Is There A Better Case To Be Made For The Arts? What do Bill Ivey, Midori, Robert L. Lynch, Glenn Lowry, Ben Cameron, Andrew Taylor, Joli Jensen, Jim Kelly, Adrian Ellis, Phil Kennicott and Russell Willis Taylor have in common? They're taking part in a week-long blog debate on ArtsJournal about the value of the arts: "Being prepared to discuss why the arts improve the quality of lives, why they create societal value, should not be a matter of whining or banging the drum. It should be part of the lexicon of every arts leader who wants to have a place at the civic table."
A Better Case For The Arts (AJBlogs) 03/06/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 9:35 pm
Art On The Defensive Is the world of art becoming cowed by a culture that is increasingly hostile to anything that smacks of intellectualism? "Faced with pre-emptive, Internet-driven attacks on what they might do or say at any given moment -- and self-fulfilling prophesizing as to whom they surely will offend -- movie stars, comedians, even news anchors, increasingly spend their time in reactive mode. Good art -- and lively entertainment -- sets agendas. Defensive art typically is unwatchable." Chicago Tribune 03/06/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 10:49 am
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On The Runway At Maastricht "What draws people to this, the world's largest art fair, is the expectation of seeing the best the market has to offer in every collecting category from old master paintings and sculptures to antique furniture, antiquities, silver and decorative objects. This year there were no $40 million paintings by Rembrandt or $15 million sculptures by Bernini as there have been in years past. Some dealers grumbled about the scarcity of objects coming to the market; others said they didn't bring any blockbusters, fearing that if they didn't sell they might be overexposed and therefore less desirable. Still, there was an impressive array of about 30,000 works being offered for sale by some 200 dealers from 14 countries." The New York Times 03/07/05
Posted: 03/07/2005 8:47 am
Going Out For Munchies - Thieves Strike Again Thieves have stolen three more works by Edvard Munch, this time from a hotel in Norway. "Thieves took a 1915 watercolor, "Blue Dress," and two lithographs -- a self-portrait and a portrait of Swedish playwright and novelist August Strindberg." CNN.com 03/07/05
Posted: 03/07/2005 7:47 am
"Gates" - Does New Public Art Have To Be Banal To Succeed? The Central Park "Gates" are gone now, attracting upwards of 3 million people. "Give the artists credit for creating a spectacular public event. Yet as the 7,500 orange panels began to come down Monday, I couldn't help but wonder: Does public art now have to be bad to be effective, accepted, even loved? Because as art, the big-footed, 16-foot-tall "gates" - gallowslike frames hung with pleated fabric panels that arched over 23 miles of park walkways - defined banality. Yet the $20 million installation inspired what amounted to a worldwide pilgrimage to see the latest creation by the world's most famous wrappers of buildings and girders of islands." Philadelphia Inquirer 03/06/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 9:26 pm
A Better Plan For London? "Despite all the hyperbole accompanying its Olympic bid, London remains dirty, inefficient and congested. It is aesthetically and architecturally incoherent, and, unlike Manhattan, Barcelona or Paris, essentially suburban. It is also, however, hugely successful and consistently fashionable. So why has London got such useless public space - and will it, indeed should it, ever change?" Financial Times 03/04/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 9:13 pm
Collector Wins Suit Against Gallery For Not Selling Him Art Jean-Pierre Lehmann has won a $1.7 million judgment against a New York gallery he said refused to sell him art. "Mr Lehmann lent $75,000 to the gallery in February 2001 with no interest and no due date, receiving in exchange the right of first choice and price discounts on future purchases. Mr Lehmann sued the gallery in March 2004, claiming it had violated his contract by selling about 40 paintings by the Ethiopian-born US artist Julie Mehretu to just about everybody but him." The Art Newspaper 03/05/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 8:19 pm
Critics: Conservators Ruined Gaudi Chapel "Architects and conservators say the Spanish government has caused irreparable damage to the Catalan architect’s Güell crypt. They describe the cleaning of the building as “brutal” and say that it was carried out with abrasive materials abandoned years ago by the conservation industry. They also say that a staircase which provided access to the roof has been removed and they say that the restorers have placed a large stone plinth commemorating their restoration inside the chapel. This distracts visitors and disrupts the circulation within the chapel intended by Gaudí. The restorers also cut down an old pine tree near the building, which Gaudí had deliberately left standing and which he had incorporated in his design for the chapel." The Art Newspaper 03/05/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 8:13 pm
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Pulitzer From Beyond: Psychics Look At The Music Prize The rules for this year's Pulitzer in music have changed. What does it mean? Marc Geelhoed visits a group of clairvoyants, plays them some new music, and asks their advice. "According to the assembled clairvoyants, this year's committee is not going to be a happy one. "The judges are concerned with the competition between them," said Castro. Klobucnar saw "dueling factions, one of which sees serious music as being about complexity, about structure. For them to agree to give it to someone who's not really complex, it has to be a small move, incremental, having some of the attributes they like, but maybe not all of them. They like that they can apply some of their criteria to jazz." NewMusicBox 03/05
