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Wednesday, January 29




Ideas

Interdisciplinary Inspiration Canada's National Research Council, a decidedly scientific institution, has appointed two artists-in-residence, in what is being billed as a serious experiment in the connection between creativity and cold logic. "Partly inspired by the now disbanded effort by the Xerox Corporation to incorporate artists into its California research laboratory, the project aims to invigorate two sides of what is frequently seen as opposing halves of the human brain. The linking notion is that inspiration doesn't know whether it is going to express itself through science or art." The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 01/29/03
Posted: 01/29/2003 5:50 am

How Do We Perceive Art? "One of the hottest topics of academic inquiry in recent years has been the relationship between art and cognition. This interest is a natural outgrowth of the cognitive revolution that began in the early 1960s, producing a growing body of knowledge about cognitive processes. Little of value is likely to come of all this ferment, however, without a fundamental reassessment of what exactly is meant by the key term, art, in relation to cognition. Scholars must begin by asking themselves whether that term can coherently encompass all the modernist and postmodernist innovations of the past hundred years." Aristos 01/03
Posted: 01/28/2003 7:19 pm

Visual Arts

The Art World Converging On Fort Worth The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth has been a big hit since it opened in December. "Drawn by rave reviews in the press and by word of mouth, devotees of art and architecture are streaming here. More people turned up in one two-day period after Christmas than came in any entire month of 2001, when the museum was still in its 1954 building nearby. Taxis from the Dallas-Fort Worth airport bring passengers who have arranged layovers so they can spend an hour at the museum." The New York Times 01/29/03
Posted: 01/28/2003 6:52 pm

Is UK Losing Its Masterpieces? More and more of Britain's great art treasures in private ownership are being sold abroad. "Experts fear that many other masterpieces in private hands will emerge on to the market and be sold to overseas collectors because owners are noticing the vast sums being fetched. Museums and galleries with paltry acquisition budgets are unable to compete." The Times (UK) 01/29/03
Posted: 01/28/2003 6:17 pm

One Kind Of Art - Why Artists Specialize "Most contemporary artists remain specialists, and the reasons are plain to see. The intensity that we want from art usually emerges only when an artist knows a medium or a kind of structure or a certain vocabulary inside out. This has certainly been true in the past few months in New York." The New Republic 01/23/03
Posted: 01/28/2003 5:25 pm

Model Behavior - Building Imagination Architects spend much time and money on models of projects they propose to build. Richard Meier says his firm spent more than $100,000 on its model for the World Trade Center site. "Drawings are abstract and precise - the medium of proportion and detail - and computer modeling engages the cinematic dimension of time, of fluidity, of movement through space. Only models, however, provide the "God's eye view," the luxurious sensation that a complex object like a building, or an entire development like the World Trade Center site, can be comprehended as a whole."
Posted: 01/28/2003 4:33 pm

Music

The People's Choice California-born conductor Kent Nagano is rumored to be the choice of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra to be its next music director, and, conveniently enough, Nagano is in town to conduct the MSO this week. And while the orchestra may have a long way to go to rebuild its damaged relationship with its audiences following the stormy departure of Charles Dutoit last year, early indications are that Nagano is an overwhelming favorite with public and press alike. Montreal Gazette 01/29/03
Posted: 01/29/2003 6:01 am

Bad Trade-Off In Detroit For years, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra has produced large-scale choral works with the assistance of a polished adult choir based in nearby Ann Arbor, Michigan. This year, however, that choir is absent from the DSO's schedule, and, in an apparent cost-cutting move, the orchestra is putting on performances of Mozart's Requiem with a 60-voice student chorus from a state university. The result, says critic Lawrence Johnson, is embarrassingly bad, and an insult to the DSO's audiences, which pay good money to hear professional-caliber performances. Detroit News 01/29/03
Posted: 01/29/2003 5:43 am

Kickin' 'Em When They're Down Calgary's city council is not doing much to dispel the popular notion that the city is an uncultured cowboy town. Less than a week after trying to renege on a $250,000 contribution to the bankrupt Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra because of a technicality, aldermen opposed to the bailout are pushing a plan that would force the CPO to repay the entire amount to the city if the ensemble eventually makes it back out of bankruptcy. One alderman called the proposal "a win-win-win situation." Orchestra officials presumably call it something else. Calgary Herald 01/29/03
Posted: 01/29/2003 5:20 am

