IDEAS
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Try To Remember... "Trying to be important is a zero-sum game for artists," writes playwright Jon Robin Baitz. "To be a blocked artist is to have a disease: Almost blind, often numb, you don't stop wanting to make art. And you don't want to find yourself staring at others', riven with rage like Rumpelstiltskin tearing himself asunder. I have seen that loss of direction and rage imprinted into the visages of so many artists I admire; this strange admixture of terror and bluster, the need to be loved, in combination with the need to dominate." Los Angeles Times 03/23/03

If It's Really Art, It Doesn't Fit In A Cliche Blake Gopnik has had it up to here with silly cliches about what art is or isn't. In fact, he has a top ten list of the silliest pigeonholes critics and pundits try to force art into. Included are such gems as "Good Art Is The Mirror Of Its Times," "Good Art Is Abstract," and "Good Art Is Finely Crafted." Says Gopnik of that last cliche, "a cuckoo clock is finely crafted." Washington Post 03/23/03

Madness And The Arts "Charles Dickens fought recurrent bouts of depression with hyperactivity. Hemingway, Sylvia Plath and Virginia Woolf took their own lives. Dylan Thomas drank himself into an early grave. Percy Bysshe Shelley suffered from recurring nightmares and hallucination and died at 30. William Blake heard voices. All artistic geniuses, definitely. All more or less mad." A new Toronto festival examines the connection between madness and artistic genius, from both clinical and cultural perspectives. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 03/22/03

Art Amidst The Guilt With soldiers dying 6,000 miles away, it's easy for those of us at home to descend into a spiral of 'arts guilt.' How dare we (pick one) read a novel/listen to a pop song/attend a play when matters of such import are afoot in the world? "Guilt isn't really guilt; it's recognition of ambiguity. It's realizing that we don't always know the right thing to do, that sometimes we'll end up doing the wrong thing, but that our desire to have the arts in our lives - to keep before us the simple pleasure of appreciating the audacity of creativity - can't be a bad thing, no matter how dark the skies grow in Baghdad, or, God forbid, Boise." Chicago Tribune 03/23/03

Iraq: A Looming Archaeological Crisis "Virtually all of Iraq is an archaeological site. Some 10,000 sites have been identified in Iraq, and many more, perhaps half a million, await discovery. They range from the size of a small city to the size of your backyard. Each has its own stories, each is unique, each is irreplaceable, each is crucial. The sum of those stories is a fundamental part of who we are today. Our archaeological heritage is a nonrenewable resource, and when part of it is destroyed, that part of us is lost forever. The political turmoil of the last decade in Iraq has turned its archaeological emergencies into catastrophes." Public Arts (WBUR.org) 03/18/03

ARTS ISSUES
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Return Of The Blacklist? Can the blacklist live again? Absolutely, writes Linda Winer. "Lest anyone think I overstate the danger to artists who use their media access to penetrate the drumbeats of war, consider what already exists on the Internet - ironically, a phenomenon that thrives on the gift of free speech." Newsday 03/23/03

DC: Invest In Arts And Economy Will Improve Washington DC has a budget deficit of $127 million. But some are advocating the city invest $100 million in the arts. "One of the cardinal rules of business is that it takes money to make money, and experts say investing in arts and theater projects is the way to spur economic development. City councilwoman Sharon Ambrose, the mayor and a number of cultural leaders argue an improved arts community would prompt a better quality of life for the city." Washington Business Journal 03/14/03

Baghdad Of Old "Between the 8th century, when it was constructed, and the 13th, when it was destroyed, Baghdad was the wealthiest, most learned and most opulent, city in Islam. Baghdad in the 10th century had a million inhabitants. In Europe at the time, where most people lived in huts, there was nothing to compare with it. Baghdad had 100 bookstores. And the grandest library assembled since the sack of Alexandria's. The city represents, and not only for Iraqis but for Arabs across the board, a time when the Arab world knew itself to be the center of civilization, of science and art and mystery. The symbol of Baghdad is richer, and deeper, than whoever is messing it up right now." Washington Post 03/20/03

Columbia U Getting Serious About The Arts? While some universities seem to be moving away from the arts, Lee Bollinger, the new president of Columbia University, believes the arts are "integral to the university experience." Now that "he finds himself running a major Ivy League research university in the most highly cultured city in the United States. He gives every sign of relishing the prospect of forging more ambitious, more glamorous bonds between the arts and the university." The New York Times 03/21/03

Artists Cancelling Appearances In The US Some international artists have begun cancelling performances and appearances in the US because of the war, though not many yet... Los Angeles Times 03/21/03

NJ Arts Groups Press For Smaller Funding Cuts New Jersey arts groups are certainly happy Governor James McGreevey is reconsidering eliminating state arts funding. Instead, the cut might be 50 percent. But this isn't good enough some say. "The chop would actually represent a 60% slice over two years, since the State Legislature cut the arts budget by 10% last session. A 60% cut will cause a lot of damage to cultural institutions in the state in an already difficult economy. 'We feel we are a solution to economic problems because we generate a lot of money for the state of New Jersey. We continue to be puzzled by the governor's decisions to slash our funds when we're a billion-dollar industry to the state." Backstage 03/20/03

Canadian Media Chain To Hire National Arts Journalism Team CanWest, which owns 11 big-city newspapers and 16 TV stations across Canada, is hiring a new team of national arts journalists to be based around the country. The team will be used on TV and in print, and the company says it wants to create some stars. But "the creation of the arts team has CanWest's current arts editors, reporters and reviewers worried. They fear that the company's long-term plan is to reduce local reporting and criticism and that, over time, coverage of film festivals, concerts and events will diminish." CanWest's track record on arts coverage is terrible; when it acquired the National Post two years ago, it dismantled the paper's first-rate arts and culture section. "CanWest continues to treat its newspaper customers as though they were buying dog food -- bigger box, less food. What do the dogs know?" The Globe & Mail (Canada) 03/20/03

