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Wednesday, March 12




Visual Arts

Vision vs. Practicality "Will Alsop, the acclaimed British architect, stormed the gates of Toronto more than two years ago and convinced the Ontario College of Art and Design that he was their man... Today, the fireworks get shut down so that some tough decisions can be made about how to get OCAD built by next January." The major issue to be discussed is the building's cladding - what exactly the outher facade will be made of. Cost is an issue, as is durability, and, of course, visual appeal. Lisa Rochon says a decision needs to be made, and soon. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 03/12/03
Posted: 03/12/2003 5:49 am

Green Space vs. History Dallas, Texas, is not the greenest city in America. In fact, Dallas's downtown is almost completely lacking open space. A proposal for a new, 4.7-acre park aims to change that, but there's a catch. The plans for the park would require the destruction of a number of old buildings described as "the best block of 1950s architecture in the city." There is no question that the 'greening' proposal is well-intended, says David Dillon, "yet a park proposal that requires the demolition of historic buildings and the closing of major streets, in a downtown that is already one-third vacant land, creates as many problems as it solves– not just for historic preservation but for planning and economic development." Dallas Morning News 03/12/03
Posted: 03/12/2003 5:06 am

Dangerous Dig "Indian archaeologists prepared on Tuesday to start digging in search of a lost temple whose disputed existence lies at the heart of India's tense and often violent Hindu-Muslim divide. Archaeologists put up tents at three places at the site in the northern holy town of Ayodhya to maintain secrecy as they search for remains of a temple which some Hindus say was buried under a 16th-century mosque. Hindu zealots razed the mosque in 1992, triggering nationwide Hindu-Muslim riots in which some 3,000 people died." Wired (Reuters) 03/11/03
Posted: 03/12/2003 4:32 am

The Life And Legacy Of Francis Bacon The story and legacy of Francis Bacon's £60 million estate are growing murkier and more complicated after the death of his sole beneficiary last week. The Scotsman 03/12/03
Posted: 03/11/2003 10:18 pm

Russia Reveals Troves Of Art Looted By Nazis After more than 50 years of hiding them away, Russia has decided to reveal the whereabouts of "thousands of paintings, archives and rare books looted by Soviet forces in Germany and Eastern Europe during and after World War II and taken to Russia as so-called trophy art. (Now the preferred term in Russia is 'displaced cultural treasures.') Hitler's forces had previously pillaged many of the works from Jewish owners and other Nazi victims." The New York Times 03/12/03
Posted: 03/11/2003 10:12 pm

Painted Critique - Condemning Critics Richard Eurich was a "awfully good painter" writes Richard Dorment. But he was a stubborn independent who went his own way. And though pleasant, he fired off a savage critique of critics in the form of a painting. "The contrast between the foolishness of the impotent critics and the moral clarity of the virile artist is the picture's unmistakable point. A reproduction of The Critics should hang over the desks of all of us who write about the arts, for it reminds us how easy it is to become focused on emerging artists, while neglecting true but idiosyncratic talent." The Telegraph (UK) 03/12/03
Posted: 03/11/2003 10:00 pm

Flood Fears For Museums British museum directors have been warned about protecting their collections in case of a flood. "In London, a string of national museums is located along both banks of the Thames. These include Tate Modern and Tate Britain, and the priceless Gilbert precious metal collection at Somerset House, to be joined next month by Charles Saatchi's new gallery at County Hall, and, in May, by a new museum in Docklands. Many museums, such as the V&A, which stand a safe distance inland, have stores much closer to the river, while others, such as the Wallace Collection, just north of Oxford Street, recently gained space by excavating large basement areas." The Guardian (UK) 03/12/03
Posted: 03/11/2003 9:38 pm

Music

Detroit Expansion Comes Into Focus A $125 million expansion of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's home in the city's downtown is drawing to a close, and the face of the new facilities which will be available to the orchestra is coming into focus. A new 500-seat recital hall will play host to a new chamber music series, featuring members of the DSO playing alongside big-name guest soloists. The smaller hall will also feature guest ensembles which otherwise might have skipped Detroit for lack of a good chamber music hall. And the new building "offers patron comforts that... Orchestra Hall, has always lacked: elevators, a spacious four-story atrium lobby, additional rest rooms, coat checks, lounges, refreshment centers and a high-tech box office." Detroit Free Press 03/12/03
Posted: 03/12/2003 5:41 am

Orchestra Musicians In Hard Times Symphony orchestras are struggling across America. "After relatively flush times in the 1990s, the current problems of the economy are taking their toll. Ticket sales are down for some orchestras; corporate sponsors are withdrawing some support; and foundations, after watching the value of their portfolios drop for several years, are reducing the size of their grants. It's not helping that state and local governments facing large budget deficits are cutting back on their help for the arts." Christian Science Monitor 03/12/03
Posted: 03/11/2003 11:00 pm

