Visual Arts

Chapmans: We Don't Welcome Casual Attention Now that the Chapman Brothers have been shortlisted for this year's Turner Prize, a wider audience is sure to be examining their work. The inevitable casual examinations of their work isn't exactly a good thing, they say. "The reason I say that is not because I intend to offend people who have a casual encounter with art because casual encounters can be very rewarding and interesting. But I'm obsessed with countering the idea that it's necessary to those people's lives and the necessity is brought to bear by people who have an institutional interest in art." BBC` 05/30/03
Posted: 06/02/2003 8:08 am

• Just Who Are The Chapmans? "The Chapman brothers are the best-known of the shortlisted artists, and recently hit the headlines for adding comical and grotesque faces to Goya etchings. Their work is often restricted to adult viewings because of its content, and they took part in 1997's Sensation exhibition with dolls with penises instead of noses." BBC 05/30/03
  Posted: 06/02/2003 8:03 am

In The Middle East - War Destroying Valuable History War in the Middle East is destroying some of the region's most historic buildings. In Israel, "the damage to Nablus was awesome. The town was founded by the Romans in about 70AD - it's about the same age as London - and it became an important Crusader town and, later, a trading centre for the Ottoman Empire. Buildings from these eras survive - or did, until a few months ago. Over 100 important historical buildings just aren't there any more. Nablus was the most important historic town in the Middle East, and it has been devastated." The Guardian (UK) 06/02/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 10:37 pm

Protecting Art To Death? Blake Gopnik and the Hirshorn's Ned Rifkin talk about how museums protect artwork. "Is it possible that museums are actually too eager to preserve their art? That preservation, in a sense, has become fetishized to the point where it can detract from the art experience, rather than serving it? How should a museum strike a balance between protection and presentation?" Washington Post 06/01/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 9:58 pm

How Artists Represent America "When the Vennice Biennale opens to the public in two weeks, Fred Wilson will be America's artist. His $650,000 show, titled 'Speak of Me As I Am' and organized by the curator Kathleen Goncharov of the List Visual Arts Center at M.I.T., will scrutinize some longstanding American themes — immigration and integration — but will view them through Venetian history." So how was it decided that Mr. Wilson would represent us? A panel of course... The New York Times 06/01/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 9:54 pm

Body Of Work - Photographer Jailed For Pictures Of Dead People In Ohio, Thomas Condon "photographed corpses juxtaposed with various objects signifying the cycle of life and death. Some of the confiscated negatives were mysteriously leaked to the local press, inciting a public furor as relatives of the deceased and local pundits denounced Mr. Condon's project as 'sick' and 'repulsive'. Despite support from civil libertarian groups like the National Coalition Against Censorship, Mr. Condon was convicted and imprisoned from April to August 2002, after which he was released pending appeal. Now a state appeals court has affirmed his conviction, meaning he may face another 13 months in jail." The New York Times 06/01/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 6:37 pm

Music

NY Philharmonic To Move To Carnegie Hall Forty years after it left for Lincoln Center, the New York Philharmonic plans on moving back to Carnegie Hall. "The move would give Carnegie Hall the oldest orchestra in the country and deprive Lincoln Center of the first cultural institution established there. For the Philharmonic, going to Carnegie Hall means it can exchange the flawed acoustics of Avery Fisher Hall for a stage of undisputed sound quality, without having to foot the bill for a costly renovation. It would also turn the orchestra, now led by Lorin Maazel, from a rent-paying tenant into a managing partner." The New York Times 06/02/03

• NY Philharmonic Move - What Will Happen To Lincoln Center? "The Philharmonic's decision to leave comes on the heels of New York City Opera's proposal to leave Lincoln Center, too, for a new site at ground zero. Simultaneously, the weak economy has forced Lincoln Center's new management team to scale back plans drastically for the institution's redevelopment — a project now expected to cost less than a third of the $1.5 billion originally projected." The New York Times 06/02/03

• Musically, NY Phil Move Makes Sense "Musically, the issues are straightforward: the Philharmonic has always had complaints about the acoustics at Avery Fisher Hall. The principal criticism is that sound onstage does not allow the sections of the orchestra to hear one another adequately. That, in turn, affects the performance heard by the audience. Visiting orchestras have supported the Philharmonic's criticisms." The New York Times 06/02/03

Classical Music: Reports Of My Death...Are WRONG! Stories abound about how classical music is sinking into obscurity - death, even. But "in the things that matter most, classical music is actually healthier than for decades." The evidence, writes one critic, is compelling. "For a start, London is more than ever the uncontested classical capital of the world, with some 20 professional orchestras and five music colleges. Many of the world's great soloists choose to make their home there, as do home-grown musicians in great quantity and quality. In 1985, for example, the Association of British Orchestras had just 12 members; now it has 50. Up to half of this growth has come from new orchestras." The Economist 05/30/03

