Ideas Changing The Way We View Art Back in 1999, Malcolm Rogers made himself rather unpopular with his staff at Boston's Museum of Fine Art, when he consolidated several departments, and even let a few long-tenured employees go. "The radical restructuring made international news in the art world as Rogers dismantled curatorial fiefdoms and folded decorative arts into American and European painting departments. Rogers' rallying cry was 'One Museum,' where curators would work together to display artworks in different media and incorporate work from other cultures and historical periods that served as influences. Paintings, sculpture and decorative arts would be displayed together so that objects could 'speak' to each other. Now Rogers' revolution is starting to evolve in the galleries." Boston Herald 02/06/03 Posted: 02/06/2003 5:43 am A Virtual Culture Online (And It's Evolving) More than 500,000 people are paying $13 a month to participate in a virtual world role-playing game. They choose characters and interact with other players. An interesting thing has happened - a culture is evolving in the game, an economy is being built, and the complexity of the game system is such that anything a player does impacts others. "The intriguing part is that most players expand their assets and abilities not through violence or chicanery, the modus operandi of a typical single-player computer game, but through virtual market transactions." Economists are fascinated... Slate 02/05/03 Posted: 02/05/2003 4:37 pm Visual Arts Matisse Book Stolen From Greek Museum A rare book featuring illustrations by Matisse has been stolen from a Greek museum. "The book's cover was left behind and replaced with an art magazine that contained images of the French master. Because of its identifying number and missing cover, the stolen material would be difficult to sell at auction." New Jersey Online (AP) 02/05/03 Posted: 02/05/2003 7:54 pm Evaluating The WTC Finalists Critic Herbert Muschamp writes that the choices are clear. "Daniel Libeskind's project for the World Trade Center site is a startlingly aggressive tour de force, a war memorial to a looming conflict that has scarcely begun. The Think team's proposal, on the other hand, offers an image of peacetime aspirations so idealistic as to seem nearly unrealizable.Compared with Think's proposal, Mr. Libeskind's design looks stunted. Had the competition been intended to capture the fractured state of shock felt soon after 9/11, this plan would probably deserve first place. But why, after all, should a large piece of Manhattan be permanently dedicated to an artistic representation of enemy assault? It is an astonishingly tasteless idea. It has produced a predictably kitsch result." The New York Times 02/06/03 Posted: 02/05/2003 7:22 pm WTC Choices On Target There seems to be general satisfaction with the choice of finalists for the World Trade Center site. "The process of deciding what will replace the destroyed World Trade Center has produced a unique cultural moment. In previous years, when there has been a major cultural issue playing itself out in public, people largely rallied to make clear what they didn't want. The debate about the World Trade Center site has turned all that on its head. Not surprisingly, there is an unprecedented level of public engagement with and emotional investment in this project. And that involvement has driven the project forward but led it to embrace the most 'cutting edge' designs - Mr. Libeskind's and THINK's." OpinionJournal.com 02/06/03 Posted: 02/05/2003 4:12 pm Made To Order (But Whose Orders?) A good building is the result not just of a good architect, but a good client. The two finalists for the WTC site have interesting proposals, but whether or not either one is able to actually build what they propose over the next decade will be complicated by just exactly who the client is - and there are competing jurisdictions... New York Observer 02/05/03 Posted: 02/05/2003 3:58 pm Music Calgary, From The Ashes "The Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra's creditors agreed Wednesday to a repayment plan that will give them half of what they're owed. It puts the orchestra one step closer to being able to perform again, which they haven't done since mid-October when they asked the courts for bankruptcy protection... The CPO has developed a restructuring plan that required $1.5 million in new money, and that those they owed money to accepted 50 cents on the dollar. With the creditors unanimous agreement and the city and province kicking in $250,000 each, the orchestra is close to re-opening." CBC Calgary 02/05/03 Posted: 02/06/2003 6:40 am What About The Musicians? The Calgary Phil hasn't performed in close to four