ARTS ISSUES
http://www.artsjournal.com/artsissues
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Express Yourself The Free Expression Policy Project has a comprehensive report on free expression in arts funding. "The report includes candid interviews with agency officials regarding funding disputes, political accountability, and most important, ways of reaching out to communities and opening up dialogue about challenging or provocative art. The report also contains extensive background on the "funding wars" of the 1990s, illustrations, and two appendices summarizing free expression statements and policies among all state arts agencies and a random sample of local agencies." Free Expression Policy Project 07/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/artsissues/redir/20030729-27182.html
What It Means To Copy (And What's Allowed) Is copying a movie or music outright theft (piracy) as the movie and music industries claim? Maybe. But maybe not. There are lots of misconceptions as to what is stealing, what is fair use, and what is infringement of copyright. Here's a primer on what is allowed and what isn't. The Register 07/28/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/artsissues/redir/20030729-27181.html
MEDIA
http://www.artsjournal.com/media
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Czech-Mate "Since the fall of Communism in 1989, Prague has emerged as one of the world's favorite low-price, high-quality locations for filmmakers who want to shave 30 percent or more off the cost of a major production. But as the Czech Republic prepares to join the European Union next May, producers and film service companies here fear that unless they act quickly they may soon price themselves out of the market." The New York Times 07/30/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/media/redir/20030729-27192.html
Animated Culture Clash As Cartoons Go 3D As Hollywood animation studios retire their traditional paper-and-ink projects in favor of 3D computer animation, the culture of animators is changing. "The shifting landscape inside Hollywood's animation studios has created an unexpected culture clash between artists who were raised in the tradition of Pinocchio and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and those who came of age with Toy Story." Los Angeles Times 07/27/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/media/redir/20030729-27185.html
MUSIC
http://www.artsjournal.com/music
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Frank Gehry, Opera Designer Just call him Frank Gehry, set designer. "The Canadian-born Gehry has created the set for the North American debut of Leos Janacek's opera Osud, or Fate, at the Fisher Centre for the Performing Arts, a building in upstate New York which Gehry also designed." CBC 07/29/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20030729-27194.html
The Met Opera Donor Who Didn't Get What She Would Have Wanted Did the Metropolitan Opera use funds from a donor for a production of which she would have disapproved? That's the charge from representatives of the estate of Sybil B Harrington. "He who pays the piper calls the tune, even if that tune comes from beyond the grave. It's matter of trust, and arts organisations should take great care that cavalier interpretation of testamentary wishes doesn't end up putting potential donors off. Meanwhile, the Met can ill afford either the Harrington executors' demand for restitution of $5 million or the attendant bad publicity." The Telegraph (UK) 07/30/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20030729-27189.html
Recording Industry Threats Don't Deter File-Swappers Music file-swappers seem to be unfazed by recording industry threats of legal action against them. "Just 17% of swappers ages 18 and over say they have cut back on file sharing because of the potential legal consequences, according to a survey released by Jupiter Research at the company's annual Plug.IN digital music conference Monday. And 43% see nothing wrong with online file trading; only 15% say it's wrong." USAToday 07/29/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20030729-27187.html
Suing For The Music - Two Thousand Years Of Lawsuits If it's really true that 60 million Americans are swapping music files, and the recording industry has issued 900 subpoenas with the intent of suing every file swapper out there, how long will it take to get to all the "pirates?" According to one calculation: 2191.78 years to subpoena each person. The Inquirer 07/28/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20030729-27186.html
Sonic Mush At The World's Biggest Chamber Music Festival Ottawa's International Chamber music Festival is the largest chamber music festival in the world, with 110 concerts in two weeks, featuring some of the best chamber groups playing today. This is the festival's tenth anniversary, and to celebrate it staged a concert with 16 pianists performing on ten pianos... resulting in a bit of a sonic mush, writes Colin Eatock. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 07/29/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20030729-27167.html
What Becomes A Pirate? The recording industry wants to protect its copyrights and outlaw file-sharing. But file-sharing is a slippery technology that evolves quickly and beats circumvention. "The only solution, some say, is to legitimize the new technology, just as old record-copying technologies have been legalized, and to license file sharing itself, while also offering pay services that are far superior to peer-to-peer networks such as Kazaa. The trouble right now is that technology companies like Kazaa have been trying to get licences for this music. They want to do it legitimately. They want to pay artists. The trouble is that the five multibillion-dollar record companies have refused to give them licences for the past five years..." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 07/29/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20030729-27166.html
Ravinia Denies Chicago Symphony Report Chicago's Ravinia Festival - longtime summer home of the Chicago Symphony - says it doesn't plan to "drastically reduce its number of Chicago Symphony Orchestra concerts in future seasons, despite a report suggesting otherwise in Monday's Crain's Chicago Business..." The festival says that "ticket sales in Ravinia's 3,200-seat pavilion are down 5 percent so far for CSO concerts compared with last summer. But reducing the number of CSO performances is only one option to be considered when the orchestra's contract with Ravinia comes up for renewal after next season." Chicago Sun-Times 07/29/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20030729-27164.html