Maryland: Play The Slots, Support The Arts Maryland arts groups were looking forward to a modest increase in state arts funding. But that increase could turn out to be cuts of five to 17 percent if the legislature doesn't go along with Gov Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s proposal to "legalize slot machines at the state's racetracks and use tax money generated by them as a revenue source." Baltimore Sun 03/19/03

Dumping On The Dixie Chicks When one of the Dixie Chicks said last week she was ashamed of George Bush, the blowback was immediate. "Country stations nationwide, responding to listeners, banned the group from their airwaves. One, in Portland, Ore., was encouraging listeners to burn Dixie Chicks concert tickets in public. By early this week, airplay for the group's latest hit (ironically named "Travelin' Soldier") was travelin' speedily downward. What to make of all this? The press is suggesting that the general public is finally 'fed up' with the nattering nabobs of negativism known as artists. In fact, this is a story that could only have happened in the country music world. That's because country music is the embodiment of patriotism." OpinionJournal.com 03/20/03

Art Or Finance - Is This Any Way To Run An Arts Organization? Arts management is a vicious circle, writes Rupert Christiansen. Here's the way it goes: "Some ambitious romantic, out of touch with audience taste and budgetary actuality, leads the accounts to the brink of financial catastrophe and plug-pulling threats from the subsidising bodies. The board panics and appoints someone with experience of the 'real world' of business or industry. He or she imports a management consultancy. A lot of paper-pushing, a lot of bellowing, a lot of sacking ensues. Morale among the creators and curators is decimated, and the quality of the art plummets." It doesn't have to be this way... The Telegraph (UK) 03/19/03

Protesters Paint Sydney Opera House Two protesters climbed to the top of the Sydney Opera House and painted "No War" in giant red letters Tuesday. "The graffiti on the highest sail of the ornate building made a mockery of the supposed increase in security at two of Australia's most readily identifiable landmarks, the opera house and nearby Sydney Harbour Bridge." CNN.com 03/18/03

Missouri Considers A State Of No Arts Funding Missouri weighs the consequences of zeroing out state arts funding. "The possibility of a future without a Missouri state arts agency raises basic questions: Is there symbolic value in a state arts council beyond the money it distributes? And at a time when both the federal and state governments face mounting deficits, should tax money be spent on the arts, which some lawmakers view as a luxury?" Kansas City Star 03/17/03

New Jersey May Restore Some Arts Funding New Jersey Governor James McGreevey is reconsidering abolishing state arts funding. A spokesman for the governor's office says that "a decision has been made to find the means to provide funding for arts communities across the state," and that "it would not be unreasonable for the New Jersey State Council on the Arts to get back about half of the $18 million it lost." NJ.com (AP) 03/17/03

Fixing A "Mistake?" "In his budget address, Gov. McGreevey proposed eliminating $43 million earmarked for various cultural programs. Among the funds eliminated were $18 million in grant money for the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, $10 million for the New Jersey Cultural Trust, $4 million in grants for the Historical Commission and $3 million in Cultural Enrichment Grants. Individual institutions also got cut, including $2.7 million for the Newark Museum." Newark Star-Ledger 03/16/03

DANCE
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Rediscovering Dance There are so few original ballet scores - music written specifically for dance. "So when a lost ballet by Prokofiev — one of the greatest of all composers for dance — is rediscovered, it’s cause for rejoicing." The Times (UK) 03/24/03

So You Wanna Be A Choreographer There's a lot more to creating a dance than just throwing on some music and making up steps. Choreography is a finely adjusted blend of research, flair, and precision, and the thought of creating a scriptable dance is an awfully daunting one for those who have never seen it done. But if you'd like to give it a try, famed choreographer Mark Morris would be happy to tell you how he does it. The New York Times 03/23/03

MEDIA
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Is "Guys & Dolls" The Next "Chicago"? So what's the next "Chicago"? How about "Guys and Dolls. "Chicago" studio Miramax has settled on G&D for its next musical project. "Nearly half a century after Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra and Jean Simmons starred in the original screen version, Nicole Kidman and Vin Diesel are being mentioned as possible contenders. Rumours are sweeping Hollywood that A-list actors are clamouring for parts even before the new script and score surface. 'Actors are emerging who we never knew had good voices or who were capable of dancing. They are saying to their agents, 'Hey, put me in a musical'." Sydney Morning Herald 03/24/03

Top Oscar Goes To "Chicago" "Chicago" wins best picture at the Oscars, Roman Polanski wins best director. "The telecast walked a tight-rope. Splashy song-and-dance numbers and a biting monologue delivered by host Steve Martin had to compete with some of the most bracing news of the day." Los Angeles Times 03/24/03

Bollywood Works To Become Profitable India's Bollywood is the largest film industry in the world, but it hasn't been profitable for years. "Although revenue in Bollywood has increased during the last five years, losses have also increased, reaching three billion rupees last year. The number of films made annually is expected to fall from 1,200 to below 1,000, leading to an increase in the average revenue per movie." BBC 03/23/03

Why "Chicago," Why Now? No one expected "Chicago" to become this big a hit. "But the movie's domestic box office is now double that of 'Moulin Rouge,' the only other movie musical to fly in years, and, unlike that predecessor, 'Chicago' didn't have to throw in David Bowie and Beck to entice the musical-phobic youthful demographic thought to spurn show tunes by John Kander and Fred Ebb. Young audiences have turned up anyway. Everyone has. The film has touched a nerve this year as no previous incarnation of Watkins's play (there were two previous film versions) ever did." Why? Even though the musical traces its roots back to 1926, its themes are timeless. The New York Times 03/23/03

