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Tuesday, November 25




Ideas

In Touch With Genius "Until recently, much of what we knew about savants came from the observations of clinicians like Treffert and neurologist Oliver Sacks, author of An Anthropologist on Mars and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. Now researchers are probing the savant mind from the inside, using tools like gene mapping and PET scans. As these two paths of investigation converge, many of our long-held notions about the limits of human potential are being overturned." Wired 12/03
Posted: 11/24/2003 6:04 pm

Visual Arts

Young Designs - Youth Reigns For WTC Memorial There were 5000 anonymous entries competing to design the memorial for 911 at the World Trade Center site. Many have been surprised that the five finalists are younger artists instead of older established names... The New York Times 11/25/03
Posted: 11/24/2003 9:38 pm

Some Object To Taiwanese Guggenheim Some resistance to building a new Guggenheim is surfacing in Taiwan. "Those who object are mostly worried about a cultural invasion and the danger of an American cultural hegemony taking root." Taipei Times 11/23/03
Posted: 11/24/2003 9:08 pm

Didn't Fall For Ostrich Scam? How About Art? The British government is launching a campaign to try to prevent people from being taken in by scam investments. "The investment scam of the moment appears to be art. A few years ago it was ostriches, later followed by whisky, wine and champagne. Thousands of people have been targeted by companies promising big returns if they buy art prints which are then supposedly leased out to hang on the walls of large companies." The Guardian (UK) 11/25/03
Posted: 11/24/2003 6:36 pm

Is Western Avant Garde Irrelevant In Asia? A prominant Asian businessman has criticized Singapore's public funding of what he called "elitist, intentionally avant-garde work which 'may have no relevance at all' outside of the West. He suggested that public funding of such 'so-called art installations' had become 'disconnected from the community' which they purport to engage with. Globalisation, he said, was a 'double-edged sword', tending to homogenise indigenous art movements while making them known to the world." The Straits-Times (Singapore) 11/24/03
Posted: 11/24/2003 6:24 pm

New York's New Art Sellers A new generation of art sellers has emerged in New York. They "have been mounting shows in unusual spaces, featuring work that is fast, cheap, and exuberant—and produced more often by 'collectives' than by nineties-style art stars (not that any of these artists would pass up their own fifteen minutes). This fall, these players have become their own Establishment: Several of their artists were just tapped for the Whitney Biennial, and a number are members of the New Art Dealers Alliance, which declares that the 'adversarial approach to exhibiting and selling art' is dead." New York Magazine 11/24/03
Posted: 11/24/2003 6:17 pm

Buried Evidence "Over the past decade repatriation departments have been set up in museums across America, Australia, Canada and New Zealand to return human remains to their places of origin. While research on human remains can reveal information about historic patterns of migration, lifestyle and disease - a substantial amount of energy, time and money has instead been committed to burying the evidence." spiked-culture 11/24/03
Posted: 11/24/2003 6:00 pm


SPONSOR
From One Generation To The Next
Some of the world's most distinguished artists gathered at Lincoln Center on November 10 to celebrate the completion of the inaugural year of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. www.rolexmentorprotege.com

Music

Killing Off Underground Music The sounds of silence will soon reign supreme in Boston's subway tunnels and station stops. Well, except for the screeching trains and squawking public address systems, of course. The city has banned street musicians from using amplification or playing electronic keyboards or brass instruments on Boston's underground platforms. "The rules are sure to transform Boston's true underground music scene, which up to this point has been one of the nation's least regulated. In New York and Atlanta, musicians must audition and sign up for slots; Toronto singers pay a $114 fee; in London, musicians need licenses to croon to commuters 'minding the gap.' And in Washington, D.C., they're banned altogether." The Christian Science Monitor 11/25/03
Posted: 11/25/2003 5:17 am