English Parliament Votes Down Licensing For Live Performances In Small Venues Parliamentary debate forces a whittling back a government plan to require small pubs to license live music. "Last night's defeat by 150 votes to 120 would mean that smaller pubs and restaurants would be able to offer live entertainment as long as their capacity was below 250 people and the entertainment finished by 11.30pm." The government's plan was bitterly fought by musicians who claimed the plan would have cut the number of venues for live music. The Guardian (UK) 03/12/03
Posted: 03/11/2003 9:41 pm

English National Opera Faces Another Strike After Announcing Cuts Backstage staff of the English National Opera said they would go on strike, after the company announced that "up to 100 permanent artistic, technical and administrative staff will face redundancy - a fifth of the company. This figure includes the 20 chorus members threatened with redundancy under plans to shrink the chorus by a third." The Guardian (UK) 03/12/03
Posted: 03/11/2003 9:34 pm

What Makes Baz Boheme Work On Broadway? Opera and Broadway have long tried to mix it up - but rarely with success. Somehow, despite the rising popularity of crossover, one can't escape the conventional wisdom that opera and Broadway occupy two distinct and conflicting worlds. How, then, is one to react to the surprise success of Baz Luhrmann's $6.5 million production of Puccini's La Bohème on Broadway?" Opera News 03/03
Posted: 03/11/2003 6:02 pm

Fire Back - The Art Of Jazz Protest What's become of jazz protest? The question is old, but in an era of international emergency, it's relevant. So poet Amiri Baraka, playwright Sonia Sanchez, Columbia professor Robert O'Meally, and trumpeter Cecil Bridgewater are discussing dissent in jazz — and maybe exercising it — when Lincoln Center hosts "Jazz and Social Protest" on March 18. But dissent against what? And why? How successfully the panelists address jazz activism, and prescribe a course for it, might depend on how clearly they consider Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln's legacies..." Village Voice 03/11/03
Posted: 03/11/2003 5:24 pm

Arts Issues

Minneapolis To Close Libraries A year ago, Minneapolis was planning an impressive new downtown library, and trumpeting the value of the project to the city and the entire metro area. Now, the new library may be on hold, and city officials are planning to shutter four branch libraries for the remainder of 2003 in an effort to deal with the severe budget cuts being handed down by the legislature. Minnesota has a budget deficit of nearly $5 billion for the next biennium, and the state's largest city is facing massive cuts in services as a result. Closing the branch libraries is expected to save the city $2 million. The Star Tribune (Minneapolis 03/12/03
Posted: 03/12/2003 6:13 am

Auction Houses To Pay Off Plaintiffs When former Sotheby's chairman Alfred Taubman was convicted of price-fixing in 2001, a flood of lawsuits were filed by collectors who had paid the inflated prices created by the collusion between the auction house and its main rival, Christie's. The auction houses have already paid more than $512 million to resolve such claims in the U.S., and now, a settlement has been reached for each house to pay an additional $20 million for claims from overseas buyers. $20 million is a drop in the revenue bucket for the world's two largest auction houses, and observers say that the settlement is great news for Christie's and Sotheby's. Los Angeles Times 03/12/03
Posted: 03/12/2003 6:00 am

The Fund-Raising Machine If it seems like performing arts groups are forever begging their subscribers and benefactors for money, it's only because they are. Ticket revenue doesn't begin to cover the cost of operations for orchestras, theatres, and dance companies, and the rest of the budget must be made up from endowment revenue (if the organization is lucky enough to have an endowment) and annual contributions. Most patrons don't really understand how the funding mechanism works, but in an era of budget cuts and fiscal crisis in the arts, it is increasingly important for the fund-raising machine to function smoothly and efficiently. Dallas Morning News 03/10/03
Posted: 03/12/2003 5:14 am

State Arts Funding - Going, Going... States across America are cutting arts funding. "To be sure, it is an extraordinarily difficult time for state budgets. In the mid- to late ’90s, the states enjoyed healthy revenue streams and almost universally cut taxes and increased spending, including on programs mandated by the federal government (like Medicaid and standardized testing). Now, as the economy enters a second year of doldrums, the states — 49 of which are constitutionally required to keep a balanced budget, unlike the federal government—are paying the price for their earlier optimism. Nor does the horizon look particularly rosy, thanks to the federal budget policy being pursued by the Bush administration. With the president calling not only for elimination of the dividend tax, but an acceleration of the 2001 tax cuts, states are not likely to see more revenue any time soon." In These Times 03/10/03
Posted: 03/11/2003 10:46 pm