Posted: 03/07/2005 9:18 am
Andre Previn, Composer Andre Previn is better-known as a conductor than a composer. But he's working on changing that. "Temperamentally, Previn is probably unique among American composers in that he has nothing to prove. Thanks to all those years on the Hollywood treadmill, he writes with speed and fluency. Whatever the reason, some of Previn's music is wonderful, and some of it meanders. You could wonder to what extent Previn knows the difference - or if he takes his composing life seriously enough to revise more rigorously." Philadelphia Inquirer 03/06/05
Posted: 03/07/2005 9:09 am
Musical Archaeology - Getting The Music Out Music of the past is full of recorded gems that get lost in history. A small recording label called Arbiter makes the case for forgotten masters - some are familiar names, but others... The New York Times 03/06/05
Posted: 03/07/2005 9:03 am
Low-Carb Opera It's called the "Atkins Diet Opera." ""Opening in Oxford on Friday, the production - which extols in rhyming couplets the virtues of avoiding carbohydrates - is one of the high-spots of an annual tour of Ig Nobel award-winners, given as ironic counters to Nobel prizes for those who carry out research 'that should never be repeated'. The Guardian (UK) 03/06/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 9:23 pm
SF Classical Station - Success Among The Critics San Francisco critics have been complaining about classical station KDFC. But the station seems to be a hit with listeners. "The station is advertised with such slogans as 'Relax. You feel different here.' KDFC has been the top-rated music station in the Bay Area several times in recent years, and the most successful classical station in the country. No other major-market classical station reaches even the Top 20. Listenership, has increased from about 300,000 a week in 1997 to almost double that number today. So, are the letter-writing critics just a snobbish, demanding minority?" San Francisco Chronicle 03/06/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 9:17 pm
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Theatre Naming Rights Fail To Translate Into $$$ Winnipeg's historic (but ailing) "Walker Theatre was in rough shape at the turn of the century. The 95-year-old building was saddled in debt and close to being shut down. It was renamed the Burton Cummings Theatre for the Performing Arts in August 2002, in exchange for an agreement that Cummings would perform five free concerts to raise funds for the theatre. At the time, newspaper reports heralded the yearly concerts as having the potential to bring in over $1 million. So far, however, only one of those concerts has happened, back in April 2003. That concert brought in a profit of $55,000." CBC 03/07/05
Posted: 03/07/2005 9:34 am
Is There A Link Between Art And Violence? "There is, like it or not, a deeply held suspicion that fictional representations of violence steadily rub away at our sensibilities, so that when the real thing comes along we're too numb and jaded to react as human beings. The issue is as ancient as creativity itself, but it has lost none of its urgency over the centuries: Just what is the impact of art? Does watching stories about terrible acts desensitize us to the horror of those acts when they actually occur?" Chicago Tribune 03/06/05
Posted: 03/07/2005 8:06 am
Australia's Artist Support Legacy Ten years ago, then-Prime Minister Paul Keating of Australia instigated a support scheme for artists, chossing and paying some of them decent wages to live on. The program eventually shrank and died after Keating left office, but it helped create a legacy for the country worth celebrating... Sydney Morning Herald 03/06/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 8:48 pm
Arts And Business In Europe: A Merger Of Interests? "Arts and business, once parallel worlds in Europe, are merging as never before. More companies than ever back the visual arts: Patronage has more than doubled in the past 15 years in the U.K. and more than tripled in France. The difference is that, where once companies funded the arts selflessly and on a whim -- the chairman's, or his wife's -- they now seek bang for their buck: their name in the show's title, free museum access for staff and client parties, the right to advertise their sponsorship, and the right to run spinoff educational and social programs. And when all is said and done, they conduct studies to make sure it was worth it." Bloomberg 03/04/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 7:49 pm
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Max Fisher, 96 Detroit's most famous classical music benefactor wasn't a big fan of music, and rarely attended concerts at the glittering performing arts complex that bears his name. Max Fisher's generosity was a gift not so much to an orchestra as to a city he loved, and desperately wanted to see brought back. Fisher died this past week, leaving behind a rich legacy of philanthropy born of an abiding sense of duty. Detroit News 03/06/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 10:14 am
The Money Behind The Curtain They don't play instruments, paint landscapes, or take bows, but those wealthy men and women who sped their evenings in formalwear, going from cocktail party to reception to gala, are an integral part of any city's cultural scene. In tony Boston, the glitterati have traditionally formed a very exclusive club, but things are changing. "Gone are the closed ranks of the Boston Brahmin, when your place in the Social Register was a question of pedigree. Today, membership in the club is more dependent on how much you can do -- and give -- for worthy causes. And, with the pool of local corporate benefactors shrinking through mergers and out-of-town ownership, the donations from this club are becoming more critical to a wide array of the city's social services and the arts." Boston Globe 03/06/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 10:07 am
