What's In A Voice? Why do those radio announcers with melodious vocal timbre so often turn out to be singularly unattractive when you meet them in person? "While there is a clear connection among age and sex and the pitch of a person's voice, there's no connection between pitch of voice and height, weight or any other dimension of an individual's size... However, there are 'telltale' signs of body size in the 'shape' or resonance of the voice." A university study is examining the connections. Calgary Herald 04/16/03
Posted: 04/16/2003 5:29 am
Artist, Heal Thyself The economic slump has spread through galleries and museums, and is now hitting individual artists who make their living selling paintings to the public. James Auer thinks that part of the problem is that most artists don't actually buy any art themselves. "It's very difficult to persuade someone to do something you haven't done yourself. And that includes the act of acquiring a fairly costly artwork - and paying off the debt, if necessary, on the installment plan. Collecting fine art can be a creative act, too. Indeed, it's the other, essential end of a vital continuum." Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel 04/16/03
Posted: 04/16/2003 6:08 am
Denver Museum May Get Permanent Home "A Denver developer has offered to donate one-third of an acre in the Central Platte Valley to the Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver as the site for a $3.6 million to $4 million permanent home... If it is realized, the free-standing, 18,000- to 20,000-square-foot structure would be part of a proposed development that would include 60 units of affordable housing and 11 luxury townhomes." Denver Post 04/16/03
Posted: 04/16/2003 5:54 am
Assessing Blame In Iraq Looting Who will be blamed for allowing the looting of Iraq's museums? "Many Iraqis already believe that allied forces targeted ancient sites during the first Gulf War out of malice; this new destruction of Iraq’s cultural heritage may soon be attributed not to Iraqi criminals but to coalition intentions. In this war US commanders were already provided with a list of the most important of an estimated 10,000 ancient sites in Iraq. The Americans claim that they took great care to avoid hitting these but say that Saddam Hussein deliberately sited many of his defences near such places to give them cover." The Times (UK) 04/16/03
Posted: 04/15/2003 10:11 pm
- Protection From Bombs, Not Looters Iraqi curators thought the biggest threat to their art was American bombs. They weren't prepared for looting... The Times (UK) 04/16/03
Posted: 04/15/2003 10:08 pm
- Who Will Buy Looted Iraqi Art? There won't be many buyers. "The major salerooms greatly restrict their sales of antiquities, most of which have no commercial value unless they carry with them what effectively amounts to a passport. The history of any major piece must be well known to make that piece saleable." The Times (UK) 04/16/03
Posted: 04/15/2003 10:06 pm
When Is It Okay To Deface Art? "In Paradise Square, Baghdad, tearing down a giant bronze Saddam is seen as moving, heroic and symbolic. Bad art about bad people deserves all the abuse it gets, we might argue, but where do the lines of acceptability lie when an artist wilfully wrecks another artist's work? Jake and Dinos Chapman are in trouble again for defacing a complete set of Goya's 80 Disasters of War etchings. Goya worked on the series for a decade from 1810 and never saw it printed in his lifetime." But strangely, the defacement is moving... London Evening Standard 04/15/03
Posted: 04/15/2003 10:00 pm
The Art Saddam Liked "The art in Saddam's palaces is very emphatically the embodiment of ideas and appetites, and as such, it is not really that funny. The erotic art is particularly recognisable as the sort of thing you'd see in Hitler's private collection - right down to the Aryan types. But Saddam is less elevated in his taste than Hitler. The Fuhrer was more pretentious. By contrast, there are no high cultural allusions whatsoever in the Saddamite paintings. They are from the universal cultural gutter - pure dreck. They look spraypainted, in a rampant hyperbolic style where all men are muscular, all women have giant breasts and missiles are metal cocks. These are art for the barely literate, or the barely sentient, dredged from some red-lit back alley of the brain."
