Visual Arts

Smithsonian Gets Martial "Officials at the National Museum of American History yesterday announced plans to open a $19 million permanent exhibit exploring an oft-times fervently debated topic: the depiction of the nation's military history, beginning with the French and Indian War in the 1750s, running through World War II and Vietnam, and culminating with the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan... It will be the first time the museum has taken a panoramic view of the U.S. military experience." Washington Post 01/23/04
Posted: 01/23/2004 7:00 am

So He Cut Off The Ear Just For Fun, Then? "A recently discovered letter by Vincent van Gogh on display for the first time speaks of a tiny grave and his father's grief over the loss of his first child — a boy also named Vincent who was stillborn. The letter, the first authenticated one by van Gogh to surface since 1990, is the only known reference by the artist to the family tragedy, said Leo Jansen, a researcher at the Van Gogh Museum, which added the letter to its exhibition yesterday. He and other experts say its passionless tone contradicts theories by some biographers that van Gogh may have suffered from alienation as a 'replacement child.'" Toronto Star (AP) 01/23/04
Posted: 01/23/2004 6:57 am

Wings, Rails, and Light: Ground Zero's Train Station "Where there was darkness on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, the architect Santiago Calatrava would bring a flood of light in the form of a winged railway station, draped in glass, suffused with natural illumination and, on occasion, open to the clear skies above. Mr. Calatrava's design for the permanent World Trade Center PATH terminal, which was unveiled yesterday, is a soaring, sculptural, steel-and-glass shell covering a cathedral-like concourse." The New York Times 01/23/04
Posted: 01/23/2004 5:59 am

• PATH to Recovery The new plan unveiled for the PATH station at Ground Zero seems to have dazzled the New Yorkers who saw it to the point that many are wondering why the design for the skyscraper and memorial at the same site could not have been as grand. "In place of a wedge (in reality, an inglorious traffic intersection), there will arise what Mr. Calatrava envisions as a bird, most likely a dove, released from the hands of a child. No more second-hand Statues of Liberty here, in other words. Rather, a prayer for peace." The New York Times 01/23/04
  Posted: 01/23/2004 5:39 am

The New Breed of Chelsea Galleries A new era is blossoming in New York's venerable Chelsea neighborhood, as personified by a slew of new galleries owned and run by "a group of enterprising young dealers who are shaking up a corner of the New York art scene." The youngsters have a name for themselves - the New Art Dealers Alliance - and they have a mission, as well: to provide a stage for emerging artists who wouldn't have a prayer of being exhibited at Chelsea's more established galleries, and to make money doing it. NADA is also a sign of the growing trend towards the reemergence of the artists' collectives which dominated the 1960s and '70s. The New York Times 01/23/03
Posted: 01/23/2004 5:20 am

Art & The Politics of Diplomacy It all began when the Israeli ambassador to Sweden came across an installation at the National Historical Museum in Stockholm which features a pristine photograph of a recent Palestinian suicide bomber floating freely in a partially frozen sea of blood. Interpreting the work as an endorsement of anti-Israeli terrorism, the ambassador demanded its removal, and then hurled a nearby spotlight into the pool. Shortly thereafter, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called the ambassador to congratulate him, and Jerusalem's leading newspaper editorialized that the ambassador's vandalism was a greater work of art than the original. The museum director is incensed, and believes the act was premeditated, in response to the director's criticisms of Israeli policy. The Guardian (UK) 01/22/04
Posted: 01/22/2004 9:50 pm

• No Glorification Here Veteran journalist Larry Defner is exasperated by the outcry against the Swedish artwork seen by some to be an anti-Semitic endorsement of suicide bombings. "Snow White and the Madness of Truth makes Palestinian terrorism – and Israeli repression, too, but mainly Palestinian terrorism – so graphic and immediate as to be nauseating, which is the effect terrorism and repression should, but unfortunately don't, have on people at large. The Jewish reaction to the artwork and to Ambassador Zvi Mazel's trashing of it show how... as soon as the cry of anti-Semitism goes up loudly enough, there is no discussion in Israel or the Diaspora about whether or not it was justified." Jerusalem Post 01/22/04
  Posted: 01/22/2004 9:49 pm

