Archives for July 2009

I caught only part of last night’s country music event at the White House: it was streamed live, and but by the time I tuned in, Charley Pride and Alison Krauss & Union Station had already performed. Brad Paisley, however, was charming — performing a love song and a hard-luck song, and talking about some changes the U.S. has gone through. At one point, he referred to Michelle Obama’s great- or great-great grandfather, a slave, and the camera captured her emotional reaction.

Mrs. Obama, in contrast to the jazz event, apparently made no remarks at either the afternoon workshop or the evening event. President Obama did, at the evening concert. Here’s what he said:

I know folks think I’m a “city boy” — but I do appreciate listening to country music because like all Americans, I appreciate the broad and indelible impact that country has had on our nation. It’s touched countless lives, it’s influenced all genres of music, it’s helped us make the American people more hopeful, it’s captured our restlessness and resilience, and told so much of our story in the process.

After all, that’s what country music is all about — storytelling. It’s about folks telling their life story the best way they know how — stories of love and longing, hope and heartbreak, pride and pain. Stories that help us celebrate the good times and get over the bad times.  Stories that are quintessentially American. After all, name me any other country that would have produced a Hank Williams or a Willie Nelson. 

And like all great art, a great country song also has a commitment to truth — to telling the truth like it is, without pulling any punches. And generations of performers have honored that commitment. Harlan Howard proclaimed country music “three chords and the truth.” Garth Brooks said it’s “honesty, sincerity, and real life to the hilt.” And Dierks Bentley called it “the best shrink that 15 bucks can buy.”

At the afternoon workshop with students, Krauss and Paisley talked about the importance of family in their career choices, according to the pool report. Krauss’s mother told her, “If you can sing it, you can play it,” and Paisley’s grandfather gave him a guitar and told him, “If you learn how to play this, you’re never going to be lonely.” They were preaching to the choir, though, because the middle- and high school students in the room already had an interest in music.

There’s no word, so far at least, on what Arne Duncan, Education Secretary, said about music and education in general in his remarks.

Just so you know — a news collection that needs little or no comment (the boldface is mine): 

• The Arkansas Democrat Gazette reported on the construction of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art: “Museum officials on Friday opened a temporary lookout and a 1 1 /2-mile pedestrian and bicycle trail that crosses the museum property…the museum expects people to realize the scope of the building and be more patient for it to open, said Sandy Edwards, the museum’s associate director.” (more)
• From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: “Shorewood’s Atwater Park will soon be home to a
  sculpture by one of the world’s most respected public artists, Jaume Plensa, best known for his interactive “Crown Fountain” in Chicago’s Millennium Park. The purchase and installation of the 8-foot-tall sculpture, in the shape of a human body and crafted from stainless steel letters, is being made possible by an anonymous donor who wants to draw attention to Shorewood’s new public art program.” (more)
• The Brooklyn Museum reports a record of more than 80,000 people during the past year of its First Saturdays, the free art-and-entertainment evening from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. — which take place every month but September. That’s more than 7,200 per month/night. And it’s almost 20% of the entire year’s attendance on just 11 nights. Director Arnold Lehman has insisted not only that First Saturdays are critical to attracting new audiences but also (he told me) that the visitors actually do look at the art. (more) 

Photo Credit: Courtesy Jaume Plensa/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

 

New York’s Old Master dealers used to have a week every winter, coinciding with the auction sales, that was filled with Sunday openings, evening hours, receptions and dinners. They’d put out their best art, and collectors would make several nights of it. Camaraderie was rampant. I don’t know exactly what happened to it, but it shrank long
before the recession set in, although some drawings dealers have been keeping the idea alive.

This year, London dealers tried something similar, to coincide with the July Old Master auctions there — and they’ve now voted it a success. From July 4-10, 23 dealers around Bond St. and in St. James’s, along with Sotheby’s and Christie’s, created an “event” called Master Paintings Week with art exhibitions and Sunday evening invitation-only openings to stimulate the market.

Galleries reported as many as 100 visitors a day — collectors, curators and conservators from several countries, including the U.S. (among the museums represented were the Metropolitan, Philadelphia, Denver, the National Gallery, the Kimbell, the Getty, MFA-Houston). And dealers report a “significant number of sales” as well as the laying of groundwork for future sales.

[Read more…] about London Dealers Start Master Paintings Week, And Already Renew

This is country music week at the White House! Get ready to hear Brad Paisley (top) and Alison
Krauss (bottom) and Union Station — the top modern bluegrass band (she has 26 Grammys) — in the East Room and the State Dining Room. The show begins Tuesday at 2 p.m., when Jay Orr moderates an educational workshop with the musicians for 120 middle- and high school students from around the country (40 are coming from Nashville, which is a little like coals to Newcastle, no?). The students are supposed to “learn about the craft of songwriting and the genres of country music, including bluegrass, honky tonk and rockabilly,” according to the White House press machine.
 

As she was for the first of these music events — on
jazz — First Lady Michelle Obama will be there. Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, will
make the opening remarks. 

Then, at 7:30 p.m., Paisley and Krauss and Union Station will perform at the White House, with the president in attendence, and he’ll make remarks. Eddie Stubbs, from the Grand Ole Opry will MC.

UPDATED, 7/20: 4 p.m.: The White House has just sent word that Charley Pride has joined in and will perform at the 7:30 gathering — though not the workshop.

This is all part of the Obama Administration’s effort to make the arts more prominent, more part of our daily lives, and to show the importance of arts education. I applaud it, and hope it works.

[Read more…] about The White House Goes Country! The Newest Music Event — UPDATED

Yet another reason to visit Williamstown, Mass. this summer: The Prendergast In Italy exhibition at the Williams College Museum of Art, which I mentioned here in passing several weeks ago, was
unveiled this weekend. I drove up for the opening on Friday.

Disclosure: I am a lender of a small, very atypical work in the exhibition — the first and probably the last time that will occur. At the dinner for lenders, I was seated among the curators — Nancy Mowll Mathews, the chief organizer of the exhibition; Elizabeth Kennedy, Curator of Collection at the Terra Foundation, WCMA’s intellectual and financial partner on the show; and Susan Davidson, senior curator of the Guggenheim, which will put the show on view in Venice, but not New York anymore. We gossiped about American art, among other things.

But back to the show, which has more than 60 views of Venice, Rome, Siena, and Capri, as well as various sketchbooks, letters, and photographs. They are beautifully colorful, mostly, and far more varied than you’d imagine.

[Read more…] about Take A Trip to Italy, Or At Least to Williamstown, With Prendergast