Visual Arts French Government Plan To Encourage Arts Sponsorship The French government is putting together a plan to encourage arts sponsorship and the creation of foundations. The government released figures showing that "France has few private donors and a pitiful number of foundations (only about 1,000, compared with 2,000 in Germany, 3,000 in England and 12,000 in the USA)." France spent $1.3 billion in 2001, or 0.09 per cent of GDP, compared with $230 billion (£142 billion) on the other side of the Atlantic, i.e. more than 2% of GDP. The Art Newspaper 01/17/03 Posted: 01/17/2003 9:05 am Toronto's Art Gallery Of Ontario Makes its Move For 103 years, the Art Gallery of Ontario has been a middling player on the global art scene. It has built a respectable international reputation and a loyal local audience by mounting innovative shows, such as a Yoko Ono exhibit, and by specializing in such areas as Canadian art. Its Canadian paintings include windswept pines, moody lakes, and rugged mountains by the Group of Seven, the landscape pioneers whose works are now Canadian icons. The museum has a solid collection of European art, and its grouping of sculptures by Britain's Henry Moore is considered one of the world's best." Now it's been given a major collection and is into planning for a new Frank Gehry building. Christian Science Monitor 01/17/03 Posted: 01/16/2003 6:58 pm Art In Groups "As more artists work collaboratively or in art collectives, the stereotype of the lone artist in a garret is fading. In place of the romantic ideal of the figure sweating in front of an easel is a growing teamwork ethos, particularly among young artists. As a result of a greater focus on the process than the product, 'do-it-ourselves' now seems more hip than do-it-yourself." Christian Science Monitor 01/17/03 Posted: 01/16/2003 6:55 pm When David Sat For Lucien Last summer David Hockney sat for a portrait by Lucien Freud. "Britain's two greatest living painters spent 3 months in each other's company, Freud sitting for Hockney for four hours before he became the subject of Freud's gimlet eye for considerably longer: 120 hours." The Guardian (UK) 01/16/03 Posted: 01/16/2003 6:10 pm A Fake Van Gogh In Oslo Museum? Is a famous Van Gogh self-portrait in Oslo's National Museum a fake? One expert says he can prove it. "The main arguments for it not being a Van Gogh are, first, it does not resemble other of his self-portraits and an x-ray examination has shown there is another painting beneath it - though this is not very unusual, and proves little." Aftenposten (Norway) 01/16/03 Posted: 01/16/2003 6:04 pm Music High Hopes For New Toronto Symphony Leader Peter Oundjian, the Toronto Symphony's new music director, "is the first Canadian-born conductor to lead the TSO since Sir Ernest MacMillan stepped down 47 years ago. But Oundjian left Toronto for England when he was 5, and has the accent, sporting manner and loyalties of a real public-school Old Boy. The TSO hopes Oundjian's collegial approach, genial manner and musical acuity will restore the orchestra's morale, which is still bruised by the 15-per-cent wage cut inflicted on it a year ago." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/17/03 Posted: 01/17/2003 9:17 am Previously: Oundjian To Lead Toronto Canadian-born violinist and conductor Peter Oundjian will be officially introduced today as the new music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. The TSO has been director-less since Jukka-Pekka Saraste quit in something of a quiet huff in 2001, and in the two years since, the orchestra has struggled with massive deficits, the threat of bankruptcy, and an ongoing dispute between the musicians and orchestra management. Oundjian, who took up conducting after an injury drove him from his place in the Tokyo String Quartet, is widely considered to be a rising star among North American conductors. Toronto Star 01/16/03 High On The Schmooze Factor "Oundjian, who has conducted the TSO three times since 1998, beat out 100 other candidates for the post. Though he's an established musician - he played first violinist in the famed Tokyo String Quartet for 14 years - Oundjian is a relative newcomer to conducting, having taken it up seven years ago when a repetitive strain injury forced him to abandon the violin." National Post 01/17/03 Posted: 01/17/2003 9:15 am New Baton In Town "It was a skeptical crowd of journalists and members of this city's cultural community — a tough audience — who turned out to scrutinize Toronto's new music man. But Oundjian earned highly favourable reviews for his performance — without so much as waving his baton. During his brief appearance Oundjian managed to come across as charismatic, savvy, frank and full of confidence." Toronto Star 01/17/03 Posted: 01/17/2003 9:14 am Some Hope For The Calgary Philharmonic The bankrupt Calgary Philharmonic has received pledges from the city and the Province of Alberta contingent on the Canadian government kicking in some money as well. "The orchestra has been under bankruptcy protection since Oct. 15 and did not perform for 45 days last fall. In December, it released a business plan that includes pay cuts for musicians and fewer concerts this year." