San Diego Museum To Return Stolen Art The San Diego Museum of Art is returning a painting believed to have been stolen from a Mexican church four years ago. "The trafficking of stolen artworks concerns all of us – museums, scholars, and the public at large. This is an example of how the museum and trustees really want to do the right thing." San Diego Union-Tribune 12/08/04
Posted: 12/08/2004 8:49 am
Carvings Damaged By Taliban Go Back On Display "A collection of pre-Islamic wooden idols chopped up by the Taliban in 2001 in their drive for a pure Muslim state is back on display in Afghanistan after being restored in a project financed by the Austrian government. The near life-sized idols, some bearing at least a passing resemblance to the mysterious stone statues of Easter Island, went on display this week at the Kabul Museum, which was badly ravaged in Afghanistan's civil war and Taliban rule until 2001." WebIndia (ANI) 12/09/04
Posted: 12/08/2004 8:45 am
Vandals Deface Norwegian Sculpture "The centerpiece of Norway's famed Vigeland sculpture park, the Monolith, may have suffered permanent damage after the lowest section was spray-painted black. A crew from a maintenance company removed the black paint on Tuesday and the Vigeland Museum is still not sure how much the incident will cost them." Aftenposten (Norway) 12/08/04
Posted: 12/08/2004 7:50 am
Crete Islanders Pool Resources For El Greco Residents of the island of Crete are banding together hoping to buy a painting by El Greco that is up for auction. "He is the most important person Crete has ever produced. It upsets us that ... so many think he is from Spain." The Guardian (UK) 12/08/04
Posted: 12/07/2004 10:29 pm
Winnipeg Royalty Storms LA Winnipeg's Royal Art Lodge is an artist collective that's getting some big traction outside the Coldest City In The World. "Usually one artist will start a drawing, throw it in a pile, and then others contribute, amend, appropriate, thus embarking on an ongoing dialogue until either a work reveals itself or is appropriately disposed of. 'At the beginning of a meeting, I generally like to start drawings or paintings and then later on when my mind is working better I switch to finishing them. For me, there’s definitely more satisfaction in finishing. The works develop in a lot of different ways, but usually it is a lot easier to start a work than to finish one'." LA Weekly 12/02/04
Posted: 12/07/2004 7:49 pm
Branding Dali In Philly The Philadelphia Museum of Art is hosting the first SWalvador Dali retrospective in the US since 1941. "The exhibition will comprise 200 works, including some of Dalí's famous surrealist canvases. It will showcase the artist's works as a painter, sculptor, writer, designer of ballets, filmmaker, theorist and publicist. If you don't know Salvador Dalí, you will. Philadelphia will have Dalí banners, Dalí bus-wraps, Dalí window displays, a Dalí trolley, and lots else Dalí. The plan is to spread the excitement and economic impact citywide, creating an event people can participate in - and spend dollars on - even if they never set foot in the show." Philadelphia Inquirer 12/05/04
Posted: 12/07/2004 6:02 pm
Romania's New Contemporary Art Museum In Controversial Palace Romania has a new National Museum of Contemporary Art. It's located in an enormous palace that former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu had built but never occupied. "At 270 by 244 metres the building is the second largest building in the world (after the Pentagon). Construction began in 1984, but the massive structure was never completed. To clear land for it, Ceausescu bulldozed 7,000 homes and 26 churches in southern Bucharest and relocated over 70,000 people to the outskirts of the city." The Art Newspaper 12/07/04
Posted: 12/07/2004 4:41 pm
Huxtable: MoMA Gets It Right Ada Louise Huxtable has had a life-long relationship with the Museum of Modern Art, following its various incarnations on 53rd St. And the latest version? it's "a suavely sophisticated, exquisitely executed, elegantly understated building that doubles the museum's size. Mr. Taniguchi's style--where less is so much more than trendy minimalism, with every carefully reasoned detail honed as close to perfection as possible--is the right architecture for the Modern. It is also the right building for New York." OpinionJournal.com 12/08/04
Posted: 12/07/2004 4:28 pm
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Rachmaninoff Manuscript Sale Halted The sale of an important Rachmaninoff manuscript was halted this week. "The annotated manuscript of his famous Second Symphony was due to be sold at Sotheby's in London, with an estimated price of £300,000-£500,000. But it was withdrawn just before the sale after Rachmaninov's estate claimed to be the true owners. It was found in a cellar in Switzerland after being lost for almost a century." BBC 12/08/04
Posted: 12/08/2004 9:46 am