Music

Picking The Carcass Clean It didn't take long for the vultures to descend in South Florida, where the now-defunct Florida Philharmonic auctioned off its salable assets yesterday, with many items going for far less than their actual value. When the final gavel banged, the Phil had raised only $170,000 from the sale of instruments, music stands, and other musical detritus. Miami Herald 01/23/04
Posted: 01/23/2004 7:06 am

• Will Florida Learn From The Phil's Demise? The Florida Philharmonic's bankruptcy auction marked the final humiliation for an orchestra which, for any number of reasons, never found its niche. In fact, orchestras across the Sunshine State are in similarly dire straits, and many observers fear that Florida is losing whatever tenuous commitment it once had to creating a respectable arts scene as a result. St. Petersburg Times 01/23/04
  Posted: 01/23/2004 7:05 am

PhilOrch Official Heads To Jersey Months after losing its executive director to Pittsburgh, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra has plucked its next chief executive from Pennsylvania's other major city. 40-year-old Simon Woods, currently the artistic operations manager of the Philadelphia Orchestra, will take over the business operations of the NJSO in March. The announcement completes the transition to a new management team in Newark, where the NJSO recently announced the appointment of Neeme Järvi as its next music director. Philadelphia Inquirer 01/23/04
Posted: 01/23/2004 7:02 am

Grand Opera, Tinseltown-Style Now that the Los Angeles Opera has its performance space all to itself, the company is determined to set about revitalizing the genre for a new generation of Angelenos. "While opera may be a tough sell in the shadow of the international movie factory, tapping the city's entertainment industry is an obvious move," and artistic director Placido Domingo hasn't been shy about his desire to give LA Opera's productions a touch of Hollywood glitz if it will bring in the crowds. The Christian Science Monitor (Boston) 01/23/04
Posted: 01/23/2004 6:26 am

• Previously: LA Opera Expands With Room To Grow Now that the Los Angeles Philharmonic has moved across the street to Disney Hall, LA Opera is expanding its season. A $48 million budget will finance a season of "premieres, revivals and stars." Los Angeles Daily News 01/17/04

Carmen, In Her Natural Habitat This fall, the Spanish city of Seville will stage an outdoor production of Bizet's Carmen. You opera buffs already see where this is going: the famous opera is set in Seville, and the city plans to stage it in the actual locations called for in the libretto, with the entire production (and the audience, naturally) picking itself up and changing locations between acts. The ambitious project is the feature attraction of the First Seville International Music Festival, which will also boast appearances by cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and the New York Philharmonic. The Christian Science Monitor (Boston) 01/23/04
Posted: 01/23/2004 6:21 am

Is Self-Producing The Future Of Classical Recording? With the major record labels continuing to downsize or eliminate their classical imprints, an ever-increasing number of orchestras have been taking their recording business in-house. Now, violinist Gil Shaham, dumped two years ago by Deutsche Grammophon in favor of the more photogenic Hilary Hahn, has started releasing independent albums as well, and the movement towards classical independence very likely represents the future of classical recording. As Shaham puts it, "I think of a chef opening his own restaurant. You may take on the risk, but with risk comes an unbelieveable freedom -- you can put as much garlic in the hummus as you like." Boston Globe 01/23/04
Posted: 01/23/2004 6:10 am

Turnbull To Stay On At Harlem The New York City Department of Education has reached an agreement with Harlem Boys' Choir founder Walter J. Turnbull, under which Turnbull will be allowed to continue as artistic director with the ensemble, despite charges that he covered up an incident of child molestation by an employee. Turnbull will resign as the choir's chief executive, but his presence at the helm of the choir's artistic operations "was deemed essential for the survival of the world-renowned singing group." The New York Times 01/23/04
Posted: 01/23/2004 6:02 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