NY Artists Migrating Again New York artists and arts spaces are on the move again, looking for less expensive space. This year's target area - Hell's Kitchen in the West 30s. "It isn't news that artists get used like detergent—cleaning up a neighborhood, then flushed away. What does seem like a huge shift is that some artists spaces are trying to buck this trend by buying buildings." Village Voice 03/11/03
Posted: 03/11/2003 5:29 pm

Proposed New York Non-Profit Rules May Prove Difficult For Arts Groups New York's attorney general has proposed accounting reforms for non-profits. The legislation "would require many New York-based nonprofits to certify financial statements, create audit committees to scrutinize accounting practices, and ensure a sufficient number of independent board members." Some arts people are wary. Depending on how the legislation is written, arts groups - particularly mid-size arts groups - could have difficulty complying. Backstage 03/11/03
Posted: 03/11/2003 4:55 pm

People

Graphic Details Emerge In Polanski Case TheSmokingGun.com specializes in unearthing incriminating documents about celebrities. The site's latest revelation brings to light graphic testimony, previously sealed and unavailable to the public, from the statutory rape trial of director Roman Polanski, who is nominated for an Oscar this year. Polanski was accused of sexual contact with a 13-year-old girl, and the trial transcripts "include the girl testifying that the pair's illicit romps at Hollywood hot shot Jack Nicholson's house included anal and oral sex." The new information could derail Polanski's comeback bid at the Academy Awards, despite the now-39-year-old victim's insistence that she has forgiven him. New York Post 03/12/03
Posted: 03/12/2003 6:23 am

Barry On Keillor So what's Garrison Keillor really like? Don't ask Dave Barry: "I do know that he's a generous host, and very smart, and he can be funny as hell even when he's not on the radio. But he's not an easy guy to get close to." But Barry says that Keillor is one of the great comic geniuses of the age, and that his 'Humor Processor' is always running. Keillor has had his critics in recent days, but how many comics can produce two full hours of original material a week, every week for almost three decades, and perform it live without a hint of the arduousness of the process? Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (Knight Ridder) 03/11/03
Posted: 03/12/2003 6:09 am

Theatre

The Not-So-Modern Theatre A Boston philanthropist has agreed to purchase the dilapidated, city-owned Modern Theatre and renovate it for use as a theatre and and commercial space. The former movie house has become so run-down in recent years that the city had to shut down a portion of the street it sits on and reinforce the structure to prevent cave-ins during winter snowfalls. The rebirth of the Modern is the latest in a series of initiatives designed to revive Boston's theatre district, and provide a wider range of performance space for local groups. Boston Globe 03/12/03
Posted: 03/12/2003 4:56 am

Art Of Compromise -Settling the Broadway Strike The Broadway musicians strike ended quickly after an all-night negotiating session. "When the negotiators emerged, bleary-eyed, from the talks, neither side claimed victory, and both called the deal a difficult compromise. The main conflict had been over the minimum number of musicians required — currently 24 to 26 — in the orchestra pits of Broadway's 13 largest theaters. Under the new contract, those minimums were lowered for the next decade to 18 or 19, depending on the theater." The New York Times 03/12/03
Posted: 03/11/2003 10:08 pm

Translator As Rewriter Translators serve as an essential link between playwright and audiences who speak a different language. Yet their value is often overlooked. "The best translators. remain as invisible as possible. And yet it is a practice that has an indelible effect on how we perceive the best in what world theatre has to offer." The Guardian (UK) 03/12/03
Posted: 03/11/2003 9:45 pm

Ambitions, Circumstances Helped Sink Seattle's ACT Theatre How did Seattle's ACT Theatre go from a $5 million annual budget and 60+ employees to a $1.7 million deficit and laying off most of its staff? Misha Berson writes that "a confluence of difficult circumstances and dubious internal decisions, including ACT's 1996 move to a new facility, swelling artistic ambitions, shifts of leadership, overdependence on credit and the post-9/11 recession" conspired to sink the theatre's fortunes. Seattle Times 03/11/03
Posted: 03/11/2003 10:59 am

Media

The Golden Age of Animation? Animation has come a long way in the last couple of decades. From the eye-popping (at the time) Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, through the pioneering computer work in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, to today's cutting edge 'toons like Pixar's Monsters, Inc., technology is changing the way animated films are made, marketed, and viewed. A new Oscar category devoted to the genre sprang up last year, and increasingly, audiences seem to be more accepting of the idea that cartoons aren't just for kids anymore. Denver Post 03/12/03
Posted: 03/12/2003 5:19 am


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