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/17/03 Posted: 01/17/2003 9:11 am Why We're Buying Less Music So CD sales are down. A good deal of the decline has to be from consumers burning their own discs. But there are other reasons too: "We have brilliant new video game platforms, brilliant surround sound and brilliant wide-screen TVs all emerging in the last two to three years at very affordable price points. Music has come up with absolutely zero as a compelling alternative to those new technologies." Boston Herald 01/17/03 Posted: 01/17/2003 7:54 am A First Look At Disney Hall Alan Rich isn't ready to make prognostications on what an orchestra will sound like in LA's new Disney Hall, but he's impressed with how it looks this far into construction. "The hall itself — the 'Ralphs/Food 4 Less Auditorium,' it will say in modest lettering on the door handles — is close enough to completion that you can sense the intimacy of the place as compared to the Chandler Pavilion. It's not only a matter of smaller size; it's the contour of the room that seems to wrap itself around you." LAWeekly 01/16/03 Posted: 01/16/2003 8:43 pm Washington Opera's New Digs Washington Opera moves into tiny Constitution Hall while its home at the Kennedy Center is renovated. "Longtime concertgoers have been shaking their heads. An opera house? With that tiny stage? In that vast, cavernous diffusion of bluish space? An opera house. It was not only home to the National Symphony Orchestra for that ensemble's first 40 years, but it has been the site of countless recitals by the great, the near-great and the long-forgotten, both before and after the Kennedy Center opened in 1971." Washington Post 01/16/03 Posted: 01/16/2003 5:58 pm Arts Issues Big Greed Over A Lovable Bear Winnie the Pooh earns about a billion dollars a year for Disney - about the same as Micky Mouse. But the lovable bear "would no doubt scratch his fluff-stuffed head in disbelief at what's going on" with the rights to his likeness and stories. But the family that acquired rights from Pooh creator AA Milne in 1930, is "embroiled in an epic legal battle with the Walt Disney Co. over the merchandising rights to the world's most beloved bear." The family "accuses Disney of cheating it out of royalties for nearly two decades" and want their contract with Disney voided so "they can shop Pooh around to competing entertainment companies. Disney vigorously disputes the allegations." Fortune 01/03 Posted: 01/16/2003 5:33 pm Copyright Issues Back To Congress The US Supreme Court's decision not to overturn the Digital Millennium Copyright Act throws the issue back to Congress. "The ruling could fuel fair-use debates over the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, digital-rights management systems and the regulatory mechanisms surrounding them. Some of the technological mandates being sought in Congress and at the FCC would put fair use in grave jeopardy." Wired 01/16/03 Posted: 01/16/2003 5:16 pm Should Media/Tech Companies Be Determining Our Copy Rights? Earlier this week "representatives of the music and tech industries pledged to oppose government-mandated technology to stop consumers from copying copyrighted songs and video. Instead, the technology and music companies agreed to collaborate on creating their own technical solutions to preventing the swapping of copyrighted materials. Press releases announcing the deal called the agreement 'groundbreaking.' At least one news organization followed suit and labeled the agreement a 'landmark' in its headline." But is it a good idea to let the companies themselves decide which rights the public ought to have? Salon 01/15/03 Posted: 01/16/2003 5:03 pm People Yerba Buena Director Resigns "John Killacky has resigned as director of San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts after six years. Since becoming the Yerba Buena center's executive director in 1997, Killacky has consolidated the institution's local and national reputation as a showcase for adventurous visual and performing arts and for community involvement." San Francisco Chronicle 01/17/03 Posted: 01/17/2003 10:24 am Fugard Hones In On Writing South African playwright Athol Fugard has been involved in all aspects of theater - as director, as actor, and most important as prlaywright. He used to insist on directing the first production of his new plays. But "starting in June this year, when I turned 70, I made a resolution to stop directing. And a few years ago I decided to stop acting. There's so much I still want to write, so many stories to tell if I'm going to climb into my box at the end - or into my urn, I guess, since I'll be ashes." