IDEAS
http://www.artsjournal.com/ideas
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What Happened To Jazz? "What happened to Wynton Marsalis? That may be like asking What happened to jazz? For twenty years the fates of Marsalis and jazz music have appeared inextricably intertwined." But at the age of 40 Marsalis finds himself without a recording contract, and many in jazz feel that "by leading jazz into the realm of unbending classicism, by applying the Great Man template to establish an iconography and by sanctifying a canon of their own choosing Marsalis and his adherents are said to have codified the music in a stifling orthodoxy and inhibited the revolutionary impulses that have always advanced jazz." The Atlantic 03/03
A New Improved Analog Future The recent technology revolution has been powered by digital processors. But that’s not the future. “Weird as it sounds, the road to smaller, cheaper, more energy-efficient consumer electronics may be paved with analog technology. These circuits are built from the same components as their digital counterparts but suck 90 percent less battery power. The difference? In an analog device, each transistor acts like a dial, with a wide range of readings that depend on the sinuous fluctuation of voltage, current, amplitude, and frequency. Digital circuits, on the other hand, use the same transistors as simple on-off toggle switches. Analog transistors capture far more information, so you need fewer of them.” Look for the new improved analog at a store near you. Wired 02/22/03
Today’s Teens – Totally Manipulated? Are today’s teenagers totally at the mercy of the corporate messages that everywhere lie in wait for them? “By sheer virtue of their population numbers, buying power and savvy, teens are not merely in vogue. Entire carpeted auditoriums of middle-age movie, TV, retail and Internet executives devote themselves to tracking the spending habits of these juniors, decoding their preferences, catering to their every mass hiccup.” A new book suggests that today’s teens are a “sad, hollow, cheated generation, thoroughly saturated by artful product placement, co-opted by viral marketing, oppressed by the trickle-down effect of the (now rather pockmarked) "contemporary luxury economy." New York Observer 02/19/03
ARTS ISSUES
http://www.artsjournal.com/artsissues
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Critical Reading - A Critic And His Letters From Readers Bernard Holland goes through his files of reader letters over the past six years. "Critics open their mail with a blend of gratitude (someone cared enough) and apprehension (we have been found out), but most will recognize an imbalance of justice at work. Reviews and columns come, potentially at least, before many eyes; the letter reaches only two. Yet when accurately aimed, it can hurt. The accusation might concern a wrong name or an unnoticed change of cast, or a fact just plain wrong. If writing accepts the privilege of public exposure, it cannot flinch from the returns of service whizzing back at it in swift postal forehands and backhands. Hovering just beyond this building lurk the grammar gestapo and the spelling storm troopers, issuing postcards in wavering hands and eager to point out the illiteracy of the addressee." The New York Times 03/02/03
Raising Money From The Arts - A Conflict Of Interest? Should politicians who support the arts be trying to raise campaign money from the arts community? Connecticut's governor, an arts supporters recently solicited attendance of arts groups for a $250/plate fundraiser. "He calls and says, 'I'm having a fund-raiser for Gov. Rowland and I'd like to see you there.' There's pressure to attend." Some feel coerced. Hartford Courant 03/02/03
This Is What Passes For Good News In Massachusetts That gale-force wind that just rushed up from the Northeast was the Massachusetts Cultural Council letting out its collective breath. The MCC, which saw its budget slashed 62% last year by acting governor Jane Swift, will apparently face no further cuts this fiscal year. Governor Mitt Romney's new budget restores none of last year's cuts to the MCC, but neither does it trim the council further. "The fact that Romney's education adviser Peter Nessen also chairs the MCC board likely bodes well for the organization." The MCC's annual budget now stands at a proposed $7.3 million. Boston Herald 02/28/03
Museum Car Picks Up Driving Fine It now costs £5 to drive into the center of London. But officials at one museum were surprised to get notice of a fine for the museum's 105-year-old Daimler that has not been on the road since 1947. "We were surprised to get the paperwork because the Daimler has not moved under its own power for decades," said Andrew King, curator of the Bristol Industrial Museum, where the car has been on display for 25 years." The Telegraph (UK) 02/27/03
Tourism Chief: Failure To Invest In Arts Harms Economy A former Scottish tourism chief says Scotland's failure to invest in the arts will hurt the country's economy. "As soon as an arts organisation looks for money, it is described as eating up money for a group of people who can well afford the ticket price. That view has far too much credence in government and needs to be challenged; government needs to identify the arts as an important component of what we are as human beings. Instead every penny towards the arts is questioned, almost begrudged." The Scotsman 02/26/03
How Should Arts Money Be Split up? A recent report by the Boston Foundation said that 65 percent of arts donations went to two percent of the area's cultural organizations - the ones with budgets of more than $20 million. This has led some to call for spreading the wealth among the rest of the arts organizations. But leaders of two of Boston's largest arts groups say the portion of funding for major groups is right because they serve the widest audiences. "That chart doesn't show audience served. That's the number one point." Townonline.com 02/26/03
Why Cut The Arts? Why are the nation's governors and legislatures talking about zeroing out (or at least severely slashing) arts funding, when such cuts will be less than a drop in the bucket of spending cuts and tax increases most states will need to balance their bloated budgets this year? The arts are always a popular target for conservative policymakers, but on a fiscal level, the proposed cuts make no sense. Not only does public support of the arts tend to result in more money flowing back into state and local coffers than going out, but the cuts will, in the long run, likely have a negative impact on the economic quality of life in the affected states. Los Angeles Times 02/26/03
NY Mayor Reinvents So-Called "Decency Council" New York mayor Michael Bloomberg is reinventing former mayor Rudy Giuliani's so-called "Decency Council" - the Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission. "The commission, largely ignored in recent years, was reconstituted by then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani as a decency panel in April 2001 after the Brooklyn Museum of Art exhibited works he found offensive. But Bloomberg apparently has another model in mind: a 'working board' full of established art enthusiasts, some of whom just might write out a hefty check in a pinch." New York Daily News 02/25/03
NJ Arts Groups Organizing Protests Against Eliminating Arts Funding New Jersey arts groups are mobilizing protests in response to Governor James McGreevey's proposal to eliminate state arts funding. Arts supporters plan a big rally for May 15 - about the time the state legislature is expected to vote on the budget. "A vocal supporter of the arts in the past, McGreevey has expressed regret about the need for his proposal to slash arts funding. He has urged arts leaders to come up with alternatives." Trenton Times 02/25/03
Leadership Void - Arts Jobs Go Begging "Filling the top jobs at major cultural institutions has become increasingly difficult. The pool that you fish in is a very small pool, and that pool is shrinking. As the jobs become more difficult, there is a shrinking group of people, and the pool is not being replenished by people coming up from the ranks. At the same time, these posts have grown in visibility and importance to the local economy." Oh yes - the salaries to run the big organizations are tiny compared to corporate America. Philadelphia Inquirer 02/25/03