Why Should The Oscars Be Toned Down? "If someone had planned to honor the best works in classical music or the visual arts this weekend, it's unlikely anyone would complain that celebrating such art is in bad taste when a war is being fought. Yet movies are perhaps the greatest American popular art form as well as one of this country's most influential, lucrative exports, and the Academy Awards ceremony ostensibly exists to recognize what's best in the field. So the problem is... ?" Chicago Tribune 03/23/03

Kermit Moving To Disney? Disney says it may buy the Muppets. "Disney had been on the verge of buying the company more than a decade ago, but the deal collapsed after the death of founder Jim Henson." BBC 03/21/03

The Oscars At $30,000 A Pop All guests, nominees and presenters at the Academy Awards will go home with "gift bags." At one time the bags were a modest thing, but "designers and companies looking to win some high-profile promotion have been vying to have their products included in the Academy Awards gift baskets for years. At first a relatively modest undertaking, Hollywood's version of the goodie bag has swollen to ridiculous size and value, with this year's priced at approximately US$30,000." National Post (Canada) 03/21/03

"American Spirit": Sure We're Invading Iraq - But That Doesn't Mean We Can't Still Have Fun Should the Oscars cancel? Not if the American people have their way. A poll reports that 9 of ten people asked believe the show should go on. "This is a true testament to the American spirit. While nearly everyone is concerned about our troops, in post-Sept. 11 America, people strongly feel that we all must continue living our lives." National Post (Canada) 03/21/03

Radio - Music With A Corporate Voice What will people be listening to on the radio as the war goes on? Pretty much the same thing across the country. "I don't think it will be anything like radio during the Vietnam War when radio was the voice of the revolution and the voice of the other side. Now you're not going to get any of that: you're going to get the voice of the corporate world." The New York Times 03/21/03

Attracted To Coming Attractions Previews of movies "embody the great promise of modern consumerist entertainment: that there will always be more. They are like the still-wrapped packages under a Christmas tree: the one you are about to tear into might turn out to be a pair of wool socks or a cheap knockoff of the toy you really wanted, but there is still all this other stuff yet to be opened up. Whatever disappointments the movies themselves might bring are safely in the future, as you feel the rush of all their expensive promise — the fights, the explosions, the computer-generated imagery, the macho repartee — in compact, thrill-packed doses. Big, commercial movies may rarely be surprising these days, but the possibility that they might be is always there." The New York Times 03/21/03

Movies - What Are Today's Classics? Are there movies being made today that will be judged as cinematic classics? Yes. But it make take years before they're recognized as such. "The great movies tend to have a level of complexity to them that isn't entirely obvious to the viewer at first glance. Sometimes there's this stealth factor at work. A movie just plants a seed in you. And you don't realize it until you've gone home, and you've tried to forget about it - and you can't." Christian Science Monitor 03/21/03

Oprah Show On Iraq War Reflects Badly On The Rest Of Mainstream American TV Tuesday, after George Bush declared war on Iraq, Oprah Winfrey used her TV show to ask "why do so many hate the United States?" The show "presented a distinct alternative to the perspective presented by every mainstream American broadcaster in the last few months." In normal circumstances, "the perspectives she presented would not be truly notable, but in the contemporary context, they were amazing. The problem is that the program said more about the rest of American television than it did about Oprah Winfrey." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 03/20/03

Short Wonders - Short Films Come Into Their Own Where are the great British films? They're shorts, and these are some of the most interesting films being made today. "Short films are traditionally dismissed in industry circles as mere calling cards for young directors hoping to make full-length features. But there is a growing appreciation of shorts as an art form in their own right." The Times (UK) 03/20/03

Giving Back To The City "The Toronto International Film Festival Group announced yesterday that it had pumped $67-million into the economy in 2002, more than double the nearly $30-million the organization generated in 1993, the date of its last study of economic impact. In addition, the September film festival, widely considered second only to Cannes on the global stage, was responsible for $22.2-million in documented sales of four films, based on reports in trade papers such as Variety. However, the festival office says that sales figure is conservative, because a total of 41 films were sold, although not all prices are known." The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 03/19/03

A Rocky Road To Chicago Now that "Chicago" is a favorite for an Academy Award, those involved in the project are putting up a happy front. But the years it took to wrestle "Chicago" to the screen was a battle - stars and songs and collaborators and scripts coming and going... The New York Times 03/19/03

New York's Bid For The Movie Big Time New York is building a $150 million 15-acre movie studio complex in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. "Steiner Studios, named for the shopping center tycoons who are funding the mega-project out of their own pockets, promises to be in operation next year. Their hope is to regenerate a Gotham entertainment business that peaked back in 1998—when 221 films were shot in the city (compared with 180 last year) and the plans for the Brooklyn studio first emerged. But now, while producers, crews, and city officials agree that New York's film and TV infrastructure seriously needs a face-lift, there are doubts about whether our entertainment sector—already struggling with the flight of productions to cheaper locales—can sustain such an ambitious venture." Village Voice 03/18/03

Canadian Dramas Disappearing From TV A new report says that since the Canadian government loosened requirements for Canadian content on TV, "the number of hours devoted to English-language, Canadian-made dramas during peak hours has steadily dropped. Programming dollars have been diverted to non-drama programming, and Canadian dramas have been loaded into less important time periods and away from crucial November sweeps." This is a problem because "television drama is the most powerful cultural medium a nation has to reflect history, character and values. Our report clearly demonstrates that the current Canadian broadcasting system has all but abandoned this reflection." National Post 03/18/03

Upping The Violence Factor Violence in movies has escalated to higher levels than ever before. "Explicit film content ebbs and flows through the years. But lately, partly because of an influx of controversial imports, the flow has become a gush of blood. The standards of what can and can't be shown have been blasted away like a Peckinpah anti-hero. And not everyone thinks that's such a bad thing." Dallas Morning News 03/16/03

