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Wednesday, May 28




Ideas

Taking The "Public" Out Of Public Universities "Today colleges and universities are seen principally as providing tickets to financial security and economic status. Few people worry about higher-education institutions leading young people astray. If anything, the lament is that they have, in their pursuit of market advantage, become dispensers of degrees and certificates rather than vibrant communities of educators who originate, debate, and promulgate important ideas. What happened? In part, colleges and universities are what they are today because the 1970s began so badly. The result is likely to be equally clear: a set of colleges and universities that have come to believe their futures are best served by satisfying the interests of their customers, even if that ultimately means becoming increasingly self-interested and detached from broader public goals." Chronicle of Higher Education 05/30/03
Posted: 05/27/2003 3:56 pm

Visual Arts

Huge ROM Gift Could Come Today The Royal Ontario Museum is holding a ceremonial groundbreaking today to kick off a $200 million renovation and expansion, and sources say that the ROM may have locked up one of the major gifts it needs to fund the project. "Insiders are abuzz with unconfirmed reports that [Canadian philanthropist Galen] Weston is about to hand over $25 million — which could put the ROM close to its phase one campaign goal of $150 million, and position the museum fundraising blitz to move into phase two, with a goal of an additional $50 million for a total of $200 million." Toronto Star 05/28/03
Posted: 05/28/2003 6:01 am

One Great Big Boring Art Show Richard Dorment describes this year's annual Royal Academy Summer Exhibition as "the largest festival of bad art in Europe." The quality of chosen work is mediocre this year after a couple of good years. "Let me start with the amateurs. By sheer chance, I happen to know four people - none is a professional artist - who regularly attend a weekly painting class run by Maggi Hambling. Any single one of them is a better painter than most of the artists chosen from the open submissions this year." The Telegraph (UK) 05/28/03
Posted: 05/27/2003 6:04 pm

The New Architecture - Look To Smaller Cities "With buildings by Peter Eisenman in Columbus and Cincinnati, and by Frank Gehry in Toledo, Cincinnati, and Cleveland, the state of Ohio is beginning to seem as hospitable to cutting-edge architecture as the Netherlands. But avant-garde architects are getting commissions from small cities and institutions all over the country, not only because such places are eager to use architecture as a way of establishing their cultural credentials. Smaller cities are less likely to be encumbered by the political and economic pressures that affect projects in big cities, and, these days, they are more likely to take risks." As in two new buildings from Zaha Hadid and Frank Gehry... The New Yorker 05/26/03
Posted: 05/27/2003 4:23 pm

The ArtWorld's Best-Sellers Who are the best-selling living artists in the world right now? Jasper Johns clocks in at No. 1. "Johns' artworks have sold for more than Ł92m over the last three decades, the survey by magazine Artreview showed." BBC 05/27/03
Posted: 05/27/2003 4:16 pm

Music

Boston Opera Chief Stepping Down "Leon Major, artistic director of the Boston Lyric Opera since 1998, has stepped down from his position but will remain active with the company as a stage director... Throughout his tenure at the Lyric, Major commuted between Boston and Maryland, where he heads the Maryland Opera Studio at the University of Maryland, while maintaining an active schedule as guest stage director with many American and Canadian opera companies." Boston Globe 05/28/03
Posted: 05/28/2003 5:17 am

Finally, A Download Price War! "Facing competition from Apple Computer's iTunes service, Listen.com will lower the price to download songs from its Rhapsody music service by 20 cents to 79 cents, marking the latest move by paid music services to attract and retain new ears. For the price, listeners can download and burn from among more than 200,000 songs. Unlike users of Apple's iTunes, who only pay 99 cents per song, Listen.com customers also pay a $10 a month subscription fee." The news is significant, because it indicates that the public is interested enough in legal download services to make the price war necessary. Wired 05/28/03
Posted: 05/28/2003 4:56 am