months. So are there any musicians left to play once the orchestra reopens? Well, yes, but it hasn't been easy. Some of the Philharmonic's players have left town, in search of other employment, but many have stuck around, making ends meet by teaching and playing gigs, and hoping that the orchestra that brought them together wasn't gone forever. CBC Calgary 01/28/03 (RealAudio Player required) Posted: 02/06/2003 6:39 am A Broken Industry In the U.S., orchestras are in fiscal trouble. In Canada, it's a full-blown crisis. Orchestras in Calgary, Winnipeg, and Edmonton are all facing uncertain futures, and Toronto narrowly avoided financial catastrophe last year. Robert Everett-Green finds much irony in the dichotomy between orchestras which continue to perform at an admirably high level, and a system of arts funding so inadequate that it might as well not exist at all. "What needs fixing is the whole system, including the relationship between arts groups in the same community, and the chain of responsibility that governs the individual organizations." The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 02/06/03 Posted: 02/06/2003 6:16 am Classical Figures The marketers of classical music have increasingly embraced the 'sex-sells' notion that the rest of the music industry bowed to long ago. These days, it's not just a few crossover artists using their looks to sell their non-visual product, but an industry-wide trend which is dividing musicians and fans down the middle. "It feels increasingly desperate," says one talent booker, but a publicist points out that "this is one of those issues that seems only to trouble people in classical music... You have to play by the rules of pop culture, to go with the visual orientation of the culture right now." Chicago Tribune 02/06/03 Posted: 02/06/2003 5:50 am Doing Britney One Better Meanwhile, over in the world of pop music, the marketing of sex has never been questioned as a way to sell records, and a new teen-pop act from Russia is provoking howls the likes of which haven't been heard since Britney Spears first donned a schoolgirl outfit to pout and kick at the camera. But really, hasn't pop pushed teen sexuality as far as it can go? What's left to shock us? Well, meet Tatu, the teenage exhibitionist lesbian pop duo. Oh, and they sing, too. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 02/06/03 Posted: 02/06/2003 5:49 am Three Prokofiev Works Performed For The First Time Three pieces by Prokofiev are being performed for the first time, 50 years after the composer died. "They include a Soviet anthem, a march and two movements from a ballet score which have been unearthed by a musicologist working at Goldsmiths College, London." The Guardian (UK) 02/06/03 Posted: 02/05/2003 7:37 pm As Slow As It Gets - The World's Slowest Piece Of Music The first three notes of the slowest/longest piece ever written was being played on a German organ this week. It's written to last 639 years. "The three notes, which will last for a year-and-a-half, are just the start of the piece, called As Slow As Possible. Composed by late avant-garde composer John Cage, the performance has already been going for 17 months - although all that has been heard so far is the sound of the organ's bellows being inflated." BBC 02/05/03 Posted: 02/05/2003 5:45 pm Arts Issues Censorship Or Convenience? Pablo Picasso's striking anti-war painting 'Guernica' hangs at the United Nations in New York, a sobering tapestry greeting visitors to the offices of the U.N. Security Council. But yesterday, as U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke to the Security Council, 'Guernica' was nowhere to be seen, concealed behind a blue curtain and a row of flags. The U.N. insists that the cover-up was in repsonse to the needs of television cameras, but Peter Goddard reports that it "may have been prompted by U.N. realization that images of the mural's vivid anti-war message were televised world-wide when it appeared as a backdrop to the Jan. 27 interim report by chief weapons inspector Hans Blix." Toronto Star 02/06/03 Posted: 02/06/2003 7:03 am The Arts Of Protest Increasingly, artists seem to be speaking up about politics and the looming war with Iraq. "I don't think it's an accident that in totalitarian societies they always arrest the artists first, though we don't seem particularly dangerous. I think the responsibility of the artist, each of us in our way, is to tell the truth. And the truth generally involves a great deal of ambiguity, and in times of war ambiguity and paradox are the first things to go. People want simple black and white answers." The New York Times 02/06/03 Posted: 02/05/2003 7:26 pm No New Copyright Legislation Likely This Year? Tech and entertainment