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IDEAS
http://www.artsjournal.com/ideas
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The Problem Of Thinking Too Much... For most of us, the problem would seem to be not thinking enough. But it can go the other way. According to one scholar, "overthinking" can sometimes be worse than not thinking at all. "The real difficulty is knowing when to stop thinking and go with your gut"... Boston Globe 12/15/02
Testing, Testing... Time was you couldn't get into college without doing well on the standardized tests. Now you almost can't get out of grade school without excelling at them. Education reform in the US has meant a battery of new standardized testing, and the stakes are high for both schools and students. "Unsurprisingly, test-prep companies see the law, and especially its provision for federal tutoring vouchers, as a vast new opportunity. 'The market for test preparation is on fire'." Washington Monthly 12/02
Random Thoughts (They're Not So Easy) In a truly random game - such as rock/paper/scissors - the best winning strategy is to play truly randomly. "But people are notoriously bad at generating randomness on command. They flip back and forth too often, whereas truly random sequences will always contain some runs..." Boston Globe 12/09/02
Wouldn't You Like To Be A Philosopher Too? Not so difficult. Here are 12 easy tips to get you started... "Think of a matter of great importance to life. Reduce it unequivocally to three concepts. Enumerate them. Analyze each concept by distinguishing two independent notions in each. Continue with further analysis (preferably speculative) until you have developed a maze of distinctions that bear no resemblance to any topic of any importance to life at all." The Philosopher's Magazine 12/02
Beyond Existence (How Did It Happen?) At the most fundamental level, scientists working on trying to explain how the world works have to admit there are things that defy understanding. "The more science learns about the origin and history of the cosmos and of life on earth and of Homo sapiens, the more it reveals how staggeringly improbable we are. Honest physicists will admit that they have no idea why there is something rather than nothing. Why does the universe look this way rather than some other way? Beyond science, then, what do we have? Chronicle of Higher Education 12/09/02
Whose Learning Will Prevail? The world of learning has always felt the tension between theorician and practitioner. So here's something to ponder: "In the next 50 years, the entirety of our inherited archive of cultural works will have to be re-edited within a network of digital storage, access, and dissemination. This system, which is already under development, is transnational and transcultural. Let's say that prophecy is true. Now ask yourself these questions: Who will be carrying out this work? Who will do it? Who should do it?" Chronicle of Higher Education 12/09/02
Picasso, Van Gogh and Some of the Boys Sitting Around in a Bar Artists see the world in their own stylistic ways. Here's a Flash animation that imagines what the everyday world might look like through the eyes of different artists. FlashAward 2002, Germany
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ARTS ISSUES
http://www.artsjournal.com/artsissues
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American Dreaming Canadian arts funding is collapsing. So should arts organizations adopt more of an American system to survive? "In Canadian arts circles, the United States is often belittled for its laissez-faire, private-sector-driven approach to cultural funding that tends to emphasize artists' commercial viability over their innovation and ideas. Arts managers across the U.S. profess embarrassment at the woeful state of public support. But the U.S. is also a shining example of how an active, educated and very well-endowed private sector can serve as the primary benefactor for individuals and institutions." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 12/13/02
You Can Make A Law To Ban Them, But How Do You Stop The Performance? Cellphone interruptions of performances in theatres and concert hall have become a way of life. "Performers have little choice but to respond creatively to electronic intrusions. 'I think peer pressure and embarrassment are going to be far more effective than fines. Legislation banning cellphones would be difficult to enforce. Theaters don't have the manpower to `police' audiences. Although it would bring a whole new meaning to live theater." Boston Globe 12/13/02
Scalping As A Secondary Market Ticket scalping is illegal in many cities. This is wrong Scalpers more often than not provide a useful service. "At show time, they set up an instant bazaar where the actual value of tickets is haggled into shape; they're basically stock traders in a secondary market without a dress code. Most of them spend their nights scooping up seats from fans who, for a variety of reasons -- friends have bailed, spouse took ill -- need to unload them. The scalper then turns around and sells it at the largest markup the market can bear, which is often below face value." Washington Post 12/05/02