Daniel Barenboim & The German Sound The Berlin Staatskapelle is not the best orchestra in Germany, but it may be the definitive German orchestra. Under the baton of Daniel Barneboim, the Staatskapelle has again become an international force in the music world, and its distinctly German sound is an immediately recognizable beacon, in an era when many orchestras are beginning to sound alike. But what is a "German sound," and are German orchestras really any more equipped to play German music than orchestras based in the UK or the US? Barenboim believes in the sound, and can explain it right down to the special German method of attacking a note. The New York Times 01/23/04
Posted: 01/23/2004 5:27 am

Live, Local, And Immediate "As other technology companies scramble to match the success of Apple's online music store, iTunes, which sells songs for 99 cents each, a different online-music economy is emerging around the sale of recordings of live performances - often with no restrictions on how they can be played or shared." Jam band Phish and mainstream rockers The Dave Matthews Band are two of the first big-name acts to have jumped on the live-performance-record bandwagon, and at the heart of the movement is the belief by the artists involved that the recording industry is shooting itself in the foot by trying to restrict consumer usage of available music. The New York Times 01/22/04
Posted: 01/22/2004 10:35 pm

Dissecting The Theme Most classical music fans would quickly recognize the Paganini theme that Rachmaninoff expanded into one of the most familiar piano concert-pieces in the repertoire. But most listeners have probably never considered what actually goes on in a theme-and-variations, where one composer's singular idea is transformed into a wide-ranging and free-flowing work, yet without ever straying too far from the original thought. Rachmaninoff penned 24 variations on that Paganini theme, and Michael Barnes has taken the daring step of actually explaining each one in an American newspaper. The Pop Culture Enforcement Squad is presumably making its way to Austin to deal with Mr. Barnes. Austin American-Statesman 01/22/04
Posted: 01/22/2004 10:26 pm

Arts Issues

Reassuring The Arts Crowd. Or Not. Hélène Chalifour Scherrer fears that she may have gotten off on the wrong foot with Canada's arts community, and she wants to make amends. The newly appointed Heritage Minister, who (apparently unintentionally) terrified arts leaders when she told a reporter that sports was the part of Canadian culture that interested her the most, is taking great pains to point out that she also loves opera and theater. She also wants everyone to know that her lack of experience in the arts won't affect her ability to run the ministry: "Culture is a tool. And you need a vision to be the guardian of the Canadian identity. You don't necessarily have to know what books were published last week." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/23/04
Posted: 01/23/2004 6:35 am

Small Town, Big Plans Butler, Pennsylvania is a former farm town about 40 miles north of Pittsburgh, which in recent years has grown to be a distant suburb of the Steel City, with the result that Butler's residents are now desirous of something more of a civic identity than grain elevators can provide. "In response, the local arts council has designed a five-year plan to develop Butler Cultural Village, a one-block area in downtown Butler" which will bring together the town theater, orchestra, and a new museum in one complex. Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 01/22/04
Posted: 01/22/2004 10:16 pm

No Boost For Florida Arts Florida arts advocates hoping to rebound from deep cuts in state funding last year got no help from Governor Jeb Bush's 2004 budget proposals. "Buried in general revenue appropriations is $8.5 million recommended for arts grants. That's below Bush's $12 million recommendation last year, although slightly above the $6 million actually approved by the 2003 Florida Legislature." South Florida Sun-Sentinel 01/22/04
Posted: 01/22/2004 10:06 pm

People

Ann Miller, 84 "Ann Miller, the long-legged actress and dancer whose machinegun taps won her stardom during the golden age of movie musicals, died Thursday of lung cancer. She was 84." Chicago Sun-Times 01/23/04
Posted: 01/23/2004 6:17 am

