IDEAS
http://www.artsjournal.com/ideas
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TV Disrupts The Himalayas "In June 1999, Bhutan became the last nation in the world to turn on television. The Dragon King had lifted a ban on the small screen as part of a radical plan to modernise his country, and those who could afford the £4-a-month subscription signed up in their thousands to a cable service that provided 46 channels of round-the-clock entertainment, much of it from Rupert Murdoch's Star TV network. Four years on, those same subscribers are beginning to accuse television of smothering their unique culture, of promoting a world that is incompatible with their own, and of threatening to destroy an idyll where time has stood still for half a millennium." The Guardian (UK) 06/14/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/ideas/redir/20030615-24755.html

The Art Of The Virus "Last December, Daccia Bloomstone, a 25-year-old Toronto artist, worked with a friend to set up up a commercial art gallery in downtown Toronto. They called it Virus Arts." This, of course, was before the SARS epidemic hit, making the whole art-as-infectious-virus notion quite a bit scarier. Still, says Liam Lacey, it may be time to lay aside the old canard that human culture, and indeed humanity itself, is a virus upon the earth. "The life-threatening viruses that have hit this country recently, severe acute respiratory syndrome, mad cow and West Nile, with monkeypox threatening, are a reality check for the pervasiveness and elasticity of the extraordinary widespread viral analogy in popular culture." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/14/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/ideas/redir/20030615-24727.html

Ideas Wanted Toronto's IdeaCity conference, which gets underway this weekend, is an intellectual celebration without direction, and that's exactly how organizers want it. The hope is that, by bringing together some of Canada's greatest thinkers for the mental equivalent of a jam session, great ideas will emerge, and walling in such broad-minded folks with a single 'theme' would seem to be antithetical to the effort. "But the event is still trying to find its feet conceptually. Some of the participants are genuinely 'ideas' people, but others are pop singers and wilderness adventurers." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/14/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/ideas/redir/20030615-24725.html

History For Hire? "A scientist financed by, say, the tobacco industry, is expected to declare whose wallet is behind his research. But what about a historian? The question may seem odd, but it has suddenly become more urgent as medical historians are becoming witnesses in some of the country's most important — and expensive — lawsuits. This practice is causing a fierce debate among historians over the ethics of testifying for industries accused of endangering the public's health." The New York Times 06/14/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/ideas/redir/20030615-24714.html

ARTS ISSUES
http://www.artsjournal.com/artsissues
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Is Britain's New Labour Party Destroying The Arts? "New Labour has wrecked culture in the sense of encouraging the lowest common denominator. It is total populism. That's the reason why so many of us [in the arts] hate them - not just for our political differences." So says playwright Tariq Ali, joining a chorus of cultural figures in the UK decrying the ruling party's abandonment of high culture. Part of the anti-Labour venom is surely a result of Tony Blair's unpopular support for the American war in Iraq, but the split runs deeper than a single issue. Where Labour was once thought to be the political ally of the serious art world, it seems increasingly clear to many artists that New Labour isn't interested in anything but making the masses happy. The Guardian (UK) 06/14/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/artsissues/redir/20030615-24728.html

Fash Bash Crash Fash Bash, the massive annual fundraising event staged by the Detroit Institute for the Arts, has been cancelled by the museum after a sponsor for the event could not be found. Fash Bash raised better than $500,000 for the DIA in 2001, but primary sponsor Marshall Field's pulled its support after that year to focus on similar shows in Chicago and Minneapolis. Without a large corporation to pick up the tab, last year's event actually ended up costing the DIA money, a disaster which the museum was determined not to repeat. Detroit News 06/14/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/artsissues/redir/20030615-24724.html