The Importance Of The Arts Patron "Popular opinion would have you believe that the classic arts patron -- the wealthy individual who forges private relationships to nurture a favourite artist as much as their own ego -- was long ago eclipsed by the equalizing power of the state. But there will always be a certain type of patron who quietly stands in the shadows, providing the financial means and emotional support that allows their hand-picked protégés to survive -- and sometimes thrive." The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 12/11/02
If You Can't Beat 'Em, Bill 'Em In a move which could start a worldwide trend, a Danish anti-piracy group has begun sending bills to users of file-sharing services such as Kazaa, demanding that the pirates pay for all the titles displayed in their shared download folders. The payments are then sent to the appropriate copyright holders. The action is already having an effect - fewer users are trading Danish material online, and U.S. companies are monitoring the action closely. Wired 12/11/02
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DANCE
http://www.artsjournal.com/dance
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Movin' On Up This summer when it opened in Chicago for tryouts, "Movin Out", the Twyla Tharp/Billy Joel collaboration got packets of bad reviews. Now it's a star on Broadway. What happened? "It had been a long time since a show considered doomed on the road was able to turn itself around so quickly and completely. Faced with similar crises, countless producers have summoned teams of show doctors, ordered emergency set changes, delayed their Broadway openings and ruthlessly dismissed choreographers, directors, and even stars. But in this case the rescue job rested with one person, Twyla Tharp." The New York Times 12/12/02
Major Dance Competition To Sydney "For the first time, the Genee International Ballet Competition - world's major dance competition - will be held outside London. A record number of participants - more than 90 - have taken up the challenge, with the finals to be held on Sunday at the Sydney Opera House." Sydney Morning Herald 12/11/02
Mark Morris, Classic "Mark Morris, the uppity squirt who got himself banned from the American Dance Festival eighteen years ago for crying 'No more rape!' during a piece created by Twyla Tharp, is now 46 years old. He performs in fewer dances these days; he's even cut his trademark curls. His company, now in its twenty-second year, is filled with dancers young enough to be his children rather than the friends with whom he came of age." New York Magazine 12/09/02
SF Ballet - A Comer... "Long regarded as a solid regional institution, San Francisco Ballet has vaulted forward in the past decade. Versatility and aplomb, distinctive stars from around the globe, depth in the corps, a clean and confident style and a broadly built repertoire now place San Francisco well ahead of the regional pack and into the first tier of major companies." San Francisco Chronicle 12/08/02
The Life & Times Of A Dance Company... Director Robert Altman wanted to direct a dance movie, and chose Chicago's Joffrey Company to tell the story. "Artists steeped in the work of Vaslav Nijinsky, Antony Tudor and Frederick Ashton meet, or, rather, met Robert Altman, Neve Campbell and Malcolm McDowell during the three-month shoot took place all over Chicago as it focused on a story inside the life and times of the Joffrey." Chicago Tribune 12/08/02
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MEDIA
http://www.artsjournal.com/media
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Movie Studios Sue Companies That Edit Their Work Eight major studios have joined to sue companies that edit parts of movies they find objectionable out the original versions and make them available to consumers. The movie studios charge that the companies are violating copyright laws. "The studios also allege the companies violate trademark law when they rent or sell an altered movie in the original packaging." Nando Times (AP) 12/15/02
ExxonMobil Pulls PBS Funding In what can only be termed a devastating blow to an already-staggering industry, petroleum giant ExxonMobil has informed Boston public TV station WGBH that it will be terminating its support of PBS mainstay 'Masterpiece Theatre' after 2004. The company has bankrolled the program for more than three decades, and the pullout comes as PBS is discussing a controversial proposal to allow corporate sponsors to air 30-second ads on its supposedly commercial-free network of stations. Boston Globe 12/14/02
