Rijksmuseum Closes For Renovation - Foreign Visitors Mourn The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is closing for renovations for five years. This will have a big impact abroad. "British visitors are crucial to the museum's finances, which are more perilous since privatisation of the Dutch museum sector eight years ago. Britons and Americans each contribute 25% of its roughly million visitors a year, followed by the Japanese and French - with Dutch visitors trailing a long way down the list." The Observer (UK) 12/21/03
Posted: 12/21/2003 10:30 pm
Melbourne's Building Boom - Slums In Waiting? Melbourne has been on a building boom, luring thousands of new residents downtown with a wave of new apartment construction. This is slowing growth of the suburbs. But there's a downside. "We are building what will become ghettos of poor quality, cheap, badly built, high-maintenance houses in the sky. These towers will form an urban and social blight within 10 years that will scar the tissue of the city. They are badly built and unsuited for renovation. They will most likely be demolished when their investment use-by date is up." The Age (Melbourne) 12/22/03
Posted: 12/21/2003 9:24 pm
Factory 798 - Turning China Upside Down Beijing's Factory 798 is home to an amazing collective of contemporary artists who are remaking modern art in China. "This giant Bauhaus-style collection of workshops somehow manages to confirm the old cultural stereotypes about this nominally communist country, while simultaneously turning them upside down. The setting is a plot of living history." The Guardian (UK) 12/21/03
Posted: 12/21/2003 6:40 pm
Havana Biennale Soldiers On Many supporters of this year's Havana Biennale withdrew their support after Fidel Castro jail journalists and allowed some artists to be censored. "But with the Castro government struggling to maintain its place on the world stage, and its population suffering under US sanctions dating back to 1961, the hosting of an art biennial is an important opportunity for Cuba and its artists to engage in six weeks of cultural discourse and exchange, as well as for a much needed injection of foreign spending on the island. And with Cuban artists dominating the display, the exhibition functions as an advertisement for native talent. 'All third world biennials are a strategy to promote the local art. Cuba is no exception'." The Art Newspaper 12/19/03
Posted: 12/21/2003 6:14 pm
WTC Tower - It Has To Be Better Than This! The Libeskind/Childs tower for the World Trade Center site is old-school thinking tied to hidebound out-of-date ideas, writes James Russell. "American Class A buildings are no longer regarded as high-standard buildings in London, Germany, Scandinavia, Holland, Japan—not even in supposedly backward China. What’s today’s high-standard tower? One of the most ambitious is Swiss Re, coming to completion in London by Foster & Partners. (You can find it by searching under "projects" in the architect's site.) It features gardens for idea sharing and for blurring the boundaries between floors, an advanced approach to daylight and ventilation, and a floor configuration that offers almost everyone access to windows or views." Sticks & Stones (AJBlogs) 12/20/03
Posted: 12/21/2003 6:01 pm
World Bank Loans St. Petersburg $160 Million The World Bank is loaning St. Petersburg, Russia $160 million to help improve its cultrual sites and infrastructure. "The loans are part of the St Petersburg Economic Development Project, a joint initiative between the Russian government and the World Bank which will see some $240 million spent to improve the city’s business climate, notorious for its corruption and red tape, and to restore important cultural sites which are not attracting as many tourists as they could." The Art Newspaper 12/19/03
Posted: 12/21/2003 5:57 pm
Dia Closing Manhattan Gallery For Two Years The Dia Foundation is closing its much-loved Chelsea warehouse gallery for two years of rennovations. "The converted warehouse at 548 West 22nd Street was one of the first art venues in the Chelsea district when it opened in 1987, and with some 60,000 visitors annually, it needs new passenger and freight elevators, climate control, roof repairs, and more lavatories. Trustees have pledged $10 million towards a $50-million campaign that seeks $30 million for the Chelsea space and $20 million for Dia's acclaimed new museum in Beacon, New York as well as for other long-term projects, including land art by Michael Heizer and James Turrell." The Art Newspaper 12/19/03