UK's Isle Of Operatic Woe "One cannot ignore the woes of three national companies, or their common origin. Devolution, the 1997 mantra of victorious New Labour, has reverted large parts of the island to a dreary provincialism where parish pump functionaries lord it over public entertainments. Anti-elitism, the lip service that Labour rulers pay to their grass roots, has fostered a class war against high culture. And the disavowing of responsibility that is the hallmark of this governmenthas allowed successive culture secretaries and arts council chairmen to escape Scot-free – in the Caledonian sense – for demolishing two generations' worth of artistic growth in the very regions where it was most needed." La Scena Musicale 12/08/04
Posted: 12/08/2004 9:39 am
Music From Opposite Ends Of The Earth New instant communications technology links audiences in one part of the world with those in another. At Carnegie Hall "it was a simulcast music exchange in which 450 students in New York and 200 more in New Delhi listened to music together, chatted with one another and danced, with the help of a 22-foot-wide movie screen and some good speakers." The New York Times 12/08/04
Posted: 12/07/2004 10:52 pm
Festive La Scala Opens With Pageantry "The holiday offered downtown Christmas shoppers a look at the theatre's newly painted facade, decorated for the occasion with red roses and green foliage. The 18th-century theatre was commissioned in 1773 by Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, then ruler of Milan. Large video screens were set up in Milan's elegant passageway, the Galleria, opposite La Scala, inside the city's San Vittore prison, and other places around town." Canada.com (CP) 12/07/04
Posted: 12/07/2004 6:13 pm
- The Complexity Of Scala's Opening "Socially, the occasion was not quite as illustrious as the theatre authorities had hoped. They had invited the Queen and presidents George Bush and Jacques Chirac, among others. Instead they got King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway, and the president of Switzerland." The Guardian (UK) 12/08/04
Posted: 12/07/2004 6:04 pm
Buffalo Philharmonic Sees Red Despite a great season that included its first trip to Carnegie Hall in 16 years, the Buffalo Philharmonic posted an operating deficit of $1.1 million. "Management said weakness in fund-raising and ticket sales, higher costs for performances and health care and a onetime real estate write-off from the sale of the Birge Mansion contributed to the loss." And prospects could be worse for the next season... Buffalo News 12/07/04
Posted: 12/07/2004 4:23 pm
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Claim: Australia Council Reorg Will Mean Higher Profile For Arts Directors of the Australia Council say their reorganization of the agency will up the profile of an arts agenda. "We are trying to make sure the arts are a vibrant part of society's agenda, and the Australia Council needs to be seen as a driver of change and a strategic, impactful organisation that makes important and interesting things happen." Sydney Morning Herald 12/09/04
Posted: 12/08/2004 8:43 am
UK's Arts Boom - But Where's The Beef? The UK National Lottery has funded some 53 arts centers at a cost of about half a billion pounds. "We're witnessing an expansion of national arts facilities on a par with the nineteenth century, when local philanthropists and businessmen funded art galleries, theatres and concert halls across Britain. But the striking feature of today's cultural institutions is that they don't seem to be based on an artistic agenda." spiked-online 12/07/04
Posted: 12/08/2004 7:52 am
Australia Council To Be Rethought The Australia Council, the federal government's main arts funding body, is being restructured. "On the chopping block are the council's new media and community cultural development boards, which give grants respectively to artists working in new media, and with communities such as disadvantaged youth, prison inmates and the homeless. It is believed some of the operations of those boards will be handled elsewhere in the organisation. The restructure is the outcome of a six-month review of the council's operations." The Australian 12/08/04
Posted: 12/07/2004 5:46 pm
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Stern Family Sues Executor Of Violinist's Estate Isaac Stern's family is suing the ex executor of the late violinist's estate. Shira Stern, the violinist's daughter, said her father's legacy had been "needlessly squandered". "We're doing this because this individual, in the guise of doing what he should be doing, took advantage of a situation." BBC 12/08/04
Posted: 12/08/2004 9:43 am
Turner Winner Longs For Normal Life Again Jeremy Deller may be the artist of the hour with his Turner Prize win. But he's ready to be rid of the attention and get back to work. "True, he may be £25,000 richer, he may have had the opportunity to make his parents proud and to thank friends and collaborators live on Channel 4, but the evening was not without its moments, or even hours, of torture." The Guardian (UK) 12/08/04
Posted: 12/07/2004 10:34 pm
Di Stefano Still Unconscious After Attack Eighty-three-year-old Giuseppe Di Stefano is still unconscious in hospital in Kenya, but doctors are hoping for his recovery after the tenor was attacked near his home last week. "Unidentified assailants attacked Di Stefano and his wife last Tuesday at their villa in Diani, located about 435 kilometres southeast of Nairobi. He was struck in the head as he tried to defend his wife from the attackers, who were attempting to steal her necklace." CBC (Canada) 12/07/04