The Loveably Untrue "If Hollywood is merely America's most idealized projection of itself — and if no country has culturally institutionalized the creative and infinite reinvention of oneself quite so deeply as the United States — it should come as no surprise that nothing would love a liar more than a movie would." Toronto Star 12/13/02
Digital Promise/Trap "According to the Motion Picture Association of America, the average film budget in 2000 was $54.8 million, up from $9.4 million in 1980." Digital technology can cut costs dramatically, but many "directors and cinematographers, who have built their reputations on their skilled use of film, dread the idea of being marginalized by punks with digital camcorders." BusinessWeek 12/10/02
Protesting The Protesters Over the past year Boston public radio station WBUR has lost about $2 million in underwriting grants, the station says, because of underwriters charging that the station's news coverage of the Middle East has been anti-Israel. Monday there was a protest on Harvard Square outside a large independent bookstore that had pulled its funding over the issue. Activists handed out leaflets reading "Sells Words but Suppresses Words." Boston Globe 12/10/02
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MUSIC
http://www.artsjournal.com/music
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How Music Changes The Brain A new study measures the physical effect of studying music on the brain. "Among expert musicians, certain areas of the cortex are up to 5% larger than in people with little or no musical training, recent research shows. In musicians who started their training in early childhood, the neural bridge that links the brain's hemispheres, called the corpus callosum, is up to 15% larger. A professional musician's auditory cortex — the part of the brain associated with hearing — contains 130% more gray matter than that of non-musicians." Los Angeles Times 12/13/02
Playing On The Brain Composers had always known that some keys and combinations of notes can manipulate an audience. But now researchers are actively studying how that manipulation works. Take the key of a piece of music, for example. "One chunk of the brain was responding when the melody was in G major or E minor and another part of the circuit was responding when it was in E major." BBC 12/13/02
Why "White Christmas" Is The Most Popular Song Of All Time The most-recorded song of all-time? The biggest-selling? That would be Irving Berlin's "White Christmas." "It has been recorded in Dutch, Yiddish, Japanese and - perhaps most surreal of all - Swahili. Its sales have topped 125 million worldwide and its place as the all-time top single has been challenged only once, not by the Beatles, not by Presley nor Sinatra, but by Elton John's 'Candle in the Wind 97' tribute to Princess Diana." The Observer (UK) 12/15/02
Recording Sales Down Bigtime People ar still buying music. But sales are down this year. "Buyers have snatched up 597.4 million albums this year, compared with 669.7 million in the same period in 2001. The 11% drop follows last year's dip of 2.5%, the first no-growth year since Nielsen SoundScan began tabulating sales data in 1991. After enjoying a decade of climbing sales, retailers were alarmed by the 2001 decrease and hoped the drop was temporary fallout from 9/11 and a weakening economy. Today they'd welcome such a benign stumble over this year's sizable plunge, which can't be dismissed as a fluke. The culprit?" USAToday 12/13/02
For Whom The Cell Tolls This week, as conductor Sakari Oramo, in his New York Philharmonic debut, was wowing a Lincoln Center crowd with Nielsen's 4th Symphony, a cell phone went off in the balcony, breaking the breathless silence that follows the second movement. Such an event is, of course, all too common these days, but Oramo's reaction was not: he refused to continue the performance until silence had been fully restored. Justin Davidson wishes more conductors were possessed of such temerity. Newsday (Long Island, NY) 12/14/02
And The Meek Shall Inherit The Record Business "Once again this year there was much gnashing of teeth throughout the music business about the ongoing 'demise' of classical recording. But... while classical Goliaths like BMG, Decca and Philips have cut back on the number of releases, this has had the positive result of halting much wasteful duplication of repertory. The fact remains that 2002 still brought plenty of important and interesting classical releases, many of them from smaller independent companiesthat are now the shining hope of a battered industry."
Chicago Tribune 12/15/02
Music Go Boom? John Adams has been commissioned by the San Francisco Opera to write an opera about the deveopment of the atom bomb. "It involves what I call American mythology. That was what drew me to the `Nixon in China' story as well. I grew up in the late 1950s and '60s, the worst part of the cold war, and these images are planted in my consciousness."