Working On A Piece Of Lincoln Center A fix-up of New York's Lincoln Center is said to cost $1.2 billion. Many are skeptical the money can be raised and the designs agreed upon by the arts center's many constituents. So maybe another way to get the project underway is to take a piece of it and make it real. With that in mind, plans are being developed to open up West 65th Street and make it more accessible and inviting. Even this plan costs $150 million, and in this fundraising climate... The New York Times 02/25/03
Are Our Public Universities Endangered? "Slashing support for public colleges, of course, is part of the ebb and flow of economic cycles. In bad times, state lawmakers use public higher education to balance their budgets, knowing that the institutions can raise tuition rates. Then, in good times, lawmakers funnel money back to the colleges to make up for the down years. It has worked that way for decades. But this time might be different." Is a wave of privatization of public universities in the works? Chronicle of Higher Education 02/24/03
Arts Are Worth Investing In "Do the states have budgetary problems? Absolutely. Do they need to sacrifice because of the shortfalls? Absolutely. Do important programs need to be trimmed? Yes, without question. But wipe out arts budgets altogether? No. The arts are a medium into our future. They are our vehicles for introspection, enlightenment and pleasure. They can't be manufactured, reproduced or legislated. We need to identify the new artists, nurture their gifts and support them, irrespective of how difficult it will be to afford them." Hollywood Reporter 02/24/03
San Jose Economic Impact Study Measures Arts A new economic impact study in San Jose "estimates the non-profit arts industry contributed $177 million to the San Jose economy during the 2001-2002 fiscal year. The study also says the industry contributed almost 6,000 jobs." So how come the city's arts institutions are in such financial danger? The city's arts leaders are meeting to plot a strategy. San Jose Mercury-News 02/24/03
- Creativity? Check. Inspiration? Check. Good Business? That Too... "If you can't be convinced that the arts deserve support for how they enrich our lives, how they feed the creativity that leads to the genius of high technology and other endeavors, or how they create a quality of life necessary to attract and keep a great workforce, consider simple economics." San Jose Mercury-News 02/24/03
Philanthropy Survey Suggests Troubling Trends The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s third annual survey of “America’s most-generous donors” shows a huge drop in giving – the total for the largest 60 givers declined from $12.7 billion to $4.6 billion. “A troubling sign of the slowdown: a growing tendency among donors to make long-term pledges rather than outright cash gifts. Some donors also are delaying payments on previous pledges, and fund raisers see an increasing reluctance among wealthy people to make new giving commitments of any sort." Chronicle of Philanthropy 02/21/03
DANCE
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Interpreting Dance Outside The Studio "Dance, by its very nature, lends itself to a wealth of interpretations — by critics, audience members and even the performers themselves." Paul Taylor says that once his dances leave the safety of the studio, "they cannot help but be transformed into something else, for better or worse. A conversation with Mr. Taylor shows how fraught the relationship between criticism and artistic control can be. He views criticism with a mixture of pleasure and disdain, although he does not follow reviews as diligently as he used to, he said." The New York Times 03/02/03
Ballet With Regional Accents Ballet is ballet, right? Just as in music, a global sensibility has eradicated national styles, right? Not exactly. "Variations in ballet style make life for balletgoers more interesting, by reminding audiences that companies from different countries and schools have very different, culturally inflected ways of performing a codified technique that is generally thought to be the same everywhere." The New York Times 02/23/03
MEDIA
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Radio Consolidation Blues, Miami Style South Florida radio is woefully narrow. "Looking for local news? Buy a newspaper. Want to hear rock en español? Load up the CD player. Crave a Triple-A (adult album alternative) outlet like those in other cities that play such new, talked-about artists before they break through? Get a moving van. And if you have a desire to hear classical music on FM, well, tough tubas. How about alternative country, progressive/alternative hip-hop or Hindu chants set to dance beats? Uh, you're kidding, right? Miami's 36 English-language and 17 Spanish-language stations have each carved out their little piece of the pie with generally narrow playlists, and their owners are perfectly happy about it." Let's blame consolidation. Miami Herald 03/02/03
Media Dereg, Part II Back in 1996, the U.S. Congress passed a Telecommunications Act which allowed large media companies to hold multiple TV and radio stations in a single market, and to consolidate and merge their businesses as never before. Predictably, the large companies which took advantage of the legislation now control a high percentage of the nation's media outlets. Now, the FCC is considering a further loosening of restrictions on ownership, sparking a familiar debate between Big Media and, well, most everyone else. Wired 02/28/03
Does Anyone Care What The Listeners Want? While the big media companies and TV networks may be thrilled at the possibility of greater media consolidation, the public is increasingly agitated at the overwhelming of local radio and TV institutions by bland, generic national "feeds" and indistinguishable formats. "Listeners are turning off the radio in huge numbers and the media companies don't care... because the only thing that matters to them is getting their share of whatever audience there is." Washington Post 02/28/03
Hollywood's African Exploits A successful African film director is taking Hollywood to task for the way it portrays his continent in the movies. Mahamat Saleh Haroun says he is tired of Hollywood studios coming to Africa simply to shoot nature scenes, lions, and actors "just dancing and laughing with big teeth." Haround also singles out Star Wars director George Lucas for his use of some Saharan locales, and for misleading local film enthusiasts into thinking that they might have Hollywood careers if they did drudge work on the Star Wars films. BBC 02/28/03
Buying Your Way In The Copyright Legislative Wars Hollywood loves Democrats. "For years, Hollywood has poured money into the Democrats' campaign coffers and been rewarded with indispensable assistance on the industry's crusade of the moment - squelching new technologies that allow the dissemination of digital content in ways Hollywood can't control. From a purely pragmatic standpoint, this eagerness to support Hollywood's technophobia is easy to understand. Payback has come in the form of several bills designed to clamp down on the free exchange of copyrighted music and movies, which entertainment companies deem the greatest threat to their future well-being..." Washington Monthly 02/03
Violently Yours - Movies Up The Gore Quotient "Horror films have been spooking audiences since Bela Lugosi made his big-screen debut in 1917, but critics say the current roster of films takes gore to a whole new level. They point to a range of possible causes - from ever more realistic special effects to a ratings system that is more lenient on violence than sex. Also, increasingly graphic violence on network TV may be causing filmmakers to up the shock quotient in an effort to get people to buy tickets for what they can see for free at home." Christian Science Monitor 02/28/03
Hollywood Sues DVD Copier Hollywood movie studios are in court suing the maker of a software program that makes backup copies of DVDs. The company being sued says it's really not about piracy at all. "This is about whether or not it is legal for consumers to make backup copies of DVDs they own. Either it is or it isn't. We say it is legal for consumers to do whatever they want in the privacy of their own homes."
