If all goes according to plan, I'll be the second weekly contributor tomorrow morning to the new Arts Report feature on WQXR, New York's classical music station. That's the public radio station sold not long ago by the NY Times to WNYC (New York Public Radio). About three weeks ago, I contributed to member-supported WQXR in a different way. (No, art-lings, this was NOT … [Read more...] about Coming Tomorrow: My WQXR Radio Report on NYC Museum Exhibitions
Archives for November 2009
The New Museum’s Dakis Fracas: Is It Pay-to-Play?
"Guilty," the yacht embellished by Jeff Koons for collector Dakis Joannou When does a single-collector show at a nonprofit museum cross the ethical line from inadvisable to unacceptable? When it involves pay-to-play. I'm not saying that's the case with the New Museum's much criticized future exhibition of works from the collection of Greek Cypriot industrialist Dakis … [Read more...] about The New Museum’s Dakis Fracas: Is It Pay-to-Play?
Rocco Does Peoria; Congress Does a Number on the NEA
Rocco Landesman with the cast of "Rent" from Peoria's Eastlight Theatre; Kathy Chitwood, the company's executive director, shoulders Rocco.Photo by Adam GerikIt must have been quite a scene in Peoria last Friday, as important arts critics, including Bloomberg's Jeremy Gerard and the Washington Post's Peter Marks, trailed Rocco Landesman, the new chairman of the National … [Read more...] about Rocco Does Peoria; Congress Does a Number on the NEA
Tom Campbell’s Star Turn on the Colbert Report
He didn't trade wisecracks, but last night Tom Campbell, the Metropolitan Museum's director, good humoredly tried to reason with that self-described "blue-collar Joe Six Pack," Stephen Colbert. Our host asked the dumbest imaginable questions about art and let Tom gamely parlay them with intelligence. The director (shall we stop calling him "new"?) was no comedian, but he showed … [Read more...] about Tom Campbell’s Star Turn on the Colbert Report
The Met’s “Michelangelo” Show: A Truth-in-Advertising Alert
James Draper with the purported MichelangeloAt the Metropolitan Museum's recent press preview unveiling The Young Archer, James Draper, the museum's curator of European sculpture and decorative arts, made it clear that he thoroughly believes that the waif, labeled as "attributed to" Michelangelo, is in fact the real deal---a very early Michelangelo owned by Jacopo Galli in … [Read more...] about The Met’s “Michelangelo” Show: A Truth-in-Advertising Alert
Barnes Names Brooklyn’s Judith Dolkart as Chief Curator
Judith DolkartI told you last month that the Barnes Foundation had chosen a chief curator. Now the name has been announced. Nothing is up on the Barnes' website at this writing, but Stephan Salisbury of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the designee is Judith Dolkart, associate curator of European art at the Brooklyn Museum. You can read more about her here, while her bio … [Read more...] about Barnes Names Brooklyn’s Judith Dolkart as Chief Curator
BlogBack: Reader Calls for an NEA Voucher System
Jim Bondelid, a CultureGrrl reader from Oreland, PA (a Philadelphia suburb), who volunteers at the Curtis Institute of Music, responds to my Cultural Conversation with Rocco Landesman that appeared in the Wall Street Journal:As a fanatical lover of classical music, a sometime lover of modern dance, and a middle-brow theater consumer, I doubt that I would prefer Rocco … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Reader Calls for an NEA Voucher System
News Flash: Dia to Build New Facility in Chelsea
I'm still traveling and time-pressed, but I had to share with you this press release (not online at this writing) about the Dia Art Foundation's plans to build a new facility in New York City, where it surely belongs: DIA ART FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES PLAN TO OPEN A NEW SPACE IN CHELSEA New building will house artists' commissions and installations and serve as site for innovative … [Read more...] about News Flash: Dia to Build New Facility in Chelsea
CultureGrrl’s Novel Idea: Paid Journalism, for a Change
Where am I going? Where have I been? (This is a clue.)I'm taking my own advice, for the time being, shifting my attention towards remunerated mainstream media work. Having rocked with Rocco, I'm headed out tomorrow on a week-long trip, the first part of which involves another paid assignment. And I've got another one lined up after that.Therefore, I won't be covering for you … [Read more...] about CultureGrrl’s Novel Idea: Paid Journalism, for a Change
Rockin’ with Rocco: More from Our WSJ Conversation
Portrait of Rocco Landesman from my Wall Street Journal article, by Ken FallinMy Cultural Conversation with the National Endowment for the Arts' new chairman, Rocco Landesman, ran long today (the whole above-the-fold space on P. D7 of the Personal Journal section), but still not long enough to encompass our entire conversation, which lasted only about 25 minutes but was … [Read more...] about Rockin’ with Rocco: More from Our WSJ Conversation
Coming Tomorrow: My WSJ Conversation with NEA’s Rocco Landesman UPDATED
Rocco Landesman, speaking last month in Brooklyn, NYWhen Rocco Landesman, the new chairman of the National Endowment of the Arts, was in New York on Oct. 21, I didn't merely attend his speech. I also interviewed him. On the "Leisure & Arts" page of tomorrow's Wall Street Journal, you'll see that Landesman has in no way curbed his tongue since the infamous Peoria incident. I … [Read more...] about Coming Tomorrow: My WSJ Conversation with NEA’s Rocco Landesman UPDATED
Is “The Young Archer” by Michelangelo? It Fails the Testicles Test. UPDATED
The putative Michelangelo of Fifth Avenue, as it appeared in June in the entrance rotunda of the French Cultural Services headquarters, New York If all goes according to plan, I'll be going later today to the Metropolitan Museum's press preview for the putative "Michelangelo of Fifth Avenue," as it became known from a 1996 NY Times article by the late John Russell. It will … [Read more...] about Is “The Young Archer” by Michelangelo? It Fails the Testicles Test. UPDATED