Why Canadian Dramas Are Disappearing Why are there fewer Canadian dramas on Canadian TV? "It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: Don't promote the shows, they don't get watched. No ratings result in no promotion. No ratings and no promotion means no program, except by regulatory fiat. The amount of disrespect that broadcasters such as CTV and Global have for their own Canadian programming extends to how they tend to schedule it — in so-called "shoulder periods" out of the primest primetime or on nights (Fridays and Saturdays) when audiences are smallest. Add to that how the networks bounce the series around to capitalize on simulcasts of their American acquisitions and the Canadian series don't stand a fighting chance." Toronto Star 03/18/03

The BBC - Power To The People Is the BBC "arrogant, unfairly subsidised, dumbed-down, imperialistic and creatively barren." Those are certainly the charges critics fling at Britain's national broadcaster. And now there's to be a major review of the corporation leading to its charter renewal in 2006. "So the past few months have seen the BBC launch a charm counter-offensive. If, as a columnist and media pundit, you turn around in the pub you find yourself facing a free drink wielded with intent by a top executive who will tell you of the wonderful highbrow things being made by his or her department..." The Observer (UK) 03/16/03

MUSIC
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Margaret Atwood Sees Her Word Turned Into Music Writer Margaret Atwood was suprised when she was approached with the idea of turning her book "The Handmaiden's Tale" into an opera. "I was aware of the problems the creators of the opera must have faced. The novel has much internal monologue: how would they handle that? How to convey the back-story to the plot? Would the costumes look not strange and ominous, but merely silly?" The Guardian (UK) 03/23/03

Happy Talk From The Podium It used to be that conductors proved themselves with their music. Nowadays, writes Sarah Bryan Miller, many conductors seem more at ease schmoozing with their audiences than showing insight in their music. "The younger ones, in particular, have grown up with the idea that they should be as comfortable chatting - on radio, on television, to an audience - as actually leading an orchestra. Besides, conductors are not, as a breed, short on ego. Nattering from the podium seems, for many of the more egregious practitioners, to be just another way of hogging the spotlight." St. Louis Post-Dispatch 03/23/03

The Sound Inside Your Head HyperSonic Sound is something entirely new in sound reproduction. It sounds like it's coming from inside your head. "It is no exaggeration to say that HSS represents the first revolution in acoustics since the loudspeaker was invented 78 years ago - and perhaps only the second since pilgrims used 'whispering tubes' to convey their dour messages." The New York Times 03/23/03

Winnipeg Sym Can't Make Payroll The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, which has been facing a severe cash crunch for many months, announced this weekend that it would not be able to make its Friday payroll. The orchestra is $800,000 in the hole for the current season, and may not be able to continue presenting concerts without a quick influx of donated cash. A $250,000 loan from the federal government has been approved, but the WSO won't get the money until it raises another $750,000 on its own. "The orchestra began the season with a $1.8-million accumulated deficit. Even if it gets the money it needs to finish the season, it expects to almost double the deficit to $3.3 million." Ottawa Citizen (CP) 03/21/03

• Winnipeg Musicians Will Play For Free The musicians of the cash-strapped Winnipeg Symphony have announced that they will continue to woprk, at least for the time being, despite not receiving paychecks on Friday. "You have to separate the issues," according to a spokesman for the musicians. "There's a long-term relationship with the audience... and the business issues." Canada.com (CP) 03/21/03

How Much Bailout Is Too Much For The ENO? "The beleaguered English National Opera is worth saving 'but not at any cost', the Arts Council of England has said at a meeting discussing ENO's cash troubles." The issue of whether the ENO 'deserves' a bailout is a delicate one, but some council members have been disgusted by revelations of finanial mismanagement and continuing fiscal irresponsibility at the company. At the very least, any bailout package from the Arts Council is likely to include stipulations that the ENO clean up its act, and provide evidence that it is doing so. BBC 03/21/03

UK Radio Follows Song Guidelines British radio stations are editing their playlists, avoiding songs that contain "offensive or insensitive material" during the war with Iraq. "We need to match the mood and tone of the nation, which seems to be changing on an hourly basis." BBC 03/21/03

Rattle At The Top Is there a bigger star in classical music than conductor Simon Rattle? "Rattle's career path has been a perfect, shooting-star arc from the National Youth Orchestra to Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra to his mould-breaking 10 years with the City of Birmingham Orchestra. At 48, he is very young to be a conductor of international repute and he remains, to many, the perennial high-achieving golden boy of British classical music. He certainly seems to be much too amiable and accommodating to have survived and thrived in one of the notoriously brittle areas of the arts." The Telegraph (UK) 03/21/03

English National Opera Settles With Chorus The chorus of the English National Opera has called off a threatened strike after making a deal with the company for layoffs. "Around one-sixth of the choristers have agreed to take voluntary redundancy, leaving a permanent chorus of 50." BBC 03/20/03

FileTraders - Throw 'Em In Jail, Says Congressman A Texas Republican Congressman suggests that the way to stop college students from downloading music is to put them in jail. "What these kids don't realize is that every time they pull up music and movies and make a copy, they are committing a felony under the United States code. If you were to prosecute someone and give them three years, I think this would act as a deterrent." Wired 03/19/03

The One-Hour "Carmen" The Welsh National Opera is producing a radical version of "Carmen." It's short - clocking in at about an hour long. "Its short span is not the only unusual thing about this production, which is currently on tour. It is also radically cheap - tickets cost £5 and £10 - and played at unfamiliar times. Performances are at 2.30pm and 6.15pm: the afternoon show is designed to allow visiting parties of kids to be back at the school gates by home-time, and the early-evening performance is aimed at an after-work crowd." Will this really tempt people to get the opera habit? The Guardian (UK) 03/20/03