Dallas Morning News 02/27/03
Congress To Investigate Payola Senator Orrin Hatch says he'll start Congressional hearings into payola to radio stations for playing music. Current payola deals include exclusive arrangements between radio stations and independent promoters who guarantee the station a fixed monthly or annual payment. In return, songs 'suggested' by such an independent promoter are the most likely to be added to playlists. This allegedly is used by Clear Channel and Radio One." Rocky Mountain News 02/27/03
A World Of Hurt (But Is It Art?) The latest reality TV shows feature pain or gross-outs. "Pain is the new rock‘n’roll", proclaims one show. "It may be, but it isn’t exactly new; pain and dangerous stunts have been finding an arts audience for years. Edinburgh Fringe-goers were watching Jim Rose juggle with chainsaws when Jackass’s Knoxville was a twinkle in an MTV executive’s eye. Devotees of the boundary-pushing forms of live art have been witnessing representations of self-harm for some considerable time. Now it’s gone mainstream, what has changed?" And is it art? The Scotsman 02/27/03
UK Producers Form "Virtual" Movie Studio Hoping to encourage the making of British films, a group of prominent producers are hoping to raise £50 million-£136 million to create what they're calling a "virtual studio" to produce movies. The idea is to offer "long-term financial support" to British feature films. BBC 02/27/03
Actors Unions Discuss Merger America's two major actors unions are seriously discussing a merger. "A merger of the two unions has been discussed and rejected in the past. But in recent years, the consolidation of firms like America Online and Time Warner and the creation of Vivendi Universal have concentrated industry power in fewer hands. 'What we found is that instead of just being a good idea or a convenience, this kind of unity is more and more becoming an absolute necessity'."
Yahoo! (AP) 02/25/03
War Fears Discourage Movie Shooting "Concerns about the prospect of a war in the Middle East have forced most major productions shooting overseas to take out supplemental insurance to guard against the possibility of a war-related shutdown or terrorist incident." Some - like a new production of "Fiddler On The Roof" have canceled shooting altogether. Toronto Star 02/25/03
Movie Studios, Electronics Firms Meet To Combat Piracy Holly wood movie studios and electronics companies are meeting to find ways to stop illegal copying of movies. "The new group will explore ways to use electronic watermarks and other signaling techniques that could remain embedded in a program after it's converted to analog. Many DVD recorders already incorporate one such technology, which hides copying restrictions within an unused portion of a standard TV picture." Los Angeles Times 02/24/03
Movies Without The Books Is it important to read the book that a movie is based on before seeing the movie? Not at all. In some cases, knowing the book may make it difficult to enjoy the adaptation. "A film may be well able to stand on its own without comparison to its source. To dwell on changes from the origin can load the film with obligations that may be aesthetically irrelevant." The New Republic 02/24/03
The Sony Conundrum Sony used to be an innovator. It invented the Walkman. "What's changed since the original Walkman debuted is that Sony became the only conglomerate to be in both consumer electronics and entertainment. As a result, it's conflicted: Sony's electronics side needs to let customers move files around effortlessly, but its entertainment side wants to build in restraints, because it sees every customer as a potential thief. The company's internal divisions reflect those in the marketplace, where entertainment executives have declared war on consumers over file-sharing. But Sony's position is unique. It can settle the fight and flourish, or do nothing and be hobbled." Wired 02/03
Canada Increases Tax Credit For Foreign Film Productions Hollywood, trying to encourage producers to stay in the US to shoot their movies, have proposed legislation to give producers tax incentives. But last week, to try to keep producers coming to Canada, the Canadian government said it would increase production tax credits from 11% to 16% for foreign producers shooting there. Hollywood is protesting. Backstage 02/21/03
MUSIC
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Prokofiev - Great Music, Lousy Timing Prokofiev's legacy has been marred by contradictions. "He produced some of the sprightliest, most ingenious and most enduringly popular music of the 20th century. Yet Prokofiev's career was also, in the brisk summation of music historian Francis Maes, 'a succession of misjudgments,' marked by flawed calculations on the artistic, personal and political fronts." San Francisco Chronicle 03/02/03
San Antonio - The Costs Of Losing A Symphony Orchestra What will it mean if the San Antonio Symphony goes out of business for lack of money? "A symphony orchestra is like the canary in the mine. If the bird stops singing, it's a good bet the air isn't safe for anybody to breathe. To be blunt, if the San Antonio Symphony goes silent, you'd be well advised to update your résumé. Appropriately valuing the symphony means rejecting the big lie — that's what it is — that San Antonio is too poor and lowbrow to afford a luxury like a symphony orchestra. The issue isn't money. The issue is values."