Philly Orch Exec: Kreizberg Chat Was Routine Last week, Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Peter Dobrin reported that the members of the Philadelphia Orchestra had taken aside conductor Yakov Kreizberg, who had been called in at the last minute to replace Wolfgang Sawallisch on a major international tour, and asked him to cut down on the podium histrionics and stick with Sawallisch's tempos. The orchestra's top artistic executive agrees that the meeting took place, but insists that Dobrin overplayed the drama. "In our view, conversations between the concertmaster and conductor are a normal part of healthy music collaboration." Philadelphia Inquirer 05/28/03 (second item)
Posted: 05/28/2003 4:49 am

  • Previously: Orchestra To Maestro: Take It Down a Notch Orchestras are not in the habit of telling conductors how to do their jobs - it's supposed to be the other way around. But with Yakov Kreizberg stepping in at the last minute to fill in for the ailing Wolfgang Sawallisch on the Philadelphia Orchestra's South American tour, the orchestra has taken the unusual step of asking the maestro to tone down his 'antics' on the podium, and to leave the tempos where Sawallisch put them. Kreizberg, by all accounts, has taken the chiding in stride, and Peter Dobrin says that the unusual talking-to seems to have done some good. Philadelphia Inquirer 05/20/03

Tower Records For Sale The troubled Tower Records is looking for a buyer. "Tower has been particularly hard hit by the decline in sales of recorded music. For the six-month period ended January 31, Tower's sales fell 8.2%, to $306.9 million, and the company had a loss from continuing operations of $33 million, compared to a loss of $10.7 million in the first half of fiscal 2002." Publishers Weekly 05/27/03
Posted: 05/27/2003 5:29 pm

Arts Issues

Why Digital Rights Management Is Anti-American The idea that copyright protection must evolve to encompass the new digital media seems like a reasonable one on the surface. After all, no one ever really denied that Napster users were stealing music, right? But David Weinberger says that, as usual, politicians and corporate America have taken a legitimate issue and wildly overreacted, proposing a scheme with no consumer leeway and no ability to make changes later. "There are times when rules need to be imposed within [the] marketplace, whether they're international laws against bootleg CDs or the right of someone to sue for libel. But the fact that sometimes we resort to rules shouldn't lead us to think that they are the norm." Wired 05/28/03
Posted: 05/28/2003 5:04 am

A City Celebrates As It Works To Recover A Glorious Past It's the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg, Russia's cultural jewel and one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The city is trying to shake off the indignities of its Soviet past, when it was forced to change its name and its culture was pressed into service of the Lenin crowd. "The race to restore its imperial luster and secure its crown as the cultural capital of Russia has been helped significantly by being, in a sense, Putingrad — the hometown of the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin. Anniversary events today included a wreath laying at the Bronze Horseman and the opening of a grand entrance to the Hermitage from the Palace Square." The New York Times 05/28/03
Posted: 05/27/2003 6:29 pm

Should Melbourne Theatre And Concert Hall Merge Projects? Should the Melbourne Theatre Company combine its planned 500-seat theatre with a proposed 1000-seat recital hall planned for across the street? The local state government thinks a marriage may be in order... The Age (Melbourne) 05/28/03
Posted: 05/27/2003 5:40 pm

People

Mounting Tate Modern Vincente Todolí is the Tate Modern's new leader. "I have come from a small corner of Europe to a great metropolis and an institution which must talk not only to the local community but to the world. That is exciting for me. In Valencia [where he was director of the Institute for Modern Art from 1988 to 1996] and in Porto I was a one-man orchestra - conductor, soloist, back-up vocals. But I have left my ego behind. Now I want dialogue, confrontation, to be part of a team, which is what Tate is all about." The Scotsman 05/27/03
Posted: 05/27/2003 6:20 pm

Luciano Berio, 77 Luciano Berio has died in Rome. He "was regarded as one of the most important contemporary avant-garde composers, with major influence as a teacher and conductor as well as a composer." He was "an outstanding orchestral and vocal composer who was perhaps most remarked upon for his works with solo voice." The New York Times 05/28/03
Posted: 05/27/2003 6:15 pm