backstage 12/12/02
Brain Songs Why does music provoke such powerful emotions and memories? Turns out that part of the rain right behind our foreheads might contain the secret. "The rostromedial prefrontal cortex - has complex functions relating to the link between data and the emotions, and, say the scientists, it may be the reason why melodies evoke memories." The Guardian (UK) 12/13/02
Scottish Opera Could Be Reduced To Part-Time Despite numerous bailouts over the years, the critically acclaimed Scottish Opera is in another crisis. Without a big increase in public subsidies, the company will have to slash its season next year. Doing that would "inevitably" mean that the company would become a part-time operation... The Scotsman 12/12/02
MetManiac Back On The Web In November the Metropolitan Opera tried to shut down John Patterson's website devoted to all things Metropolitan Opera. The opera company accused the fan site (www.metmaniac.com) of violating its copyrights and trademarks. An uproar of protest caused the Met to rethink its position, and the site is back in business. The deal: "Mr. Patterson would have the name of his site back for a dollar a year. No video clips, except with permission. And no indication of trading or even any indication that he has a broadcast collection at all. According to Mr. Patterson: 'I told them, 'That's OK. I already have everything I can get. My collection's more comprehensive than yours!' He has long stated that he intends to donate his collection to the Met upon his demise. Wall Street Journal 12/06/02
La Scala Construction On Hold Cultural protesters and a collection of politicians have managed to bring the renovation of the La Scala opera house in Milan to a halt, at least temporarily. The official line is that the plans were not properly approved by the city council, but opponents' actual concerns range from acoustics to historic preservation to simple dislike of any sort of change to the hall. BBC 12/10/02
- Are They Wrecking La Scala? Members of Italy's "cultural elite" held a press conference this week to denounce the renovations currently underway on the La Scala opera house. They claim "the work would seriously damage the theatre's appearance and acoustics. It was also illegal, they told a press conference in Rome, because the project had not been properly approved by the city council. 'They have even destroyed the orchestra pit'." The Guardian (UK) 12/10/02
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PEOPLE
http://www.artsjournal.com/people
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Getting To Know The Chairman-In-Waiting Poet Dana Gioia is awaiting confirmation as new chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. "Born in the Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne, Gioia is the son (and oldest of four children) of an Italian father who was a cabdriver and kids shoe store owner, and a Mexican mother who worked as a telephone company operator. Gioia was the first member of his family to attend college, receiving a B.A. from Stanford University." He won't say much now about arts policy before he's confirmed by the US Senate. But: "It's a cliché to say art should be provocative, just as it's a falsehood to say that art should not be provocative." San Diego Union-Tribune 12/13/02
Bellesiles Stripped of Prize Historian Michael Bellesiles has been vilified by the political right, ostracized by his colleagues, and forced out of his professorship since charges of falsified research in his controversial book on America's "gun culture" hit the front pages several months back. Now, Columbia University is stripping Bellesiles of the prestigious Bancroft Prize it awarded him when the book was originally published. For the record, Bellesiles continues to stand by his research. Washington Post (AP) 12/14/02
Charming Man In A Thankless Job Given the current belt-tightening climate, director of the UK's National Gallery is hardly the plum position it ought to be. And Charles Saumarez Smith is under tremendous pressure not only to preserve the institution itself, but to match the success of his predecessor, the legendary Neil MacGregor. On top of that, the Getty Museum in L.A. recently swiped a priceless Raphael right out from under the National's nose. What's a director to do? The Telegraph (UK) 12/14/02
"Walter The Ripper" Doesn't Have Quite The Same Ring To It Novelist Patricia Cornwell knows who Jack the Ripper was. Or she says she does. Others may disagree, ('others' being defined in this case as 'every criminologist in the UK,') but Cornwell insists that British painter Walter Sickert can be conclusively linked to the notorious killing spree in late-19th century London through letters and other written material previously dismissed as hoaxes. Chicago Tribune 12/11/02
Kennedy People The Kennedy Center Honors staged its 25th annual gala Sunday. This year's honorees are actors Elizabeth Taylor and James Earl Jones, dancer Chita Rivera, singer-songwriter Paul Simon and conductor James Levine. Washington Post 12/09/02
Turner Winner Unfazed Just who is Keith Tyson, this year's Turner Prize winner? For one thing, he's unfazed by controversy: “The Turner is an important prize precisely because it keeps interest frothing away at the top end. And to ask ‘Is that art?’ is pointless. If you went to a Mercury Music Prize, you wouldn’t say: ‘Is a country-and-western album better than a punk album?’ You wouldn’t ask: ‘Is it music?’ You would just think: ‘It’s not my kind of music.’ What do I feel? How do I respond to it? Is it interesting? Those are the questions to ask.” The Times (UK) 12/10/02