Has English National Opera Chronically Lost Money? Management of the English National Opera have claimed that the company has lost millions of pounds over the past decade - "on average, £1m to £2m for nearly 10 years." The losses have been the company's justification for wanting layoffs and financial assistance from the government. But "analysis of the accounts show that between 1994 and 2000 the company was in surplus in every year but one, before falling back into the red. Last year, its worst since 1997 when it had to be bailed out with £9.2m from the Arts Council, it lost less than £600,000." The Guardian (UK) 03/19/03

• Can The English National Opera Be Saved? Members of the troubled English National Opera - threatened by layoffs - have some hope that their fortunes will improve. "Their cause is further boosted by the company's comic inability to communicate information in a timely, orderly and credible fashion. Statements are sent out and swiftly recalled; press briefings verge on the farcical. The verifiable fact that ENO is living beyond sustainable means is lost in transmission." But will striking save company jobs? No, writes Norman Lebrecht, "the grim truth about strikes in the arts: they never work." London Evening Standard 03/19/03

The Revolution Will Be Webcast Last week, one of the Dixie Chicks casually mentioned that she was rather ashamed of President Bush sharing her home state, and a furor erupted that has the Chicks' music being pulled from radio stations nationwide. With that kind of wild-eyed nationalism infecting the U.S., it's no wonder that protest songs are hardly in vogue among big stars at the moment. But they do exist - on the web. "From hip hop artists Chuck D and the Beastie Boys to veteran singer/songwriters such as John Mellencamp and Billy Bragg, a general distaste for political fare on commercial radio has lead them to the Web, where songs they've written to protest the looming war with Iraq are readily available for free." Toronto Star 03/19/03

Happy Ending After All in Colorado Less than a week after the beleaguered Colorado Springs Symphony dissolved itself in bankruptcy court, the musicians of the old CSSO joined with their old music director and a new board leadership of their choosing to form the new Colorado Springs Philharmonic. The executive director of the Phil will be Susan Greene, who had been dismissed from the same position at the CSSO a year ago, sparking angry questions from the musicians. Denver Post 03/18/03

Baltimore Symphony Facing Money Woes "Like a persistent virus, the economic downturn continues to infect musical organizations across the country. No immediate cure is in sight... The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's projected deficit for the current fiscal year has gone from $515,000, estimated last November, to $806,000 as of this month. Underlining the troubling financial picture is the fact that BSO management has unexpectedly opened up negotiations with the musicians, even though their contract, approved three years ago, doesn't expire until 2005. Neither side will provide details of these discussions, but it's clear that the orchestra is looking into every option, including possible financial concessions from the players, to stop the flow of red ink." Baltimore Sun 03/18/03

Of Goalies I Sing... Any doubt that opera is the high-art form of the moment? "The Czech National Theater said on Monday it was working on an opera to commemorate the surprise gold medal victory of the Czech men's Olympic ice hockey team in Nagano in 1998. 'It is a kind of modern Czech legend and operas have always been based on legends. We know it is an unusual motif but it is quite interesting and able to carry some kind of a musical form'." Yahoo! (Reuters) 03/18/03

Getting It Together To Sell Music Pretty much everyone agrees that digital copying of music isn't going to stop any time soon. And there's a growing consensus that the recording industry needs to "loosen up" if it wants to emerge with a viable business in the "rip, mix, burn" era. Finally tech companies and recording producers are getting together to explore nw ways of distributing and selling content. Village Voice 03/18/03

Musicians Looking To Reverse Decline Of Industry Fortunes As musicians gathered last week in Austin Texas for the South By Southwest Festival, there was a common theme running through the proceedings. "In panels and seminars, in casual conversation and passionate addresses, many insiders at SXSW seemed to be looking to the past for the values and integrity - in both making music and doing business - that will lead to a brighter future for an industry in decline." Boston Globe 03/17/03

PEOPLE
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Harvey's Way Harvey Weinstein is not a popular man in Hollywood. The Miramax cheif is known far and wide in the industry for being completely ruthless, infuriatingly single-minded, and unconcerned with such niceties as rules and taboos. He has been accused of trading favors and even cash for Oscar votes, but no one can deny that the strategy has worked. However, some in the business contend that Weinstein's constant overreaching and bullying PR campains on behalf of mediocre flicks are costing his studio's best films the recognition they deserve. Philadelphia Inquirer 03/23/03

Saatchi's New Showcase Collector and professional recluse Charles Saatchi will open a spectacular new public home for his vast collection of contemporary British art later this year, and early indications are that it will immediately become one of the UK's hottest art destinations. Its proximity to the Tate Modern is also sparking rumors of a not-so-friendly rivalry. But for every visitor who comes for the art, another will come to see if the gallery holds any revelations about the gruff and mysterious Saatchi himself. The Observer (UK) 03/23/03

Holmes To Head Atheneum Willard J. Holmes has been named director of Hartford's Wadsworth Atheneum. "Holmes, 54, is deputy director of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. His selection ends a five-month search begun after the surprise resignation of director Kate Sellers in October." Hartford Courant 03/21/03

Alagna And Gheorghiu Leave Met Opera Because Of War The husband-and-wife team of soprano Angela Gheorghiu and tenor Roberto Alagna have canceled their remaining performances of "Faust" at the Metropolitan Opera because of the war in Iraq. "They had war concerns and terrorism concerns." Nando Times (AP) 03/20/03

The Decline And Fall Of Wim Wenders Has director Wim Wenders hit bottom? Last week he was fired by his own production company. And "looking back over the past decade and then some, the director's exile from his own business operation seems less an aberration and more the latest bad news in what - the 'Buena Vista' movie aside - has been a relentless decline as a cinematic force." The Guardian (UK) 03/20/03

Portrait of a Patron It's not that most wealthy supporters of classical music don't like new and challenging works. It's just that, well, we all love our Beethoven, don't we, and so many of these young composers nowadays just insist on writing the most horrid, unlistenable stuff, and who wants to throw their money away on that? Kathryn Gould is an exception to the rule. An amateur musician and devoted lover of new music, she is pumping large amounts of her money into an effort to create a 'renaissance of new music' in Northern California. Her efforts will result in multiple high-profile performances of new works by orchestras around the Bay Area, at a time when most organizations are cutting back on commissioning. San Jose Mercury News 03/19/03

