Michelle Obama's "jazz studio" in the White House last Monday, June 15, got me thinking again about her role in creating more interest in the arts, which I last wrote about here.  Somebody's got to help us do it: the need for constant support for and promotion of the arts was underscored a couple of hours after the jazz event, when the National Endowment for the Arts released its arts participation study. It showed arts participation dropping, almost across the board. I figure that the more visibility Mrs. Obama's efforts … [Read more...]

Just catching up with the Americans for the Arts convention in Seattle this week, I discovered that it made a terrific award on Thursday, the "Public Art Network" award, to artist Buster Simpson. Simpson, a Seattleite, has so many credits to his name -- shows, projects, awards, panels, books, etc. -- that it's hard to pick one or two to talk about. Rather, I suggest looking for yourself at his website. But here's Incidence, from the Museum of Glass in Tacoma.  Giving the award, Robert L. Lynch, president of Americans … [Read more...]

Back in early May, writing about the way humanities are viewed nowadays, here, I mentioned that the National Endowment for the Humanities had started a program called "Enduring Questions," offering grants of up to $25,000 (and said I'd return to the subject). Here's what it aimed to do: Enduring Questions [is] a new grant program that encourages faculty and undergraduate students to grapple with the most fundamental concerns of the humanities by reading influential thinkers past and present. The winners -- 20 colleges in … [Read more...]

It's been a while, I think, since painting was declared dead yet again -- witness, for example, reports coming from Art Basel earlier this week, where recent paintings by the likes of Neo Rauch were selling well (if at prices below last year's). Museums are loaded with great contemporary painting exhibitions this summer -- not just the Bacon retrospective at the Met or Cy Twombly at the Art Institute of Chicago.   This Saturday, June 20, the Phillips Collection in Washington opens one worth … [Read more...]

Disingenuous, adj.: 1) not straightforward; not candid or frank; insincere; 2) slyly deceptive or misleading, typically by means of a pretense of ignorance or unawareness.   That's from Webster's New World College Dictionary, 4th Ed., and that's the word I thought of when I read, in today's New York Times that in announcing cost reductions at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum* yesterday, director Richard Armstrong "emphasized [that] no exhibitions have been canceled."   Interesting, because the Guggenheim had signed up to be the … [Read more...]

The results from Chicago are in: From Apr. 15 - June 15, presumed opera-lovers have paid $1 per vote to choose which of three operas they'd like to see performed during the Chicago Opera Theater's 2011 season. The winner is Shostakovich's Moscow, Cheryomushki. The COT raised $33,000 in the effort. This was the second annual "People's Opera" contest, which I wrote about here in March. Last year, the COT raised $40,000 (both totals include a $16,000 matching grant). COT may be disappointed … [Read more...]

Well, that's what the official closing report from Art Basel says. When the fair closed on Sunday, some 61,000 people -- plus 2,800 journalists -- had attended, officials say. That's up slightly from last year's total and the highest ever. Other constants of Basel: the quality remained high; many of the 300 dealers "curated" their booths with themes or solo shows, and sales were good. Some dealers said they were pleasantly surprised with unexpected sales, others had "solid results," another were joyful about the results -- though none … [Read more...]

Dartmouth College has just announced that it has received a $50 million gift, the largest in its history, to build a new visual arts center on campus. What a contrast from Brandeis, in Waltham, MA, which has grown infamous for its announcement earlier this year that it planned to shut its Rose Art Museum. Brandeis lies only 135 miles from Dartmouth, in Hanover, N.H. Worse, in announcing the gift, which was made anonymously, Dartmouth President James Wright said: Arts are at the heart of a liberal arts education, and have always been … [Read more...]

Put this away for a rainy day if you like; it's not new, but it's fun. That's what I did, anyway. New York, for most of these past two weeks, has been drizzly, gloomy and cool. So I spent more time inside. Rummaging around my computer, I discovered an email I sent myself about two years ago about something called Phillips Art Expert. The site is an unabashed commercial for the art market connected with Phillips de Pury, the auction house. The fun part is under a tab called "Games Gallery." There, you can … [Read more...]

While at MASS MoCA last Saturday, I stopped in at the new Kidspace, a nine-year-old collaboration with the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute and the Williams College Museum of Art that moved to new premises in late March. On view is CRIBS by Matthew Bua, an installation that features a crib crammed with detritus, found paintings, vacation slides, gloves, and 50 guitars rescued from the streets of New York, and other junk.  But there were no kids in Kidspace when I was there -- just two adult … [Read more...]