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PUBLISHING
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing
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Apres Oprah - How The TV Book Clubs Are Faring In the heyday of Oprah's Book Club, the lucky author whose book was picked for the club hit the jackpot. After Oprah stopped her club, it seemed like every other TV show on the air started its own club. How have the clubs fared? They're no Oprah, but they help - the sales increase for a selected book is "about 20 percent of what an Oprah would do." The New York Times 12/16/02
Off The Rack The magazine business is changing in a big way. The pace is speeding up, and new titles spout as older ones fall away. "Publishing has become like show biz. There is no longer the wait-and-see attitude that there used to be. If advertisers think something is connecting with consumers, they will jump right in." The New York Times 12/16/02
Observing 2002's Favorite Reads Lots of poetry, books on war, and biographies published this year. Some two dozen critics from the pages of The Observer tick off their favorite reads of 2002. The Observer (UK) 12/15/02
Support Is Wasted On The Young? Everyone agrees young writers need whatever help they can get. But really... for the older writer looking on (probably just as much in need of some help), this obsession with ferreting out the young is dispiriting. "Anyone who wanted seriously to improve the state of British writing could start by endowing half-a-dozen bursaries for pensioners and sponsoring a Best of British Senior Novelists award. There are other decent talents out there whose only fault is that they happen to be the wrong side of 50, scribbling on in undeserved obscurity." The Guardian (UK) 12/13/02
NJ To Abolish Poet Laureate Job? New Jersey's governor tried to fire him, the state legislature has been debating ways to remove him. New Jersey lawmakers are angry at state poet laureate Amiri Baraka for his poem that "implies Israel had advance knowledge of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center." After trying to oust him, now legislators are working on a plan to abolish the post of poet laureate altogether... Yahoo! 12/13/02
Have Western, Will Travel The American Western is such a staple of the culture, and "so taken for granted that the western novel's centennial has passed with hardly any fanfare, and little seems planned for the 100th birthday of the film western. But academic critics are not letting the Virginian, and those who followed in his trail, slip out of town unacclaimed. Chronicle of Higher Education 12/09/02
Potter Clue Sells For Heavy Price A 93-word teaser describing the next installment of the Harry Potter series and written on a notecard by JK Rowling was sold at auction for £28,680 in London this week. "The fan site www.the.leaky.cauldron.org managed to raise £15,240 to buy the card, but were outbid by an anonymous US bidder." BBC 12/12/02
Don't Read Books? Maybe It's Because We Want Better Stories Why is it that many educated people aren't reading books anymore? Is it because our brains have forgotten to function in longform? Not really, writes one critic. Today's literary writers - at least those in Canada, anyway - want to write about states of being, rather than action in the real world. "I think this disconnect, more than the slow and inexorable frittering away of our collective intelligence, explains why we don't read much any more. It's not our brains that have turned to mush, it's the books." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 12/12/02
The Are No Small Movies, Just Small Books... Where does Hollywood get many of its ideas? Why from books of course. But the pipeline of movie-worthy books seems to have dried up. "For book scouts-those literary eyes and ears of A-list Hollywood bosses like Tom Hanks and producer Wendy Finerman, who plumb the publishing world for movie material-it's tough going these days." New York Observer 12/11/02
Must Reads The 25 best books of the year? The Village Voice Literary Supplement has a list... Village Voice Literary Supplement 12/10/02
Blockbuster Names W/O The Blockbuster Sales Big publishers count on big blockbuster fiction to make their profits - your Tom Clancys, your John Grishams - their megasales are what puts the shine on a bookseller's holiday season. Except this year. The big pop fiction isn't selling like it usually does..."Crichton appears down. Clancy is down. The Turow is not making its numbers. All the big-ticket fiction has been suffering the last six to eight months." Washington Post 12/10/02
The Educated Unread Was a time that if you were educated you read. Seriously. Now you can be educated and not have to read. "We are, as the experts like to say with a horrified sense of wonder, aliterate - able to read, and read well, but disinclined to do so. We can blame time and tiredness, changing technologies and altered priorities; still, a reluctance to read is not all that different from an inability. As Mark Twain observed, in that terribly trenchant way of his, 'The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them'." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 12/07/02
The Secret Bestsellers Yes there's the prestigious New York Times Bestseller List. And the names that appear on it are generally known to one and all. But talk to the people who are actually in the bookstores selling books, and you hear about an entirely different list... Are these the "real" bestellers? MobyLives 12/10/02
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THEATRE