Met Opera To Take A Midwinter Nap Ticket sales at the Metropolitan Opera haven't been great in recent years during the weeks following the Christmas and New Year's holidays. So the Met has announced that it will be taking a two-week break in the middle of its season, beginning in January 2004. "This will be the first midseason break since the Met began in 1883," and it may not be the only change the company makes to its schedule. Executive director Joseph Volpe says that the Met is also considering replacing its Monday night performances with Sunday matinees. Newsday (AP) 11/24/03
Posted: 11/25/2003 5:04 am

Montreal Concert Hall In Jeopardy For years, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra has been begging for a concert hall of its own, with the sort of acoustics that turn a good orchestra into a great one. Last year, the MSO finally got its wish, when the provincial government agreed to fund a $300 million complex including a concert hall and music conservatory. But the promise of funding was made by the Parti Quebecois, which is no longer in power, and this week, the ruling Liberals announced that the price tag for the MSO project is just too high, and that it plans to seek private donations to bolster government funds. Opposition leaders are voicing concern about the dangerous precedent that could be set by moving towards an American-style system of private arts funding. CBC Arts Report 11/24/03
Posted: 11/25/2003 4:37 am

Boosey And Hawkes Sold "Music publishers Boosey and Hawkes, home to the estates of Stravinsky, Britten, Strauss, Prokofiev and Rachmaninov, is to be bought by the venture capitalists HgCapital - meaning it will remain independent, at least for now." The Guardian (UK) 11/25/03
Posted: 11/24/2003 9:21 pm

Symphony-Sur-Jumbotron Pop concerts have employed jumbo video screens at performances for years. This year the Vancouver Symphony is trying them out - "four remote-controlled video cameras strategically positioned in the hall, used to "simulcast" performances on screens measuring 2.2 by 2.7 metres, to the left and right of the stage." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 11/24/03
Posted: 11/24/2003 6:43 pm

Arts Issues

Is Corporate Arts Support Evolving? Corporate giving to the arts may be down in recent years, but that doesn't necessarily mean that America's business community is getting out of the culture game. In fact, signs of corporate commitment to the arts are all around, says Kurt Anderson. "By embracing art and artists as small parts of their businesses because they've decided that it's good for their corporate images," American companies may be showing us the future of private arts support. Studio 360 (RealAudio file) 11/22/03
Posted: 11/25/2003 6:15 am

Nonprofits Following Dean's Lead The internet has always held great financial promise for nonprofit arts groups and charities, but few of these groups have ever built a truly successful online fundraising apparatus. Now, with presidential candidate Howard Dean raking in record numbers of contributions from his online campaign efforts, nonprofits are taking notice. "They're using e-mail lists to solicit donations and mobilize support. They run educational campaigns through e-mail to keep their community informed. They even arrange 'meet-ups' offline to keep supporters involved." Wired 11/25/03
Posted: 11/25/2003 4:48 am

The Art Of Marketing (Yes, It Is An Art) "The position of marketing in the arts is not and never has been a sufficiently high priority. There is an old saying that if a show is successful, it is great art; if it fails, it is bad marketing. To market the arts means you have to accept that it is a product like everything else - obviously not something that sits well with some artists." The Scotsman 11/24/03
Posted: 11/24/2003 6:40 pm

People

Assessing Edo When Edo deWaart took up the reins of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 1993, he was exhausted, drained by the various stresses of leading orchestras in the dual pressure cookers of Europe and America. This week is deWaart's last in Australia, and as he prepares to take over as music director in Hong Kong, he refers to Sydney as his "spiritual holiday." During his tenure, the SSO significantly improved its musicians' wages and working conditions, and critics say that the orchestra is a decidedly better ensemble than it was when he arrived. Sydney Morning Herald 11/26/03
Posted: 11/25/2003 4:54 am

Comedy Terrorist Sentenced To The Penalty Box The self-styles "comedy terrorist" Aaron Barschak, has been sentenced to four weeks in jail for throwing red paint over Turner-nominated artist Jake Chapman. The Independent (UK) 11/25/03
Posted: 11/24/2003 6:20 pm

