Visual Arts

Revised WTC Memorial Unveiled A revised design for the World Trade Center Memorial is unveiled. "They have proposed an underground space called the Memorial Center, perhaps two acres or more in extent, according to those who have seen the design. It is there that the twisted, resilient, evocative vestiges of the attack, fire trucks, steel columns, maybe even Fritz Koenig's sculpture `Sphere for Plaza Fountain' can finally return." The New York Times 01/15/04
Posted: 01/15/2004 7:30 am

• Looks Good On Paper The revised 9/11 memorial is promising, says Benjamin Forgey, because it demonstrates a clear willingness on the part of the designers to be responsive to public concerns, and on the part of certain New York politicians to create a monument to human tragedy without making the experience of visiting it too bleak to attract visitors. But the design is still a major departure from Freedom Tower architect Daniel Libeskind's vision for the site, and whether the actual memorial fulfills the promise of its redesign is still an open question.
  Posted: 01/15/2004 5:29 am

Cleveland Museum Expansion Delayed "The Cleveland Museum of Art is delaying by four or five months a decision about whether to go ahead with a proposed $225 million expansion and renovation... The reason for the slowdown, museum officials said, is that construction documents prepared by New York architect Rafael Viñoly won't be complete by March, when the museum had hoped to put them out for bids by contractors. The museum now expects the blueprints to be ready for bids in August, about a month after the museum decides whether it has enough money to go ahead." The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 01/15/04
Posted: 01/15/2004 5:15 am

What Is The Future For Recovered Iraqi/Afghan Treasures? Two major collections, not seen for years, have been uncovered in Afghanistan and Iraq. "But when will these astonishing objects next be seen, and where? That, too, is highly controversial. In neither Baghdad nor Kabul is the security position good enough to allow museums to reopen - and the Kabul Museum is a ruin. It has been mooted that both the Bactrian and Nimrud treasures should go on international tour to museums in America. The Musée Guimet in Paris - which has a magnificent Afghan collection - has expressed interest in the Bactrian gold. But these are highly sensitive proposals. To parade the Nimrud jewellery around the USA, would 'not be at all a tactful thing to do. Let the Iraqi people see their treasures first'." The Telegraph (UK) 01/15/04
Posted: 01/14/2004 7:41 pm

Is There Too Much Art-Fairing In Miami? Miami now has three big commercial art fairs on its annual schedule. "A community that just a few years ago wondered if it would ever develop a commercial art market now finds itself grappling with the possibility that it may be saddled with too much of a good thing. After all, these waves of art dealers winging into town aren't coming simply to enrich our cultural lives, as welcome as that may be. They're coming to ring up sales. And one has to wonder if there are enough art-hungry customers to go around." Miami New Times 01/14/04
Posted: 01/14/2004 7:33 pm

New Campaign To Return Parthenon Marbles A campaign to persuade the British government to return the Parthenon Marbles to Greece has been mouted. "Run by umbrella organisation Marbles Reunited, it is based on research suggesting three out of every four British people want them returned. The group wants them put alongside the other surviving Parthenon sculptures in a museum being specially built for the start of the Athens Olympics." BBC 01/13/04
Posted: 01/14/2004 7:07 pm

• Slick Campaign For Marbles As Public Attitude Changes "An increasing number of Britons believe that it is wrong to keep the Parthenon marbles in the British Museum in London. A new video, sent yesterday to 1,000 parliamentarians, opinion formers and television companies, begins a new, slicker phase in the longstanding campaign to return the Parthenon stones, formerly known as the Elgin marbles, to Athens." The Guardian (UK) 01/15/04
  Posted: 01/14/2004 7:01 pm

• Jenkins: Why Marbles Should Stay In Britain Tiffany Jenkins argues that the Parthenon Marbles belong where they are. "It is vital that the marbles remain in the British Museum. Not because the marbles look better there, because the British Museum owns them, or because the Greeks can't look after them. Quite simply, the marbles take on a higher meaning in Bloomsbury than they ever could in Athens. In the British Museum the marbles can be seen among the artefacts of human history." Spiked-Online 01/13/04
  Posted: 01/14/2004 6:49 pm

Whitney Sale To Bring $140 Million? The sale of 44 paintings once owned by the Whitney family is expected to bring $140 million. It's the highest pre-sale estimate ever - the collectioncludes work by Picasso, Manet, and major works by Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Sir Alfred J. Munnings and John Singer Sargent. "The paintings are the property of the New York-based Greentree Foundation founded in 1982 by Betsey Whitney after the death of her husband, John Hay Whitney, to promote human rights, peace and international cooperation. Betsey Whitney died in 1998." ABCNews (Reuters) 01/13/04
Posted: 01/14/2004 6:33 pm