industry leaders say they don't expect new bills On copyright law to be introduced in Congress this year. It's possible that copyright issues have become become so murky that they lack consensus among various industries and "would keep Congress from acting on significant mandates. Initiatives likely to stall include those requiring electronics firms to install controversial copy-protection devices, restricting peer-to-peer file sharing or expanding the rights of consumers to copy their favorite movies and music." Los Angeles Times 02/05/03 Posted: 02/05/2003 6:07 pm Massachusetts Arts Funding Cuts Make Impact Massacusetts' 62 percent cut in arts funding has had an impact on the state's arts programs. "How bad are things? The council asked the organizations it funds to detail the effects in a survey. The results: Cuts have eliminated programs, outreach, and jobs. One of the greatest blows is less access for students." Boston Globe 02/05/03 Posted: 02/05/2003 4:18 pm Arizona Also To Zero Out Arts Funding? American state governments are going after arts funding with a vengeance. "In Arizona, where the state Commission on the Arts has received $5.1 million in each of the last two years, a joint legislative committee on Jan. 27 proposed zeroing out that spending in 2003-04. The committee also proposed emptying the state's $7-million arts endowment and spending the money elsewhere." Los Angeles Times 02/05/03 Posted: 02/05/2003 4:06 pm New Jersey Arts Groups Brace For Cuts Cultural leaders are predicting that if New Jersey eliminates all its arts funding, as threatened, that 100 cultural organizations could fold. Arts groups would have to slash programs, and many would take a decade to recover. "The 20 to 30 arts leaders who sat through the half-hour meeting told the governor that the impact would go beyond quality-of-life issues." Studies have shown that the arts annually generates $1 billion in economic activity in New Jersey. Philadelphia Inquirer 02/05/03 Posted: 02/05/2003 3:22 pm Previously: New Jersey Governor Proposes Elimination Of All State Arts Funding New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey has proposed elimination of the state's entire spending on the arts - $31.7 million in cultural funding in next year's budget. Cuts include "all $18 million from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts budget, as well as $3.7 million from the historical commission and the next $10 million installment for the New Jersey Cultural Trust, a public-private partnership meant to stabilize struggling cultural groups." Cultural groups are stunned: "We went to our own funeral today. We understand the fiscal crisis facing New Jersey. What we don't understand or accept is why we are being singled out (and) ... eliminated." Newark Star-Ledger 02/04/03 People Welser-Möst At Work When the Cleveland Orchestra selected the young phenom Franz Welser-Möst as the man to succeed Christoph von Dohnanyi as music director, some in the orchestral world expressed surprise that the ensemble many consider the best in America would take a chance on a relatively unproven talent. But Welser-Möst is reportedly working out quite well in Cleveland, despite the incredibly heavy workload music directors are expected to take on in this country. "With utter resolve and politeness, Welser-Möst has proved that he sticks to his artistic guns. And he's delighted to be working with an orchestra that is so open-minded." The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 02/06/03 Posted: 02/06/2003 6:51 am Wild-Man Critic Leslie Fiedler [who died last week at 85] "made his name, in the late '40s, as a lit-crit prodigy in the grim-faced Cold War literary establishment known today as the New York Intellectuals or "the family." He could easily have set himself up simply as an Upper West Side sage. He was charismatic and leonine and had the credentials — an outsized oeuvre, ease with languages (Japanese, Italian), lecture gigs all over the world. Crowing was his natural idiom. He was a master of hectoring overstatement..." Slate 02/05/03 Posted: 02/05/2003 6:13 pm Theatre Can A Show Be An 'Enemy Combatant'? Overseas opposition to the Bush administration's foreign policy has taken an unusual turn in London, in the form of a wildly popular (and wildly unsubtle) satirical play called The Madness of George Dubya. The show, which is about to move to a new venue to accomodate the demand for tickets, portrays the American president as "a pajama-wearing buffoon cuddling a teddy bear while his crazed military chiefs order nuclear strikes on Iraq." Los Angeles Times (Reuters) 02/06/03 Posted: 02/06/2003 6:27 am The Spacey Factor Actor Kevin Spacey is to become "director of a new, permanent Old Vic