DANCE
http://www.artsjournal.com/dance
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New Orleans Finds Its Dancing Shoes: "Call it the original populist movement: dancing for the people and by the people, all different people. Cross-cultural boogieing -- that was this city's first contribution to the national identity." But somewhere between the Louisiana Purchase and the modern era, New Orleans lost its claim to being one of America's centers of the arts. Still, the evidence of the Crescent City's dance roots is everywhere, and the idea of dance as an art of the people, rather than an elite craft, is central to the heritage. "The people of [19th-century] New Orleans were multicultural in a meaningful way, mixing blood and traditions to make new and vital arts. Perhaps that is a model to revitalize dance today." Washington Post 06/15/03
http://artsjournal.com/dance/redir/20030615-24735.html

MEDIA
http://www.artsjournal.com/media
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Stolen Oscar Recovered In March 2000, 55 Oscar statues were stolen in Los Angeles. Though 52 were eventually recovered, three have been on the loose ever since. Now FBI agents on a drug bust in Florida has found one of the golden guys. BBC 06/15/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/media/redir/20030615-24746.html

Can Hollywood Make Art? Not So You'd Notice At Film Fests There is a disturbing trend at film festivals such as Cannes, writes Kenneth Turan. Hollywwod movies, even first-rate films get discounted just because they're the product of Hollywood. "Films produced in the maw of the studio system couldn't possibly be art, and even if they were, they surely didn't require the kind of help or recognition a major film festival award can provide." Is this really fair? Los Angeles Times 06/15/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/media/redir/20030615-24742.html

Educational TV (It's Not What You Think) "Gone are the days when academia and television were from opposite ends of the intellectual spectrum. Instead, TV studies are now enjoying a newfound respectability and prominence in the academic world. The maturing of the medium, recording technology that has allowed previously ephemeral TV work to remain accessible in archival form, and students' comfort level with video texts rather than written ones have all come together in the last few years to give new impetus to a discipline once derided as not serious enough to merit scholarly study. It's a rich vein for study, offering a virtually unlimited terrain due to the sheer amount of TV programs on screens, something film doesn't offer." Los Angeles Times 06/15/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/media/redir/20030615-24741.html

Hung Up On A Spike "The folks at MTV Networks decided some months back to relaunch their TNN - once the Nashville Network and more recently the National Network - as Spike TV, the first channel build specifically for men. At least that was the plan. But before Spike could unveil its new lineup of shows today, the network was faced with a man-sized problem. On June 5, filmmaker Spike Lee filed an injunction against MTV's owner, Viacom, saying the public associates the name 'Spike' with him." Los Angeles Times 06/16/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/media/redir/20030615-24740.html

In Defence of Television It's so easy to blame TV for all the ills of the world. What dreck! But "contrary to the scolding alarmists who've launched withering attacks, blaming TV for everything from youth violence to dulling and lulling the masses into a bloated stupor, television remains the most ubiquitous, educating, egalitarian, affecting and powerful medium the world has ever known." Toronto Star 06/15/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/media/redir/20030615-24736.html

Are There Too Many Holocaust Films? It's a touchy question. Such a momentous and terrible event as the Holocaust surely deserves to be memorialized on film. But with so many new documentaries being released every year, is the supply outstripping the demand? More importantly, is the sharpness of the message dulled by such a glut of messengers? That notion is starting to make it more difficult for filmmakers wanting to focus on the Holocaust to win financial backing. The New York Times 06/15/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/media/redir/20030615-24733.html

MUSIC
http://www.artsjournal.com/music
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The Next Great Jazz Star? In April, Universal Jazz beat Sony to sign Jamie Cullum for £1 million. The news sparked a media frenzy. Was the 5ft 5in, Wiltshire-raised 23-year-old worth the hype? When he sang, sighed and emoted his way through You're Nobody til Somebody Loves You on Michael Parkinson's BBC1 show shortly afterwards, the answer appeared to be yes. Online superstore Amazon ran out of his second CD, Pointless Nostalgic (released on the independent Candid label), the next day London Evening Standard 06/16/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20030615-24750.html