The Guardian (UK) 04/15/03
Posted: 04/15/2003 9:52 pm
Lascaux Cave Painting Threatened The cave paintings at Lascaux in central France survived 20,000 years. But the prehistoric wall paintings are threatened with irreparable damage by modern man's attempts to save them. The Guardian (UK) 04/15/03
Posted: 04/15/2003 8:29 pm
Is Museum's Destruction So Bad? The destruction of the Iraq Museum is a disaster. "Some objects will doubtless be recovered, and a few of the most remarkable may turn out to have been hidden away. Even so, when the news about the museum emerged some people over here began talking about how the Iraqi people had 'lost their past'. A museum like the one in Baghdad, they argued, gives a people a sense of who they are, and where they come from. Is this true? There is a lot of sentimentality attached to archaeology by outsiders." The Guardian (UK) 04/15/03
Posted: 04/15/2003 7:33 pm
British Art Experts To Iraq Britain is sending a team of art experts to Iraq to try to help pick up the pieces after the smashing and looting of the National Museum of Antiquities. "Officials from Unesco, the UN cultural agency, will meet staff from the British Museum on Thursday to discuss tactics for Iraq. 'There will be a large conservation task to be done, extending over many years and requiring the widest possible international co-operation'."
BBC 04/15/03
Posted: 04/15/2003 7:10 pm
- British Museum Offers Iraqis Help The British Museum is offering to help the Iraq Museum. "The museum is considering the unprecedented move of arranging extended loans or gifts from its vast stores to help recreate the shattered displays when Iraqi museums reopen. It has the world's greatest Mesopotamian collection outside Iraq." The Guardian (UK) 04/16/03
Posted: 04/15/2003 7:08 pm
Saatchi's Gallery Opening Party More than 1000 guests turned up for the opening of Charles Saatchi's new gallery in London. The crowd was full of artists and celebrities and "they were treated to a nude happening by Spencer Tunick. Following the 35-year-old artist's directions, 160 naked volunteers, some giggling with embarrassment, posed in several positions - to the delight of tourists on the adjacent London Eye." BBC 04/15/03
Posted: 04/15/2003 7:06 pm
The Symbolism Of Toppling Statues The images of Saddam's statues being pulled down in Iraq were compelling. "What is it about a dead and really poor statue - a boring one indeed - that rouses such personal antipathy? And why did we who were not there stay so gripped throughout the whole business? All of us are aware of the symbolic freight of statues like this one. Their toppling clearly symbolizes the end of the overthrown regime. Often the pent-up resentments against a now-absent leader are taken out on his images. The history of art and the history of all images is punctuated by events of this kind..." OpinionJournal.com 04/16/03
Posted: 04/15/2003 6:33 pm
Red In The Black Large orchestras may be facing massive deficits and concern for their future across the country, but some smaller ensembles with less overhead and fewer staff are actually thriving, despite a dismal economy. One case in point is Red, a Cleveland-based chamber orchestra specializing in contemporary music. Red, founded a year ago by Jonathan Sheffer (of Eos Ensemble fame), "is ending the season with no deficit on a budget of $407,000," and has apparently been a hit with Cleveland concertgoers. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 04/13/03
Posted: 04/16/2003 6:20 am
- Cleveland Ensemble May Fold Even as Red thrives, another Cleveland-based ensemble specializing in new music is in danger of closing up shop. "The Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the admired professional ensemble in residence at Cleveland State University since 1980, is in turmoil and in danger of closing at the end of the 2003-04 concert season. Members of the Chamber Symphony are scheduled to meet today with Cleveland State President Michael Schwartz to discuss the ensemble's future. But its fate might be sealed. By May 2004, when founding music director Edwin London retires, the group could be out of money." The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 04/16/03
Posted: 04/16/2003 6:18 am
Oregon Symphony Facing Deep Cuts The Oregon Symphony has become the latest in a long line of North American orchestras to announce severe fiscal problems and a series of deep cuts to deal with them. Over the past few years, as the American economy has nosedived, the orchestra's endowment has lost fully 50% of its value. To make up the difference in revenues, Oregon will cut several staff positions, slash salaries, and even reduce the pay of its conducting staff (including legendary outgoing music director James dePriest) by 10%. The ensemble is also asking next season's guest performers to voluntarily reduce their fees, and although no cuts are immediately being made in the salaries of the orchestra's musicians, the subject is sure to come up when their contract is renegotiated next year. The Oregonian (Portland) 04/15/03
