IDEAS
http://www.artsjournal.com/ideas
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Art All About ME "The artist serving as his or her own art form is hardly a new phenomenon. Andy Warhol is remembered as much for the wigs and the blank responses to interview questions as for his soup cans and screen-printed repetition. Yet this branding of the artist as the product itself dovetails all too well with a contemporary culture fixated with transient fame and unwarranted celebrity. Ours is, after all, an age in which celebrity no longer requires even the pretence of achievement or charm. Set against such an environment, the artist-as-art phenomenon lies somewhere between a metaphysical statement and an egomaniacal disorder." The Times (London) 09/03/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/ideas/redir/20030905-28875.html
Is Software Cose Art? Creative Expression? "The issue of patents for software and business methods has been causing a stir in America ever since the Patent and Trademark Office started issuing patents on internet business methods in 1998, most famously that for one-click shopping. Proponents argue that these patents provide the necessary incentives to innovate at a time when more inventions are computer-related. Critics claim that such intellectual monopolies hinder innovation, because software giants can use them to attack fledgling competitors. Moreover, as software is often built on the achievements of others, writing code could become a legal hurdle race. By analogy, if Haydn had patented the symphony form, Mozart would have been in trouble." The Economist 09/04/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/ideas/redir/20030905-28873.html
ARTS ISSUES
http://www.artsjournal.com/artsissues
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Tobacco Company To Sponsor Arts Despite Ad Ban In Canada a new ban on tobacco advertising has arts groups worried that they'll lose some major sponsoships. But at least one of the big tobacco companies - Imperial Tobacco - "has decided to keep funding the arts, despite a new federal law that bans tobacco advertising." CTV 09/04/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/artsissues/redir/20030905-28871.html
Singapore Refuses To Do Away With Arts Licenses In Singapore arts events have to be licensed by the government's Censorship Review Committee on an event-by-event basis. Arts groups proposed doing away with licensing altogether. But the CRC has rejected the pleas, instead suggesting "that theatre groups apply for licences every two years instead of before every event." The Straights-Times (Singapore) 09/05/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/artsissues/redir/20030905-28870.html
Arts Center Or Convention Expansion? A long-planned arts center in Vancouver is in danger after the British Columbia provincial government said it might want to use the land set aside for the center to expand the city's convention center. CBC 09/04/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/artsissues/redir/20030905-28863.html
DANCE
http://www.artsjournal.com/dance
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MEDIA
http://www.artsjournal.com/media
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Hoping For A Quiet TIFF It's been a rough couple of years for the Toronto International Film Festival, with events from the 9/11 attacks to the SARS outbreak having a devastating impact on what has traditionally been one of North America's most important film fests. But as critics prepare to descend on the Ontario capitol for this year's TIFF, it seems likely that the festival will bounce back strong from its trials. The fact is that critics have a great time in Toronto, and the festival is famously well-run, in contrast to the haphazard feel of some other major festivals. Add in the panning that Cannes received this year, and Toronto may be poised to regain its position in the upper echelon of festivals. Chicago Tribune 09/04/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/media/redir/20030904-28821.html
MUSIC
http://www.artsjournal.com/music
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CD Price Cut - Great Move or Too Little, Too Late Reactions are mixed to Universal's announcement that it will cut CD prices by 30 percent. "It as been hailed by some observers as a move guaranteed to revitalize the moribund recording industry, and by others as an act of capitulation by a giant brought to its knees by the revenue-sucking effects of illegal Internet music file-sharing and copying on home computers." Toronto Star 09/05/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20030905-28872.html
An Opera About A Newscast It may have some superficial similarities to "Jerry Springer The Opera", but "Newsnight The Opera" has its own rhythm (and special problems". "There's an inherent problem in using reports as the basis for an opera: by their nature, they describe events that have occurred "off stage", and the evening runs the risk of feeling like a string of messenger speeches." The Guardian (UK) 09/05/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20030905-28867.html
Study: CD's Will Die A new study says that CDs will go the way of vinyl, to be replaced by downloadable music. "On-demand services are the future of entertainment delivery. CDs, DVDs, and any other forms of physical media will become obsolete." CNN.com 09/04/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20030905-28864.html