  • Previously: Reneging on the Calgary Phil? Several Calgary aldermen are discussing the possibility of yanking back a $250,000 pledge to the cash-strapped Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, which filed for bankruptcy protection and suspended operations last fall. The city's contribution was contingent upon the provincial government of Alberta offering up a like amount, but Alberta offered the orchestra an advance on future grants instead, and that has provided the excuse some aldermen opposed to the bailout wanted to reopen debate. Calgary Herald 01/22/03

Piling On At The ENO "Music impresario Raymond Gubbay has attacked plans to axe jobs in the chorus and orchestra at the English National Opera. Mr Gubbay - one of the leading names in his field - described as 'absurd' and 'ridiculous' the ENO's proposals to reduce the number of 60 choristers and 83 orchestra members. His outburst followed chairman Martin Smith's admission the ENO had been saved from going into receivership by a £4.2m grant from the Arts Council of England." BBC 01/29/03
Posted: 01/29/2003 4:40 am

Final, Clinching Proof That Wagner Was Unreasonable So you think it's hard to listen to a 6-hour Wagner opera? Try playing violin in the orchestra pit, your arms and head twisted into a pretzel for the duration of a performance three times the length of the average concert. The health risks are so severe, in fact, that one German opera orchestra has gone out and raised the money necessary to provide its musicians with physiotherapy and muscle training. Some musicians are reported to have increased their muscle strength by 280%. Ananova 01/28/03
Posted: 01/29/2003 4:30 am

Colorado Springs Musicians Form Own Orchestra The musicians of the Colorado Springs Symphony Orchestra, locked in a months-long battle with their management over the decision to file for bankruptcy and demand heavy monetary concessions from the players, have formed the Colorado Springs Philharmonic, which they say will be kept in standby mode, ready to spring from the ashes should the CSSO fold. In the short term, both sides are waiting to see what will occur this weekend, when Ray Charles is scheduled to perform on a CSSO pops series. Charles is an avowed union member, and the musicians have placed the CSSO on the music union's "Unfair List." CSSO management is counting on Charles for significant ticket revenue. The Gazette (Colorado Springs) 01/28/03
Posted: 01/29/2003 4:20 am

  • Previously: Colorado Springs Orchestra Refuses Conductor's Resignation When the Colorado Springs Symphony filed for bankruptcy last week, Lawrence Leighton-Smith, the group's music director, quit, as he had said he would. But the orchestra says it won't accept his resignation, and that he is obligated to stay on by terms of his contract. Meanwhile, the orchestra has refused to distribute parts to its players for next weekend's concerts while musicians have refused to sign a cost-cutting agreement. Kind of difficult to have a concert without music scores. Denver Post 01/19/03

Hard Times For Pittsburgh Symphony The Pittsburgh Symphony has a long and distinguished history. But the orcxhestra is in big financial trouble. "The leaders of the proud Pittsburgh Symphony are trying to portray its current situation as an opportunity, not a crisis. 'It's very clear that the symphony is at a defining moment in its history. It is time for new energy and new ideas. We have an opportunity for great change." The New York Times 01/29/03
Posted: 01/28/2003 6:57 pm

English National Opera Barely Avoided Shutting Down Last Week The British government's emergency bailout of the English National Opera came just in time. "For some time the ENO has been chronically sick. The company would have died last week had the Arts Council not intervened." BBC 01/28/03
Posted: 01/28/2003 6:45 pm

Arts Issues

Big Cuts In Scottish Arts The Scottish government's new budget hacks away at arts budgets. The Scottish Opera, "which has had a number of financial crises in recent years, said it was 'dismayed' last night to receive, in real terms, a budget cut and it is expected that it will have to cut the number of operas it has planned. All three of the other national arts companies, and the National Theatre plan, also emerged as cultural casualties in the new budget announced yesterday." Glasgow Herald 01/29/03
Posted: 01/28/2003 5:58 pm

Standing Complaint Standing ovations have become the automatic response for all too many performances. Doesn't matter whether they've earned it or not. "This un-thought-through enthusiasm has become - pardon the expression - a knee jerk response. Call it ovation inflation, it is yet one more example of our society's tendency to supersize every experience, emotion and commodity." OpinionJournal.com 01/29/03
Posted: 01/28/2003 4:27 pm