PUBLISHING
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing
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An Adult Cover-up For Harry So you love Harry Potter, but you feel kind of funny toting around a kid's book? Harry's publishers have the solution - two covers - one for kids, the other for adults. "Bloomsbury Publishers unveiled the designs Thursday. The adult edition of 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix' features a somber black and white picture of a phoenix, while the children's version of the boy wizard book is illustrated with a more vibrant red and orange bird rising from flames. Newsday (AP) 03/21/03

Struggling To Get By On $111 Million Profit The book business is good. At least good enough for superstore Barnes & Noble to earn $111 million profit in the fourth quarter of last year. But though that's up 32 percent from the previous year, the company's spin makes it seem like the company is barely getting by. "Barnes & Noble store sales were $1.2 billion for the quarter, an increase of 4 percent. Sales at stores open at least a year, known as same-store sales, fell 3 percent." Yahoo! (AP) 03/21/03

Book-Of-The-Month Club Going Global "The popularity of books tends not to cross borders as easily as movies and pop music. Many readers prefer homegrown writers and resist what could be called literary globalization." Still the Book of the Month Club is planning to launch a "global marketing initiative" for its selections. "For the first time, it's offering an International Book of the Month, recommending the same title to readers around the world." USAToday 03/21/03

Competing Against The Superstores When superstore bookseller Borders came to Carlton Australia, local independent bookstores feared business would go down 15-30 percent, as it has elasewhere where Borders entered the market. But after a few months business is down only one percent. Why? One theory is that there's a new kind of customer developing - the "neo-consumer." These are people who are looking for public spaces to connect with. "Many people are seeking a home away from home, a place to hang out, and they are finding it in cosy bookshops, cafes and bars." The Age (Melbourne) 03/21/03

Pasternak's House In Jeopardy "One of Russian literature's most famous houses, where the writer Boris Pasternak lived and composed his best work, including Dr Zhivago, will soon be 'ruined' by the construction of an estate of holiday homes opposite it, according to his relatives." The Guardian (UK) 03/20/03

Are British Readers Abandoning Newspapers? British newspapers are ailing. "Advertising revenue shows no signs of recovering after falling for the past two years, and the latest circulation figures suggest that nearly all titles have lost sales over the past year. Journalists are worrying about their jobs, and managers about the newspapers they manage. An article in the Economist suggests that the newspaper industry is in long-term decline, and that even those young people who can actually read are turning away from papers in increasing numbers. The sense of gloom is infectious." The Spectator 03/03

Shakespeare Was An Expert On How The Brain Works Modern studies of the brain suggest that Shakespeare had an intuitive understanding of how the brain works. "Modern studies have shown the more a word is used in conversation, the less the brain responds to it. Our neurones get tired of hearing it. You can see this effect in the electrical activity of the brain's word centres. They stop sparking so much. 'Shakespeare knew that intuitively. Hence the rich variety of his vocabulary and his use of unexpected words or odd combinations of them - for instance, comparing mercy with rainfall to keep us on our toes and interested and involved in what he was saying. Other examples include the use of phrases such as 'a muse of fire' or 'a quintessence of dust'. They are startling and unanticipated and keep us stimulated." The Guardian (UK) 03/16/03

Book Magazine Cuts Circulation To Survive When Book magazine made a deal with Barnes & Noble three years ago, its fortunes soared. "Over the next 18 months, circulation of Book rose to 1.2 million from 100,000." Its ad rates tripled. But the cost of putting out the magazine outstripped its success, and B&N reconsidered the venture. Now the magazine will be relaunched as Barnes & Noble Presents Book and its circulation will be drastically cut to 150,000. The New York Times 03/17/03

Serious Magazines Get Circulation Boost "Concerned over terrorism, a looming war in Iraq, and a sputtering economy, magazine readers are showing a new gravitas, boosting the circulations of text-intensive, highbrow magazines such as the Atlantic Monthly, Harper's and the New Yorker. Serious magazines saw circulations soar in the second half of 2002, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The Atlantic Monthly, published 10 times a year, saw a 5.1 percent increase to 529,834, and single-copy sales spiked 52.4 percent, the second-largest percentage increase in newsstand sales for general-interest magazines behind celebrity suck-up Us Weekly." Philadelphia Inquirer 03/16/03

Record Retail For Romance Novels While some book publishers are hurting with the down economy, the romance-novel business has never been better. Harlequin reports "a revenue increase of 3.5%, to C$618.1 million ($414 million), combined with better operating efficiencies to produce record operating profits of C$119.2 million ($80 million). The company's 4th quarter was particularly strong, "when revenue increased by 8.6%, to C$164 million, and operating profit jumped 31.7%, to C$30.8 million." Publishers Weekly 03/17/03

THEATRE
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre
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Theatre Of War "While pop music critics wonder at the dearth of anti-war anthems (the Beastie Boys' 'World Gone Mad' may be the first major exception) and films and non-news TV churn out their usual comfort-food diet, theatres nationwide are doing what theatre does best: awakening us to our present condition, with live bodies on the line, in real time and shared space, and challenging us to dialogue, reflection, even action." Backstage 03/21/03

Don't Look Back - Someone Could Be Gaining On You Since the advent of movies and the beginning of a culturally dominant film culture, theater aficionados have taken comfort in the old saw that the worst stage play is still better written, better acted, and better conceived than the best Hollywood dreck. But, says, Ed Siegel, that may no longer be the case. "This year should be a wake-up call for theater professionals and patrons alike. By any standards, this has been an extraordinary year in filmmaking and a yawningly ordinary one in theater." Boston Globe 03/23/03