Posted: 12/21/2003 5:55 pm
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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
On Writing Words For Opera Poet Lavinia Greenlaw recently found herself writing an opera libretto. "Singing is not a casual act. Opera (again, like poetry) works best when it refuses to be embarrassed about its artifice. Libretti work best when the lines are fluent and convincing, but also emphatically styled. As I have begun to learn in my own libretto-writing, it's a question of texture rather than vocabulary. Rossini once said: "Give me a laundry list, and I will set it." WH Auden points out that this is not so great a claim, since lists lend themselves to music particularly well. Any words can be used if they contain a space for the music and action and are strong enough to change shape without losing meaning. It's like making the skin for some fantastical beast based on what it is going to do rather than what it might look like." The Guardian (UK) 12/20/03
Posted: 12/21/2003 6:47 pm
Detroit - Bigger Than Jazz Detroit's troubled Labor Day jazz festival is morphing. "The new festival, which would begin in 2005, will keep jazz at its core but also showcase Detroit's Motown legacy and the city's unique contributions to blues, rock, R&B, gospel and techno. The result, according to artistic director Frank Malfitano, will be Detroit's answer to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and the Montreal Jazz Festival - North America's biggest and most successful annual music festivals, both of which attract tourists from all over the world." Detroit Free Press 12/19/03
Posted: 12/21/2003 5:50 pm
Jacksonville Symphony Impasse The Jacksonville [Florida] Symphony is in a dispute with its musicians. "The symphony says it has a $2.4 million deficit and has proposed shortening the symphony season by two weeks, cutting musicians' salaries by 10 percent and suspending pension contributions and paid leave. The musicians say they just signed a five-year contract in February and expect the symphony to honor it." Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville) 12/21/03
Posted: 12/21/2003 5:47 pm
Fort Worth Wonders - Can We Afford Bass Hall? Bass Hall is the cultural capital of downtown Fort Worth. "In its five-year history, the hall has easily fulfilled its promise, becoming a grand symbol of Fort Worth's commitment to the performing arts and a striking monument to the private and proud family for which it is named. But over the past year, as the recessionary economy ravaged arts institutions everywhere, the hall's seemingly impregnable facade has begun to show cracks." With revenue and attendance down, "the current economic hardships hint at a deeper problem - one that has persisted since the early days of the hall and now prompts the fundamental question: Can Fort Worth still afford Bass Hall?" The Star-Telegram (Fort Worth) 12/21/03
Posted: 12/21/2003 9:34 pm
The Art (Against) Reagan Ronald Reagan is revered by his conservative followers as a great president. But "the art of the Reagan era - not just art about Reagan, but art made during his presidency - reflects a more complex memory of the man. The most potent artistic forces unleashed in the Reagan years were overtly political, and little of this overtly political art was or is kind to the old man. The plague of AIDS, and protests of AIDS activists, would create a new and volatile visual language that refreshed the graphic arts; punk rock emerged, in this country, as an angry and anarchic force, often explicitly in opposition to what musicians saw as a geriatric retrenchment into imperial self-satisfaction; and performance art came into its own, defining a new, anti-commercial, wildly independent form of drama. One summary of the Reagan years is that they were immensely productive, artistically, even if much of the art was vehemently opposed to the man." Washington Post 12/21/03
Posted: 12/21/2003 6:35 pm
Still Dancing At 65 "Dudley Williams is still dancing onstage at 65. Having joined Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1964, Mr. Williams is the longest active member of the company, perhaps one of the longest active professional dancers anywhere." The New York Times 12/21/03
Posted: 12/21/2003 11:03 pm
Humana Chooses Festival Playwrights "For the second year in a row, the Actors Theatre of Louisville has filled five of its six slots for the annual Humana Festival of New American Plays, running Feb. 29-April 10, with works written by women." Backstage 12/19/03