San Antonio Express-News 03/02/03
Vanity Books Set To Music So you have a song you've written. So you hire pros to finish it up and record it. "The American Song-Poem Anthology: Do You Know the Difference Between Big Wood and Brush'' collects 28 mind-bendingly strange and very funny songs paid for by amateur lyricists and recorded by hard-up professional singers and musicians. 'It's the only scam I know of where each transaction is a unique work of art. Of course the work of art isn't always great. These are vanity books set to music. But that's what makes it so interesting. You have these very talented musicians working very rapidly to fulfill a quota of so many songs per hour, and sometimes the results transcend the limitations of the form'." Boston Herald 03/02/03
CDs With A Different Commercial Purpose Tour-only CDs are catching on with indie-label musicians and their fans. They're 'low-concept, short-production-run discs typically sold only at concerts and usually recorded live or in the artist's home-studio. Tour discs might contain early versions of songs that will make it onto future label releases, unedited recordings of live shows, or a selection of what will ultimately turn out to be rareties. For musicians it's a "chance to raise a little bit of extra cash while they're out on the road, the opportunity to experiment musically in the presence of a friendly audience, or simply a way to provide music without worrying about whether it's the best artistic or career move." Boston Globe 03/02/03
Why Digital Downloading Is Bad For Music "The truth is that digital distribution is bad for artists for the same reason that it is bad for record companies (and good for fans): it makes too much music available. As content becomes increasingly ubiquitous, it loses value; just look at how few print publications are able to charge successfully for their online counterparts. While there are certainly some people who are willing to pay for digital music, few of them appear to be willing to pay that much for it." The Guardian (UK) 02/28/03
A New Way To Hear/Present Concerts The way that we go to the opera, the theatre and the concert has hardly changed for centuries. The great majority of such attendance takes place in venues conceived on the model of churches. The performers do their thing at one end. We, the audience, sit silently in rows in the rest of the building and look at them doing it. This can be a difficult and even intimidating experience for those who are not used to it, especially in badly designed or unsuitable spaces. But you have only to attend a performance in a different kind of venue to see at once the possibilities for addressing the access problem in a different way." The London Symphony has a new venue. "It is not just a huge step forward for this most dynamic of Britain's orchestras, consolidating the LSO's role in the vanguard of orchestral music in London. It is also a step down a path that other performing arts organisations of all kinds will surely have to follow eventually - if they have the funding - of changing the terms on which orchestras meet their audiences." The Guardian (UK) 02/28/03
Anonymous 4 Quits The popular early-music group Anonymous 4 have decided to pack it in after 17 years. "Since forming in 1986 in New York ‘as an experiment’ in response to the lack of opportunities for woman to sing early music repertoire, the group have gone on to achieve great commercial success, clocking up nearly 1000 concerts internationally and selling over 1 million discs." Gramophone 02/27/03
Music: Electronic Inroads Almost all popular music uses some form of electronic instrumentation. Not in classical music though. "The future of innovation in music seems almost surely to be in digitally created music whose origin is either purely electronic or in imitation of acoustical sounds, "rather than string instruments growing extra strings or things like that." Christian Science Monitor 02/28/03
Stravinsky's Mouthpiece? Robert Craft's relationship with Stravinsky draws fresh attention with the publication of a new Craft volume. Though the composer has been dead 30 years, the Craft continues to write of his friend, reviving old debates about where the composer ends and Craft begins..."The final Jamesian irony is that Robert Craft is able to write supremely well only as a ventriloquist, requiring no less than an authentic genius for his dummy." Weekly Standard 03/03/03
Savannah Symphony Folds The 49-year-old Savannah Symphony, stuck with a $1.3 million deficit, has canceled the rest of its season. "I think the community has spoken. Savannah residents desire a symphony orchestra, I think, but there's been too much history with this organization as it stands today. The community sent us signals that [an orchestra] should start again with a new slate." Atlanta Journal-Constitution 02/27/03
Prokofiev, Conflicted Prokofiev was unquestionably one of the great composers of the 20th Century. But "there is something profoundly suspect about Western attitudes to this composer. Instead of subjecting him to continuous critical assessment, we repeat favourite works and shun the rest. Prokofiev makes us uneasy in ways that Ravel does not. He reminds us of things we would prefer to forget - first and foremost of our obeisance to Stalin. Yes, ours, not his." London Evening Standard 02/26/03
San Antonio Symphony Too Broke To Pay Musicians The San Antonio Symphony is out of money and says it won't be able to pay musicians this week unless it raises $250,000 by Friday. "The 78-member orchestra was told during an emotional 10 a.m. meeting at the Majestic Theater that without private donations, paychecks won’t be issued Friday. The crisis could jeopardize future performances." San Antonio Express-News 02/26/03
San Antonio Symphony On The Brink The latest North American orchestra crisis appears to be heading for a flashpoint in south Texas, where the San Antonio Symphony board is preparing to make a presentation to its musicians today, laying out the cuts the board believes will be necessary to save the financially strapped ensemble. One board member insists that layoffs and payroll cuts are not on the table, but another is ominously quoted as saying, "I think there's some people who feel, 'Go ahead and let the symphony fail. It will come back as a smaller orchestra. San Antonio can't afford this full-service orchestra.'" San Antonio Express-News 02/26/03
Paying For Piracy in Canada A series of long-awaited and controversial payouts to musicians, composers, and music publishers has begun in Canada, using money generated by a tax on blank, recordable CDs. The tax was designed to provide a method for compensating music industry professionals for the effects of illegal music piracy. The payout began "right around the time the [industry] was appearing before the Canadian Copyright Board in Ottawa to ask for both significant increases in the levies it's already been charging and an extension of the levy to computer hard drives, MP3 players, mobile phones and other media." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 02/26/03
Everybody Sing! Singing in choirs is the most popular performing arts activity in the U.S., according to a new study, with better than 28 million Americans (about 10% of the total population) singing in some sort of organized chorus. "The study found a link between early exposure to choral singing and adult participation in choruses. More than half of adult singers had grown up in a household that included a chorus member, and nearly 70 percent had first sung in elementary or middle school." Andante 02/26/03
San Francisco To Lose Last Jazz Club San Francisco is losing its last club dedicated to jazz. Jazz at Pearl's, home to local jazz musicians six nights a week for 13 years, has been unable to renew the lease and will shut its doors April 30. "People think this is a great cosmopolitan city. But it's not. It used to be hip." San Francisco Chronicle 02/25/03
Houston Symphony Players Set Strike Deadline Musicians of the Houston Symphony are pressing for a new contract and some serious changes in direction for the orchestra to put it on better financial ground. So Monday they voted to strike Sept. 1 if the orchestra is still playing under terms of the old contract that expired Oct. 5. Houston Chronicle 02/25/03
