Musical Or Opera? Does It Matter? Terry Teachout is intrigued by a recent New York Times Magazine piece which referred to a new off-Broadway show as a "serious chamber musical." That sounds an awful lot like a description of an opera, doesn't it? While the distinction may be purely semantic, it's important, nonetheless, says Teachout in his ArtsJournal blog, and composers are not well served when they try to pass off their serious work as typical Broadway ear candy. AJ Blogs 07/22/03
Posted: 07/22/2003 6:49 am
Rough Cuts At Cleveland Museum "The job held by veteran curator Michael Cunningham, a respected expert in Japanese and Korean art, has been eliminated by the Cleveland Museum of Art as part of its effort to balance its budget... The museum [has also] cut the jobs of four other members of the curatorial staff, all of whom were research or curatorial assistants. The museum, suffering from declines in the value of its endowment, is making the cuts to reduce expenses and trim its 2004 operating budget from $33 million to $29.7 million. A total of 37 jobs are being eliminated, a figure that includes the curatorial cuts, and 18 will remain unfilled." The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 07/22/03
Posted: 07/22/2003 6:42 am
How To Make Your Museum More Fun Los Angeles's Museum of Contemporary Art has a new young fan of its exhibits, although, truth be told, he was built for the purpose. 'Charlie' is "an unassuming robot-child with a sweet disposition, inquisitive eyes and a blue tricycle slung low to the ground... Stand and peruse the webs of multicolored and metallic paints in Jackson Pollock's august 1949 drip-painting, 'No. 1,' and the little android with the prominent nose and the permanent grin might well pedal up silently behind you to join the fun. Then, with a twist of his head and a roll of his eyes he's off, riding into another gallery to check out what might be going on." Los Angeles Times 07/22/03
Posted: 07/22/2003 6:24 am
Hunt: We Must Never Negotiate With Art-Wielding Aristocrats As the British public waits for the UK's heritage lottery fund to make up its mind about whether it will try to purchase an important Raphael painting which is in danger of being sold to an American musuem, Tristram Hunt is wondering why exactly the government continues to play a game it can't win. "There is a long, ignoble tradition in this country of wealthy aristocrats blackmailing the state for cultural funds... The priority for the NHMF must be to look after the broader public heritage - not just 'British' art, which could produce some very uninspiring galleries, but art which speaks to a national or regional identity." The Guardian (UK) 07/20/03
Posted: 07/21/2003 10:06 pm
- Previously: And We Thought They Just Liked Art! Regardless of the decison the heritage lottery fund makes in the Raphael case, the larger problem will remain: at the moment, there is nothing to prevent wealthy citizens who happen to own artworks with 'national import' from selling them to foreigners. For several decades, the high levels of inheritance tax, from which such art is exempt, forced the aristocrats not to sell simply as a matter of investment strategy. But in the last 25 years, "all tax rates have come down, and the dukes have changed their tune. It is once again worth their while to sell, so they want to sell." The Telegraph (UK) 07/19/03
Big Boost For UK Museums "A cash injection of £2m has been handed to museums and art galleries to improve public access and presentation, the government has announced. A total of 14 institutions will receive grants from the government, with payments ranging from £3,000 to £400,000. The biggest recipient is London's British Museum, which will get £400,000 to improve major exhibition spaces and environmental conditions." BBC 07/21/03
Posted: 07/21/2003 9:28 pm
Does The British Museum Have Anything That Really Belongs To It? The British Museum is facing yet another call to return an object that someone else thinks was illegitimately acquired, and this time, it isn't the Elgin Marbles. The Egyptian government is requesting that the museum return the Rosetta Stone. "The artefact is one of the British Museum's most prize pieces, helping to attract millions of visitors each year. The stone was discovered in 1799 at the mouth of the Nile and provided a key insight into hieroglyphics because it was accompanied by the Greek translation. The French yielded it to the British in 1801 and it has been housed in the British Museum since 1802." BBC 07/21/03
Posted: 07/21/2003 9:23 pm