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 01/17/03 Posted: 01/17/2003 9:56 am Theatre Formerly Illegal Theatre Takes The International Stage "Back in 1987, when Evgeny Kozlov founded his experimental Do-Theatre, the company was illegal and ran around Soviet Leningrad performing clandestine, movement-based theatre wherever they could, which was mainly outdoors. Now the internationally celebrated troupe is running around the globe presenting shows with two separate touring companies." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/17/03 Posted: 01/17/2003 9:13 am What's What In Tony Race Do you count "La Boheme" a musical? Original musical? What about the all-dance "Movin' Out," Twyla Tharp's dance celebration of Billy Joel songs? For Tony nomination purposes, the committee has ruled, "Boheme" is a "musical revival" and "Movin' Out" a musical... Hartford Courant 01/16/03 Posted: 01/16/2003 6:47 pm National Picks Up 20 Olivier Nominations London's National Theatre was "showered with 20 nominations" for Olivier Awards. It's a tribute to departing director Trevor Nunn, who's reign at5 the National has been controversial. Still, "Nunn himself has very oddly been overlooked for best director despite pulling the strings on Tom Stoppard's trilogy The Coast of Utopia, A Streetcar Named Desire with Glenn Close and the ecstatically received musical Anything Goes." The Guardian (UK) 01/17/03 Posted: 01/16/2003 6:43 pm Bourne Pulls Out Of Disney "Mermaid" Star choreographer Matthew Bourne has pulled out of choreographing Disney's stage version of "The Little Mermaid." A disney spokesman: "There was the time it would take to do [Bourne's] vision vs. the timeline we're on, and I don't think they matched up. . . . I want to work with Matt; I adore him and think he's really smart. [But] it's just not going to be on Mermaid." TheatreNow 01/16/03 Posted: 01/16/2003 6:01 pm Tough Times For Off-Broadway While business on Broadway has been brisk this season, commercial off-Broadway "remains mired in gloom". Some of Off-Broadway's best theatres are dark after shows failed. "The troubles have persisted for several seasons, aggravated by the Sept. 11 attacks, rising ticket prices, thin profit margins and a string of expensive financial failures." Nando Times (AP) 01/16/03 Posted: 01/16/2003 5:26 pm Publishing Random House Ousts Editor Random House has relieved Ann Godoff of her "duties as publisher/editor/patron saint of serious writers. To some, Godoff's send-off signals another loop in the downward spiral of literary publishing; to others it's strictly a business decision - the division under her guidance was not making enough money." Washington Post 01/17/03 Posted: 01/17/2003 10:32 am Random House Purge - End Of An Era "The decision by Random House Inc., a division of Bertelsmann and the largest consumer book publisher in the world, to merge the Random House Trade Group with its sister unit, Ballantine Books, startled the literary world. The Random House Trade Group, along with its internal rival, Knopf, was one of the few publishers that combined literary prestige, financial resources and marketing power." The New York Times 01/17/03 Posted: 01/17/2003 10:03 am US Government Demanded Borrowing Records From 545 Libraries Last Year The American Patriot Act allows the US government to require public libraries to hand over patrons' book-borrowing and Internet-surfing records to investigate terrorist leads. "It also prohibits library staff from publicizing law enforcement requests for such materials." A study of 906 libraries by the Library Research Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign finds "that in the year following the Sept. 11 attacks, federal and local law enforcement agents visited at least 545 libraries to inquire after patrons' records." And were records turned over? About half the bibraries complied with the orders. Wired 01/16/03 Posted: 01/16/2003 5:07 pm Media BBC To Be Reviewed The BBC will undergo a thorough review of its programming before license renewal in 2006. "The BBC has been told its programmes must justify the licence fee it charges viewers if its charter is to be renewed. Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell said the corporation would face a 'tough review' of the level of funding it receives and the choice of programming it puts out." BBC 01/16/03 Posted: 01/16/2003 4:57 pm Dance Houston Ballet Names New Artistic Director It's 33-year-old Australian choreographer Stanton Welch. He's "son of two of Australia's most celebrated classical dancers, Garth Welch and Marilyn Jones. He danced with the Australian Ballet for 10 years and has been a resident choreographer there since 1995. He has set works on many of the world's major companies." Welch has named his mentor, Maina Gielgud, as a member of his artistic staff. Houston Chronicle 01/16/03 Posted: 01/16/2003 1:24 pm Australian Star "Welch, who is considered by many to be Australia's most successful choreographer since Robert Helpmann, will be the fourth director of the Houston Ballet. His predecessor, Ben Stevenson was director of the company for 27 years, during which he built it into the nation's fifth-largest ballet troupe with an annual budget of $US13 million." The Age (Melbourne) 01/16/03 Posted: 01/16/2003 1:12 pm