NY Philharmonic's Carnegie Gambit: Not Good For America Mark Swed writes that while the New York Philharmonic's move from Lincoln Center to Carnegie Hall might make financial sense for the orchestra, it isn't necessarily good for New York music or for musicians elsewhere in America. "What is good for business isn't necessarily good for art, the community or the country. This is a dire move, and its ramifications will be felt throughout America. At the heart of it are two important questions: Whom does an orchestra, or any major arts institution, serve? And what is its social responsibility?" Los Angeles Times 06/15/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20030615-24743.html

Mourning Carnegie Hall's New Role The New York Philharmonic's move to Carnegie Hall is bad for music in New York. "The most jarring thing about this agreement is that the Philharmonic and Carnegie are merging into a single entity. Think about it. Effectively there will be no more Carnegie Hall: It will simply be the Philharmonic's hall, which they'll let others use from time to time. The 130 nights a year the Philharmonic will "cannibalize" in its new home will be bad news for recitalists, string quartets, popular musicians and visiting orchestras." Kansas City Star 06/15/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20030615-24739.html

Neither The Best Nor The Worst Of Times The sky is not about to fall down on the world of symphony orchestras, but neither is the future outlook as rosy as some industry soothsayers think, says Paul Horsley. The fact is that orchestras with responsible fiscal policies are thriving, even in the down economy, but that doesn't make it any easier for the groups in trouble to dig their way out of the financial hole. The 'X factor' in orchestral success remains a commitment to artistic quality, and the orchestras that stay afloat are the ones that can find a way to maintain their standard, even as they cut the necessary monetary corners. Kansas City Star 06/15/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20030615-24731.html

A String Quartet Too Hot To Handle "The culture wars don't often invade the rarefied world of chamber music. But the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival's directors have decided to omit the sexually explicit and homoerotic narration accompanying a new piece by Pulitzer-winning composer David Del Tredici... To the composer, who is well-known for celebrating his homosexuality in his music, the issue boils down to censorship fueled by homophobia. To James Tocco, who is also gay, the issue is the festival's responsibility to an audience that includes children. Trapped in the crossfire are the musicians in the Elements Quartet, which commissioned the work from Del Tredici and offered the world premiere performance to the festival." Detroit Free Press 06/15/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20030615-24723.html

How To Hold A Composer Accountable One of the frequent charges leveled against composers over the last few decades has been that they are increasingly distant from, and even uninterested in, their audience. A special interactive concert made an effort to reconnect the two this weekend in New England: three composers each presented new works to the audience, and spoke briefly about their inspirations and objectives in composition. Then, the audience got a crack at questioning the composer, speaking up about what did and didn't make a connection, and even asking for segments of some works to be repeated. "It sounds like the very thing that composers dread," says Keith Powers, and yet it seems to have made everyone involved a little wiser, and a lot happier. Boston Herald 06/14/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20030615-24713.html

PEOPLE
http://www.artsjournal.com/people
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An Architectural Clash of the Titans Jacques Herzog and Rem Koolhaas see themselves as the twin giants of the architectural industry, says Deyan Sudjic, and like any other rival titans, they cannot seem to resist the temptation to one-up each other. "Between them, they have transformed architectural debate... [but] the relationship between them is becoming more like that between Godzilla and King Kong. They can't help but go swarming all over the skyline, trying to take pokes at each other. And in the end, they are interested in entirely different things." Herzog's magnificent new Prada store in Tokyo is the latest salvo in the friendly battle: it "comes hard on the heels of Koolhaas's much- publicised New York flagship for Prada, and effortlessly eclipses it." The Observer (UK) 06/15/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/people/redir/20030615-24729.html

Goodbye, Atticus Actor Gregory Peck, best remembered as Atticus Finch in the celebrated film adaptation of Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, has died of natural causes at his California home. "Possessed of a soul-stirring voice called 'one of the world's great musical instruments' by violinist Isaac Stern, and a face chiseled from the same bedrock as Abe Lincoln's, Mr. Peck towered over the American cultural landscape for six decades. He consistently played men who saw wrong and did right." Peck was 87. Philadelphia Inquirer 06/13/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/people/redir/20030615-24719.html

