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Wednesday, June 11




Visual Arts

The Meaning Of Beauty For a long while beauty was a quality that lost favor in art. But slowly, beauty has begun to reassert itself, and a new book makes a case for its importance. "One submerged argument is that what we say about beauty can affect what we see of it, perhaps even its capacity to manifest itself. " San Francisco Chronicle 06/11/03
Posted: 06/11/2003 8:03 am

Missing Turner Surfaces A long-lost Turner watercolor has turned up after more than a century. "It was owned by the eminent art critic and Turner fanatic John Ruskin, who displayed it with other gems from his private collection in public shows in 1878 and in 1900, the year he died. The painting was then sold to an unknown private collector and disappeared for more than a century." The Guardian (UK) 06/11/03
Posted: 06/11/2003 7:39 am

Damien Finds God? Damien Hirst is taking a religious turn. His next series of pieces are religion-themed. "In a series of sculptures inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper, which will be seen in London this autumn, Hirst will depict Jesus and the apostles as 13 pingpong balls bobbing on spurting fountains of red wine. A washing bowl to bathe Christ's feet will sit beneath their Formica table." The Guardian (UK) 06/11/03
Posted: 06/11/2003 7:35 am

Music

Looking For Leadership In Pittsburgh The search for a new managing director of the Pittsburgh Symphony is attracting the kind of attention usually reserved for the hiring of a music director. That's what happens when an orchestra's major challenges seem to be managerial rather than artistic. "Looming large over the search is the PSO's $800,000 cash shortfall this year and the effort to stave off a $2.5 million structural deficit next year, not to mention the hiring of a replacement for outgoing music director Mariss Jansons." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 06/11/03
Posted: 06/11/2003 8:12 am

Top 100 Songs What are the "greatest" 100 songs of the past 25 years? VH1 has made a list... Dallas Morning News 06/11/03
Posted: 06/11/2003 7:05 am

LouisVille Orchestra Bankrupt The Louisville Orchestra files for bankruptcy. "Employees are still owed their May 30 paychecks and a total of $1.3 million in loans is past due. The orchestra also owes approximately $250,000 to vendors." CNN (AP) 06/10/03
Posted: 06/10/2003 6:12 pm

Korean Pianist Snubs Piano Competition A Korean pianist has turned down the third prize he was awarded at this year's Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Brussels because "he felt his performances throughout the month-long competition were demonstrably better than those given by the second-place winner, Shen Wen-Yu, 16, from China. Severin von Eckardstein, 25, from Germany, won first prize." Korea Herald 06/10/03
Posted: 06/10/2003 4:52 pm

Grammys Add New Categories The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences has added some new categories for next year's Grammys, including an award for best rap song. "The rap arena continues to be strong and growing. There are more releases, more artists, more airplay and sales, and more importantly, there's more creativity in that area.' In addition, awards in the world music field have been doubled: Trophies will now go to best traditional world music album and best contemporary world music album." Yahoo! (AP) 06/07/03
Posted: 06/10/2003 4:27 pm

Arts Issues

The Arts Tax? If states are slashing their discretionary spending on the arts, maybe the way to save arts funding is to use dedicated taxes for the arts. "There is a variety of indirect taxes for the arts, which are more prevalent than we realize and have proven quiet successes. These taxes bring consistent funding for the arts through the back door and are not as much subject to the fate of appropriations-based government support, which can be a real roller-coaster ride." OpinionJournal 06/11/03
Posted: 06/10/2003 6:55 pm

Foundation Spending On Arts Decreases A new report describes trends in foundation spending on the arts. Last year foundation spending on the arts decreased 3/5 percent to just over $4 billion. "Arts funding accounted for 11.8 percent of overall foundation grant dollars in 2001; nearly nine out of ten foundations in the sample supported the arts in 2001; and museum activities received the largest share of grant dollars in the 2001 sample (34 percent), followed by performing arts (30 percent)." Philanthropy News Digest 06/10/03
Posted: 06/10/2003 6:30 pm

Brazil's Flourishing Culture In A Times Of Political Challenge Brazil is a country much occupied by political challenges. Yet the country's culture is vibrant and diverse and challenging. "In the city's 80-odd venues, you find international commercial hits - what Araujo calls 'fast-food theatre' - such as Beauty and the Beast and Grease. But there is also a wide range of alternative theatre at amazingly low prices. The most intriguing venues come under the acronymic title of SESC. There are six of these scattered around Sao Paulo; they are multi-purpose arts and leisure centres housing theatres, galleries, sports facilities, internet cafes and meeting places. They are financed by a small tax levied on workers in retail trades, and are available to the general public." The Guardian (UK) 06/10/03
Posted: 06/10/2003 4:42 pm