Theatre

Beatty: Broadway Needs Actors, Not Stars Ned Beatty is one of America's most respected stage actors, currently starring in a Broadway revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The production is receiving good reviews, but in an interview, Beatty appears to rip his co-stars, Hollywood darlings Jason Patric and Ashley Judd, for being part of a new theatrical culture which favors celebrity over acting ability. "In theater you want to go from here to there, you want it to be about something... Stage actors learn how to do that. Film actors often don't even think about it. They do what the director wants them to do, and they never inform their performance with — call it what you wish — through-line, objective." The New York Times 11/25/03
Posted: 11/25/2003 6:27 am

National Theatre Cleans Up At Awards London's National Theatre was nominated for ten Evening Standard theatre awards, and won three. London Evening Standard 11/25/03
Posted: 11/24/2003 9:18 pm

A New "Chants Laureate" For Football Football chants are a staple of any game. But art they art? Apparently so. Next year a sponsor has put up money for a £10,000-a-year "chants laureate" to be chosen from stadium crowds. "His or her role will be to rove round matches and 'compose chants observing key moments within the season'. The search to recruit the new bard is to be led by five judges headed by the poet laureate Andrew Motion, who is paid a mere £5,000 in his 335-year-old post for composing verses for the royal family." The Guardian (UK) 11/24/03
Posted: 11/24/2003 7:49 pm

Publishing

Coady To King: Shut Up And Go Count Your Royalties Lynn Coady was a bit perplexed by Stephen King's recent tirade against highbrow literary culture at the National Book Awards. "He seemed unable to stop himself... asserting that the gap between 'the so-called popular fiction and the so-called literary fiction' must be closed. To which a bemused Joe Average can only reply: Dude, you're a billionaire. It is not for you to gripe about egg-headed and arbitrary distinctions between high and low art. Accept your award with humble aplomb and resume laughing your way to the bank." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 11/25/03
Posted: 11/25/2003 5:43 am

Harry Potter, Part XVI: Attack Of The Clones One significant byproduct of the wild popularity of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series has been an explosion of the entire children's fantasy genre. Not all the Harry wannabes are particularly good literature, but with publishing houses and booksellers alike determined to find the Next Big Thing in kid-lit, there's no shortage of new books involving young wizards, dragon eggs, and supernatural detectives. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 11/25/03
Posted: 11/25/2003 5:36 am

New Museum Of World Literary Heritage A new museum of world literary heritage has opened in Switzerland. The new museum contains "manuscripts and volumes ranging from an Egyptian Book of the Dead through Shakespeare folios to a first edition of Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 11/24/03
Posted: 11/24/2003 7:45 pm

Media

Indies Sue Hollywood Over Screeners Ever since Hollywood banned the use of "screeners" - advance copies of films distributed to critics on DVD - movie folk who make their livings outside the world of big corporate studios have been crying foul. This week, the small-timers fought back, filing a lawsuit to overturn the industry ban. "More than a dozen companies joined in the lawsuit against the movie studios' trade group in U.S. District Court in Manhattan Monday, saying the partial ban will 'chill the financing of independent films' by limiting the awards they can receive." CNN (AP) 11/24/03
Posted: 11/25/2003 6:09 am

Seuss Flick Fans Had Best Beware: Product Placement's Everywhere! "The new Cat in the Hat movie makes fun of infomercials and product placement, but the joke rings a bit hollow because the movie has no fewer than 16 corporate sponsors. All Dr. Seuss needed to create one of the most exciting and hilarious stories in the history of literature was 225 vocabulary words, four colors and some imagination. But it takes a zillion-dollar budget to make The Cat in the Hat into a movie, and movie studios do not want to spend any more than they have to... That's why one of this year's biggest and most avidly anticipated holiday releases has turned Seuss' simple story into a marketing bonanza." Chicago Tribune 11/25/03
Posted: 11/25/2003 5:28 am

TV: The Year Of The Flop "For the first time in the 55-year history of prime-time television, no single new network series can be called a hit. Already - only two months into the season - some analysts are characterizing 2003-2004 as The Year of the Flop." Baltimore Sun 11/24/03
Posted: 11/24/2003 6:10 pm


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