People

Perlman To Go Under The Knife Acclaimed violinist and part-time conductor Itzhak Perlman will be undergoing rotator cuff surgery at a New York hospital in mid-February. Perlman sustained a torn rotator cuff as a result of years of wear and tear from playing the violin, an injury familiar to many musicians. The procedure is a routine one, but the popular soloist will be out of action for at least three months. Detroit Free Press 01/29/03
Posted: 01/29/2003 5:35 am

Pavarotti To Sing Opera Again Many though Pavcarotti had sung his last opera performance after canceling two performances of "Tosca" at the Metropolitan Opera last May. But he's scheduled another "Tosca" at the Deutsche Oper Berlin next June. The performances are expected to cause a run on tickets, just as they did last May. CNN 01/28/03
Posted: 01/28/2003 6:35 pm

Theatre

Broadway Feeling The Chill Last week's grosses for several high-profile Broadway shows weren't just disappointing, they were abysmal. The extended cold snap blanketing the Northeast isn't helping what was already shaping up as a dismal season on the Great White Way, and buzz around the industry now has several big-money productions ready to fold in the coming weeks and months. New York Post 01/29/03
Posted: 01/29/2003 6:08 am

The National's Big Bold New Direction Nicholas Hytner's ambitious plans for London's National Theatre, anounced last week, are a big hit. "Doing stripped-down productions, 'with big, bold, simple strokes' and a minimum of costumes and scenery, is a way not just of bringing down prices and attracting new audiences, but ensuring that great plays are freshly considered in one of the world's most exciting theatrical spaces. Nor is he merely after the elusive 'yoof' to which our arts commisars are so enslaved." The Telegraph (UK) 01/29/03
Posted: 01/28/2003 6:12 pm

New London Car Tax May Impact Theatres? After February 17th, cars entering downtown London on weekdays will have to pay a £5 "congestion" charge designed to help alleviate serious car gridlock in the capital. But this is likely to have an impact on theatre goers in the West End. Will the charge discourage lower-income theatre-goers from coming in for a show? The Telegraph (UK) 01/29/03
Posted: 01/28/2003 6:03 pm

Scaling Down To Keep Children's Theatre On Track Minneapolis' Children's Theatre Company announced it was expanding last year. But financial help approved by the state legislature was vetoed by Governor Jesse Ventura. And the theatre has only raised $11.5 million of the $24 million needed. On top of it all, costs for the project as designed last year went up. So the company has scaled back the building by 25 percent to keep it on track. St. Paul Pioneer-Press 01/28/03
Posted: 01/28/2003 4:48 pm

Publishing

Low-Tech, Outdated, Expensive, And Still Going Strong In this age of corporate publishing monoliths and high-tech innovations such as on-demand publishing, is there any room left for those old, traditional leather-bound tomes that lined your grandfather's library? Boston's Harcourt Bindery thinks so, and its president is still running a highly profitable business by appealing to the indulgent side of the reading public. "In the world of handmade bookbindings in leather or cloth, tooled with gold, the line between classic and contemporary is hard to find. It's all based... on 'the economics of desire.'" Boston Globe 01/29/03
Posted: 01/29/2003 5:07 am

Tomalin Wins Whitbread Claire Tomalin wins the £30,000 Whitbread book of the year award for her biography of Samuel Pepys, "just as her husband Michael Frayn [also nominated] had predicted all along." The Guardian (UK) 01/29/03
Posted: 01/28/2003 6:28 pm

Collins: Why Poetry Isn't More Popular Why don't more people read poetry? American Poet Laureate Billy Collins says he knows: "There's a waiting audience out there that was frightened away by Modernist poetry in school. You feel alienated from your own language, which is unpleasant. There's a syllogism at work here. The syllogism goes like this: I can read and understand English; this poem was written in English; I can't understand this poem." The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 01/28/03
Posted: 01/28/2003 8:44 am

Media

Sundance - What's It All About? Does the Sundance Festival mean anything at the box office? "It's like lemmings off a cliff. Year after year, we love tracking which films everyone is circling, but are any of these films really going to succeed? I hope so. But that's the exception, not the rule. Of the 16 films acquired and released out of last year's exceptionally busy Sundance bazaar, only five broke $1 million at the box office."
Village Voice 01/28/03
Posted: 01/28/2003 4:17 pm


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