The Thinking Man's Hero A few days before Gregory Peck's death, his characterization of Atticus Finch was recognized by the American Film Institute as having created the "greatest hero" in the history of American film. That such a title, however subjective it may be, could be bestowed on a protagonist who threw no punches, rode no galloping horses, and in fact, lost his court fight to save an innocent man, is yet one more indication of Peck's skill as an actor. In an industry that glorifies violence, and celebrates the culture of shoot-first-ask-questions-later, Peck managed to make a hero of a vulnerable pacifist. It was a role that suited him well. Chicago Tribune 06/15/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/people/redir/20030615-24720.html

PUBLISHING
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing
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The Blogging Professors More and more academics are getting into blogging. The online journals are a great way to trade information, opine on work in progress and interact with colleagues. "What blogging offers is immediacy. Compared to what we're all used to in academia, where you submit something and then maybe when you have grandchildren you'll hear whether it's going to be published, the immediacy is something that we're all unaccustomed to. I think a lot of people feel sort of like kids in a candy store." Chronicle of Higher Education 06/06/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing/redir/20030615-24753.html

Kids' Best Book UK children have voted Anthony Horowitz's "Skeleton Key" as the best children's book of the year in the Red House Award. The award is the only publishing prize voted on by kids. "Around 25,000 children from all over the UK took part in judging this year through book groups organised by the Federation of Children's Book Groups and via the award's website. Previous winners of the award, now in its 23rd year, include Quentin Blake, Roald Dahl and JK Rowling." BBC 06/15/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing/redir/20030615-24747.html

Your (Literary) Reputation Recedes You Some writers manage to attain reputations that outlive them. "But most of the time, death for poets is what it is for the rest of us - the beginning of that slow, inexorable process of being forgotten. Take the case of Robert Lowell. When he died, in 1977, Lowell was by far the most famous American poet of his era. The only figure of comparable renown was Allen Ginsberg, but Ginsberg was never embraced by the critics the way Lowell was; with his ohm-ing and his finger cymbals, Ginsberg had become a kind of self-caricature. Lowell was cool, but he was also dignified, and his reputation seemed secure and indelible. Within a couple of decades, though, he had all but fallen off the map." New York Times Magazine 06/15/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing/redir/20030615-24745.html

Harry's Too Heavy In Scotland, where the new Harry Potter book will hit shelves on Saturday, the postal service is concerned about the health of its carriers, who will be expected to deliver thousands of the books preordered from online booksellers in a single day. At issue is the unusual size of the fifth Potter tome - the UK edition runs 768 pages, and weighs in at a full kilogram. So what's the solution? The Royal Mail may be forced to dispatch a special fleet of vans just to deliver Harry. BBC 06/15/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing/redir/20030615-24715.html

THEATRE
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre
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The Evil, Wonderful Edinburgh Fringe The Edinburgh Fringe Festival turns 50. "Because it is the way it is, in the place that it is, at the time that it is, it has become perhaps our nation’s most important yardstick and proof of her cultural identity and diversity. For three weeks in August, it is a living, breathing, heaving accumulation of creative energy that is unparalleled. Sound dramatic? Maybe. But it’s fact. There is nothing like it anywhere else in the world. On the one hand it is evil, disillusioning the naïve and pillaging the weak. On the other it is good, rewarding the strong and praising the innovative. Its thirst unquenchable, its attraction undiminishable, its value undeniable." The Scotsman 06/15/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre/redir/20030615-24756.html

Tonys - High Entertainment Factor So TV ratings for last week's Tony Awards broadcast were down. It was the most entertaining Tony broadcast in years. "The telecast was young and multicultural, traditional and classy - oddly enough, just like the real boundary-defying season. There were shockingly few of those moments that made a person embarrassed to have spent so much of her precious life in the theater. And despite the show's hilarious preponderence of prescription-drug sponsors, I'm told that ratings actually went up 19 percent in that tyrannically desirable and healthy 18-49 demographic. Ambien, anyone?" Newsday 06/15/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre/redir/20030615-24752.html

