Blockbustering Back To Our Roots Three new blockbuster shows open in London. They'll draw mobs. "But is that the true purpose of a museum or art gallery? For there exists a growing disquiet in the curatorial world that in the process of launching an ever more high-profile temporary exhibitions, part of the deeper function of the museum - as a place of reflection free from the everyday maelstrom; as a public sphere with a different ethos to the marketplace - is being lost." The Observer (UK) 02/15/04
Posted: 02/15/2004 6:39 pm
Italians Struggle To Return Ancient Obelisk After years of pressure from the Ethiopians, Italy agreed in 2002 to return a 1,700-year-old obelisk that was stolen by Mussolini and placed near the Coliseum. "So late last year a team of experts carefully dismantled the obelisk, dividing it into three pieces each weighing between 40 and 70 tonnes. The pieces were wrapped up and stored in a hangar near Rome. But now the Italian authorities have run into a hitch. They say they cannot find a plane big enough to transport the pieces safely." The Observer (UK) 02/15/04
Posted: 02/15/2004 6:31 pm
Did Boston MFA Sell Out In Vegas? The venerable Boston Museum of Fine Arts, has lent 21 Monets to a gallery at Vegas' Bellagio Hotel. Now the museum is "accused of having sold out to commercialism and flouted national curatorial guidelines in the name of profit. In the words of one critic, the Monets have not been loaned, they have been rented out. Under the terms of the arrangement, the museum should make at least $1 million from the expected 1,000 visitors a day during the run of seven and a half months. Admission is $15." The Guardian (UK) 02/16/04
Posted: 02/15/2004 6:25 pm
Criminals Bargain With Police Over Stolen Art In the UK "stolen art masterpieces are being used by crime gangs as 'get out of jail free cards' to trade for more lenient sentences. The criminals stash paintings and other works of art and use them in plea bargaining for other offences, the head of the Metropolitan Police's arts and antiques unit has revealed." The Independent (UK) 02/16/04
Posted: 02/15/2004 5:30 pm
Can't We Applaud While We're Sitting? (Please) Timothy Mangan says enough with the standing ovations. "At every concert that I have attended for the past several years (and I do mean every single one), there has been a standing ovation (either by some in attendance, or all). The standing ovation is as ubiquitous as smog. Performers are beginning to smirk at it. When someone writes to me complaining about a review I wrote and asks, 'Didn't you notice the standing ovation? I laugh." Orange County Register 02/15/04
Posted: 02/15/2004 5:10 pm
Do Arts Taxes Help The Local Economy? "Does spending tax dollars on the arts give the local economy any more of a boost? Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) residents will vote in March on Issue 31, a property-tax levy that would raise nearly $21 million annually to help local industries, including the arts. If it passes, what can the voters expect in exchange for their higher property tax?" The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 02/15/04
Posted: 02/15/2004 4:53 pm
How To Save The NEA? Privatize! Tony Brown writes that it's all well and good for George Bush to propose budget increases for the National Endowment for the Arts. But if he really wanted to do something, he should privatize the agency and give it a real endowment that could sustain its funding for years to come. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 02/15/04
Posted: 02/15/2004 4:48 pm
Of Religion And Art - Scandals For The Centuries "In Western culture the question of how to picture divinity has a history longer than Christianity's. Plato chewed on it while his Greek contemporaries had no qualms about personifying deities in statuary and vase painting. Eventually Christianity, Judaism and Islam all codified their own prohibitions against imaging divinity, though all tolerated breaches of the rules at various times for various reasons. Over the centuries disputants in the matter filled libraries with esoteric arguments for and against likenesses of deity." San Francisco Chronicle 02/15/04
Posted: 02/15/2004 4:40 pm
The Slide Of The Playbox Theatre "Why has Melbourne's Playbox, which was founded in 1976, seen such a slide in its fortunes recently? There are lots of theories - from inappropriate programming to poor production values, soaring ticket prices to careless marketing. These are real problems, but they are not the origin of the dilemma, only symptoms of it. The answer lies far deeper. Mainstream theatre has, lately, been swamped by competing interests." The Age (Melbourne) 02/15/04