Painted Livestock Exhibit Called Off An exhibit of live cows, pigs, and sheep which had been painted head to hoof by a British graffiti artist has been shut down early after the animals, which had passed muster with the UK's SPCA, became "hot and distressed" from the combination of the sultry weather and human attention. Organizers insist that the early closure had nothing to do with the animal rights protesters who had descended on the exhibit. BBC 07/21/03
Posted: 07/21/2003 9:19 pm
- Previously: Making Art Until the Cows Go Home A new exhibition by a British graffiti artist features live sheep, cows, and pigs painted with various outlandish designs. "The exhibition includes pigs painted in police colours, sheep painted in concentration camp stripes and a cow covered in images of Andy Warhol's face." Animal control organizations have approved the exhibit, and the animal are all show animals used to being stared at. Still, it's probably a good thing that the sheep can't tell what's been painted on his back... BBC 07/18/03
NY Phil Makes Its Colorado Debut "To call the first in a series of New York Philharmonic summer residencies at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival a milestone in Colorado's classical music history does not overstate the magnitude of the event." The Phil has come to Colorado under a new agreement which, the festival hopes, will see it performing in Vail for decades to come. Kyle MacMillan reports that, despite some lackluster playing in the opening concert and the familiar acoustical problems associated with outdoor amphitheatres, New York's legendary band is a stunning addition to the state's cultural scene. Denver Post 07/22/03
Posted: 07/22/2003 6:07 am
Mercury Shortlist Released The shortlist for this year's prestigious Mercury Music Prize is out, and it includes pop music acts from Radiohead and Coldplay to soul duo Floetry and club mixer Dizzee Rascal. Although most Americans are unaware of its existence, the Mercury Prize, which is judged by a panel of music industry experts, is often a springboard to mainstream success in both Europe and the U.S. BBC 07/22/03
Posted: 07/22/2003 5:06 am
It's No 'Orange Blossom Special,' But It'll Do This week, Spiro Patanikolatos made his solo debut at the Hamptons Music Festival in upstate New York. His instrument of choice was a 10-car locomotive. "The westbound 8:05 p.m. train out of Bridgehampton and its 20-second-long roar have become something of a festival tradition, one that soloists... have tried to somehow 'play around' by adjusting their phrasing." But this year, the festival held a competition in which composers wrote works specifically designed to feature the rumbling train. "The audience of several hundred watched the train go past and cheered. Mr. Patanikolatos sounded its long, loud whistle, and the featured instrument of the evening disappeared down the track." The New York Times 07/22/03
Posted: 07/21/2003 10:45 pm
New Chairwoman, Familiar Problems When Dame Judy Mayhew takes over the reins of London's Royal Opera House, she will have her work cut out for her. The head job at Covent Garden has always been a notoriously tricky one politically, and the ROH is not exactly flush with cash at the moment, either. Mayhew is upbeat about the future, but realistic about the short and long-term challenges that lie ahead of her: "The reality is that we have to find a way of squeezing another £1.4m out of next year's Covent Garden budget, and we have to find ways of doing it without damaging the core product." The Herald (Glasgow) 07/22/03
Posted: 07/21/2003 10:22 pm
All Right, Erik, You Got Us A widely reported story that the rock group Metallica was suing a little-known Canadian band for trademark violation over the use of the chords E and F (in that order) has turned out to be an elaborate hoax by a Canadian satirist and aspiring musician. Erik Ashley got the story (very realistically masquerading as a news item on MTV's web site) past dozens of radio news directors, the online news source Ananova, and (sigh) not one, but two ArtsJournal editors. The beauty of the hoax, of course, is that the story is preposterous, yet, given Metallica's litigious history, entirely plausible as well. No word on whether Metallica plans to sue Ashley for defamation. CNN 07/21/03
Posted: 07/21/2003 9:02 pm