Universal To Lower CD Prices by 30 Percent As CD sales have dropped 15 percent in the past two years, recording companies have become more shrill in their contention that piracy is hurting their business. On the other hand, maybe CD prices are just too high. So Universal - one of the Big Five - is dropping its album prices. Come October, the company will lower the "suggested" price in the US for most CDs to $13 - down from $17-19. BBC 09/04/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20030904-28856.html
EMI Exec: CDs Aren't Overpriced An EMI exec defends the pricing system for CDs. "The gap between the perception of how record companies like EMI work and the actual reality is now a chasm. I sometimes wonder if it's because music is intangible that people forget that there are many more costs involved than merely manufacturing a piece of plastic." BBC 09/04/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20030904-28857.html
Alarm Bells, Stravinsky, What's The Difference? The opening night gala at the San Francisco Symphony was going off beautifully, with 2,700 patrons enjoying the glitter and glitz of the evening, not to mention some fine music. Over 1,500 supporters had dinner at Davies Symphony Hall, and the orchestra was reportedly in top form for the performance under music director Michael Tilson Thomas. And then, in the middle of Stravinsky's Firebird Suite, someone pulled the fire alarm. San Francisco Chronicle 09/04/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20030904-28819.html
The Calgary Model As orchestras around North America struggle to stay afloat or, in some cases, rebuild, a split is developing over the issue of what type of management is best for a symphony orchestra. Some orchestras are turning to corporate-style managers with little musical background, in an effort to make fiscal responsibility the first priority. Others are actively steering away from that course, stressing the importance of an understanding that the main focus of the organization is music, and not profit. In the former camp is the revitalized Calgary Philharmonic, which has risen from the ashes of bankruptcy as a bare-bones organization with a skeleton staff, little overhead, and, as it happens, booming ticket sales. La Scena Musicale 09/03/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20030904-28812.html
Orchestras Fighting Back All this talk about symphony orchestras dying has some orchestras feeling unfairly treated. "The impatience orchestras are showing with continued talk of crisis is perhaps indicative of a sea-change in their own philosophy toward their situation. And Orchestra Canada representatives say it's high time to shift the focus from fighting the short-term fires to eradicating the deep-rooted problems that have been fuelling the flames for decades." La Scena Musicale 09/03/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20030904-28790.html
Whither The Record Industry? "The popularity of Apple's iTunes song service has demonstrated that customers like to pick and choose their songs online. New statistics from the music industry indicate that labels are shipping more singles to stores, too. But whether the stats signal the return of the single is still a bit of a puzzle." The industry denies that it is making any sort of concentrated effort to market the single more heavily as an alternative to illegal song-swapping, but "faced with falling CD sales for the third year in a row, it's to the music industry's benefit to offer music in formats that consumers will pay for." Wired 09/04/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20030904-28796.html
CD Prices To Drop The world's largest producer of CDs has announced that it will drop the price of the average disc sold in the U.S. by 30% this fall. Universal, which has suffered from a 3-year slump in album sales, will lower the retail price of an average CD from $17-$19 to $13, and lower the wholesale cost from $12.02 to $9.09. The price cut is seen as an acknowledgement by Universal that the problems of the industry go beyond the phenomenon of online piracy, and that consumers are no longer content to pay inflated prices for pop music. BBC 09/04/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20030904-28795.html
PEOPLE
http://www.artsjournal.com/people
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Susan Chilcott, 40 Soprano Susan Chilcott, considered one of Britain's brightest young opera stars, has died of breat cancer at age 40. "Among the first to pay tribute to the singer, who died at her home in Timsbury, near Bath, was the Royal Opera House's music director, Antonio Pappano. 'We are all devastated... She was surely one of the shining stars on the international opera scene'." The Guardian (UK) 09/05/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/people/redir/20030905-28869.html
Opera Amidst The Microchips For two decades, Irene Dalis has been at the helm of the opera company she helped to found in her hometown of San Jose. Opera San Jose is a major success story in a tough field, and Dalis gets much of the credit for keeping the company vibrant through good times and bad. "We don't pretend to be something that we're not. We're certainly not going to be a San Francisco Opera. Their budget is around $60 million. Ours is under $3 million. But we have other values. Our company is the only one of its kind in America and it's not because I'm such a genius. I'm copying the format used in Germany where each city of 100,000 or more has its own opera company and they hire singers by the year." San Jose Mercury News 09/04/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/people/redir/20030904-28830.html
Stafford To Lead Milwaukee Public Michael Stafford has been named the new head of the Milwaukee Public Museum. Stafford has been the chief of a Michigan science museum, where he oversaw a $31 million renovation project. The hope in Milwaukee is that Stafford will be able to raise the museum's local profile, and by extension, improve its fundraising abilities. The museum's last president, Roger Bowen, resigned after only 15 months on the job. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 09/03/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/people/redir/20030904-28824.html
