
people attended the pop/rock concert at Buckingham Palace, far
surpassing expectations. The concert "was followed by a
display of fireworks and water fountains in a dazzling 15-minute
son et lumiere that enveloped the Buckingham Palace in a brilliant
kaleidoscope of colour." And the Queen? "The Queen,
wearing ear plugs, and Prince Philip - neither of them natural
lovers of rock and pop - planned to attend only the last half
hour, arriving to huge cheers at 9.55 pm."
The Telegraph (UK) 06/04/02
GOT
THEIR GOAT: Producers of The Goat are protesting a
color ad that mistakenly got printed in this upcoming Sunday's New
York Times Arts & Leisure section that proclaims that the play
Metamorphoses won a Best Play Tony last weekend. But it was
The Goat, the Edward Albee play that won the award.
"It wasn't clear how the mix-up occurred. The section's
entire run is printed Wednesday for distribution on Saturday and
Sunday." Nando Times (AP)
06/06/02
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