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre
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Bite Me - How A Show Could Go So Wrong "Dance of the Vampires" had some of the worst reviews in recent Broadway history when it opened last week. So who's responsible for the mess? "A producer who bought an opera then decided he wanted a musical comedy. A temperamental star who wrote his own jokes - then cut all of his co-star's. A choreographer who couldn't choreograph, and a composer who refused to attend his own opening night..." New York Post 12/13/02
Children's Theatre Grows Up Some theatre people believe that some of the most adventurous plays these days are coming out of children's theatre. And some of the best children's theatre in North America is coming out of Canada ("although we still lag behind Europe"). "Unfortunately in Canada, the public perception about plays for young people places it in a state of awkward adolescence." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 12/12/02
Strong Broadway Season Could Be Record This could be Broadway's strongest year at the box office and onstage in five years. "By Dec. 31, the 2002-03 season will have seen 21 openings, an unusually high figure for this point in the calendar." There's even a chance for a record box-office year in the season produces another hit... Backstage 12/11/02
Cost Plus Why don't young people come to the theatre? Theatres certainly try hard enough to lure them - "they choose new writers; they cast stars from television soaps; they allow audiences to bring drinks in with them; they even, in the case of the National Theatre, reconfigure the auditorium in an effort to make it more youth-friendly." But maybe it's just a price issue. If theatre cost the price of a movie, would they go? One experiment offers some answers... The Independent (UK) 12/07/02
Reinventing What It Means To Be National (Again) As Nicholas Hytner takes control of London's National Theatre, it's clear he's got big ideas for a change of direction. "Like most large subsidized theatres, the National has a spotty history of success. Some would argue it has never truly been a 'national theatre,' and the work it has produced with its multimillion-pound budget for its massive building with three auditoriums on London's South Bank has often not been of national, not to mention world, standards." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 12/07/02
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VISUAL ARTS
http://www.artsjournal.com/visualarts
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Liverpool's Building Of Bilbao Proportions Liverpool is building a citry-changing architectural project. "The £225 million project on the Pierhead is the centrepiece of Liverpool's urban regeneration plans. It's big, both physically and in its ambitions, and includes half a million square feet of shops, a 20-storey block of flats, bars, a hotel and a museum. Above all, it will be overpoweringly visible. It is one of those skyline busting landmark structures that changes everything around it. If Liverpool needed a Sydney Opera House, this would be it." The Guardian (UK) 12/16/02
An Art Market Gone Dry The weakening supply of Old Master paintings on the market has been an issue for several years in the auction business. But "last week the weakest line-up of Old Masters that dealers could remember for years totalled only a paltry £13.8 million at the two auction houses. Faced by scores of dull, substandard paintings, the market either bought cautiously or did not bid at all." The Telegraph (UK) 12/16/02
Dia Foundation May Have To Close New York Headquarters New York's Dia Foundation is in a financial crisis. It's "a major liquidity problem for Dia who if not actually bankrupt are in the midst of the most serious cash-flow crisis they have yet weathered. According to some reports the whole Dia building, (pioneer of the NY art world’s move to Chelsea) will be closed for the next three years or however long it takes to get back to something approaching solvency." The Art Newspaper 12/13/02
Christo's Central Park Project To Get Go Ahead Christo and Jeanne-Claude have been trying for years to get approval to mount their ambitious "Gates" project in New York's Central Park. But a variety of objections, including concern for the health of the park, have blocked the plan. Now Mayor Michael Bloomberg, "always at the forefront of city-wide public art" has okayed the project and "is a major motivator behind the fruition of this work." The Art Newspaper 12/13/02
National Gallery Review Motivated By Politics? The Australian government is launching a review of the activities of the embattled National Museum of Australia. "While some see it as a necessary process for any new cultural institution, others fear the agenda is primarily political." Particularly as it looks like the museum director's contract will be cut short. Sydney Morning Herald 12/16/02
The Getty - High Culture On The Hill The Getty Center is celebrating its fifth anniversary atop its hillside overlooking Los Angeles. The $1.3 billion complex has attracted 7 million visitors since opening, and the complaints that chased its unveiling seem to have quieted down. "On days like this it may appear that people go to the Getty to do anything but look at art. But no, every gallery is crowded, and for each person who strolls through, there's someone engaged with an artwork." Los Angeles Times 12/15/02