Recording Industry Buys Political Insider We don't want to be cynical, we really don't. But Monday's announcement by the Recording Industry Association of America that its new leader will be US Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's former chief of staff gives us pause at a time when Congress is trying to decide new rules for the digital age and the recording industry is lobbying for laws to keep an old power structure in place. Former RIAA head Hilary Rosen left the job earlier this year. She "had close ties to the Democratic Party, but that turns out to be not so useful now. If we get a new law relating to digital copyright, it will come through Republican-dominated committees." Wired 07/29/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20030729-27162.html
Recording Industry Goes After Consumers "The RIAA, the Washington trade group that represents the world's biggest record labels, has filed more than 900 subpoenas since June 26 to gather information to file civil lawsuits against hundreds of users of file-sharing programs. Legal experts say this is the first time copyright law has been used to crack down on average consumers. Previously, copyright battles have typically pitted companies against other businesses, or against people who have intentionally tried to make money pirating copyright-protected material." San Francisco Chronicle 07/29/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20030729-27163.html
Making The Case For Russian Opera Alex Ross writes that conductor Valery Gergiev is "the fiery angel of the Russian repertory, who has seemingly sworn not to get a full night’s sleep until Glinka’s operas are as familiar as Puccini’s." His recent orgy of Russian operas performed at Lincoln Center wasn't the biggest attendance driver but it made an excellent case for the golden era of Russian opera. The New Yorker 07/28/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20030729-27160.html
PEOPLE
http://www.artsjournal.com/people
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Baryshnikov Up For "Sex" Mikhail Baryshnikov is coming to TV - as Sarah Jessica Parker's love interest in "Sex in the City." "I seem to have a tendency to do things that people think I shouldn't do. I think it's about time to do something my children can't watch." The New York Times 07/30/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/people/redir/20030729-27191.html
Kennedy Center Boss Named US Cultural Ambassador Kennedy Center chief Michael Kaiser has been appointed asa "cultural ambassador by the US State Department. "Kaiser said he has a different agenda from the artists'. 'Funding patterns are shifting. In some countries 70 to 80 percent of an organization's budget was being provided by the government. Government funding is being reduced or not growing. This is a time in history where the arts around the world are in transition'." Washington Post 07/30/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/people/redir/20030729-27188.html
PUBLISHING
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing
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A Dedicated (Writing) Life Book dedications can be over the top, but they often express a little piece of the writer's personal situation at the time the book is published. Looking back over a career of books written, one can see an archaeology of personal fragments expressed in dedications... The Guardian (UK) 07/28/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing/redir/20030729-27165.html
Remembering Emerson (If Not Reading Him) It's the 200th anniversary of Ralph Waldo Emerson's birth. John Updike notes that Emerson is much honored, but less often read these days. "Emerson, with a cobbled-together mythology, in melodious accents that sincerely feigned the old Christian reassurances, sought to instill confidence and courage in his democratic audience, and it is for this, rather than for his mellowed powers of observation and wit, that he is honored, if honored more than read." The New Yorker 07/28/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing/redir/20030729-27153.html
THEATRE
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre
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Royal Shakespeare Shakeup Is Opportunity Michael Billington writes that the sudden resignation of the Royal Shakespeare Company's managing director is an opportunity for the company. "Normally the sudden resignation of a theatre company's managing director would be interpreted as a sign of crisis. In fact Chris Foy's departure from the RSC enormously strengthens the hand of its artistic director, Michael Boyd, in setting his seal upon the company." The Guardian (UK) 07/29/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre/redir/20030729-27193.html
VISUAL ARTS
http://www.artsjournal.com/visualarts
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Are Prado Goyas Fakes? Goya's 14 "Black paintings" have delighted viewers for years and are a much prized part of the museum's collection. But new evidence arises that the paintings may not have been created by the master... New York Times Magazine 07/27/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20030729-27195.html
Graffiti Explained "Most art is unadmittedly competitive; graffiti is nakedly so. Writers vie for prominence of their works, their size, complexity, technique and above all their ubiquity. Elaborate etiquette regulates this rivalry, and competition is joined by overwriting a rival's work. When I accompanied a TV team to watch the well-known writer, Prime, produce a work on a quasi-official site, the most interesting and shocking act was his first - taking a large roller to the painting already there, entirely blotting it out. If convention governs the terms of rivalry and respect between writers, it also quite rigidly governs the look of graffiti." London Evening Standard 07/29/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20030729-27190.html
For Your Protection - Who Owns The Art For a long time museums turned a blind eye as to whether the art it was acquiring was attained legally. Now there are myriad laws passed to deter theft of cultural property from one country to another. "What prompted this shift in global attention, when the world often turned a blind eye in the past?" And are these laws doing what they were supposed to do? Slate 07/28/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20030729-27184.html
Art-On-Demand London's National Gallery has introduced a digitizing/printing system that allows visitors to print out copies of artworks in its collection. "The 'print on demand' technology will allow visitors to browse through and print in reproduction quality A3, A4 and A5 size prints. By 2005 the gallery hopes to have the whole collection available." BBC 07/28/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20030729-27161.html