Life On The Street - Playing Music, Earning Money (At Least A Little...) How hard can it be, playing music in the streets for money. Some of the pros say they can earn £100 in a day. So seven Guardian journalists take to London streets to see what they could earn playing music. For some it was a humbling experience. But for a features assistant who played harp... The Guardian (UK) 02/26/03
Music From A Political Time - Does It Work? Do symphonic music and politics mix? "To a great degree, the medium defeats itself. The sheer time, effort and expense required to compose, rehearse and perform a full-scale symphonic work militates against writing one as an immediate response to a specific political situation. Works assembled quickly to make a point tend to show it, and in the concert world ephemera — even well-meaning ephemera — slips into the mist moments after its premiere, taking its message with it." The New York Times 02/25/03
English National Opera Cancels Performances Because Of Strike London's English National Opera has had to start canceling performances after the company's chorus voted to strike. Chrous members are protesting a plan to lay off a third of their number. "The savings they will make by making 20 choristers redundant for the current season will be as little as £120,000, because they will have to hire freelancers to make up the numbers. We do not believe that £120,000 is a make or break sum for an organisation that has an annual turnover of more than £30m." BBC 02/25/03
What A Hit Band Earns So how much does a hot new band earn from a hit recording? Let's say this hypothetical hot band sells 500,000 albums at $16.98. That's gross sales of $8,490,000. [Remember, of course, that this is a very hot band - only 128 of more than 30,000 records sold half a million recordings in 2002.] Well - after all the fees, commissions, fees, percentages, charges and expenses are deducted, the band comes home with $161,909 - split however many ways by band mambers. For a hit. Is this any way to run a business? New York Daily News 02/24/03
Jones Dominates Grammys Twenty-three-year-old jazz vocalist Norah Jones surprised many Sunday night by dominating the Grammys' major awards, "capturing the marquee categories of year's best album, record and new artist. The surprise win for Jones has cemented the reputation for the Grammys as an unpredictable entertainment gala." Los Angeles Times 02/24/03
- And The Winners Are... A Complete list of all the winners. Grammy.com 02/24/03
- A Fun Show This Grammy production was actually fun to watch as entertainment. "The producers bucked conventional award show wisdom and dumped the host as an unnecessary element. They emphasized performance and kept the pace as frantic and energetic as the music being honored." New York Post 02/24/03
CD's: A "Business Without A Business Model" The music recording industry is in trouble. "The uncertainty facing the major recording labels has led a wave of others to seek new paths, either voluntarily or involuntarily. 'It's a business without a business model today because unfortunately it's predicated on people actually buying CDs. I don't know about you but my 12-year-old, he's burning them pretty fast. That's the reality and it was coming and everybody closed their eyes to it'." Los Angeles Times 02/24/03
Re-Understanding Prokofiev Fifty years after Prokofiev’s death, his operas are taking on different meanings from when they were first created. “Perhaps the art of Soviet Russia will come to resemble the art of revolutionary France. For a while, for decades after the Terror, there were paintings of David's that caused such horror that they could scarcely be shown - for David was notorious as a supporter of terror. But then that part of their meaning drained away. For 50 years Prokofiev wrote operas. In the 50 years since his death, these works have begun to make their way. It's the slowness of the process that's impressive -the slowness and, to be sure, the sureness too.” The Guardian (UK) 02/23/03
PEOPLE
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Meet Mr. Post-Brustein Robert Woodruff has a tough job - succeeding the legendary Robert Brustein as director of American Reportory Theatre in Cambridge. Some thought the director and the new job might not be a good fit. But "offstage, stripped of the spotlight, the outlaw director comes across as surprisingly regular. For all his Johnny Cash cool, he is equal parts Woody Allen: a slightly neurotic New Yorker overworked and unwilling to rest until every detail is in place. Strip away a few sexy hobbies - riding his BMW motorcycle, hiking to 18,000 feet in Tibet - and Robert Woodruff's life outside the theater begins to sound pretty bland. In fact, there is little in his life that doesn't involve theater." Boston Globe 03/02/03
Checking In With Frank Gehry Architect Frank Gehry's laid-back air "is a large part of the appeal of his architecture. His buildings, assertive and emphatic though they are, are generous and open to the unexpected. The laidback air is also partly fictional, as he has a fierce competitive and creative will that shows no sign of relenting." He's designing a new house for himself in Los Angeles. And he's up for a couple new projects in London. In the meantime there's the new Disney Hall getting set to open in LA... London Evening Standard 02/28/03
Viñoly: Architect To The World By any account, architect Rafael Viñoly was something of a prodigy. He's racked up a series of high-profile projects around the world, and has developed a reputation for sensitivity to the needs of the project. "You don't simply accept the client's program at face value, as if your job is to be some kind of short-order cook. What you really want to do is figure out the underlying needs, which the client may never have fully understood. Then you work to define the program. You are not going to get a pre-cooked meal but something especially prepared." Los Angeles Times 02/25/03
Terry Gross At Bargain Basement Prices Terry Gross is host of Fresh Air, one of America's public radio top interview shows. But WHYY in Philadelphia, where the show originates, doesn't list Gross among its top-paid employees. In 2001, Gross earned $85,000, making her one of the lowest-paid national hosts. "In an interview, Gross said she had considered herself underpaid compared with other hosts of nationally aired public radio shows. Since then, though, the station has raised her salary 'substantially,' she said. 'I'm satisfied,' she said." Philadelphia Inquirer 02/24/03
Alex Ross Remembers Lou Harrison: "A roly-poly guy who reminded everyone of a sun-kissed Santa Claus, Harrison seemed for a long time to be the only happy composer in America; unlike so many of his congenitally embittered ivory-tower colleagues, he not only accepted his marginal status in the nation's culture but revelled in it. Yet he was, in many ways, an imposing figure—at once the prophet of the minimalist movement and the last vital representative of the mighty populist generation led by Aaron Copland." The New Yorker 02/24/03
Head Of The Class – Covent Garden’s Pappano Covent Garden waited four years waiting Antonio Pappano, its new music director. “The man is a live wire, and after a few months he has electrified the entire building. The Royal Opera needed just an invigorating shock. ‘Years ago, some one gave me Solti’s memoirs, and when I got to the part where he described coming to Covent Garden as music director I had the weirdest feeling: I knew in my bones that I would get this job’.” The Observer 02/23/03
PUBLISHING
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing
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Library-Builder Extraordinaire "From Fiji to Florida to Fresno, Calif., Andrew Carnegie built 2,509 libraries between 1881 and 1917, mostly in America, the British Isles and Canada. To this day, Carnegie's free-to-the-people libraries remain Pittsburgh's most significant cultural export, a gift that has shaped the minds and lives of millions." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 03/02/03