Southwest Success Takes More Than Money The merger between Southern California's Southwest Museum and the Autry Museum pairs a great collection with (finally) the resources to build on it. But it will take more than money to turn around the Southwest. "Inadequate display and storage facilities, employee theft from the collection, shoddy record-keeping, daunting conservation needs, a chronic lack of funding and an incompetent board were among the Himalayan-size hurdles faced by L.A.'s oldest museum." Los Angeles Times 12/15/02
Putting Fort Worth On The Architectural Map Tadao Ando's design for the new Fort Worth Modern Art Museum should establish him once and for all as one of the world's architectural masters, says Benjamin Forgey. "There is no mystery or ceremony in approaching the high, off-center entryway of the Ando building. You just go in. And then, right away, you begin to experience the magic, generosity, subtlety and self-confidence of Ando's art." Washington Post 12/15/02
Picasso As A Disposable Asset "Debt-ridden media giant Vivendi is to sell a celebrated family art collection, including a 22-foot (6.7-metre) curtain painted by Picasso... The collection, valued at around £15m, also includes major works by Joan Miro and Mark Rothko and was put together over 30 years by the Bronfman family." BBC 12/13/02
American Court Says Woman Can Sue Austria Over Paintings A US court has ruled that an elderly Los Angeles woman can sue Austria to recover six Gustav Klimt paintings worth $150 million seized by the Nazis in 1939. The contested paintings by the Austrian artist are now displayed in the government-run Austrian Gallery in Vienna. The "decision marked the first time in Holocaust reparations litigation that a federal appeals court has ruled that a foreign government can be held accountable in a U.S. court." Los Angeles Times 12/13/02
No Refunds No Returns? So what do other museums think of the declaration this week by some of the world's major museums that they shouldn't return ancient artifacts to their countries of origin? "The British Committee for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles was dismissive of the declaration by the museums, which included the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Hermitage in St Petersburg, and the Berlin Museum. 'Such unilateral, absolute 'declarations' are not sustainable in the modern world,' it insisted. 'Declarations of this kind should be the outcome of discussion and consultation beyond the small circle of self-styled 'universal' museums'." The Guardian (UK) 12/13/02
- Why Museums Are Protective So why did great world museums issue a statement on Repatriation of historic monuments? "The museums' statement, which never mentioned the Parthenon Marbles, was meant as a collective defense of collections that were put together in another era, before countries like Greece became more protective of their cultural patrimony. The statement argued that museums, as the guardians of artifacts from civilizations around the world, had become international institutions with missions that transcended national boundaries." The New York Times 12/13/02
Aristocratic Greed Endangered British Art During WWII Blitz During World War II, the British worried about the safety of their art. So they devised places to hide it. One of the plans was to hide it in the rich country houses, but owners of the houses were less than helpful. "A forthcoming book discloses that their behaviour led them to be compared to collaborators with Hitler. The attitudes wrecked plans to save art treasures by holding them in such houses. Instead the works had to be stored at high public cost in specially built underground installations in Wales and Wiltshire." The Guardian (UK) 12/12/02
Free Museums Don't Attract The Poor So attendance has soared at British museums that dropped their admission charges last year. But the increased visits aren't coming from low-income people for whom the entry fees might have been a barrier. "Free admission is a welcome bonus for all those who already appreciate our museums' riches, but it is not a very effective way of attracting anyone else. Instead, the extra visitors increase museum running costs for the museums, which they have to meet out of grants so limited that their custodianship of our heritage may be compromised." London Evening Standard 12/12/02
Elgin Marbles Explained The Parthenon Marbles have been attacked and degraded over 1600 years. But one has only to compare the pieces left at the Acropolis with those preserved in the British Museum to appreciate that Lord Elgin's removal of the marbles to London has helped preserve them. In this context, the claim that the removal of the Elgin Marbles are is an "object lesson of greed, xenophobia and intransigence” is "in part incomprehensible and in part deeply offensive." The Art Newspaper 12/09/02
Why Can't We Just ask If Art Is Good? (Rather Than If It's Art In The First Place) How tiresome - another Turner Prize, another controversy - and why?. "We just can’t get past it. For some reason it seems far more pressing to ask whether something can actually be called art than to ask whether it’s good or bad. This barrier is more important and more damaging to art itself than it may sound. A lot of people - teachers, curators, critics, funding bodies - have to agree something is art before it can get nominated for an award such as the Turner Prize. Unless all these people are conspiring to make fools of us, that’s a pretty convincing consensus." The Scotsman 12/12/02
Free Museum Admission Costs Museums Since London museums dropped their admission charges last year, attendance at museums is up 62 percent. This is a good thing, and something the government has pledged to continue. But the move has "cost the Government more than £70 million - the cash was given to the institutions over three years to make up for loss of revenue." And the museums say it isn't nearly enough - they need more compensation... London Evening Standard 12/11/02