The Politics Of Cleaning David The "cleaning" of Michelangelo's David is more about politics than aesthetics, claims one critic. "Fundamentally this is about money. The actual restoration itself may cost relatively little - a few hundred thousand dollars, maybe a million. But in terms of the increase in the number of admission tickets sold, the number of books, videos and toys purchased at the museum store, the reproduction rights - you're probably talking billions. Why do you think the city of Florence and the Italian state are arguing over who owns David? The science they use to defend their decisions is irrelevant, it's just window dressing to disguise a power struggle. New Scientist 01/14/04
Posted: 01/14/2004 6:30 pm

Music

Trading Salary For Stability In Detroit For the third time in the last 15 years, the musicians and staff of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra have agreed to temporary furloughs and pay cuts in an effort to help the organizations stabilize a precarious financial situation. The deal is somewhat complex, as negotiations to redo the musicians' contract were focused on enabling the DSO to save money in the short term without sacrificing its position as one of the top American orchestras in the long term. Over the next two seasons, the musicians will accept several weeks of furlough and allow four open positions in the orchestra to go unfilled, but will be guaranteed a return to a competitive pay scale in the 2005-06 season. Detroit News 01/15/04
Posted: 01/15/2004 7:04 am

• Previously: A Big Job In Detroit Whoever becomes the Detroit Symphony's next executive director will have a lot of work to do. Not only is the orchestra searching for a new music director, "the DSO has run operating losses of about $3 million the last three years, including a $1.8-million shortfall in 2003, its largest deficit in more than a decade. A $1-million transfer from its endowment two years ago leaves the accumulated deficit at $2.2 million." Detroit Free Press 12/24/03

Playing Both Sides In Harlem The embattled Harlem Boys Choir announced yesterday that it has a plan to respond to its board's demand that founder Walter Turnbull be dismissed in the wake of abuse allegations, but the choir's proposal does not appear to include the full severing of Turnbull's ties to the organization. The New York City Department of Education will review the plan, but has already called for Turnbull's firing. Washington Post 01/15/04
Posted: 01/15/2004 5:36 am

• Previously: Betrayal and Backlash in Harlem The Harlem Boys Choir is in crisis, with a $30 million lawsuit alleging sexual and physical abuse at the hands of trusted employees threatening to tear the organization apart, and the choir's founder under pressure to step down. But Walter Turnbull insists that he did nothing wrong, and cannot imagine the choir, which has changed the lives of countless underprivileged kids, going on without him. Moreover, he is still incredulous that an employee with whom he trusted his choir of young boys implicitly could have turned out to be a child molester. Washington Post 01/14/04

Cutting, But Not Slashing Like countless other arts organizations, the San Francisco Opera is going through some tough economic times. Unlike many other orchestras and opera companies, the company is refusing to hit the panic button, even after budgetary concerns forced it to trim the number of operas it would present in 2003-04. Berlioz's massive "Les Troyens" was postponed several years to save the company $1 million, but "although much of the season's repertoire is comparatively traditional, seven of the nine productions are new to the company," including a daring (and not terribly accessible) 1978 opera by György Ligeti. San Francisco Chronicle 01/15/04
Posted: 01/15/2004 5:21 am

Selling It In what is likely to be a controversial move within the classical music industry, London's Philharmonia Orchestra will "rebrand" itself this week, with the assistance of a top UK marketing firm. The 'new' Philharmonia will stress accessibility (think Classic FM as opposed to BBC Radio 3) and attempt to attract "the type of people [who are] currently visiting Tate Modern," and to do so without alienating its core audience. The orchestra will also look at ways to begin offering downloadable music online, and generally make a concerted push to pique the interest of a younger, more technologically savvy demographic. Andante (Design Week) 01/15/04
Posted: 01/15/2004 4:17 am

Arts Issues

Talking The Talk "Newly appointed [Canadian] Heritage Minister Hélène Chalifour Scherrer made her first official appearance in the cultural community Tuesday, sweeping into Toronto on short notice to meet with leaders of major arts organizations." Arts officials were impressed with Scherrer's seeming willingness to work closely with them to preserve Canada's cultural diversity at a time when the government has said that there will be no new money available for the arts. Scherrer's appointment had originally been met with uncertainty from arts organizations, as her background is primarily in sports, but her Toronto sweep is likely to enhance her popularity, particularly when compared with that of her predecessor, who was frequently criticized for a lack of direct engagement. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/15/04
Posted: 01/15/2004 4:55 am

Cultural Workforce In Canada Peaked In 2001 The number of workers employed in cultural jobs in Canada peaked in 2001, says Statistics Canada. "The agency says there were 578,000 people employed in the cultural sector in 2001. That number dipped the next year to just over 577,000, which represents 3.7 per cent of the country's total labour force." CBC 01/13/04
Posted: 01/14/2004 8:29 pm

Theatre

Broadway Hunkers Down "Winter on Broadway usually means a winnowing of shows as tourists leave town after the holidays and the audience in the New York region tends to stay home. Several shows, like "Cabaret," closed in early January in expectation of the long, fallow cold months. But the first weeks of this winter, after a fall season crowded with money losers and critical pariahs, look a bit grimmer than usual because of bitter weather and continued doubts about the economy and tourism." The New York Times 01/15/04
Posted: 01/14/2004 8:00 pm