People

Michael Graves Ill Architect Michael Graves is "suffering from paralysis of the lower body as a result of 'a disease with the symptoms of meningitis. Graves contracted the disease of the nervous system in February. Washington Post 06/11/03
Posted: 06/11/2003 7:47 am

Genius Or Buffoon Con Man? Two of the hottest opera tickets this summer are Peter Sellars productions. Sellars is a high concept guy. "Much of Sellars's talk tends to abstract generalisations. 'I am more interested in the periphery than the centre. Places with no centre, like Los Angeles, are both more chaotic and more democratic' is typical. When I asked him about what happened in Adelaide, all he said was, 'People flip out about the fires in Australia, but the Aborigine tradition is that you have to burn off the land to regenerate'." Sydney Morning Herald 06/11/03
Posted: 06/10/2003 6:40 pm

The Inner (Outer?) Saatchi Uber-collector Charles Saatchi is famously reticent about giving interviews. But Andrew Renton takes him out shopping and for a chat. "I've been buying and selling art for 30 years. It's what I do. There was a time when I was accused of creating a Xanadu, and of hoarding. I can't win. I don't mind selling work - even by artists I like. It's more important to make sure I have the best works." London Evening Standard 06/10/03
Posted: 06/10/2003 5:01 pm

Theatre

Magnetic Attraction A new Canadian theatre festival called Magnetic North hopes to be a showcase for the best new Canadian plays from across the country. The festival will switch cities each year. "Magnetic North never stays put. The concept is that every other year we will be in a different Canadian city and then return to Ottawa. So 2004 will find us in Edmonton, and 2005 back in the capital again." Toronto Star 06/11/03
Posted: 06/11/2003 7:56 am

Publishing

To Catch A Thief Plagiarism seems to be all around us. "Why do they do it? With the Internet making it easy to disseminate and read virtually anything anyone writes, it has become that much easier to catch plagiarists. So why do writers continue to steal the works of others? There are many explanations: gnawing self-doubt, narcissistic self-confidence, haste, pressure from publishers and editors, unrestrained ambition, a self-destructive need to court disaster, and, sometimes, ignorance of what plagiarism is." Boston Globe 06/11/03
Posted: 06/11/2003 6:57 am

Rowling: Weight Of Expectations Anticipation over the new Harry Potter book is so intense can it help but disappoint fans? "When I think about Rowling, the phrase 'be careful what you wish for' keeps floating unbidden into my brain. All the money in the world (and she is already richer than the Queen) cannot diminish the weight of expectation riding on her slim shoulders. Rowling has increased the dangers of disappointment by leaving a three-year gap before getting Harry's latest adventure into the shops. When the first four volumes appeared, like clockwork, at yearly intervals, she seemed to have come up with a magic formula." The Telegraph (UK) 06/10/03
Posted: 06/10/2003 5:18 pm

Used Up - Used Book Sales Rising New book sales may be struggling, but sales of used books are on the rise. According to a new study, "one out of every 10 book buyers bought a used book in the last nine months. One of the few growing areas of the retail book business, used books now account for about $533 million in sales annually — 13% of overall book units sold and 5% of total revenue — and could lead to as much as $1.5 billion lost in new sales." Publishers Weekly 06/10/03
Posted: 06/10/2003 4:18 pm

Media

SARS Scare Killing Toronto Movie Business A Canadian actress on a plane to Los Angeles takes off her jacket to reveal a Toronto T-shirt and the people sitting next to her ask to be moved to other seats. The paranoia about SARS has killed the movie business in Toronto. And for those production that are still shooting in Canada, life on the set has changed... Toronto Star 06/11/03
Posted: 06/11/2003 7:52 am

Why Spanish-Language Movies Have A Tough Time In The US "Although Latinos make up the fastest growing segment of the U.S. moviegoing population, recent attempts at luring them to Latin-themed movies have met with mixed results. 'We are just getting to know the market and how it works. We are trying to develop the market in those communities where the movies will have the most success.... There is a lot of risk. But there are a lot of people who see the opportunity and want to try'." Los Angeles Times 06/11/03
Posted: 06/11/2003 7:44 am

Dance

Lesbian Impact On NY Dance? There was a time not long ago when New York's dance scene was not hospitable to lesbians. That's all changed, though "identifying a lesbian in dance can be harder than finding a heterosexual man. While anecdotal estimates of the number of gay men working in the Manhattan dance scene hover between 80 and 85 percent, the idea of coming up with an equivalent percentage of dykes seems laughable. But despite their dearth in numbers, lesbians impact the field in lasting ways." Village Voice 06/10/03
Posted: 06/10/2003 5:05 pm


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