Broadway Expecting War Woes "A battered Broadway's spring season officially begins March 27 with the arrival of Urban Cowboy, a musical based on the John Travolta-Debra Winger movie. And it could also be the start of even more uncertainty for Broadway theater if the war continues into April and beyond... Most in the industry expect some immediate negative impact, just as there was during the 1991 Gulf War. Already, a revival of August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, which had been struggling at the box office, will fold April 6, after a short, two-month run and a loss of $2.5 million." Baltimore Sun (AP) 03/21/03

Broadway - A Season Of Bad News? Some Broadway watchers are worrying about the health of area theatres. "Daily ticket sales have been sluggish all winter and everybody expects them to fall further now that war has started in Iraq. But yesterday several producers and theater owners were surprised that the plunge wasn't as precipitous as they had expected."
New York Post 03/21/03

Why Can't Opera People Leave Broadway Alone? What is it with opera stars that they aren't satisfied with their own extensive repertoire, and feel the need to try to belt out Broadway showtunes in their over-the-top, ridiculously stylized voices? David Patrick Stearns doesn't like it one bit, not even when the offender is as critically acclaimed a performer as Renee Fleming. "So what if operatic vocal amplitude overwhelms the words, rhythm, and any number of other things? It sounds so pretty!" Philadelphia Inquirer 03/19/03

Baz's Boheme Bubble May Be Bursting Baz Luhrmann's critically acclaimed staging of La Boheme may be in some unexpected trouble on Broadway. "Last week's gross receipts rang in at $590,000, just a fraction above the break-even of $550,000. According to Variety, "Boheme" grosses have been plunging tens of thousands of dollars every week since a high of $830,000 in February." Michael Riedel blames the show's lack of popularity on the unwillingness of Broadway fans to take a chance on anything more mind-stretching than John Waters's Hairspray. New York Post 03/19/03

The West End - For Better And Worse London's West End theatres offer the kind of dramatic range and diversity that Broadway can only dream of. The West End generates more than $2 billion of economic impact each year. About 12 million people attend West End productions every year, and there was a 3.2% rise in attendance last year - a remarkable statistic considering the current depressed states of the economy and tourism." Still, there are some problems, not the least of which is the shabby condition of West End theatres. Backstage 03/18/03

Lower Price = More Ticket Buyers For Sydney Theatres After dropping ticket prices for younger patrons, several Sydney theatre companies report record increases in ticket sales - as much as 400 percent at one theatre. Sydney Morning Herald 03/18/03

Watering Down The Broadway Product (And It Is Product) Touring Broadway shows use scaled down sets, smaller casts and smaller orchestras. The lower budgets make the touring possible. But there are artistic compromises, and even though audiences will pay to see smaller versions of Broadway shows, it would be a mistake to think that Broadway itself could scale down and hold its allure. "What's troubling about the settlement of the musicians' strike is that the top level of Broadway entertainment and artistry, the brand-name level, has been subject to a watering down that may eventually inform the expectations of an audience." The New York Times 03/18/03

VISUAL ARTS
http://www.artsjournal.com/visualarts
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Art & Auction Magazine Sold Louise Blouin MacBain, former CEO of auction house Phillips has bought struggling "Art & Auction" magazine from LVMH Moët Hennessey Louis Vuitton, with plans to "redesign the 25-year-old magazine and develop a sister newsletter on art market data and investment trends. She plans to nearly double the magazine's circulation of 22,000 over the next three months by expanding into Germany, France and England." Crains New York Business 03/23/03

The New Irish Architects "Paradoxically, despite the fact that architecture now seems more than ever to be dominated by that flying circus of the perpetually jet- lagged who get to build everything, architecture is one of those areas in which, given the right circumstances, the differences between the metropolitan and the provincial count for much less than they do in most other cultural forms. The new names that are beginning to attract international attention in architecture are as likely to be from Croatia, Iran or China and Ireland as they are from America or Japan." And now Irish architects are making their move. The Observer (UK) 03/23/03

California's Perpetual Museum-In-Progress The California African American Museum reopens this week after a $3.8 million renovation. This is good news, but the state's budget crisis has once again put the museum at risk. The CAAM was created 25 years ago, but it has never really had the opportunity to become financially stable, since a heavy reliance on wildly fluctuating state funding has kept it subserviant to the whims of politicians. The latest round of state cuts will see the museum's budget shrink by 35%, and the CAAM is scrambling to find ways to make up the difference. Los Angeles Times 03/23/03

Uncovering Vermeer Jan Vermeer is one of the great enigmas of the art world, and the dearth of real information about his life has only increased the popularity of his work in recent years. A new documentary attempts to tie together the scraps of biographical interest which have been unearthed over the years, and creates a more complete portrait of the Dutch master than any seen before. And while Vermeer's work tends to reflect quiet contentment, the filmmaker "argues that the artist imagined on canvas a vision of tranquility which eluded him in life." The Telegraph (UK) 03/22/03

Cops And Robbers And Broken Statues "Fragments of an ancient Roman statue of Apollo, illegally excavated several years ago near the Italian capital, were recovered in London, police said this week." The fragments were actually discovered in February, but the find was not announced until this week. Authorities had been searching for the artifacts for six years, and had pursued the thieves through at least four European nations. Two people have been arrested in connection with the discovery. The Globe & Mail (AP) 03/23/03

Ohio Museums Expand Despite a down economy, four museums in Ohio are embarking on big expansion projects. The Cleveland Museum of Art announced plans two months ago for a $225 million renovation and expansion, the Toledo Museum of Art is spending $27 million on a new, 47,000-square-foot center for glass art, in June, the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati will open its new $37-million Lois and Richard Rosenthal Center, designed by Zaha Hadid of London, and the Akron Museum is raising $34 million for an expandion. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 03/20/03

