AJ Logo Get ArtsJournal in your inbox
for FREE every morning!
HOME > Yesterdays


Friday, August 29




Visual Arts

The Multi-Purpose Public Space What's needed for the World Trade Center space, argues Justin Davidson, is something that can serve many functions. A new exhibition gives "a sense of how many simultaneous functions a public space can serve. Italian urbanists long ago understood the beauty of an open square - or ellipse, lopsided trapezoid, or whatever shape streets and houses would permit - on which civic, religious and commercial institutions front and which different generations adapt to their own purposes. These are hybrid areas, where the sacred rubs up against the profane." Newsday 08/29/03
Posted: 08/29/2003 7:42 am

Who Stole Leonardo Who stole the Leonardo painting in Scotland? "His fee, measured in millions, will in all likelihood fund an international drugs deal. Serious Crime Squad detectives, drafted into Dumfries-shire in the wake of yesterday’s theft, believe the Madonna was stolen to order. The theft had all the hallmarks. The thieves bypassed other masterpieces in the Duke of Buccleuch’s Drumlanrig Castle to steal the smaller but infinitely more valuable Da Vinci." The Scotsman 08/28/03
Posted: 08/28/2003 8:52 pm

History's Great Art Thefts The theft of a Leonardo painting this week adds to a list of famous art heists in history. Here's a list of some of the most notorius... "If you're going to allow public access, particularly to a location of this sort, which is not in the centre of a major city, it is difficult to guard against this type of attack." BBC 08/28/03
Posted: 08/28/2003 2:49 pm

Music

Music's Hot New Thing "In the generations of German composers younger than Wolfgang Rihm, Matthias Pintscher is the one with the most impressive track record. He is still in his early 30s, yet has been attracting international attention for a decade. He conducted his first stage work, a ballet called Gesprungene Glocken, at the Berlin Staatsoper at the age of 23, and his first opera, Thomas Chatterton, which was based on the life and mysterious death of the 18th-century English poet, was premiered in Dresden in 1998. Another opera has been commissioned for the Salzburg festival, provisionally titled Heliogabal, though at present that project seems to be on hold, while a third, L'Espace Dernier, will be premiered at the Opéra Bastille in Paris in February." The Guardian (UK) 08/29/03
Posted: 08/29/2003 7:25 am

Jazz's European Home "For the past ten years or so, Italy has been arguably the strongest jazz nation in Europe. One continues to discover major players who are almost unknown anywhere else. Although jazz is certainly historically American, its most current developments are no longer any one nation's monopoly." Culturekiosque 08/28/03
Posted: 08/28/2003 9:26 pm

An Instrumental Loan The Canada Council holds a competition for musicians to borrow one of 11 string instruments the Council owns. Every three years, the council runs a competition to loan the instruments - collectively worth $21 million. "Musicians must audition before a jury that decides who will be granted one of the instruments. Halifax cellist Denise Djokic won the use of the 'Bonjour' Stradivarius cello three years ago and, next week, she will compete to keep it for another three because she feels the Strad has changed both her playing and her life." CBC 08/27/03
Posted: 08/28/2003 3:06 pm

Arts Issues

Cutting To Survive How are America's arts groups dealing with a down economy? They're cutting back. "Among those groups trimming programming, the Brooklyn Museum of Art closed its doors for two weeks in August and canceled some exhibits, the Boston Ballet cut twenty performances to save $1.6 million, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra replaced a planned three-act opera with a one-act. Some groups have had to put aside artistic integrity to survive financially." Philanthropy News 08/29/03
Posted: 08/28/2003 9:50 pm

The NEA's New Mission The National Endowment for the Arts' new chairman Dana Gioia is questioning the NEA's "relatively recent transformation into an isolated entity supporting art for a very limited audience. 'We need to earn the trust and respect of the American people. The NEA exists to serve all Americans, and it must create programs of indisputable artistic merit and broad national reach. Art without an audience is a diminished endeavor.” Poets & Writers 09/03
Posted: 08/28/2003 5:10 pm