Hockey And Beethoven - Together At Last What could be better than a brand spanking new concert hall with the latest in acoustical technology, built to house a chamber music festival previously housed in a high school gym? Well, how about that same concert hall, but with a hockey museum attached? "A centre in Parry Sound, Ontario, containing both the Bobby Orr Hall of Fame and an impressive concert hall for playing classical music is the latest in a list of strange compromises in Canadian culture." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 07/22/03
Posted: 07/22/2003 6:15 am
Is Hip-Hop Culture Destroying African-American Youth? A new book accuses the hip-hop culture which is so dominant among African-Americans of "doing a better job of demeaning black people than the Ku Klux Klan ever did... [The author's] main point is that by glorifying 'gangsta' and 'playa' lifestyles, most major label rap releases are stereotyping black Americans as sex-crazed simpletons prone to violence." The book doesn't argue against rap music in general, only against the "thug" image which drives the form in today's corporate-dominated music industry. The book is winning slow and cautious support from some on the fringes of the hip-hop world, who claim that the form has been co-opted by gun-wielding thugs and pretend 'pimps.' Boston Herald 07/22/03
Posted: 07/22/2003 5:50 am
Austin Arts Scene Drooping Austin, Texas is frequently cited as the Lone Star State's cultural oasis, a small city with a legendary music scene and more arts than it knows what to do with. But things are tough all over. Last year, "Austin Lyric Opera fired one of its founding members, the Austin Musical Theatre couldn't afford to finish its season, and the city slashed arts funding by 33 percent across the board. With these uncontrollable events behind them, the need for adequate performing space persists along with a fierce competition for patrons' dollars." News 8 Austin 07/21/03
Posted: 07/22/2003 5:36 am
- When The Money Isn't There In Austin, arts supporters have been upset over the way the city allocates the funds it receives from the municipal hotel tax, which is earmarked for cultural activities. But the city insists that this year's 30% cut in funding was necessary because of the slumping tourism industry. The city's arts leaders are currently working on a series of economic impact studies, which they hope will convince civic officials that the arts are the type of investment that returns more money to the community than it takes out. But such studies tend to be difficult to quantify. News 8 Austin 07/22/03
Posted: 07/22/2003 5:35 am
Portland Bucks The Trend Nearly all of Portland's major arts groups ran in the black in the fiscal year just concluded, despite the nationwide economic malaise which has seen so many orchestras, museums, and theatres in other cities struggle to stay above water. The Oregon Symphony is right on its budget target, Portland Opera outdid its own fundraising expectations, and several smaller performing arts groups also met or exceeded their budget goals. The key to Portland's success seems to be agressive fundraising and sound management practices. The Oregonian (Portland) 07/22/03
Posted: 07/22/2003 5:26 am
Could The Arts Pull Detroit Back To Respectability? Detroit has been losing population for years, and the city's image in the national consciousness is hardly a positive one. Everyone wants to see a turnaround, but where to begin? Other cities have harnessed to power of the "creative class" to make their urban core more attractive, more exciting, and therefore more attractive to homebuyers. Paul Horton writes that Detroit has plenty of artists, so why not see what a little unity can do? "A hip and happening atmosphere is a crucial element in a city that 'works' and is a key to prosperity... If the elements needed to draw new residents are not in place, Detroit and other urban cities will continue to lag behind." Detroit Free Press 07/21/03
Posted: 07/21/2003 10:28 pm
Dayton Remembered As Selfless Donor Minneapolis philanthropist Ken Dayton, who died this past weekend, was one of the last of a dying breed of arts supporters: the generous donor who is content to watch his money do good things without expecting or even desiring a personal payback. Dayton, who gave well over $100 million to the Minnesota Orchestra and the Walker Art Center over the past half-century, never wanted his name on a building, and despised the trend towards such self-aggrandizement among younger donors, saying "They want - in giving as in everything else - a quick payout, an immediate return. Alas, in too many instances giving is becoming cause-related marketing." Minnesota Public Radio 07/21/03
Posted: 07/21/2003 9:47 pm