The Science Of Funny (Yeah, Right!) Researchers recently tried to determine the world's funniest joke. And then they crunched numbers to find what was the funniest time of the year. Sure - maybe the biggest joke of all is the idea that scientists thought they could pin down what funny is. "There may be no more subjective art. One man's glee might be another man's unforgivable insult. Men and women often diverge wildly over what makes them laugh. Age, too, creates gulfs. Geography dictates still more patterns of comic appreciation." San Francisco Chronicle 06/15/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre/redir/20030615-24737.html

The Golden Age Of Children's Theatre? With the Minneapolis-based Children's Theatre Company collecting the Tony award for best regional theatre, is the world of high drama finally ready to embrace truly excellent productions for kids? More important, should audiences now expect the same high level of performance and production from shows directed at children as they do from 'adult' theatre? "For decades the field was seen as the theatrical bush leagues, the province of sanctimonious pedagogues, dramaturgical amateurs and dubious actors in animal suits. But those prejudices have been eroding, and now there is a highly visible emblem of this shift." The New York Times 06/15/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre/redir/20030615-24734.html

The Changing Face of The West End "Three of London's major theater institutions - the Royal National Theatre, the Donmar Warehouse and the Almeida Theatre in Islington - acquired new artistic directors in the past year. A fourth company, the Old Vic, has a new head as well, a starry American one: Kevin Spacey, who plans to act in and direct Old Vic productions." But can any amount of new blood manage to pull the West End out of what has become an embarrassing and extended slump? Michael Phillips sees some promising signs. Chicago Tribune 06/15/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre/redir/20030615-24721.html

VISUAL ARTS
http://www.artsjournal.com/visualarts
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Expressionism On The Outs "In an environment of unprecedented artistic variety, where almost anything is permissible and worthy of encouragement, Expressionism stands out today as the one strand of art that is woefully unfashionable. Expressionism is not quite as dirty a word, mind you, as it was in the 1930s, when the Nazis labelled it 'degenerate' and when, adding insult to injury, Thomas Mann contributed the idea that German expressionism and Nazism sprang from the same root of emotional self-abandonment. Nevertheless, although there have been subsequent periods when forms of expressionism were revived, the word is now generally used pejoratively." The Guardian (UK) 06/16/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20030615-24749.html

A Hot Steamy Venice Biennale Opens "The humidity and the extraordinary heat were inescapable. The gardens at the tip of Venice, home to the biennale's national pavilions for most of that event's life, became a giant sauna. Even worse than the gardens were the miles of art in the nearby, cavernous Arsenale, the medieval network of shipyards and workshops where the Venetian fleets were once built and where the work of emerging artists is on view. Overwhelming amounts of art was displayed in raw factory spaces and amid relentless heat intensified by the power needed for lighting and video installations. These conditions sent even the most die-hard art lovers fleeing to their hotels during part of each of the three preview days held before the public opening on Sunday." The New York Times 06/16/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20030615-24751.html

Photos From The Venice Biennale Can't make it to Venice to make the Biennale this summer? Here's a gallery of photos of artwork from the Biennale to look at... BBC 06/15/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20030615-24748.html

Recreating The Sistine Chapel Paintings On The Streets Of California A dozen top street painters converged on the Bay Area to re-create Michelangelo's paintings in the Sistine Chapel in Rome. The painting will be "about half the size of the original. Parts of the ceiling have been done at various international festivals, but this 75-by-25-foot work is apparently the first to re-create the entire biblical epic, which contains more than 300 figures arrayed in a richly detailed architectural setting of spandrels and pendentives and putti-adorned pilasters. It took Michelangelo from 1508 to 1512 to complete the great work for Pope Julius II. These artists are replicating it in six days. 'We want to make it as true to the actual ceiling as possible, but allowing each artist to bring their expression into it'." San Francisco Chronicle 06/14/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20030615-24744.html