What Defines A Classic - Penguin Makes A New List Penguin Classics is "freshening its lineup. That means some authors get new attention while others get dropped. "Just as editors pretend to second-guess the market (whilst in fact trying to repeat their rivals' success), so Penguin Classics has been led by the nose towards the current milch-cow of Victorian genre fiction. Readers brought up on the pastiche melodramas of Sarah Waters, Peter Ackroyd, Peter Carey, Charles Palliser, et al, are hungry for the real thing. Hence the popularity of Wilkie Collins, whose 1860s sensation novels were massive in their own time, but sank without trace during the 100 years after his death." The Observer (UK) 03/02/03
Releasing Books Into The Wild Register a book, leave it someplace, and tell where it is on the internet. Someone else will pick it up, read it and pass it on in the same way. It's called bookcrossing. "There are close to 100,000 people who have signed up as bookcrossers on the Web site, with nearly 270,000 books registered and more than 20 million hits a month. Once you have registered a title on the site, you print out a BookCrossing label, paste it into the book along with your identity number and release it into the wild. Anybody picking up the book is supposed to register the find on the Web site, post a journal entry commenting on the book and describing the release date and location. All of that information is available on-line for anybody curious enough to browse the site. There are more than 13,000 books sprinkled around Canada waiting to be claimed, read and recycled." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 03/01/03
Oxford Sells Off Shakespeare Folio To Raise Money Oxford University has sold "one of English literature's most valuable works - a First Folio of William Shakespeare's plays" for an estimated £3.5 million to pay for building repairs and textbooks. "The book, which was printed in 1623 and has been kept in the college's library for more than two centuries, was bought by Sir Paul Getty, the philanthropist, in a private deal concluded in New York." The Telegraph (UK) 0/3/02/03
Menaker To Head Random House Daniel Menaker is Random House's new editor-in-chief. He's a "literary insider who left Random House to edit books at rival HarperCollins in 2001, has been reaching out to authors and expressing confidence he can halt an exodus of writers to Penguin Group USA." Prominent RH writers have been leaving the imprint since Anne Godoff was fired last month. New York Daily News 02/28/03
Heavy Reading (How Do They Do It?) So you're a book editor and it's your job to read books. But there are so many of them. So you go through maybe ten a week - a good 400+ in a year... "So how do professional readers get through the required reading for their 'plum' jobs? It is a given that most people in the industry have to read (manuscripts) outside of work hours, in their own time. There's too much going on otherwise." The Age (Melbourne) 02/28/03
How Do You Make A Poet Laureate? (They Want To Know) "With their public profiles growing, the role of poets laureate is being called into question. In April the nation's first conference for state poets laureate will convene in Manchester, New Hampshire, where they will discuss poetry and their responsibilities as public representatives of their art. The goal of the conference is for poets laureate to meet each other, discuss the ambiguities and perceived responsibilities of being a state-endorsed poet, and explore what happens when poetry intersects with politics, education, and community." Poets & Writers 03/03
Oprah To Start New Book Club A year after shutting down her popular TV book club, Oprah is starting a new book club - this time for classic books. "Winfrey plans to make a classic selection three to five times a year, in shows originating from a site connected with the book or the author." Yahoo! (Reuters) 02/27/03
Hip Hop - Not Just The Music Anymore "The billion-dollar music genre, which already has the advertising and fashion businesses bouncing to its beat, has now infiltrated one of pop culture's less-frequented markets — book publishing. Ranging from pricey coffee-table eye candy to practical reference and history books, the tomes are an effort to preserve hip-hop culture in more than just CDs and music videos." New York Daily News 02/27/03
Small Edinburgh Press Wins Publisher of The Year Prize Scotland's Canongate press hit the big time last year when Yann Martel’s Life Of Pi took the Booker Prize. Last night Canongate's ascendency to the major league was "confirmed in spectacular fashion as Canongate won Publisher of the Year at the British Book Awards." The Scotsman 02/26/03
Is Random House Unraveling? Some of Random House's biggest writers are considering leaving the publisher "after the ouster five weeks ago of its publisher and editor in chief, Ann Godoff, who soon began seeking to lure many of them to a new imprint. The shake-up is raising questions among authors, agents and critics about the future of the venerable Random House imprint, the home of William Faulkner, Robert Penn Warren and Truman Capote, and an important institution in modern American letters." The New York Times 02/24/03
One Book, No Interest Several cities around North Ameria have embraced the "if everyone read the same book" idea. Not in Pittsburgh. Since the launch of that city's porogram, "several activities - including a theatrical presentation of the book's rape trial at the Hazlett Theater, North Side, and classes sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Lifetime Learning - have been canceled for lack of interest." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 02/20/03
Salon Scrutiny Is Unusual For A New Magazine So Salon magazine is on the financial ropes. But Salon's publisher says the online mag's finances are not unusual for a magazine. " 'Being a public company has been a huge burden. How long does the average magazine take to reach profitability? Sports Illustrated — 12 years. USA Today — 10 years.' But these publications were developed inside corporations big enough to hide the years of losses in a dark corner of the accounting department. Salon does not have that luxury. Every expenditure drops directly to the bottom line, where it's paraded past the investment community." Los Angeles Times 02/24/03
Holiday Book Sales Languished Barnes & Noble reports that last quarter's book sales were sluggish, with growth coming only in newly-opened stores. And "according to preliminary estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, total bookstore sales fell 3.2% in last year's fourth quarter, to $4.42 billion." Publishers Weekly 02/24/03
Tolkien Vs. Tolkien Simon Tolkien, the grandson of J. R. R. Tolkien, is a successful barrister, and he has a book contract in Britain and America. But five years ago he had a fallingout with his father over the movies to be made from his grandfather's books. Seems the Tolkiens had no control over the movies since JRR had sold them years ago. Simon's dad wanted mothing to do with the movie-makers, but Simon... The Telegraph (UK) 02/24/03
Of Book Critics Who Don't Read... "Reviewing books is not a particularly well-paid form of journalism and it takes time. A book of any more ambition than a thriller can't be read for review at a rate of more than 40, or at most 60, pages an hour. Some books are only 120-pages long and can comfortably be digested in a couple of hours. Others, though, are 400, or 600 pages, or, in some dreadful instances, even more, and they can easily take days to get through. The reviewer's fee, however, usually remains the same. So, shocking as it may seem, the truth is that some reviewers skip some books. And there are a few who skip through all the books..." London Evening Standard 02/24/03
THEATRE
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre
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The Cost Of Music On Broadway The musicians' dispute with Broadway producers over how many musicians must be hired for a show centers on the cost of musicians. But "most people are misinformed about the world of Broadway pit orchestras. They're not as expensive as you might think (only $1-$6 of a $75 ticket goes to the musicians), and successive contract concessions have whittled their size to a fraction of their Golden Era heyday. There used to be 30, 40, even 50 (musicians) in the pit at a Broadway show. Now the (size) is as small as three. 'Phantom' is probably the biggest show on Broadway, and it has only 26." Orange County Register 03/02/03