Why Picasso Stayed A Spaniard Picasso lived in France for 40 years but never became a citizen. Why? "When he sought French nationality in 1940, he was turned down on the ground that he was an anarchist with communist tendencies. The extent of French misgivings about Picasso's politics have just become known with the discovery of the artist's police files from 1901 to 1940. They were among millions of French documents seized by German occupation forces in 1940 and transferred to Berlin. After the defeat of Germany in 1945, they were taken to Moscow. Only since the collapse of the Soviet Union have they been gradually returned to France." The New York Times 05/28/03
Posted: 05/27/2003 6:12 pm

Theatre

SARS Fears Continue To Plague Festival Season With a fresh outbreak of SARS feared in Toronto, officials of the Shaw and Stratford Festivals in southern Ontario are fearful that the public will once again start to stay away. Advance sales are down amid fears of the outbreak, and there is simply no way to predict whether the latest round of quarantines will cause festival-goers to change their plans. Said one producer, "Fear is a difficult commodity to argue with." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/28/03
Posted: 05/28/2003 5:36 am

Guthrie's Expansion Money Hits A Snag Despite multiple earlier reports that the Minnesota state legislature had a deal in place to partially fund construction of a new Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis through a bonding bill, the measure became badly stalled yesterday when House Republicans balked at the inclusion of the theater funding. In response, the Democrat-controlled state Senate is refusing to honor agreements to pass a Republican budget-balancing bill until the House passes the bonding bill. If legislative history is any indication, the Guthrie will probably get its money in the end, but no one dares say so just yet, with cranky legislators stretched to the breaking point in what has been a particularly contentious session. The Star Tribune (Minneapolis) 05/28/03
Posted: 05/28/2003 4:04 am

  • Guthrie Gets Money Together For New Home It looks like Minneapolis' Guthrie Theatre has put together money to build its new home after the Minnesota legislature struck a deal to include money for the Guthrie in a bonding bill. The Guthrie has "gathered $64.5 million toward its internal fundraising goal of $75 million. The final price tag of the new three-stage Guthrie on the River is $125 million. The theater's board plans to borrow $15 million, so the $25 million from the state leaves a $10 million gap. Last session, the Legislature approved $24 million for the Guthrie. That appropriation fell to then-Gov. Jesse Ventura's veto pen." St. Paul Pioneer-Press 05/27/03
    Posted: 05/28/2003 4:03 am

Publishing

Translation? What Translation? A Canadian publishing house has announced that it will stop publishing the names of translators on the cover of books that were originally published in French. The reason is reportedly that consumers tend to be wary of translated books, and House of Anansi Press is hoping to attract new readership. Translators, who fought long and hard to get their names on book covers back in the 1970s, are understandably upset. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/28/03
Posted: 05/28/2003 5:32 am

Blogging For Freedom The blogging phenomenon continues to expand worldwide, and new reports out of the Middle East indicate that Iran, a theocracy with no free press, has become a blogging hotbed. One leader of the movement predicts that "until there is a free press in Iran again, weblogs will flourish. In the last few years about 90 (pro-democracy) newspapers in Iran have been shut down. So people have turned to the Internet to get news." Wired 05/28/03
Posted: 05/28/2003 5:00 am

Can Books Compete With Big Entertainment? Publishers meet to discuss how to revive their waning business. "Consumers now occupy some 300 more hours per year with 'entertainment' activities, compared to 15 years ago. It's a full plate of entertainment choices. Not surprisingly, consumers have an attention span of 'maybe 10 days,' which might explain why big authors aren't selling as well as in past years. The public is increasingly disenchanted earlier, and then rushes off to the next new thing. Consumers are no longer loyal to products or channels." Publishers Weekly 05/27/03
Posted: 05/27/2003 5:34 pm

Media

No Pots Of Gold In Sight For 'Rainbow' 'Reading Rainbow' is one of public broadcasting's most successful and award-winning programs. The program, which focuses on bringing books to life for a young audience, is twenty years old, but has had to cut back production in recent years due to a lack of funding. Executive producer and host LeVar Burton continues to shake every money tree that comes his way, but as he picked up the show's seventh Emmy this month, even Burton had to acknowledge that 'Reading Rainbow' may not be around for much longer. New York Post 05/28/03
Posted: 05/28/2003 5:50 am

