Big Cuts At SFMOMA "The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art plans to cut its exhibitions by as much as 25 percent in the wake of an expected $1 million budget deficit for 2003 and stock market losses that have left its endowment fund $13.9 million in the red. SFMOMA, which has built an international reputation in the past decade, will gradually reduce its exhibits from about 25 per year to perhaps 18 to bring its spending in line with the shrinking economy and the realities of the museum business." San Francisco Chronicle 02/26/03
Posted: 02/26/2003 7:02 am
Marketing A Memorial Let it never be said that the two finalists in the Ground Zero sweepstakes were content to sit back and let others decide the fate of their designs. Both Daniel Libeskind and Rafael Viñoly have been working overtime in an effort to make their respective proposals attractive to New York's political and artistic bigwigs. "With talk of truth and beauty, memory and monument, these architects have been selling themselves like movie stars... Not since Gary Cooper appeared in The Fountainhead has the public been so riveted by architecture and architects." The New York Times 02/26/03
Posted: 02/26/2003 6:40 am
- Freezing Time In A Memorial - Is It Such A Good Idea? Like many critics, Christopher Hawthorne was impressed with the emotional punch of Daniel Libeskind's plans for the World Trade Center site. But like some others, he's cooled to the idea with time. "What's really happened is that the passing of time has offered the chance to imagine how the various schemes first unveiled months ago might strike us in 2013 or 2053, rather than 2003. And in that test, Libeskind's doesn't fare so well. The ruling above-ground gesture of Libeskind's plan, seen especially in the towers that would ring the site, is that of the shard, the sharp fragment unleashed by shattering or explosion. Combined with the idea of keeping the pit as open as a fresh wound, the shards seem to aestheticize the violence of Sept. 11. And the further we get from that day, the more misguided it seems to fix the site's violent history in glass and steel." Slate 02/25/03
Posted: 02/26/2003 6:39 am
War Is Expensive, Even On Exhibit "The new Canadian War Museum appears to be headed for tens of millions of dollars in cost overruns, partly the result of unexpected water problems at the LeBreton Flats work site, but also due to a fast-paced construction schedule aimed at completing the building while many of the veterans it honours are still alive." Ottawa Citizen 02/26/03
Posted: 02/26/2003 6:35 am
NZ Art Thief Leaves Evidence Behind - Part Of His Finger "An art thief left behind part of his finger after cutting it off while stealing a $65,000 Frances Hodgkins painting from an Auckland gallery yesterday in what is being called a theft to order. It was the second time in a week and a half that Ferner Galleries in Parnell have been the target of burglars." New Zealand Herald 02/25/03
Posted: 02/25/2003 10:07 pm
In Praise Of Good Design "We might think of design as a marriage of form and function. Yet the ratios often shift to produce the absurdity of, say, a Philippe Starck lemon squeezer - great styling, but the juice goes everywhere. Design has a job to do, and now more than ever. We are learning to integrate it into our lives with a greater sophistication and understanding. And the more the consumer responds to the product, the better designed it becomes." London Evening Standard 02/25/03
Posted: 02/25/2003 9:24 pm
History Through London's Statuary For hundreds of years Central London was the center of public sculpture. More recently, of course, "many people, including some serious art historians, have thought it’s artistically retrograde and uninteresting." A new book maintains that the statuary tells the history of the city. “What is incredible about the sculpture in the Square Mile is its sheer diversity. It reflects the different roles of the City: the preoccupation with the sea because London was a major world port and the heart of the Empire; journalism, publishing and the media because of Fleet Street; the trades because of all the markets; finance because of the banks and the Stock Market." The Times (UK) 02/25/03
Posted: 02/25/2003 6:50 pm
The Decline And Fall Of A Major Artist Twenty-five years ago Graham Sutherland was one of the most-praised artists in Britain. "At that point Sutherland was undeniably top of the heap. So why is the centenary of his birth, which falls this year, being celebrated in such a niggardly fashion? How did this disastrous decline come about? The first answer is that he died at the wrong time. At his death in 1982, at the age of 79, preparations were well advanced for a major retrospective at the Tate. It became his memorial show and was given surprisingly short shrift by most critics. You could see why. It was undeniable that Sutherland had been rather resting on his laurels in his final years..." The Times (UK) 02/25/03
Posted: 02/25/2003 6:43 pm