theatre company, which will stage shows for eight months a year, leaving the theatre open to other groups, such as the Royal Shakespeare Company, for the summer months. The Oscar-winning actor, 43, will star in two productions a year, as well as directing shows and tempting stars keen to follow the growing Hollywood tradition of taking pay cuts for prestigious outings on the London stage." The Guardian (UK) 02/06/03 Posted: 02/05/2003 7:31 pm Old Vic On The Rise News that Kevin Spacey is going to help lead London's Old Vic Theatre is just the latest of the theatre's high-profile news. "The Old Vic now stands bang at the centre of the celebrity, glitz and charity nexus. Its board is an awesomely terrifying display of the new establishment. It is well connected, glitzy and hot. All it lacks are shows. This strange anomaly, a furious amount of excitement, spectacle and glittering noise around a peculiar emptiness, is not so surprising since it is so resonant of the age we live in. And the Old Vic, more than any of our theatres, has always reflected the age it lived in back to itself." London Evening Standard 02/05/03 Posted: 02/05/2003 7:08 pm A Yank In London Kevin Spacey "has become such a fixture of London life that he felt compelled to reassure people that 'in no way should this decision be viewed as abandonment of my own country.' Asked whether his commitment to the Old Vic had limits, he said, 'It could be 5 seasons, it could be 10, it could be 20'." The New York Times 02/06/03 Posted: 02/05/2003 6:17 pm Publishing The Film Of Pi Fox Pictures has purchased the film rights to author Yann Martel's Booker award-winning novel, The Life of Pi. The book, which briefly caused a bit of trouble for the author after Martel revealed that he had appropriated the basic concept from a review of a Brazilian novel which he'd read years before, may prove challenging to adapt for the screen, since it is largely metaphorical, and focuses on a young Indian boy stranded at sea with a Bengal tiger. Edmonton Journal 02/06/03 Posted: 02/06/2003 6:01 am Indie Booksellers Push States To Collect Online Sales Taxes Independent booksellers are lobbying states to collect taxes from online book stores that have a physical presence in those states. That would mean that books ordered through Barnes and Noble's online store would have to collect sales tax. "The issue remains whether or not online stores and their real world namesakes have a business relationship that would trigger a tax liability." Publishers Weekly 02/04/03 Posted: 02/05/2003 9:42 pm Dance Ballet San Jose To Stay Open, For The Moment "Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley -- which just Monday told a city panel that it might close by week's end without an emergency $100,000 grant -- on Tuesday said it could stay in business because it raised some of the money in pledges within the past 24 hours, Executive Director Andrew Bales said. Even if Bales is able to make payroll for now, it's unclear how the ballet will solve its underlying funding problems. Last year, the ballet had to be rescued by four board members who came up with $2 million in donations. And it remains unknown what would happen if projected ticket sales fail to materialize." San Jose Mercury News 02/05/03 Posted: 02/06/2003 7:01 am Previously: San Jose Silicon Valley Dance Company May Close After City Rejects Bailout The fledgling Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley has told the city of San Jose that the company could close as soon as Friday without an emergency grant of $100,000. "But a key city panel voted Monday night to deny the money, after arts groups complained that the money, from funds that had been slated for the now-defunct symphony, should be made available to all arts groups. The ballet is trying to raise $1.2 million to keep it afloat through the end of the season, in May, and perhaps give it enough time to further develop its own symphonic organization, Symphony San Jose Silicon Valley." San Jose Mercury-News 02/04/03 Martha Graham - Back From Hibernation So had the Martha Graham Company survived its time away from the stage? "The good news is that the tremendous effort that’s gone into keeping the company together and bringing it to this level of performance has paid off: This is not yet great Graham, but it’s intelligent, ambitious and often satisfying. There’s a platoon of young dancers devoted to what they’re doing; you can see it in the expressive and energized corps. In certain works — Dark Meadow, for one — the corps is now the strongest element. But then the famous Dark Meadow, with its step-right-up-and-stroke-me phallic impedimenta, is looking dated these days." New York Observer 02/05/03 Posted: 02/05/2003 8:03 pm