Conductor Sergiu Commisiona, 76 "Sergiu Comissiona, the elegant Romanian-born conductor who transformed the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra from a little-known ensemble into a nationally respected orchestra, taking it to Carnegie Hall and Europe and winning for it the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, was found dead yesterday in his Oklahoma City hotel room. Maestro Comissiona apparently died of a heart attack, hours before he was to serve as guest conductor for the Oklahoma City Philharmonic." Baltimore Sun 03/06/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 9:29 am
Eton's PVC Poet "Patience Agbabi, a bisexual, radical-feminist performance artist with cropped hair and tattoos, has been called 'the PVC poet' by the British media because of the lesbian, sadomasochistic and drug themes featured in her poetry. (PVC, or polyvinyl chloride, is used to make the shiny black material that is commonly worn by dominatrixes.) Ms. Agbabi earned this label during her recent, unusual assignment: writer in residence at Eton College, one of the oldest boarding schools in Britain, and almost certainly its grandest." The New York Times 03/05/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 8:38 am
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The New Wave Of Grassroots Censorship British culture has become ridiculously hypersensitive, says Mark Lawson, and the UK's theatre scene is becoming rapidly less relevant as self-censorship and a desire to please everyone become the norm. The religious-based campaign against the national tour of the Jerry Springer opera is only the latest example of the war being waged against creative expression. Worse, "while attempted censorship in the 1970s made artists more determined to speak out, there's a risk in this mind-your-language climate of subjects becoming no-go areas for the arts." The Guardian (UK) 03/05/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 11:18 am
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McCrum: Stop Whining About The State Of Publishing Enough of these tracts about there being too many books published and too few classics, writes Robert McCrum. "In an age of rampant capitalism, in the middle of a colossal information-technology revolution unparalleled since Gutenberg, it would be surprising if there was not a colossal overproduction. No more classics? Possibly the hyperactivity of the marketplace makes good books harder to detect, but there's no evidence that good books are missing their audiences or that writers today are any worse, or any better, than 50, even 100 years ago." The Observer (UK) 03/06/05
Posted: 03/07/2005 8:52 am
Here Come The 9/11 Books "After three years of near silence about the attacks of Sept. 11, the literary world has begun to grapple with the meanings and consequences of the worst terrorist attack ever to happen on American soil. A half-dozen novels that use 9/11 and its aftermath as central elements of their plot or setting, from some of the most acclaimed literary novelists and the most respected publishing houses, are being released later this year. A similar number have already made their way into bookstores in the last few months." The New York Times 03/07/05
Posted: 03/07/2005 7:55 am
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Oscars: Of Entertainment And Community Th Oscars are about more than just entertainment, writes Michael Wilmington. "Citing the need for even higher numbers for one of the world's top-rated programs (41.3 million viewers in this "off year") would be an idiotic excuse to wreck its meaning. The Oscars, of course, are a show producers hope will draw huge numbers. But they're also a great communal binding event for the industry itself: an annual celebration of the fact that it takes many different talents and many kinds of artists to make great movies." Chicago Tribune 03/06/05
Posted: 03/07/2005 9:24 am
Film: Power Language Of The Future? "At a time when street gangs warn informers with DVD productions about the fate of "snitches" and both terrorists and their adversaries routinely communicate in elaborately staged videos, it is not altogether surprising that film school - promoted as a shot at an entertainment industry job - is beginning to attract those who believe that cinema isn't so much a profession as the professional language of the future." The New York Times 03/06/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 9:03 pm
TV News In Crisis What's wrong with TV network news in Australia? "It's clear there is something of a crisis in TV news and current affairs. Big money is being spent to secure personal stories, talents are being shuffled around like the proverbial deckchairs, presenters are being cosmetically overhauled and yet, still, the viewers are turning off." The Age (Melbourne) 03/06/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 8:36 pm
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Birmingham Ballet's New Shine The Birmingham Ballet has had a rough few years. A £1 million deficit built up. Programmes shrank and full-length classics reigned, showing up the callow youth of BRB's company. A couple of artistsic flops didn't help. Several top dancers left. But suddenly, the sun has come out, and this season's programs have burst with new life...
The Telegraph (UK) 03/06/05
Posted: 03/07/2005 7:40 am
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