Marketing Specialist Takes The Orchestral Reins in Sydney The Sydney Symphony Orchestra has been running in the black, but that doesn't make its newest managing director's job any easier. Times are tough in the orchestral world, and Libby Christie knows the perils of operating a business with high overhead and unpredictable income sources. What she doesn't know much about is music. Christie is one of a new breed of orchestral administrators who are hired not for there love of classical music, but for their business savvy. Christie herself describes her expertise as being in "branding, marketing and top-line business development with potential sponsors." That's the kind of corporate-speak that often makes boards happy, but can make musicians nervous. Sydney Morning Herald 07/22/03
Posted: 07/21/2003 9:33 pm
Lower Ticket Prices = More Butts In The Seats The UK's National Theatre has been trying a new strategy this summer to attract larger audiences to its performances: dropping ticket prices. Astonishingly enough, as it turns out, the public is in favor of spending less on tickets. "The gamble of slashing most seat prices to £10 in the National Theatre's largest auditorium has filled the yawning spaces of the Olivier with new young theatre goers. In the past sweltering weeks, when other theatres were discounting frantically to keep their shows alive, the Olivier has been more than 90% full." The Guardian (UK) 07/22/03
Posted: 07/21/2003 10:13 pm
The Eggers Plan For World Domination Continues "Nestled in Brooklyn's Park Slope neighborhood, The McSweeney's Store is a secretive enclave of extremely strange, random products. After the success of author Dave Eggers' book A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, the Forest Lake native launched his own publishing company, and with it, an eccentric flagship store. With items ranging from sanitary dental trays to magnetic powder dispensers, the store fascinates with the vast array of seemingly useless goods. And then, of course, there are the books." Chicago Tribune 07/22/03
Posted: 07/22/2003 6:00 am
Censorship, Fear, And The 'Comics Code' It wasn't too terribly long ago that a German psychologist penned a best-selling book which announced as absolute fact that the comic books being devoured by America's youth were turning our kids into a generation of delinquents, homosexuals, and worse. Such claims seem absurd and even quaint today, but in the 1950s, Dr. Fredric Wertham's tome was taken very seriously, and the comic book industry fell all over itself to reassure the public that comics were wholesome. The unfortunate result of such obsequiousness was the Comics Code, with which the industry "castrated itself with a code that sent it into the dark ages for 10 years." Wired 07/22/03
Posted: 07/22/2003 5:17 am
Hollywood Keeping Immigrant Stories At Arm's Length "When this nation of immigrants began flocking to the movies, they went to see stories about themselves. From 1905, when nickelodeons first appeared, to the end of the 1920s, when Hollywood began to create a star system, innumerable romances, comedies and melodramas featured immigrants and working-class laborers as their central characters... [But] in recent years, Hollywood has shied away from exploring the immigrant experience, in part because it's become such a political hot potato, in part because well-heeled studio executives find it hard to identify with the subject." Los Angeles Times 07/22/03
Posted: 07/22/2003 6:21 am
Going Beyond TiVo "A Colorado startup, Interact-TV, has released a hacker-friendly digital entertainment center that plays, records and archives TV shows, DVDs, music and even digital photo albums. The Telly MC1000 Digital Entertainment Center, available now from the company's website for $900, can also surf the Web and act as a home media server... Unlike TiVo or ReplayTV, the Telly is designed to be easily upgraded and expanded by the consumer and third-party software developers. Most other set-top boxes are expressly designed not to be hacked, and their warranties are voided if the owner opens them up to tinker. By contrast, the Telly is expandable like a PC." Wired 07/22/03
Posted: 07/22/2003 5:13 am
Oscars Are Only Worth A Dollar? "A standoff over one of the most illustrious artifacts of American film, the Oscar won by Orson Welles in 1942 as the co-writer of Citizen Kane, ended yesterday when Christie's withdrew it from sale. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Hollywood trade group that sponsors the Oscars, had objected to its sale, claiming the right to buy back the statue for $1." The New York Times 07/22/03
Posted: 07/21/2003 10:42 pm