Onstage - Turning The Lights Back On In America's Old Theatres Conservation-minded entrepreneurs across America are taking old theatres on the main streets of America and "turning historical movie houses into "cultural destinations." Christian Science Monitor 08/29/03
Posted: 08/28/2003 3:49 pm

Another Arts Agency Closing? The Long Beach, California city arts commission may go out business after deep cuts in its funding. The 27-year-old arts agency "has a 10-member staff that helps administer the grants, after-school activities, neighborhood arts programs and Smithsonian Week, which brings in national scholars once a year." Long Beach Press-Telegram 08/27/03
Posted: 08/28/2003 2:30 pm

People

John Shearman, Art Historian, 72 John Shearman, an art historian and scholar who consulted with the Vatican on the restoration of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, has died at the age of 72. "Dr. Shearman probably achieved the most fame for his discovery that the vault of the Sistine Chapel was cracked along its length in 1504, four years before Michelangelo began work on it. Because the old decoration — incorporating stars and some geometrical shapes — was ruined, a new ceiling was needed." The New York Times 08/29/03
Posted: 08/29/2003 7:36 am

Theatre

Shakespeare's New Houses Shakespeare gets ever more popular. New theatres devoted to the Bard are being built in Europe. "In the past month an Italian version of London's Globe theatre has sprung up in the Villa Borghese park in the heart of Rome. In Poland, efforts are underway to reconstruct a Shakespearean theatre that thrived in the Baltic port city of Gdansk almost 400 years ago, but has since been replaced by a carpark." The Guardian (UK) 08/28/03
Posted: 08/28/2003 4:59 pm

Plays - Just Slipping Away "Playwrights have shuttled between Hollywood and the theater for decades. But the commute is looking more attractive lately, with the poor economy affecting the arts, and mass media growing in influence. With the economy not exactly booming, now is not a great time (if there is one) to be trying to earn a living from the theater, note observers - making Hollywood look all the more appealing. In New York, for example, several theaters that focus on new works are doing fewer plays than they did 30 years ago, dropping from two dozen a year on average to six or eight today." Christian Science Monitor 08/29/03
Posted: 08/28/2003 3:34 pm

Publishing

Let Americans In The Booker? There have been objections to opening up competition for the Booker Prize to Americans. Elena Lappin argues Americans ought to be there: "It is crucial to open this very important literary award to all the best writing in the English language—including the United States. The Booker Prize would then cease to be a tacit celebration of the former British Empire and would come alive with the most powerful and exciting contemporary voices." Slate 08/28/03
Posted: 08/28/2003 3:12 pm

Is This The Device That Will Replace Books? "Researchers at Hewlett Packard have developed a prototype electronic book which can hold a whole library on a device no bigger than a paperback. The brushed metal device is about one centimetre thick and looks like an oversized handheld computer." BBC 08/28/03
Posted: 08/28/2003 2:52 pm

Gluck Chosen As New US Poet Laureate Grace Gluck has been chosen as the next US Poet Laureate. "The selection will be officially announced Friday by the Librarian of Congress, who said in a statement that Gluck (rhymes with pick) will bring to the office "a strong, vivid, deep poetic voice." She is a professor of English at Williams College. Washington Post 08/28/03
Posted: 08/28/2003 2:20 pm

Media

CBC Archives - Ready For Online? Now that the BBC is planning to make its archives available online for free, will the CBC do the same? "The CBC, Canada's public broadcaster, already has a section on its Web site that contains clips from historically significant radio and television broadcasts. The CBC Archive, active for more than a year, contains clips as varied as speeches from Prairie populist Tommy Douglas and Justin Trudeau's eulogy at this father's funeral." But everything online? Not yet The Globe & Mail (Canada) 08/29/03
Posted: 08/29/2003 7:18 am

The Video Game PhD? Video games are already in the schools. Now they're becoming subjects in schools. "Long the bane of professors who'd rather students do less game-console thumb-clicking and more schoolwork, video games are entering the curriculum and the realm of academic research - to the cheers of some and the boos of others. Indeed, 'video game studies' is an oxymoron to many faculty." Christian Science Monitor 08/29/03
Posted: 08/28/2003 3:29 pm


Home | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy
Copyright ©
2002 ArtsJournal. All Rights Reserved