Posted: 12/22/2003 12:23 am
Star Turn For Scotland's National Theatre? Finally Scotland has its National Theatre. Should it cast big movie stars to make itself successful at the box office? "It is not Hollywood names that bothers many in the theatre establishment, but the idea that the National Theatre is seen as a means of getting them, of making theatre 'sexier'. Is that what they were lobbying for all these years? You don’t need a national theatre for that...+ The Scotsman 12/21/03
Posted: 12/22/2003 12:03 am
Tower Out On The Street London's "Tower Theatre had a 155-seat auditorium, two bars and rehearsal rooms, all housed in a fifteenth-century tower and hall in Canonbury, north London, rented from the Marquess of Northampton. Here they put on 20 full-scale productions a year, opening a new show every three weeks. But an alleged slip on the part of their lawyers led to the loss of their protected tenancy, and in March they became homeless. The financial consequences were disastrous." The Guardian (UK) 12/21/03
Posted: 12/21/2003 10:16 pm
Who Can Stand For This? "Go to nearly any Broadway house, any night, and you can catch a crowd jumping up for the curtain call like politicians at a State of the Union address. And just as in politics, the intensity of the ovation doesn't necessarily reflect the quality of the performance. The phenomenon has become so exaggerated, in fact, that audiences now rise to their feet for even the very least successful shows." The New York Times 12/21/03
Posted: 12/21/2003 6:56 pm
Theatre - Year Of The Woman? (Playwright, That Is) Do women make good playwrights? There seems to be some prejudice in the industry suggesting they don't. "There is no question that most of our celebrated playwrights are male and that female writers are responsible for only a small minority of the plays produced in this country. But these historical trends are starting to change — and the proof is in the listings. Almost all the talked-about plays Off Broadway this fall were written by women." The New York Times 12/21/03
Posted: 12/21/2003 6:53 pm
Buy This Book "This was a year in which the publishing industry kept its literati tendencies in check and infused a Hollywood-style razzle-dazzle into contests and other promotions intended to nudge books into at least a glimmer of the popular culture spotlight. With book sales down from last year, publishers are being forced to abandon their high-brow position above the fray and dive right in with movies, TV and other competing forms of popular culture." Los Angeles Times 12/21/03
Posted: 12/21/2003 10:49 pm
The Global Movie "Increasingly Hollywood studios are aiming to open their potential blockbusters simultaneously, or nearly so, around the world. If the phenomenon is beginning to make seeing the Hollywood blockbuster a global experience for the most avid movie fans, the reasons for it have little to do with those fans. Instead the trend is being pushed by the threat of movie piracy and the harsh realities of marketing costs, combined with ever-briefer theater stays as highly promoted films quickly saturate their markets." The New York Times 12/21/03
Posted: 12/21/2003 11:12 pm
Kirov's Dangerous New Direction "Questions about the Kirov Ballet's direction and management -- and their effect on the company's good name -- have dogged the troupe for months." One of the company's star ballerina's defected to the Bolshoi in August, and Artistic and General Director Valery Gergiev says that he is planning a major "restructuring" of the Kirov's leadership team. All the uncertainty is adding to a growing sense of fear and unrest inside the Kirov, which has struggled for years to make the transition from a state-sponsored troupe to a privately funded ballet company competing on the international stage. Washington Post 12/21/03
Posted: 12/21/2003 10:17 am
Dancing For Two Dancers are more or less expected to exhibit a flawless body type at all times, and dancers who do not conform to the classic "look" are frequently nudged out of the spotlight, or out of the profession entirely. So when a star dancer at a major American ballet company chooses to continue performing while pregnant, as Julie Kent of the American Ballet Theater did this fall, it is a big story. Kent says it was an easy decision: "If I had chosen not to dance, I think I would have been wondering why — you're not injured, you're not sick, and there's nothing that different about you except your waistline's growing." The New York Times 12/21/03
Posted: 12/21/2003 9:12 am
