ARTS ISSUES
http://www.artsjournal.com/artsissues
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Berlin Slashes Away At Its Cultural Support "Since the 18th century almost every German city has had a subsidised theatre, opera and orchestra. In Berlin the local authority spends up to €200 (£141) on each theatre or concert hall seat every year whether filled or not. But the city can no longer afford it. With debts of nearly €50bn, the city is effectively bankrupt." So it is slashing its culture budget, laying off arts workers and reigning in expenditures on the city's arts, to the anguished cries of artists and citizens. The Guardian (UK) 07/29/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/artsissues/redir/20030728-27119.html
Towards A New Cultural Manifesto Max Wyman spent 35 years as a critic at the Vancouver Sun before retiring. Now he's working on a manifesto intended to suggest a new relationship between government and the arts. "Intended as a tool kit of public debate, the manifesto calls for a new cultural contract between government and the governed. Its central thrust is the belief that culture, like health and education, is not only an unassailable human right but essential to the social and ethical well-being of society -- and should be fostered and funded appropriately." Vancouver Sun 07/27/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/artsissues/redir/20030728-27115.html
MEDIA
http://www.artsjournal.com/media
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Digging Up The Past, Hollywood Style The new Lara Croft movie is out, and though it's James Bondian bent makes it more action movie than archaeological thriller, Croft does play a fantasy archaeologist. So Archaeology Magazine had an archaeologist review the film. His verdict? "For all its entertainment value, there's nothing here of any redeeming value in terms of archaeology." Archaeology 07/24/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/media/redir/20030728-27117.html
MUSIC
http://www.artsjournal.com/music
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Day-Oh... Opera Company Presents Pop Concerts To Raise Money With a deficit of $1.3 million and a $6.5 million budget to feed, Atlanta Opera needs to raise serious cash. How? "When the Atlanta Opera recently announced plans to present pops concerts - concurrent with its main opera season - it seemed to highlight the staggering difficulties ahead." Atlanta Journal-Constitution 07/27/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20030728-27118.html
PEOPLE
http://www.artsjournal.com/people
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Critical Memories Frank Rizzo remembers two theatre critics. "The theater world this month lost two distinguished critics who enlightened their readers as well as decades of theater artists. Boston's Elliot Norton, dean of American drama critics, died July 20 at the age of 100. Closer to home, Markland Taylor, who wrote for the New Haven Register and Variety, died in his home in Southbury on July 6. He was 67. Both were great influences, especially to this theater lover." Hartford Courant 07/27/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/people/redir/20030729-27121.html
PUBLISHING
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing
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NYC Libraries Beg For Money New York City libraries are seeing their budgets slashed and their services to the public cut. So "for the first time, neighborhood branches are putting out donation boxes, in a desperate effort to offset budget cuts that mean 3,000 fewer books a year for each branch, reduced hours of operation and interminable waits for best sellers." New York Daily News 07/29/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing/redir/20030729-27123.html
What A New Editor Might Mean To NYT Cultural Coverage So will New York Times' coverage of culture change under new exective editor Bill Keller? He's said to have a healthy interest in culture and can be expected to take it seriously. He "takes over with a Raines-named troika newly in charge of the NYT’s cultural coverage. In October 2002, former foreign correspondent Steven Erlanger was anointed culture editor; in January of this year, cultural kahuna Frank Rich was given even more power; and, just two weeks later, 28-year-old Jody Kantor, the New York editor for the online magazine Slate, was named editor of Arts & Leisure." LAWeekly 07/25/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing/redir/20030728-27116.html
THEATRE
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre
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Royal Shakespeare's Business Leader Quits The Royal Shakespeare Company's managing director Chris Foy has quit the company. He was seen as the force behind the company's unpopular structural moves in the past few years. "Some theatre insiders acknowledged Mr Foy's talent but felt the moment was right to call time on the management 'gobbledegook' of business involvement in the arts." The Guardian (UK) 07/29/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre/redir/20030729-27120.html
Is Minnesota Fringe America's Largest? "In 1994, the Minnesota Fringe Festival was a scruffy amalgam of 50-some shows spread over a week at a half-dozen venues on the West Bank of the University of Minnesota. This year, the Fringe boasts individuals and groups from throughout the state, across the country and around the world staging 162 shows — a total of 783 performances — over 10 days on 20 stages flung across Minneapolis. For the last couple of years, the Minnesota Fringe has claimed the title of The Largest Fringe Festival in the Country, a figure few -dispute." St. Paul Pioneer-Press 07/27/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre/redir/20030728-27114.html
Guthrie Posts Another Budget Surplus Minnesota's "Guthrie Theatre eked out its seventh consecutive operating surplus during the 2002-03 fiscal year, in which season subscriptions and total attendance declined and the value of the theater's endowment plummeted by more than $8.5 million." St. Paul Pioneer-Press 07/28/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre/redir/20030728-27113.html
VISUAL ARTS
http://www.artsjournal.com/visualarts
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Painterly Projections "One of the National Gallery's most extraordinary paintings, Jan van Eyck's Portrait of Arnolfini and His Wife, is at the centre of an increasingly ugly debate between scientists over whether the Flemish artist employed optical projections to help him paint it." The Telegraph (UK) 07/29/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20030729-27122.html
Why Christo And Central Park Are Made For Each Other A former New York City parks commissioner who denied permission for Christo to stage his "Gates" project in Central Park 22 years ago explains why he thinks the project is now a good idea. "Now there is both a time and a place for Christo and his 'Gates.' Now they cannot hurt the park or distract us, as they surely would have in 1981, from our duty to preserve and maintain it forever. 'The Gates' will visit the park briefly, like the New York City Marathon, which wends through and terminates there, or Joe Papp's Shakespeare in the Park at the open-air Delacorte Theater. And its colorful, whimsical embrace of the restored landscape will make us stare, laugh, gasp, prance, gawk, and say, to no one in particular, 'Isn't the park wonderful. . . . Isn't New York amazing'." OpinionJournal.com 07/22/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20030728-27112.html
The New Museum Playgrounds There was a time when museums were viewed as institutions of contemplative learning. No more. "Contemporary museums can often seem more like attention- grabbing playgrounds and amusement parks than the glass-cased, heavily labeled temples of old. Now, if a child or reasonably game adult doesn't get his senses bombarded, his hands and/or feet soaked and clothing streaked with some foreign substance at a museum, he might as well have stayed home and surfed the information-crammed Internet." San Francisco Chronicle 07/18/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20030728-27111.html