Posted: 04/16/2003 4:52 am
Opera Doesn't Work On TV. Does It? "Whenever the coverage of arts on the box is discussed, an assumption is voiced that opera is a cornerstone of public-service broadcasting which doesn't feature strongly enough in the schedules. I'm not convinced. The fact is that there has always been quite a lot of opera on BBC2 and Channel 4, and it rarely draws the viewing figures of a million that can, crudely speaking, justify the time and expense. Opera does not normally make very gripping or alluring television." Yet, it can work... The Telegraph (UK) 04/16/03
Posted: 04/15/2003 10:03 pm
Classical Brit Nominees Nominations for this year's Classical Brit awards offer few surprises. "There are three nominations for a serial winner, the conductor Sir Simon Rattle, two for last year's outstanding contribution award winner, Andrea Bocelli, while last year's album of the year recipient, Russell Watson, is vying for the same award for his third album, Reprise." The Guardian (UK) 04/15/03
Posted: 04/15/2003 7:43 pm
ENO - The Payne Connection The troubled English National Opera could use some help from Opera Europa, a "powerful European opera forum with a dynamic new director." Unfortunately that director is Nicholas Payne, whom the ENO fired last year. Oh well... The Guardian (UK) 04/15/03
Posted: 04/15/2003 7:36 pm
Colorado State Arts Budget Depends On Cigarettes? The Colorado legislature, which had been debating whether to cut state arts funding, voted to restore some of it, but there's a but (or is that "butt?"). Funding for the interlibrary loan program and the arts council would be contingent on the state receiving its tobacco payments." Denver Post 04/15/03
Posted: 04/15/2003 6:45 pm
Florida Contemplates Eliminating Arts Funding Florida arts groups are barcing for the worst - that state arts funding will be eliminated. "Even in the dark days of the early 1990s, when the National Endowment for the Arts was under attack, no state government joined the chorus to eliminate arts funding within its own borders. Florida in particular was among some that increased support to compensate for the reduced role of the NEA. But that was before the economic shudders of the dot-com bust, the Sept. 11 attacks, Wall Street scandals and wars on terrorism and Iraq caused tax revenue collections to plummet." However, "this is not an economic issue. The legislators have turned it into a policy issue." The Sun-Sentinel (Florida) 04/15/03
Posted: 04/15/2003 6:38 pm
Peter Prier Preps A Pack Of Plucky Perflers Every professional requires proper training, and luthiers, the mysterious perfectionists who construct the violins, violas, and cellos used by the world's musicians, are no exception. But your average university doesn't offer a major in fingerboard shaving, or even a seminar in perfling. So where do budding luthiers turn for instruction in their craft? A surprising percentage turn to the teaching shop of a single man. In fact, the proliferation of American luthiers is largely due to the efforts of one Peter Prier, of Salt Lake City. Baltimore Sun 04/16/03
Posted: 04/16/2003 5:09 am
Musicologist's Body Pulled From River A body pulled from Boston's Charles River this week has been positively identified as that of musicologist John Daverio, who disappeared last month. Daverio was a professor at Boston University, and was considered one of the world's leading authorities on the music of Robert Schumann. Medical authorities say that Daverio drowned, but the circumstances surrounding his death are still a mystery, with his colleagues and friends dismissing the possibility of suicide. Andante (AP) 04/16/03
Posted: 04/16/2003 4:48 am
Rage Against The Machine "They used words such as devastated, disaster, catastrophic, oblivion and bizarre. Canada's TV actors, producers, directors and writers are clearly furious, but exactly what they can do about a massive cut in support money from the Canadian Television Fund is uncertain. 'To suggest the Canadian television business is in peril is a hilarious understatement,' [said one Canadian actor.] 'This is a catastrophic collapse. We are in freefall.'" Calgary Herald (CP) 04/16/03
Posted: 04/16/2003 5:37 am
- Previously: Canadian TV Cuts Cuts in funding to the Canadian Television Fund, the Canadian government's mechanism for funding Canadian television will mean several longstanding shows will go off the air. "In all, 129 productions - 64% of all applicants - were denied funding from the CTF's Licence Fee Program, which contributes 20% of a show's budget. Seventy-three productions combined to receive a total of $75-million in funding, including Trailer Park Boys, Da Vinci's Inquest and Blue Murder." National Post 04/15/03
Why Arts Don't Play On TV Why don't the arts find more of an audience on TV? It's because they're ghettoized in "high art" packaging, says one BBC producer. "Hollywood and the advertising industry have succeeded in adapting music, verse and dance to popular taste where television has so far failed." BBC 04/14/03
Posted: 04/15/2003 7:46 pm