San Antonio Symphony On The Brink The latest North American orchestra crisis appears to be heading for a flashpoint in south Texas, where the San Antonio Symphony board is preparing to make a presentation to its musicians today, laying out the cuts the board believes will be necessary to save the financially strapped ensemble. One board member insists that layoffs and payroll cuts are not on the table, but another is ominously quoted as saying, "I think there's some people who feel, 'Go ahead and let the symphony fail. It will come back as a smaller orchestra. San Antonio can't afford this full-service orchestra.'" San Antonio Express-News 02/26/03
Posted: 02/26/2003 6:55 am
Paying For Piracy in Canada A series of long-awaited and controversial payouts to musicians, composers, and music publishers has begun in Canada, using money generated by a tax on blank, recordable CDs. The tax was designed to provide a method for compensating music industry professionals for the effects of illegal music piracy. The payout began "right around the time the [industry] was appearing before the Canadian Copyright Board in Ottawa to ask for both significant increases in the levies it's already been charging and an extension of the levy to computer hard drives, MP3 players, mobile phones and other media." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 02/26/03
Posted: 02/26/2003 6:01 am
- Previously: Canada's Crucial Year "There is general agreement that 2003 will be a watershed for the Canadian music industry -- a year that could either set the industry on a course of renewed viability, or make it as moribund as those dust-covered eight-track cartridges piled in the furnace room." From digital music to file-sharing, Canadian producers face all the challenges of their American counterparts, compounded by an abysmal exchange rate, and a controversial national tax on blank, recordable CDs. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 01/15/03
Everybody Sing! Singing in choirs is the most popular performing arts activity in the U.S., according to a new study, with better than 28 million Americans (about 10% of the total population) singing in some sort of organized chorus. "The study found a link between early exposure to choral singing and adult participation in choruses. More than half of adult singers had grown up in a household that included a chorus member, and nearly 70 percent had first sung in elementary or middle school." Andante 02/26/03
Posted: 02/26/2003 5:10 am
San Francisco To Lose Last Jazz Club San Francisco is losing its last club dedicated to jazz. Jazz at Pearl's, home to local jazz musicians six nights a week for 13 years, has been unable to renew the lease and will shut its doors April 30. "People think this is a great cosmopolitan city. But it's not. It used to be hip." San Francisco Chronicle 02/25/03
Posted: 02/25/2003 9:48 pm
Houston Symphony Players Set Strike Deadline Musicians of the Houston Symphony are pressing for a new contract and some serious changes in direction for the orchestra to put it on better financial ground. So Monday they voted to strike Sept. 1 if the orchestra is still playing under terms of the old contract that expired Oct. 5. Houston Chronicle 02/25/03
Posted: 02/25/2003 9:45 pm
Life On The Street - Playing Music, Earning Money (At Least A Little...) How hard can it be, playing music in the streets for money. Some of the pros say they can earn £100 in a day. So seven Guardian journalists take to London streets to see what they could earn playing music. For some it was a humbling experience. But for a features assistant who played harp... The Guardian (UK) 02/26/03
Posted: 02/25/2003 9:30 pm
How Not To Sell Public Art To The Masses In Milwaukee, plans for a major work of public art by sculptor Dennis Oppenheim have been shelved after a public outcry against the decidedly modernist piece. James Auer is disappointed by the plan's defeat, but thinks he knows what the problem was - lack of proper salesmanship. "Perhaps we can retreat, regroup and give some thought to a few general rules about introducing a major work of art by a top talent to a public that is wary of modernism in general and conceptualism in particular." Auer specifically suggests involving the local media early on in the process, rather than making formal announcements about new artworks which have already been approved. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 02/25/03
Posted: 02/26/2003 6:26 am
Why Cut The Arts? Why are the nation's governors and legislatures talking about zeroing out (or at least severely slashing) arts funding, when such cuts will be less than a drop in the bucket of spending cuts and tax increases most states will need to balance their bloated budgets this year? The arts are always a popular target for conservative policymakers, but on a fiscal level, the proposed cuts make no sense. Not only does public support of the arts tend to result in more money flowing back into state and local coffers than going out, but the cuts will, in the long run, likely have a negative impact on the economic quality of life in the affected states. Los Angeles Times 02/26/03
Posted: 02/26/2003 6:18 am