Publishing

Asian American Workshop Shuts Down "Money woes forced the [New York-based] Asian American Writers' Workshop to close its doors last month. Public programs are canceled until at least the first week in February... Though AAWW has pulled in roughly $12,000 in individual donations since a November plea, the sum is only a fraction of what it needs. The $500,000 annual budget has been slashed nearly in half. Grants on which the group had relied, from charitable and arts foundations and from the city's Department of Cultural Affairs, were denied for 2004." New York Daily News 01/15/04
Posted: 01/15/2004 5:08 am

Lingua Franca Debacle A bankruptcy trustee for the erstwhile Lingua Franca magazine puts the screws to freelance writers in an attempt to get them to give back money the magazine paid them before folding. "A dead magazine putting the squeeze on its freelancers? Insiders are lamenting this sad end to the glorious saga of Lingua Franca, which tweaked higher education and popularized what is now known as the journalism of ideas. In chilly apartments around the city, freelancers are freaking out, calling lawyer friends, and wondering how they will come up with the money." Village Voice 01/12/04
Posted: 01/14/2004 7:02 pm

• Previously: Lingua Franca Trustee Demands Writers Return Paychecks Lingua Franca magazine folded a couple of years ago. But freelance writers for the magazine still got paid for the last stories they turned in. Now a bankruptcy trustee says he wants freelancers to return the money or he'll sue to get it back. It seems the writers were "unsecured" creditors, and the money "should" have gone to secured creditors. "It certainly seems unfair. These freelancers did the work and were paid the fees that they bargained for. They delivered what was asked of them." The New York Times 01/12/04

Media

Shining The Light On Sundance's Dark Side The Sundance Film Festival was famously conceived to showcase independent film, and encourage aspiring young directors. But it's been so successful that it's now difficult to separate the world of the indies from mainstream Hollywood. A new book drives home that point by looking at the history of the festival, as well as at supposedly "independent" studio Miramax, which was actually sold to Disney more than a decade ago. Of course, "Sundance wouldn't be Sundance without people grousing about celebrities, all while running from movies to parties featuring those same celebrities," so it's possible that the whole debate is missing the point. Chicago Tribune 01/15/04
Posted: 01/15/2004 4:46 am

Watch Your F*#@ing Adjectives! It's been decades since comedian George Carlin first gained fame with an unprintable routine he called "Seven Words You Can't Say On The Radio." So broadcasters and consumers nationwide were stunned recently, when the FCC announced that U.S. broadcast standards had not been violated during a live awards show broadcast on NBC, when the singer Bono used the word "fucking." The word was allowable, said the FCC's board of governors, because Bono had used it as an emphatic adjective, rather than as a verb meant to describe a sexual act. That's a bit too far into the realm of semantics for FCC Chairman Michael Powell, who is now pushing for a flat ban of the word. Baltimore Sun (AP) 01/15/04
Posted: 01/15/2004 4:30 am

The Online Film (R)Evolution "In the late 1990s, a half-dozen online film companies - each promising to revolutionize movie viewing - were among the noisiest participants at the Sundance Film Festival. A few years later, the revolution has stalled. Most online film channels have disappeared (Steven Spielberg's Pop, AntEye, Digital Entertainment Net, Scour and Pseudo), with some changing direction (Eveo is now a purveyor of rich media). The two leaders, AtomFilms and IFilm, have settled into relatively mellow maturity. But online film festivals, an offshoot of the commercial film channel, are stepping up to fill the void." Wired 01/15/04
Posted: 01/15/2004 3:56 am

Down Year For Film Critics Awards This was a terrible year for the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, writes Rex Reed. "An award from the New York Film Critics Circle used to be the most powerful and prestigious of all the prizes in the overcrowded traffic jam of back-patting cinematic supermarket giveaway shows. People who thumbed their noses at the Academy Awards were always proud to accept a NYFCC award, and always said so onstage and in print. This is no longer true. Hasn’t been since the year the NYFCC named Cameron Diaz the best actress of the year. This year, more than one person present was overheard comparing this once-august event to an awards-show spoof on Saturday Night Live." New York Observer 01/14/04
Posted: 01/14/2004 8:03 pm

Surely Vermeer Movie Is A Parody? The new movie about Vermeer is more of a mockumentary than a documentary. "The Vermeer film's pedestrian seriousness and fustian reverence are their own eventual parody: I found myself giggling in the intervals when I wasn't fidgeting. Biopics like this are the cinema's equivalent of putting a blue plaque on a wall. "Vermeer slept here". So may many moviegoers. Nothing wrong with serious style of course, except when married to a stupefying triviality of content. As an exploration of art's pains and processes, Girl with a Pearl Earring has all the profundity of a Mills and Boon novel." Financial Times 01/14/04
Posted: 01/14/2004 7:20 pm