Posted: 12/07/2004 6:09 pm
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Stratford Fest Loses Audiences Ontario's Stratford Festival managed to balance its books for the year. "But attendance continues to fall, dropping nearly 40,000 compared with the previous season — to 568,715 from 608,080. Average paid attendance at the Festival's four theatres was 68 per cent of capacity." Toronto Star 12/08/04
Posted: 12/08/2004 9:31 am
Plan For New Plays In Denver The Denver Center Theatre Company's new director Kent Thompson has a plan to position the company as a champion of new plays. "One of my first priorities will be a major expansion of the new-play program here. With the help of the board and the community, I know we will find a way to support some of the great new voices of the American theater." Denver Post 12/08/04
Posted: 12/08/2004 9:01 am
Peter Hall Takes On A New Theatre British theatre legend Peter Hall has a new challenge with a new theatre. "The burly, indefatigable and often outspoken father figure of modern British theatre, who created the Royal Shakespeare Company and then took the National Theatre to its present home on the South Bank and ran it for an often turbulent decade, has found a new berth in Kingston-upon-Thames." The Telegraph (UK) 12/08/04
Posted: 12/07/2004 10:47 pm
An Inspiration: Demand-Based Ticketing A London theatre is trying a new ticket-pricing scheme. The earlier you buy, the cheaper your ticket. "For all 27 performances, the first 20 seats will be sold on a first-come-first-served basis at £10 each, the next 20 at £20 and so on, until only the final 20 seats are available priced at £30 each." The Guardian (UK) 12/08/04
Posted: 12/07/2004 10:39 pm
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Australia's Favorite Book It's Lord of the Rings, as named by voters in a national poll. "The book's enduring popularity was confirmed last night when The Lord of the Rings was named Australia's "favourite read" on ABC TV, its third victory in TV polls. It won in Britain and Germany. Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice was voted Australia's second favourite, with the Bible third. The best-placed Australian book was Tim Winton's Cloudstreet, which made fifth spot." The Age (Melbourne) 12/08/04
Posted: 12/07/2004 7:54 pm
Ah, The Writing Life (What Life?) "There are many pitfalls in a literary career, including convincing folks you have one. Writers, like Pavlov’s dogs, actually do learn, and after jettisoning all that romantic baggage that books are about what’s between the pages, they see with clear eyes the genius of the marketplace. The book business has never been more about moving units, though hawking novels, even the big ones, can be much harder than selling wet dog turds." LA Weekly 12/02/04
Posted: 12/07/2004 7:37 pm
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Movie Soundtracks Sans Movie A new generation of movie "soundtrack" albums is likely as not to include music that was not in the movie but might have been "inspired" by it. "Things first got complicated when filmmakers began using pop songs as product placements in their films, and the resulting soundtrack albums with those songs were released separately from the film's original soundtrack." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 12/08/04
Posted: 12/08/2004 9:08 am
BBC Makeover Begins BBC director Mark Thompson shakes up the BBC, cutting thousands of jobs and relocating some staff divisions out of London. "Mr Thompson promised fewer repeats on BBC1, more money for high quality drama, comedy, news and current affairs and children's programmes, and an increased focus on "distinctive" shows. Two and half thousand middle managers and support staff will be made redundant and a further 400 will go in the factual and learning division, the hardest hit by plans to outsource more programmes to independent producers." BBC 12/08/04
Posted: 12/07/2004 7:56 pm
- BBC Cuts Weigh Heavily Morale at the BBC is at an all-time low. "Breaking the news of 2,900 job cuts, with thousands more to follow, and a 15% budget cut, Mark Thompson said the BBC's "creative prize" came with a "price tag". The move, aimed at boosting annual savings to £320m in three years, is being seen as the start of what is likely to be a frenzied period of horse-trading with the government before the renewal of the BBC's royal charter in 2006." The Guardian (UK) 12/08/04
Posted: 12/07/2004 7:47 pm
Good Foreign Movies Ineligible For Oscars This Year Some of the best and most-popular foreign movies of the year are ineligible for foreign-language Academy Awards this year. "The main dispute centers on an old academy directive that allows overseas countries to submit only one film a year for Oscar consideration. Critics say the rule punishes prolific filmmaking countries such as Spain, which had to choose between two very strong contenders this year. The academy guidelines also ignore the boom in international co-productions, where any number of countries may join forces to make a single movie." Miami Herald (LAT) 12/07/04
Posted: 12/07/2004 5:56 pm
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