Toronto Film & TV Industry Hits The Skids Toronto has, in recent years, enjoyed a healthy economic bump from a burgeoning film and television industry. But this year is different: SARS, a weak economy, and various other factors have contributed to a marked slowdown in the industry, and other Canadian cities are cherry-picking Toronto productions on a daily basis. It could just be a bump in the road, of course, but some in Toronto fear that the slump may not be temporary. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/28/03
Posted: 05/28/2003 5:41 am

Media Consolidation Makes Strange Bedfellows "When National Public Radio decided to create its first new news magazine program in almost 20 years, it turned to Slate, the Microsoft-owned online journal. Not only is it an unusual media partnership, the NPR/Slate production, a one-hour weekday program called 'Day to Day,' is the first programming collaboration NPR has had with a commercial outlet in its 33-year history." Chicago Tribune 05/28/03
Posted: 05/28/2003 5:25 am

Dance

Finally, A Conductor For San Francisco The San Francisco Ballet has announced the appointment of Andrew Mogrelia as conductor of its resident orchestra, capping a search which has dragged on for five years. "Mogrelia has a long history with dance companies, having conducted for the American Ballet Theatre, English National Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater. He was one of six guest conductors who led the Ballet Orchestra this season." San Francisco Chronicle 05/28/03
Posted: 05/28/2003 5:58 am

Nissinen Era Firmly In Place In Boston When Boston Ballet hired Mikko Nissinen to turn the company around, no one quite knew how such a feat could be accomplished. The company had been in chaos for several seasons, and could not seem to shake its image as something of an also-ran in Boston's estimable arts scene. So how is Nissinen doing, one year into his reign? "It's clear that Nissinen's push for change, however subtle, has had an impact. The company that performs next season will be vastly different from the one that opened last September. There will be fewer performances and a smaller administrative staff. More dramatically, four of nine principal dancers, or featured stars, will be gone." Boston Globe 05/28/03
Posted: 05/28/2003 5:14 am

A Folk Dance Tradition Invented From Scratch "Unlike other styles of folk dancing, where traditional dances are handed down from generation to generation, Israeli folk dancing was an exercise in cultural engineering. Early in Israel's history, people on the kibbutzim would gather around an accordion player and dance the dances of their homelands: the Romanian hora, the Arabic debka, and dances from Russia and Yemen. In the late 1940s, however, there was a deliberate effort to create original dances. The early dances were based on these traditional styles, but opened the way for creativity and innovation. 'The whole idea of creating folk dances, instead of having them just emerge naturally from the community, is quite amazing'." San Francisco Chronicle 05/23/03
Posted: 05/27/2003 5:45 pm

Is ABT Pulling Ahead Of Its Lincoln Center Rival? New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre, America's top two ballet troupes, have been "playing rival spring seasons at Lincoln Center for more than two decades. Time was, the most profound and thrilling art lay with NYCB. Little by little, without Balanchine's galvanizing presence as chief choreographer and—this should not be underestimated—chief coach, the power of attraction has shifted to ABT, with its warmer performing style, its growing complement of male virtuosi, its recent cultivation of tall, fresh, and athletic 'American Girl' ballerinas (Gillian Murphy, Michele Wiles), and the occasional dazzling guest star." Village Voice 05/28/03
Posted: 05/27/2003 5:24 pm

Expanding Vision "Again and again, when black artists adapt street work to the stage, the critics say it’s terrific. When it’s framed as black history, it’s more than terrific." writes Joan Acocella. Rennie Harris comes out of a Hip Hop tradition. In his new piece “Facing Mekka” the "moral vision is broader, and, despite the videos, the means are largely abstract: music, dance. This makes it encompassing—a story not just of African-American memory but of memory itself." The New Yorker 05/26/03
Posted: 05/27/2003 4:35 pm


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