World-Wide Reading Against The War With Iraq Monday, the Lysiustrata Project will perform readings of Aristophanes' anti-war play. "In the United States, as many as 1,000 separate productions are planned - in all 50 American states - 33 in Massachusetts and 18 in Chicago alone. In Canada, the play will be recited in seven provinces, at more than two dozen venues and, of course, in two languages. On the same day, there will be readings in London, Paris, Berlin, Athens, Beirut - indeed, almost every major world capital. Two readings are planned in Reykjavik, one in Damascus and nine in Aristophanes's homeland, Greece." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 03/01/03
Denver - Where Is The Theatre Of Protest? Though ten Denver theatres are participating in the Lysistrata Project, "there is no theater of protest here, no theater of war, not even one token production of the firehouse eulogy "The Guys," which has brought the tragedy home to cities outside New York in a way no other medium can. Denver is simply not a reactive theater community, which means it is failing in a fundamental and historic civic responsibility: to bring comfort, perspective and understanding not only about our past but also the world we walk out into once a play ends." Denver Post 03/02/03
Has Broadway Gone Serious? Wendall Brock detects a shift in attitude in this year's Broadway season. "The season's most thrilling productions are asking serious questions about the troubled soul of our democracy. While the Great White Way has always been a showcase for the easy-to-digest, corn-fed Americana of Rodgers and Hammerstein and others, the current season signals an attitude shift that speaks to the jittery politics of the new century." Atlanta Journal-Constitution 03/02/03
Les Miz To Close On Broadway After 18 years, Les Miz is closing on Broadway. "On May 18 this blockbuster version of the Victor Hugo novel that helped define the mega-musical of the 1980's will go dark at the Imperial Theater, taking its place in the record books as the second longest-running Broadway show of all time, after 'Cats'." The New York Times 02/28/03
Progressive Pricing When "The Play What I Wrote" opens on Broadway next week, it will cost $1 to get in. The next night it costs $2. The next $3. "The Play What I Wrote," which revolves around a comedy act that's breaking up, features a surprise celebrity guest star each night. In London, those guests included Roger Moore, Jerry Hall, Sting and Twiggy. New York Post 02/27/03
ACT Theatre Woes Fail To Impress Critic So Seattle's ACT theatre is on the verge of going out of business. The theatre declared a life-and-death emegergency, then gave itself a little breathing room when board members ponied up some operating money. Roger Downey isn't impressed. "Why was the theatre's board so ignorant of the organization's precarious financial situation? Many Seattle arts groups seem headed down this same path - ACT is just the first. Why do we let it happen? "It's entirely in keeping with the way arts groups, in Seattle and elsewhere in this country, are governed and financed. The system is rickety even in good times, and bad times expose its shortcomings cruelly." Seattle Weekly 02/26/03
London Success But Bombing In New York (Ah Yes, The Tradition...) London critics loved Sam Mendes' Donmar Theatre productions. Yet when he brought them to New York, the critics piled up their complaints. "There is a long tradition of New York critics resisting productions that have been successful in London. But there is more to the failure of Mendes's productions to win them over than sniping." The Guardian (UK) 02/25/03
ACTing Out: Lessons From A Seattle Theatre Theatre people across America were shocked last week when Seattle's ACT Theatre announced it was on the verge of closing, nearly sunk by debt. Could the theatre's predicament happen elsewhere, wonders Frank Rizzo? "The problems in Seattle only remind us that simply supporting building projects and not what happens when these buildings open is a short-sighted vision, one that could ultimately reflect a legacy of losers." Hartford Courant 02/23/03
VISUAL ARTS
http://www.artsjournal.com/visualarts
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Destroying Treasures Of History Is Wrong - No Matter Who's Doing It Two years ago the world stood apalled as the Taliban blasted the historic Bamiyan Buddhas into oblivion. Though the regime commited many atrocities, somehow the destruction of the centuries-old statues stirred fresh outrage. Now the US is planning to bomb Iraq, site of many historical/archaeological treasures. Is this not outrageous also? Newsday 03/02/03
Britain's Historic Buildings Are Being Looted "The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings warns that churches and historic houses have never been at so much risk as crooks target decorative fixtures and fittings to feed the home renovation boom. Such thefts have reached 'epidemic' proportions, according to the society, Britain's oldest heritage conservation group. Last year there were 3,600 thefts from churches alone, with statues, fonts and even whole altars vanishing." The Guardian (UK) 03/01/03
No Money, No Resources, Stalled Renovation "After nearly three years and $17 million, Frank Lloyd Wright's landmark, city-owned Hollyhock House and the adjacent Barnsdall Park [in Los Angeles] may still remain closed to the public when the first of two renovation phases is finished late this spring, city officials said Wednesday. And there are currently no plans and no money for the second phase... More than 50 supporters of Hollyhock House, community leaders and citizens who value Barnsdall Park's neighborhood art programs, turned up for the progress report. Some could not contain their dismay at phase one's outcome: In addition to being late and over budget, the project will leave far less space for art classes." Los Angeles Times 02/28/03
Practically Speaking - How Libeskind Was Chosen for the WTC How was Daniel Libeskind's plan for the World Trade Center site chosen? The decision rested as much on politics, economics and engineering as on aethetics. "Almost immediately after the decision was announced, civic groups, downtown business leaders and others began debating the details that will be needed to put the plan into effect." The New York Times 02/28/03
Scottish Government Helped Save Titian The Scottish government gave £2.5 million of the £11.6 million needed to buy the Scottish National Gallery's Titian acquired this week. "I am most impressed with the Scottish Executive and Mike Watson in particular for giving us £2.5 million at a difficult time. It’s a very enlightened thing for a government to do. A direct treasury grant in Scotland for something as rarefied and distinguished as this is a splendid thing." But the director of the National gallery warns that other art treasures are in dancer of being sold and taken out of the country. The Scotsman 02/27/03
A Binding "Kiss" The most-talked-about work at this year's Tate Britain show of contemporary work is Cornelia Parker's "The Distance (A Kiss with String Attached)" that binds up the lovers in Rodin's famous sculpture "The Kiss" in string. "It's my homage to two artists and a way of showing that love is more complicated than just a kiss. In fact, Dante's punishment of the illicit lovers was to condemn them to be entwined in an embrace for eternity. 'The Kiss' used to be considered indecent. People thought it should be covered up, which in effect is what I've done. I don't think I've hidden the eroticism. If you conceal things, they become more charged." London Evening Standard 02/27/03
Scotland's National Gallery Makes A Titian Its Own Scotland's National Gallery buys itself a Titian for £11 million. The painting has hung on loan to the gallery for 60 years. "It took more than two years to complete the deal, using £7.6m worth of lottery funding and a £2.5m contribution from the Scottish executive. The rest of the money came from the National Art Collections Fund and the National Galleries. To facilitate the sale, £2.4m of the picture's value was offset against inheritance tax." The Guardian (UK) 02/27/03