Met Broadcasts - Stripping The Theatre Out Of Opera? So the Metropolitan Opera's radio broadcasts are endangered. That is sad news, writes John Rockwell. But along with the many benefits the broadcasts have produced, they have also distorted Americans' sense of (and taste for) opera. Onne might suggest that "millions of American opera lovers have been tilted toward a perception of opera as a voice-driven auditory experience. For them, the best stage production is imaginary: it doesn't so much adhere to the intentions of the composer as remain neutrally compatible with a listener's own made-up stage pictures. And in the comfortable confines of the home or the car, the music is usually heard without libretto or titles, as a sensual experience in melody, harmony and a foreign tongue." The New York Times 06/01/03

Florida Orchestra In The Red The Florida Orchestra (Tampa) is projecting a $600,000 deficit when its books close later this month. "The orchestra, with a budget of $8.5-million, launched a campaign in April to raise $500,000 to match a grant of $500,000 from anonymous donors for a total of $1-million. The campaign has been a success." St. Petersburg Times 06/01/03

Last Vinyl: End Of An Era Britain's last chain of vinyl record shops has gone out of business. "The chain ran 40 shops in its 1980s heyday, mostly in the north-west and East Anglia but covering the whole country. In recent years it has been the only indy rival to the big multiples like Virgin and HMV." The Guardian (UK) 05/31/03

Arts Issues

Can Cultural Development Rejuvenate A City? There's an idea that culture can be used to "revive declining places, and the idea of urban living in general." But does it really work? "The origins of this vigorous, commercially-driven view of culture in cities are in the wider free-market revolution of the 70s and 80s. Large, abandoned city buildings have been converted into cultural facilities at least since the French Revolution, when artists took over empty churches and mansions. But the idea that such conversions should be centrepieces of urban renewal only took root, in Britain at least, with the discovery of the 'inner city' as a political issue in the late 70s and the growing official reluctance to address its problems through more traditional, and expensive, social reforms." The Guardian (UK) 06/02/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 10:19 pm

US To Rejoin UNESCO - A Move To Try To Dominate Cultural Policy? Surprising just about everyone last fall, the Bush administration decided the US should rejoin UNESCO, the United Nations cultural agency. "The American contribution will be the first since 1984, when the US withdrew in protest against mismanagement, corruption, and Third World bias." How to interpret the move? "A careful analysis of statements made by administration officials and other politicians reveals that far from being a move towards multilateral collaboration, the decision to rejoin the organisation is seen by the Bush administration as simply another weapon in the US war on terror." The Art Newspaper 05/30/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 10:03 pm

Montana Transfers Arts Money To Fund Emergency Medical Communications System Just as the Montana state legislature was closing its session, it passed an amendment that canceled $100,000 from the Montana Arts Council budget and transfered it to fund an emergency medical communications system.
Montana Standard 05/30/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 5:57 pm

Florida Fallout From Arts Cuts After the Florida legislature hacked down the state's arts budget, "all across South Florida, arts groups are tallying their potential losses, which range from $1,500 to more than $500,000 per year. The fallout will include delayed construction projects, reduced services and, perhaps most damaging in the long run, cutbacks in educational programs for children. 'We can no longer count on state arts funds as a part of our annual operating budget. Because the grants are non-recurring and the trust funds are eliminated, we would do ourselves a fiscal disservice to rely on the state'." South Florida Sun-Sentinel 06/01/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 5:43 pm

The "Art Of Everything" School " The Orange County Regisert's new arts columnist writes that art is everywhere: "Whether we realize it or not, art is all around us. From the purple, inflated gorilla grinning atop a Dodge dealership along the Garden Grove (22) Freeway to murals in downtown Santa Ana, Huntington Beach and Laguna to the big, red 'A' that lights up after an Angels win, aesthetic images surround us. The trick is taking the time to see. We may think of some of these as eyesores more than art, and we may bemoan the lack of 'real' culture here in Southern California, Orange County in particular. But the truth is, the rest of the country - and the world - looks in our direction when they talk about the cutting edge of artistic and visual production." Orange County Register 06/01/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 5:15 pm

Theatre

The Best Theatre In America Where is the best theatre in America? Not on Broadway. "Local audiences are getting a better taste of the possibilities of theater than most New Yorkers get in an entire season. The plays that succeed on and off Broadway these days are, as a rule, small things: two-and three-character relationship dramas (those big casts cost money!); minimalist exercises in craftsmanship; tidy little plays that convert big subjects into manageable private dramas. Plays of epic size and scope, works that examine American history and the American experience, plays that attempt to engage the audience in social and political issues — for those, mostly, you've got to look in the hinterlands." Time 06/02
Posted: 06/01/2003 10:45 pm