Shell Game? The Guggenheim's financial fortunes are reeling. It "ran a $6.7 million operating deficit last year on a $57.71 million budget. Its endowment should reach about $42 million by the end of the year, still far short of the $100 million level," and many of director Thomas Krens' initiatives are on the rocks. "Perhaps the only good thing to emerge from the Guggenheim's financial woes is its shift in exhibitions from superficial eye-poppers such as motorcycles and haute couture toward an increased reliance on treasures from its permanent collection." And yet, is the empire crumbling? OpinionJournal.com 12/10/02
End of Abstraction? Abstract art is so imprinted on our conciousness that it seems odd to question its ongoing viability. Yet Hilton Kramer believes there are important reasons that "the place occupied by abstract art is now so radically diminished not only on the contemporary art scene but in cultural life generally... I mean its power to set the kind of agenda that commands the attention of new and ambitious talents—and at times, indeed, even the emulation of established talents." Can that even happen anymore? The New Criterion 12/02
Why The New York Times Needs Another Architecture Critic Architecture is one of the most important arts. Unfortunately it doesn't get a lot of thoughtful attention in the world's daily press. The New York Times' Herbert Muschamp is a vigorous and effective critic. But he's only one voice - and one with a very specific point of view. "Another talent could write in parallel with Muschamp, counterbalancing aggression with desire, particles with waves—someone to cover the subject when he cannot or isn’t interested, one who will reach outside Muschamp’s territory and complete a column when he does not. The time is right; the subject of design, on everyone’s lips, deserves the commitment." Architectural Record 12/02
A Culture Minister With A Critical Streak UK culture minister Kim Howells made headlines a few weeks ago by trash-talking the art chosen for this year's Turner Prize shortlist. Now that a winner has been chosen, he renewed his attack this describing Turner judges as "black-wearing elites who talk in psychobabble. He said that the competition, which was won by Keith Tyson on Sunday, had been overrun by self-serving colonists of the 'incomprehensible classes'."
We're Keeping The Loot How did the directors of 18 of the world's major museums come to sign a declaration against returning long-held antiquities in their collections to countries of origin? Evidently it was instigated by the British museum, even though the museum is not listed as a signatory. "Today museums would not condone what people did 200 years ago. But you cannot rewrite history. Those were different times, with different ethics and different mores." The New York Times 12/11/02
Revolt Of The Volunteers Members of the Junior Associates of the Art Gallery of Ontario wanted to "run their events their way, they say - events that generated as much as $90,000 for buying art" and they wanted to say how the money they raised was spent on contemporary art. When the Toronto museum refused (who's running the place anyway?) the volunteers left the museum en masse to start their own organization. "In the world of volunteer management, the AGO power struggle is a classic, if somewhat extreme, cautionary tale of our times - the ramped-up needs and expectations of the female baby boomers pitted against the institution in financial and administrative extremity." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 12/10/02
LA County Museum Kills New Home? "The decision last Wednesday by the board of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to put on hold its extensive $200 million-$300 million renovation and expansion plans at its Hancock Park campus is all but a death knell for the project, one of the city's most important cultural initiatives." Los Angeles Times 12/10/02
How The Van Gogh Burglers Made Their Score Over the weekend they pulled off their heist at Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum. "Employing low-tech cunning against the hi-tech security features of a heavily protected modern gallery, the cat burglars thwarted CCTV cameras, alarms, motion sensors and 24-hour security guards by simply leaning a ladder against the back of the museum, climbing in through the roof and taking what they wanted." The Observer (UK) 12/08/02
Canada's New "Turner" Prize? The new $50,000 prize for a young Canadian contemporary artist is meant to draw attention. "The Sobey Art Award is the new Turner Prize, the Giller of the visual art world. With only one award behind it so far, it's not as prestigious as either yet, but give it time. It's rich, it's backed by a bona fide collector of fine Canadian art and it's truly national in scope." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 12/09/02
For The Good Of The World - We're Keeping The Art Directors of 18 major museums from around the world have signed a declaration that their institutions act as "universal museums" for the good of the world, and therefore they will not hand back ancient artifacts to their countries of origin. "The universal admiration for ancient civilisations would not be so deeply established today were it not for the influence exercised by the artefacts of these cultures, widely available to an international public in major museums." BBC 12/09/02