Tracking Down Nazi Art Loot - A Futile Task? More people are trying to track down art looted by the Nazis during World War II than ever before. And museums and collectors are under greater scrutiny. But "experts have become increasingly pessimistic that much more of it will ever be recovered and restored to its rightful owners. The Germans seized perhaps 600,000 important works from 1933 to 1945. "As many as 100,000 pieces are still estimated to be missing, and some have undoubtedly been destroyed. 'Obviously, what this is all about is the art world having to pay the price for lack of interest in provenance that they have shown for generations. It's a good idea to put it on the Internet and make it available, but I don't think there's a great deal of follow-up by museums'." The New York Times 02/27/03
Met Museum Lands Matisse Trove The Metroplitan Museum lands a gift of 50 paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints by Matisse, valued at $100 million. "The gift, which comes from a foundation named after Matisse's youngest son, Pierre, and Pierre's wife, Maria-Gaetana Matisse, is one of the most important gifts of modern art the Metropolitan has ever received." The New York Times 02/27/03
Leonardo Interactive Leonardo da Vinci was one of the great minds in history. The Metropolitan Museum has developed a special interactive feature designed to complement the exhibit: an online tour (really an overview) of the show's eight galleries. This allows us to follow the stages in the development of Leonardo's mind through 34 representative drawings. Each of these can be enlarged several times thanks to a zoom feature. Artcyclopedia 02/03
Libeskind Chosen For WTC The proposed design by Daniel Libeskind for the World Trade Center site has been chosen. "The new building is planned to be taller than the trade center towers, which briefly stood as the world's tallest at 1,350 feet. Libeskind's tower also would surpass Malaysia's 1,483-foot Petronas Twin Towers, the tallest buildings in the world." CNN (AP) 02/26/03
Beijing Goes On Museum-Building Spree Beijing is investing $854 million in building and renovating museums in preparation for the 2008 Olympics. "By 2008, Beijing will have 130 museums," said a government official. People's Daily (China) 02/26/03
Big Cuts At SFMOMA "The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art plans to cut its exhibitions by as much as 25 percent in the wake of an expected $1 million budget deficit for 2003 and stock market losses that have left its endowment fund $13.9 million in the red. SFMOMA, which has built an international reputation in the past decade, will gradually reduce its exhibits from about 25 per year to perhaps 18 to bring its spending in line with the shrinking economy and the realities of the museum business." San Francisco Chronicle 02/26/03
Freezing Time In A Memorial - Is It Such A Good Idea? Like many critics, Christopher Hawthorne was impressed with the emotional punch of Daniel Libeskind's plans for the World Trade Center site. But like some others, he's cooled to the idea with time. "What's really happened is that the passing of time has offered the chance to imagine how the various schemes first unveiled months ago might strike us in 2013 or 2053, rather than 2003. And in that test, Libeskind's doesn't fare so well. The ruling above-ground gesture of Libeskind's plan, seen especially in the towers that would ring the site, is that of the shard, the sharp fragment unleashed by shattering or explosion. Combined with the idea of keeping the pit as open as a fresh wound, the shards seem to aestheticize the violence of Sept. 11. And the further we get from that day, the more misguided it seems to fix the site's violent history in glass and steel." Slate 02/25/03
NZ Art Thief Leaves Evidence Behind - Part Of His Finger "An art thief left behind part of his finger after cutting it off while stealing a $65,000 Frances Hodgkins painting from an Auckland gallery yesterday in what is being called a theft to order. It was the second time in a week and a half that Ferner Galleries in Parnell have been the target of burglars." New Zealand Herald 02/25/03
History Through London's Statuary For hundreds of years Central London was the center of public sculpture. More recently, of course, "many people, including some serious art historians, have thought it’s artistically retrograde and uninteresting." A new book maintains that the statuary tells the history of the city. “What is incredible about the sculpture in the Square Mile is its sheer diversity. It reflects the different roles of the City: the preoccupation with the sea because London was a major world port and the heart of the Empire; journalism, publishing and the media because of Fleet Street; the trades because of all the markets; finance because of the banks and the Stock Market." The Times (UK) 02/25/03
The Decline And Fall Of A Major Artist Twenty-five years ago Graham Sutherland was one of the most-praised artists in Britain. "At that point Sutherland was undeniably top of the heap. So why is the centenary of his birth, which falls this year, being celebrated in such a niggardly fashion? How did this disastrous decline come about? The first answer is that he died at the wrong time. At his death in 1982, at the age of 79, preparations were well advanced for a major retrospective at the Tate. It became his memorial show and was given surprisingly short shrift by most critics. You could see why. It was undeniable that Sutherland had been rather resting on his laurels in his final years..." The Times (UK) 02/25/03
Terrorism Fears Limit Museum Artwork Loans Fears of terrorism are affecting museums' willingness to loan artwork for exhibitions. "Since 9/11, European institutions have become reluctant to lend their prize works of art to New York museums without new assurances of beefed-up security and increased terrorism insurance. For places like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the cost of such insurance has escalated so dramatically that it threatens to break budgets just as these institutions are struggling with dwindling sponsorships and cutbacks in public funds." The New York Times 02/25/03
Iraq War Would Imperil Archaeological Treasures Archaeologists worry that a war in Iraq will stop digs across the Middle East. "Researchers with long experience in Iraq say they are worried that postwar looting could cause even more damage to the antiquities than combat. They also fear that some art dealers and collectors might try to take advantage of any postwar disarray and change in government to gain access to more of Iraq's archaeological treasures." The New York Times 02/25/03
Great Art Without Need Of A Story The Museum of Modern Art's Matisse Picasso show gathers up lots of great paintings. "With sixty-seven mostly top-drawer paintings, drawings, and sculptures by Picasso and sixty-six by Matisse, the show hardly needs a pretext, but it has one: a running dialogue of mutual attractions and abrasions between the twin godheads of modern painting. But to extract the story—an elliptical tale, full of hints, puzzles, and fine discriminations—while looking at so much stupendous art is like trying to check the oil in a speeding truck." The New Yorker 02/24/03
Battle Of WTC Design Criticism A few weeks ago New York Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp attacked Daniel Libeskind's design for the World Trade Center site. A number of observers were amazed at the attack and protested. The Times' response? "This past Sunday the Times published an attack on the THINK design [the other design finalist] by New York University Art History Professor Marvin Trachtenberg - and in the space usually reserved for Muschamp, no less. Trachtenberg, in a thinly concealed response to the besieged Times critic, dismissed the THINK design as 'an architectural Frankenstein monster' and went on to praise Libeskind's in glowing terms. '[I]t is in a class by itself in its deeply creative, organic relationship to the specificity of ground zero and its environment and meaning'." The New Republic 02/24/03