NY Mayor Reinvents So-Called "Decency Council" New York mayor Michael Bloomberg is reinventing former mayor Rudy Giuliani's so-called "Decency Council" - the Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission. "The commission, largely ignored in recent years, was reconstituted by then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani as a decency panel in April 2001 after the Brooklyn Museum of Art exhibited works he found offensive. But Bloomberg apparently has another model in mind: a 'working board' full of established art enthusiasts, some of whom just might write out a hefty check in a pinch." New York Daily News 02/25/03
Posted: 02/25/2003 10:04 pm
NJ Arts Groups Organizing Protests Against Eliminating Arts Funding New Jersey arts groups are mobilizing protests in response to Governor James McGreevey's proposal to eliminate state arts funding. Arts supporters plan a big rally for May 15 - about the time the state legislature is expected to vote on the budget. "A vocal supporter of the arts in the past, McGreevey has expressed regret about the need for his proposal to slash arts funding. He has urged arts leaders to come up with alternatives." Trenton Times 02/25/03
Posted: 02/25/2003 6:13 pm
Viñoly: Architect To The World By any account, architect Rafael Viñoly was something of a prodigy. He's racked up a series of high-profile projects around the world, and has developed a reputation for sensitivity to the needs of the project. "You don't simply accept the client's program at face value, as if your job is to be some kind of short-order cook. What you really want to do is figure out the underlying needs, which the client may never have fully understood. Then you work to define the program. You are not going to get a pre-cooked meal but something especially prepared." Los Angeles Times 02/25/03
Posted: 02/25/2003 6:30 pm
Boston Merger Boston's Wang Center for the Performing Arts and the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, which presents free summer productions, are merging their business operations together in an effort to streamline fundraising and marketing efforts. Each company will maintain its own distinct identity, but the agreement "formalizes and underscores the Wang's sponsorship of CSC during the past two summer seasons. As CSC's major underwriter, the Wang has contributed $200,000 in cash and thousands of dollars in 'in-kind services,' according to Maler." Boston Globe 02/26/03
Posted: 02/26/2003 5:25 am
London Success But Bombing In New York (Ah Yes, The Tradition...) London critics loved Sam Mendes' Donmar Theatre productions. Yet when he brought them to New York, the critics piled up their complaints. "There is a long tradition of New York critics resisting productions that have been successful in London. But there is more to the failure of Mendes's productions to win them over than sniping." The Guardian (UK) 02/25/03
Posted: 02/25/2003 9:34 pm
Broadway Musicians May Strike Next Week Contract talks between Broadway producers and the musicians union have stalled, and musicians say they may strike next week. "Musicians who work in the orchestra pits of old Broadway standbys like 'Phantom of the Opera' and new hits like 'Hairspray' said on Tuesday they might walk off the job after their union contract expires on Sunday." Producers are preparing to use recorded music. The New York Times 02/26/03
Posted: 02/25/2003 7:09 pm
Theatres Against War On Monday some 700 readings of Aristophanes' anti-war satire "Lysistrata," written in 411 B.C., will be presented around the world to protest a war in Iraq. "It's all part of the Lysistrata Project, the brainchild of New York writer-actress Kathryn Blume. Blume said she had been working on a screenplay based on "Lysistrata" when she heard about Theaters Against War (THAW), a group planning an 'action day' to protest a potential United States war against Iraq." Sacramento Bee 02/25/03
Posted: 02/25/2003 6:20 pm
Small Edinburgh Press Wins Publisher of The Year Prize Scotland's Canongate press hit the big time last year when Yann Martel’s Life Of Pi took the Booker Prize. Last night Canongate's ascendency to the major league was "confirmed in spectacular fashion as Canongate won Publisher of the Year at the British Book Awards." The Scotsman 02/26/03
Posted: 02/26/2003 5:40 am
- Life Of Pi Beaten By Stupid White Guy Satirist Michael Moore picked up the top prize at this week's British Book Awards, winning for his indictment of conservative U.S. policy, Stupid White Men. Moore beat out a strange field of competitors including Booker-winning author Yann Martel (Life of Pi) and a star player for the Manchester United soccer team, who wrote a best-selling autobiography. The award carries no prize money, which is probably all the same to Moore, who has also been carrying home prizes by the truckload for his last film, Bowling For Columbine. Calgary Herald 02/26/03
Posted: 02/26/2003 5:36 am
Actors Unions Discuss Merger America's two major actors unions are seriously discussing a merger. "A merger of the two unions has been discussed and rejected in the past. But in recent years, the consolidation of firms like America Online and Time Warner and the creation of Vivendi Universal have concentrated industry power in fewer hands. 'What we found is that instead of just being a good idea or a convenience, this kind of unity is more and more becoming an absolute necessity'."
Yahoo! (AP) 02/25/03
Posted: 02/25/2003 7:07 pm