Face To Face With Impressionism In The Round J. Seward Johnson Jr makes three-dimensional sculptural versions of famous Impressionist paintings. "The experience sounds risible, more the stuff of amusement parks than sculpture parks or museums. But there's an uncanny quality to seeing a familiar painting expanded into real space, and being able to walk through the picture plane is positively weird. It heightens the physicality of the motifs in the composition and thereby underlines the artifice and skill that went into transforming them into a painting. Also, I have to confess, wandering around in the three-dimensional paintings is really a lot of fun. And with no restrictions on photographing or touching the works, who can doubt the show is going to be a riot for grown-ups and an absolute paradise for children?" The New York Times 06/15/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20030615-24738.html

The Iraq Museum Lie - How Did It Happen? First reports from Iraq said the National Museum had been looted of 170,000 artifacts. That was wildly off the mark. It was untrue. "What happened? The source of the lie, Donny George, director general of research and study of the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities, now says (Washington Post, June 9) that he originally told the media that "there were 170,000 pieces in the entire museum collection. Not 170,000 pieces stolen. No, no, no. That would be every single object we have! Of course, George saw the story of the stolen 170,000 museum pieces go around the world and said nothing - indeed, two weeks later, he was in London calling the looting "the crime of the century.' Why?" Washington Post 06/13/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20030615-24754.html

A Gift With Broad Implications Eli Broad's $60 million gift to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art towards the construction of a new wing is being hailed as an unexpected windfall at a time when many museums are having to postpone or cancel expansion projects. But the gift's impact may be more far-reaching than even Broad himself expected, says Christopher Reynolds: "Although its key goal is the creation of a new contemporary art building, LACMA's leaders are already imagining how this will change the shape of their institution." Los Angeles Times 06/14/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20030615-24732.html

Can't Anyone Paint A Face Anymore? When did it become so impossible for an artist to sit down and crank out a recognizable representation of an actual human being? Has contemporary art become so self-conscious, and so detached from the real world, that a decent portrait is no longer achievable? The dearth of quality portrait painters is such a problem, in fact, that Britain's National Portrait Gallery has been reduced to holding a contest to find an artist capable of doing the job. The gallery generally "has to make do with the artists available; and when they are famous in their own right, it then has to deal with the consequences, for example, of blowing untold funds on a Lucian Freud or a Hockney." The Observer (UK) 06/15/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20030615-24730.html

When Art And War Collide The Dead Sea Scrolls go on display in Montreal this week, and if you think that's not a big deal, you ought to have a word with the curator who had to get them there. From the Palestinian uprising in 2000, to the 9/11 attacks, to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, global events have conspired to keep the scrolls out of Canada for years, and no one in Montreal dared believe that their exhibit would actually go off as scheduled until the scrolls physically arrived this month. The Montreal exhibit marks the first time that all three scrolls have been exhibited together outside of Israel. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/14/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20030615-24726.html

New Urbanism Comes To Denver In Denver, where an abandoned railroad yard long considered a blight on the downtown area has been transformed into "a vibrant new inner-city neighborhood with a mix of offices, residential units and retail businesses," architect Todd Johnson and his Design Workshop are being celebrated as shining examples of the New Urbanism. At the heart of the Denver design was the notion that it is no longer enough just to build an urban landscape and expect people to flock to it. But the tired notion of getting suburbanites to return to downtown by bringing the suburbs to the city hasn't worked either. The key to a successful urban design, says Johnson, is to create a space that makes people want to move around in it, preferably on foot, with lots of other people. Denver Post 06/15/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20030615-24722.html

Architects In Crisis Few people think of architecture as a job requiring much in the way of crisis management skills. But a recent symposium in Boston examined the way that architects and engineers have handled some of the most devastating architectural crises in recent decades. From a collapsed hotel balcony in Kansas City, to a Manhattan skyscraper that could have toppled in a high wind, the all-too-human reactions to tragedies of human error changed the way many in the architectural trade view their jobs. Boston Globe 06/15/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20030615-24718.html