PUBLISHING
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing
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Gender-typing - The Computer That Can Tell What Sex You Are? A new computer program is said to reveal whether a piece of writing is by a man or by a woman. Authors of the software claim "the simple scan of key words and syntax is around 80% accurate on both fiction and non-fiction." But let it be noted that an ArtsJournal editor testing the program was able to consistently leave the computer gender-confused...(that means wrong!). Nature 09/04/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing/redir/20030905-28865.html
THEATRE
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre
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The Mystery Of The Unpublished Agatha Christie Play "Calgary's Vertigo Mystery Theatre this fall will stage the world premiere of Chimneys, a play Christie wrote in the 1930s. The play originally was set to open at the Embassy Theatre in London in 1931. For some reason, it was dropped at the last minute and never heard from again until the Vertigo troupe found a tattered copy of the script when they moved offices earlier in the year." Just how did it get there? CBC 09/04/03
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre/redir/20030905-28862.html
VISUAL ARTS
http://www.artsjournal.com/visualarts
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Barnes Move In Jeopardy A proposal to move the Barnes Collection from a suburb of Philadelphia to downtown is close to falling apart. "The plan is unraveling, not over where the prized collection of French impressionist art and other masterpieces should be located, but over whether nominating control of the Barnes board should remain with Lincoln University, the historically black university in Chester County." Philadelphia Inquirer 09/03/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20030905-28874.html
New Eyes At MoMA The Museum of Modern Art gets some new curators... The New York Times 09/05/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20030905-28868.html
Nefertiti Mummy Claim Disputed Earlier this year, archaeologists reported they may have found the mummy of Queen Nefertiti in Luxor. Now the claim is being disputed - in part because while Nefertiti was said to have had six children, the body found appeared not to have given birth. "The evidence does not at all support the finding of Nefertiti. It would be very obvious from any x-rays of the mummy whether it had given birth...there would be specific markings." Aljazeera 08/31/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20030905-28866.html
The Ancient Icon That "Kills Stuff" "An ancient icon depicting Christ has been removed from display at the Hermitage museum in St. Petersburg after claims that its 'energy field' is killing staff." Chicago Sun-Times 09/04/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20030905-28861.html
Art For Art's Sake 45 years ago, General Mills made a conscious decision to invest in serious contemporary art as a way to liven up its blockish new Minnesota headquarters. "Today, in an era of corporate cutbacks and pressures to increase employee productivity, sales and profits, General Mills is a holdout in emphasizing the importance of art in its corporate culture. The company displays original art and limited edition prints throughout its headquarters, and encourages employees with offices to choose pieces they like for display in their workspace. General Mills even has a full-time curator to oversee acquisitions, sales and care of the collection." Kansas City Star (AP) 09/03/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20030904-28823.html
The Importance Of Opera House Architecture "Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, which opened in August, is one of the best-sounding opera houses in the country. With sonics vivid and full-bodied, the building seems to work well on both sides of the proscenium. It's just too bad the building, inaugurated with a new Seattle Opera production of Wagner's Parsifal, isn't a better piece of architecture." So says Dallas critic Scott Cantrell, scouting other cities for ideas to inspire Dallas's own soon-to-be-built opera house. "Seattle's approach certainly plays up clichés about the two cities. Dallas is supposed to be about dazzle and prestige, Seattle about living comfortably and not making a fuss." Dallas Morning News 09/04/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20030904-28822.html
The Museum That History Forgot "In the dusty remote reaches of Uzbekistan, in a city so desolate that it served as the site of a Soviet chemical weapons factory, sits what may be one of the most important collections of 20th Century Soviet art in the world. This collection, virtually unknown during the Soviet era, has been revitalized by the attention of a group of art-loving expatriates whose efforts helped spur the completion in late 2002 of a long-stalled museum building, realizing the dream of its founder and the small cadre of dedicated women who for years kept the museum going under almost impossibly difficult conditions... However, although the security guards, curators and gift shop attendants all appear for work each day in the marble-clad edifice, the 'new' museum - designed in 1971 - remains shuttered." Chicago Tribune 09/04/03
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20030904-28820.html
