Colonial Willimaburg Lays Off Staff, Cuts Programs Colonial Williamsburg, the "museum" that tries to recreate American colonial times, is suffering. "With declining attendance and a $35 million budget deficit, the nation's largest living history museum is laying off nearly 400 of its 3,500 employees and cutting programs. Officials at the private, nonprofit foundation that operates Colonial Williamsburg blame the weak economy, lingering fears of terrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, less focus on Colonial history in schools and rainy weather this year. And they note that other such 'heritage' sites also have falling or flat attendance." Marietta Daily Journal (Georgia) (AP) 09/15/03
Posted: 09/15/2003 7:17 am
Berlin's Louvre Plan "Germany now is in the process of transforming the five neoclassical museums that are clustered on an island in the Spree River in Berlin into a cultural center to rival Paris' Louvre and London's British Museum. The complex eventually will unite collections of Greek and Roman antiquities, Egyptian artifacts, 19th century paintings, Byzantine art and Near Eastern antiquities long scattered by last century's wars and political divisions. While construction has been underway for five years, Berlin's financial woes have discouraged anyone from predicting completion." Los Angeles Times (AP) 09/15/03
Posted: 09/15/2003 7:13 am
Tracking Down Iraq Art About 3,400 artifacts stolen from the Iraq National Museum have been recovered. But about 10,000 are still missing. "The majority of the work remaining, that of tracking down the missing pieces, will likely take years. It will require the cooperative efforts of all nations. Already 750 stolen objects have been recovered in Great Britain, Italy, Jordan and the United States." Washington Post 09/15/03
Posted: 09/15/2003 6:48 am
A New Snapshot Of Diane Arbus "During her lifetime, photographer Diane Arbus was lionized, but she was also lambasted for being exploitative. Her suicide in 1971 seemed to corroborate the caricature of her as a freaky ghoul." In the first retrospective of her work since 1972 a "new portrait is emerging of one of the most powerful American artists of the 20th century, in the style that she favored. Uncropped." New York Times Magazine 09/14/03
Posted: 09/14/2003 11:00 pm
The Hague - A City Like A Painting "Think of the enigmatic stillness that permeates the works of Vermeer, Gerrit Dou and Pieter de Hooch. You won't find much of that amid the hubbub of Amsterdam. Yet along the Hague's slightly dour purple brick pavements, and particularly in the marvellous Mauritshuis, you absorb it from the very ether." The Telegraph (UK) 09/14/03
Posted: 09/14/2003 10:53 pm
Music That Describes Our World "Tone-painting differs from musical expression in that it seeks tangibly to conjure physical things in tone. This idea has been around as long as music has. An ancient Greek story tells of a master of the aulos, the classical double-pipe instrument, who improvised a description of a battle so hair-raising that people were talking about it for the next 200 years." Bach was the ultimate master of it, but Beethoven, Liszt, Wagner and Brahms were expert at painting scenes with music. The Guardian (UK) 09/13/03
Posted: 09/15/2003 8:22 am
Music & Politics - Not An Obvious Connection Music and politics don't mix, do they? So why have music and politics found themselves so frequently intertwined? Jay Nordlinger enumerates political influences, then decrees that there's nothing inherently political about music: "Music dwells in its own realm, unless it is freighted with words that constitute political baggage." National Review 09/15/03
Posted: 09/15/2003 8:11 am
Royal Conservatory Branches Out Beyond Classical Canada's Royal Conservatory of Music has long set the standards for music instruction, helping educate generatations of young classical musicians. Now the RCM is widening its focus, offering world music as part of its curriculum. "The Conservatory is supposed to be the institution of Canadian national music, and we've caught up to the reality that there are huge numbers of people living in this country who were not raised in the Western classical-music tradition. We have to reflect the diversity." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 09/15/03
Posted: 09/15/2003 7:39 am
Where Is All The New Choral Music? "Why is there so little new choral music? The choral tradition is more traditional, even more popularly oriented than orchestral, chamber music, solo and operatic traditions. Plenty of vernacular, indigenous, folk, and gospel music has become standard fare. In a piano or chamber music recital, the performance of homely vernacular music would not be accepted or even tolerated, yet it has become a common practice in choral performances." NewMusicBox 09/03
Posted: 09/15/2003 7:32 am
Iraqi Artists Get Back To Work Iraq's artists are feeling energized. "In the theaters, at least, young actors have embraced a measure of new freedom. The dozens of young actors and directors at the National Theater scrambling to ready plays for a festival next month have seized with enthusiasm an artistic freedom unknown for 25 years in Iraq. Their palpable energy is echoed elsewhere in the fine arts, where a cadre of younger Iraqi painters and sculptors have emerged from the shadows of a generation of state-funded artists who lived comfortably under the old regime - so long as they hewed to a narrow and apolitical path. For the artists discovering a new space in post-Hussein Iraq, liberation from a totalitarian government has wrought a cultural revolution." Boston Globe 09/15/03
Posted: 09/15/2003 7:02 am