Dresden Old Masters Won't Be Returned Yet The director-general of Dresden’s 12 museums says he won't return Old Master paintings from the reserve collection to the refurbished store of the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister. The storage area was flooded last year when the River Elbe and its tributaries broke their banks and a new storage facility is not likely to be built soon. The Art Newspaper 03/17/03

Steal-To-Order Ring At Australian Museum? An investigation into the theft of tens of thousands of objects from the Australian Museum suggests that many of the artifacts may have been stolen from the museum's mail room. "The Independent Commission Against Corruption, which has recovered a 'substantial amount' of items pilfered from the mammals collection, is looking at the possibility that a steal-to-order racket, with foreign links, has been operating at the museum and some zoos for years." Sydney Morning Herald 03/21/03

Boston Museum of Fine Arts Cancels Catalog At its peak, Boston's Museum of Fine Arts shops catalog generated $3.5 million a year. "In this age of the museum mall, cultural institutions have come to increasingly rely on income from exhibit-related products. The MFA's gift magazine is designed to compete with the Pottery Barn, L. L. Bean, and Sundance catalogs. MFA officials say the museum's stores continue to do well, but the catalog has struggled." In 2001 the museum's retail enterprises were spun off into a private company...and lost $2.9 million in its first year. So the museum is canceling this spring's catalog. Boston Globe 03/20/03

Albertina Museum Gets A Redo Vienna's Albertina Museum has just reopened after a $100 million facelift to rave reviews. "Although this tradition-bound Viennese institution houses one of the world's premier collections of graphic art, spanning artists from Michelangelo to Egon Schiele, it has never generated much public interest." The New York Times 03/20/03

Aussie Police Recover Thousands Of Stolen Artifacts In Raid In a series of raids, Australian police have recovered thousands of items stolen from the Australian Museum. "The items include precious skulls, bones, rare species in jars of formaldehyde and even a stuffed gorilla." A former museum worker is being questioned, and thousands of items have been returned to the museum. They were stolen from the museum between 1996 and 1998.
Sydney Morning Herald 03/20/03

Gagosian Vs. The IRS New York Larry Gagosian is jousting with the Internal Revenue Service on two front. He's is under investigation for his dealings with tax cheat Sam Waksal. And he's suing the IRS over tax claims the government is making over three painting. New York Post 03/19/03

• IRS After Gagosian "In a civil lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, prosecutors accused Gagosian, the Gagosian Gallery and three other men of failing to pay taxes on the 1990 sale of 58 works of art that earned $17 million in taxable gains." NJ.com (AP) 03/19/03

"Saving" Art In Britain - Is This A New Definition Of Save? Yet another important painting in Britain is apparently "in danger" of being sold abroad. And another campaign is mounted to raise money to "save" it. "This rhetorical flourish is becoming commonplace in Britain. Our public galleries are so strapped for cash that barely a week goes by without an appeal being launched to 'save' some work for the nation, or some top aesthete bending the knee before Lottery paymasters for lolly to keep something beautiful from leaving this country. This rhetoric may be to an extent justified by the parlous state of public funding for the arts, but it does raise suspicions that the principles underlying these claims are sometimes questionable." The Guardian (UK) 03/20/03

Should Artists' Estates Be Protected For The World? The estates of Francis Bacon and Andre Breton are currently in danger of being broken up and sold. "Our instinct cries out to protect the 'integrity' of such inheritances by keeping them together. But is that justified? Should the state, as it does in France, have a say? Or should great art have a life of its own when its creator dies, beyond the control of its maker and his loved ones?" London Evening Standard 03/18/03

Right Project At The Right Time Ada Louise Huxtable is a fan of the winning design for the World Trade Center site. "The design by Daniel Libeskind is not about death and destruction, as some have feared; it is an original and eventful reconstruction of the World Trade Center site that brings the architecture of the 21st century to New York, where it has been sadly and shamefully lacking. Even as we preserve that tragic pit and its sustaining wall, they will become the source of new life. But this will happen only if the spotlight stays relentlessly on the rebuilding process, and if we do not lose the urgent sense of necessity and inevitability that has brought us this far." OpinionJournal.com 03/19/03

Finalists For UK Museum Of The Year Four English museums have been shortlisted for the first £100,000 Gulbenkian Prize for museum innovation. Finalists include London's Natural History Museum and The Discovery Point in Dundee, the galleries of Justice in Nottingham and Rotherham's Clifton Park Museum. BBC 03/18/03

Going Bust On Blockbusters Appreciating art at blockbuster art shows has gotten near impossible. "As with any blockbuster you can't linger too long and you have to expect big crowds. But does there come a point when the crowds are too big, the jostling too irritating and the noise too distracting for any real enjoyment, let alone serious appreciation? To judge from the letters column of this paper this week, that point has been reached." The Independent (UK) 03/15/03

This Year's Maastricht - A Harder Sell War fears loom over this year's Maastricht Art Fair. "Traditionally this small Dutch city has been an annual mecca for serious collectors from all over the world. But officials here report that attendance at this, the world's largest art fair, will be down about 10 percent from last year. There are far fewer blockbusters than in recent years. Not only are great works of art getting harder to find, but often when dealers do have something extraordinary, they tend to hide it away during bad economic times, afraid that if it doesn't sell, it will become overexposed and therefore less desirable. Dealers definitely seemed to be holding back this year."
The New York Times 03/18/03

Bush Tax Plan Threatens Historic Preservation Incentives Tax credits for preserving historic buildings and building low-income housing have resulted in the rehab of tens of thousands of buildings in America. "These credits help make historic rehab and low-income housing projects viable for profit-minded developers who might otherwise opt for less risky ventures." But "despite the fact that they have helped stabilize neighborhoods, create businesses and jobs, and boost tax revenues in small towns and big cities alike, these incentives are in danger of being marginalized by a current White House proposal." OpinionJournal.com 03/18/03