• What Becomes A Great Theatre? Time's list of best regional theatre prompts Frank Rizzo to wonder what makes a great theatre. "To me, a great theater engages an audience in a way that lingers well past the time theatergoers make it to the parking lot after a show. A great theater does the classics, but it also understands it is not a museum and must present them in a way that is vital, elegant or challenging. A great theater presents works of new voices, not just in a marginal way. A great theater knows how to attract a great audience, one that will stick by it as it attempts the extraordinary. A great theater is as hungry for the new, young audience member as it is interested in retaining loyal supporters. A great theater reflects the world around it, and that begins with its community. A great theater also knows the difference between art and pretension, knows that you don't have to pander to be accessible, and knows the distinction between a small show and a cheap one." Hartford Courant 06/01/03
  Posted: 06/01/2003 10:39 pm

Cirque's New Erotic Show Cirque du Soleil is moving beyond family entertainment, producing a new erotic show for Las Vegas. "The R-rated 'Zumanity' is being billed as 'a provocative exhibition of human sensuality, arousal and eroticism.' In addition to traditional theatre seats and bar stools, couples will be able to purchase tickets for two-person love seats and sofas to enjoy the show more intimately. Fifty dancers, acrobats, clowns and musicians are rehearsing in secret at the Cirque du Soleil's Montreal headquarters in preparation for the Aug. 14 premiere." National Post (Canada) 06/01/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 6:30 pm

Publishing

Scholastic Lays Off 400 - Just Before Harry Comes Out The publisher Scholastic is laying off 400 employees on the eve of publishing the new Harry Potter. "Scholastic has been steadily tightening its financial belt since the beginning of the calendar year, following a terrible January when sales were particularly weak in the company's trade and school book club divisions. In March, it announced for the second time in two months that sales and earnings in fiscal 2003 would not meet expectations. Scholastic has been hurt by the sluggish general economy and state budget pressures that have cut back school and library funding." Publishers Weekly 06/02/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 11:29 pm

BookExpo: Lookign For The Next Big Thing "During this year's four-day BookExpo America, which ended Sunday at the Los Angeles Convention Center, the hunt was on for the next 'The Lovely Bones,' the debut novel and publishing sensation by Long Beach writer Alice Sebold, who was a breakout star at last year's BookExpo in New York. In Los Angeles, the gathering drew more than 25,000 booksellers, librarians, publishers and others who traded the latest industry news (John Grisham's next novel, about a high school football team in Texas, is due in September) and gathered up the giveaways. (Only supremely disciplined book lovers kept walking past the stacks of free books cluttering the aisles.) Part of the fun was to pluck a jewel from the 20,000 titles being unveiled." Los Angeles Times 06/02/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 11:06 pm

Media

FCC Relaxes Media Ownership Rules The FCC has relaxed controls on media ownership. "The Republican-controlled Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 - along party lines - to adopt a series of changes favored by media companies. These companies argued that existing ownership rules were outmoded on a media landscape that has been substantially altered by cable TV, satellite broadcasts and the Internet. Critics say the eased restrictions would likely lead to a wave of mergers landing a few giant media companies in control of even more of what the public sees, hears and reads." The New York Times (AP) 06/02/03
Posted: 06/02/2003 9:27 am

Will The FCC Permit Big Media Control Of The Internet? "It's not alarmist, given the plain-as-day trajectory of policies - including the FCC's own recent actions - to suggest that the Net's promise is in jeopardy. A few giant media and telecommunications companies could well grasp full control of the Net. Earlier this year, the FCC gave U.S. regional phone companies the right to control access to their high-speed data pipes. This basically mirrored earlier policies allowing the cable companies, which also created networks by getting government-granted monopolies, to refuse to share access to their lines. In other words, U.S. high-speed data access will soon be under the thumb of two of the most anti-competitive industries around." San Jose Mercury News 06/01/03
Posted: 06/02/2003 8:46 am

FCC Seems Determined To Deregulate Media Ownership "Despite massive opposition, it looks like the Federal Communications Commission will approve relaxing regulations on media ownership. "The proposed changes are such a threat to First Amendment freedoms that even some Republicans on Capitol Hill have been brave enough to oppose them. And yet, a fat lot of good it does. FCC Chairman Michael Powell wants to plow ahead with his deregulation scheme no matter what. It appears he is trying to do more damage than any other chairman in FCC history." Washington Post 06/02/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 11:24 pm

Pining For The Days Of Greater Media Regulation? "Recently, even at the biggest conglomerates, where deregulation is an article of faith, some executives have professed a certain nostalgia for a more restrictive era. From the libertarian-minded media investor John C. Malone to Donald E. Graham of the Washington Post Company, executives in television, radio, music, newspapers and cable TV have started to talk about the unintended consequences of two decades of deregulation and to ask for new rules, setting the stage for battles in Congress and the courts." The New York Times 06/02/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 10:34 pm

Free Radio, Free Spectrum? Should radio frequencies be auctioned off as property? Or, since technology has improved and "smart" radios can pick up stations more efficiently, should the whole licensing approach be rethought? "Technology may thus help to create markets; but it also makes some of them obsolete. In this case it has turned land into sea, metaphorically speaking. To draw a historical parallel: the development of better ships did not lead to parcelling up the world's oceans but to something called free trade." The Economist 05/30/03
Posted: 06/01/2003 10:10 pm