Is US Weak And Culturally Bankrupt or Merely Asleep? "Over the last two years, many commentators have accepted the premise that Al Qaeda attacked the United States because it believed the country was weak. Where they disagree is over the accuracy of the terrorists' presumed perception. Was the United States, as the president implied, merely a sleeping giant which, once roused, would demonstrate a fearsome power? Or was the United States in fact tired, decadent, adrift - its military might only a hollow shell, inside of which its vaunted economy, culture, and political system were rotting? Even during the booming `90s, doubts about America's future were widespread." Boston Globe 09/14/03
Posted: 09/15/2003 12:01 am
WTC - Rebuilding By Culture? Cultural groups are vying to relocate to downtown New York at the site of the World Trade Center. "Why are established uptown entities like New York City Opera and the 92nd Street Y now willing to consider a downtown location? Why are prominent theater people urging that a national theater be built there? The answer can be found in part in Bilbao and Barcelona, Spain, and Manchester, England, as well as in Los Angeles and Detroit. By giving new urgency to notions of transformation, the destruction that took place on Sept. 11, 2001, has brought home to downtown Manhattan the phenomenon of urban renewal through culture." The New York Times 09/15/03
Posted: 09/14/2003 11:34 pm
Getting Angry At Vilar Now that philanthropist Alberto Vilar is broke and unable to meet his pledge commitments to opera companies such as the Metropolitan, a surprising degree of anger towards him has surfaced. "Vilar thinks that the Met simply does not understand the American model of philanthropy, in which giving marches in step with the ups and downs of the financial markets. In strong markets, the wealthy give more; the quid pro quo is that when markets are weak, donors must be allowed to reschedule pledged payments until the markets rebound." The Economist 09/11/03
Does America Need A New National Theatre? A proposal for a new national theatre for the site of the World Trade Center has theatre people talking. "A sampling of theater observers and major theaters in the region suggests that while the idea of showcasing the nation's best regional theater in New York is laudable, the creation of such a super-regional theater would be immensely complicated to fund, curate and execute. For those of us who have been around long enough, this is at least attempt six or seven to do something like this." St. Paul Pioneer-Press 09/14/03
Posted: 09/14/2003 10:41 pm
Outflashing The Flash Mob The founder of the now-global "Flash Mob" movement, in which seemingly random groups of people appear at a designated location and do something odd for a few minutes before dissipating, has decided to end his New York City-based mob's performances. The founder, known as "Bill," organized one final flash mob which was supposed to eventually lead participants to a party celebrating their common love of befuddling the public. But instead, the mob was thrown for a loop by a single man with a briefcase and a neon sign, and participants wound up as puzzled as the passersby they were supposed to be confounding. Naturally, Bill thinks the whole thing was just great. Wired 09/12/03
Posted: 09/14/2003 7:42 am
Madonna Launches Book (Without The Book) Madonna's new children's book launched over the weekend - a product of hype already makes it a best-seller. "The English Roses has already found its way into publishing history as the widest, simultaneous multi-language release, with a target of more than 100 countries in 30 languages. The US print run alone is 400,000. The massive hype of Madonna's simple fable perplexed the publishing world yesterday as she hosted an elaborate Kensington tea-party launch without a single copy of the book." The Guardian (UK) 09/15/03
Posted: 09/15/2003 8:00 am
E-Books - Will They Survive? With publishers getting out of publishing e-books, some wonder if e-publishing is dead. "E-books may find their niche with tech-savvy youth unfazed by the notion of browsing literature on a screen, and the growing legion of retirement-age readers, according to Richard Doherty, research director at Envisioneering Group. Two audiences that will benefit best are young people who loathe the idea of a library ... and aging people who want the convenience of large type on demand or freedom from lugging heavy hardcover tomes. For now, e-books are an afterthought in the publishing world." Wired 09/14/03
Posted: 09/15/2003 12:13 am
Powell: Media Ownership Rules Will Prevail FCC chairman Michael Powell believes his rule changes on big media ownership will stand, despite growing opposition in Congress. "His opponents claim that the power of big media firms is rising. Mr Powell says the opposite. With the growth of cable, satellite and digital media, the number both of media outlets and of owners has increased almost everywhere in America. After the success of Mr Murdoch's Fox, there are now four rivals instead of three even among the big TV networks. 'We have facts,' claims Mr Powell. 'They have none'.” The Economist 09/11/03
Can You Do Without TV? "A life unburdened by television is a life unbridled. Days grow longer, nights quieter. Time is no longer defined by blocks of hours but instead by ambitions. David Foster Wallace's "Infinite Jest" seems possible. Never heard of it? Peel yourself from the tube and look it up. Square dancing, sky diving, Lamaze — the doors you assumed welded shut are now open. No pushing, friend — the line forms behind me. Of course, one doesn't commit to such a dramatic life transformation, no matter how enriching, without certain sacrifices." St. Paul Pioneer-Press 09/14/03
The Royal Ballet's Other Star "In the dance world, Danish-born Johan Kobborg has quietly amassed a major international following. Technically, he is a dancer of great elegance and finish, but what draws audiences to his performances is their intense dramatic colour. Like Nureyev, he turned to ballet late (at 16). He had already toured Europe as a schoolboy singer and proved himself a highly promising violinist when he was accepted for ballet training at the RDB school. By 21 he was a principal dancer in the company." The Guardian (UK) 09/15/03
Posted: 09/15/2003 8:17 am