A Composer Who Gets Better With Age? It is a rare composer who lives to see his own centenary, but Elliott Carter seems determined to do so, and at the rate he's going, he might just write a new piece for the occasion. At 95, Carter is more prolific now than at any time in his long career, and he may well be the last great figure of the long-abandoned modernist movement. "his dogged refusal to bend to the whims of the culture around him makes him a strangely isolated figure in Manhattan. His music is performed much more often in Europe than in America - his only opera, composed in 1998, has never been staged in the US - and he finds himself at odds with the compositional trends that have come and gone in New York." The Guardian (UK) 01/23/04
Posted: 01/22/2004 11:03 pm

Britain's Theatrical Architect "Frank Matcham's achievements as the most successful and prolific theatre architect in Britain, arguably the world home of theatre, remain unsurpassed. This year is the 150th anniversary of his birth and it is being marked, coincidentally, by the restoration of his two finest surviving buildings." Financial Times 01/22/04
Posted: 01/22/2004 10:57 pm

Theatre

Taking A Stand Against Funding Cuts "The artistic director for one of Scotland's leading theatre companies has resigned only a month into her post, claiming cuts by the Scottish Arts Council has made her job 'unsustainable'.
Emily Gray is to leave TAG, the premiere theatre company for children in Scotland, in April after the SAC cut its grant by more than 40%." The Herald (Glasgow) 01/23/04
Posted: 01/22/2004 11:15 pm

Private Funding for Public Access When the state of Massachusetts slashed its arts funding allocation by 62% last year, several Boston theaters which were hoping to make accomodations for visually and aurally-impaired patrons had to shelve their plans. But now, the "Cultural Access Consortium, a not-for-profit organization that tackles accessibility issues for audiences and artists who are sight- or hearing-impaired or both, will begin providing technical and financial aid to area theatres through a new program, the Access Collaborative." Backstage 01/22/04
Posted: 01/22/2004 10:08 pm

Media

The World's Most Inexplicable Awards Show The Golden Globe Awards will be handed out Sunday night, and you can be sure that the organizers will do their usual bit of proclaiming the ceremony to be the precursor to (and predicter of) the Oscars. But in reality, the Globes are handed out by a collection of fawning entertainment "reporters" from random countries who care more about sucking up to studio chiefs than honoring serious film. As Hollywood honors go, the Golden Globes should be closer in prestige to the People's Choice Awards than to the Academy Awards. So why does everyone continue to buy into the hype? Because the Golden Globes people are smart enough to put together an entertaining show, that's why. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/23/04
Posted: 01/23/2004 6:41 am

Writers' Guild Nominees Announced "Five movies about culture clashes and strangers in strange lands collected nominations on Thursday for best original movie script from the Writers Guild of America. Among the contenders for best original screenplay were Bend It Like Beckham, about the daughter of a traditionalist Indian Sikh family in Britain who dreams of playing soccer; Lost in Translation, with Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson as lonely Americans in a Tokyo hotel; and Dirty Pretty Things, about a Nigerian immigrant who uncovers grim dealings in the underbelly of London. The other nominees were The Station Agent, about a dwarf who makes friends despite trying to isolate himself, and In America, the director Jim Sheridan's semiautobiographical tale of an Irish family struggling to survive in New York." The New York Times (AP) 01/23/04
Posted: 01/23/2004 5:36 am

Is French Film In Denial? French filmmakers seem to have an obsession with the French Resistance which is all out of proportion to the effect the movement actually had against the invading Germans during World War II. Worse yet, France's film industry seems decidedly unwilling to confront the ugly truth about the country's collaboration with the Nazis. It's not that movies portraying the truth of the situation don't get made - they simply don't get screened with much frequency. The Guardian (UK) 01/23/04
Posted: 01/22/2004 11:08 pm

Taking The Fight To The Dorm Rooms. In Norway. Several U.S. film studios and the Motion Picture Association of America have taken their anti-piracy crusade to Nordic lands, informing officials at Oslo University that Hollywood expects the school to bar certain specific students from its IT program as a result of the MPAA's suspicion that the students have been illegally trading copyrighted films online. The university has suspended the students' internet privileges temporarily, but Norwegian privacy advocates are incensed at the tactics. Aftenposten (Oslo) 01/21/04
Posted: 01/22/2004 10:45 pm