Posted: 02/15/2004 6:50 pm
Who Will Succeed Wolfe At Public Theatre? "Will the board stick with a New Yorker, or will it look around the country? (Oskar Eustis at Trinity Rep in Providence has the dynamic personality of a Joseph Papp, a commitment to new work and even a strong Kushner connection to boot.) Will the board look to England? (Not likely given the urban-driven identity of the Public.) It's been fairly quiet in the world of artistic-director job searches." Hartford Courant 02/15/04
Posted: 02/15/2004 6:19 pm
Spanish Theatre Censored In Australia A Spanish theatre company was forced to censor part of its show in Australia. "The play opened to boos from the audience at its Australian premiere in Melbourne last week when it was announced that scenes had been censored to gain an R-rating from the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC). The scenes, depicting explicit sex acts, were pixelated or obscured by bright lights." Sydney Morning Herald 02/15/04
Posted: 02/15/2004 4:18 pm
Britain's Most-Popular Library Books What books are the British public checking out of libraries? "On the top 100 titles list, the authors who started their careers most recently are JK Rowling and Kathy Reichs (whose debuts came out in 1997 and 1998 respectively); Rowling is the only author under the age of 40. It seems that book borrowers feel that Marian Keyes, Sophie Kinsella, Cathy Kelly and other voguish bookshop favourites will have to pay their dues, so to speak, for a while longer. Nor are borrowers particularly partial to literary fiction." The Guardian (UK) 02/14/04
Posted: 02/15/2004 6:42 pm
Book Sales Up, But Traditional Books Falter American book sales were up 18 percent in December. But "despite the supposed good news, the meat and potatoes of the industry, adult hardcover fiction and nonfiction and their paperback counterparts, continue to stagger. Despite robust increases in December -- 11.9 percent and 27.7 percent, respectively -- sales for both categories were below 2002 marks. What scored the big gains last year were "electronic," "religious" and "juvenile hardcover," that last segment's 28.5 percent rise attributed primarily to "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 02/15/04
Posted: 02/15/2004 4:57 pm
Joyce Descendent Threatens To Sue If Dublin Reads Ulysses It's the 100th anniversary of the publication of James Joyce's Ulysses. Dublin "has planned a three-month festival of celebrations costing about £700,000. Unfortunately, the only living direct descendant of Joyce has promised to disrupt the festival by banning any public readings of his work. Stephen Joyce, the writer’s grandson, has informed the Irish government he will sue for breach of copyright if any recitations take place." The Scotsman 02/15/04
Posted: 02/15/2004 4:34 pm
Trying To Discern The Australian Mind Through Magazines "Australians, the most enthusiastic magazine buyers in the world, have perhaps become so discriminating that it is difficult to generalise about their tastes." So what to make of "the mood of Australia when we discover that the fastest growing magazines by readership over the past year dealt with movies, pop singers and property, while the biggest declines were in gardening, shares, home repairs, and naked women?" Sydney Morning Herald 02/16/04
Posted: 02/15/2004 4:21 pm
The Top 30 Romantic Films Of All Time What are the most romantic movies of all time? The Telegraph compiles a list... The Telegraph (UK) 02/14/04
Posted: 02/15/2004 5:37 pm
Berlin's Window On Film The Berlinale Film Festival is a workhorse festival. "Attracting an audience this year of more than 60,000, the Berlinale conjures up neither the glitz nor the summer sun of the more celebrated Cannes and Venice festivals. But, as it has increasingly done since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the festival is spiced with independent films and disheveled directors from countries such as Argentina, South Africa, Cuba and Slovenia." Los Angeles Times 02/15/04
Posted: 02/15/2004 5:26 pm
Protesting A Scottish Hollywood An ambitious plan to build a Scottish Hollywood has been hit by opposition. "A Glasgow businessman has submitted a scheme for a £250m national film studio in rural Perthshire that would attract big-budget films and big-name actors. But the 300 residents of Aberuthven are far from star-struck. They fear the studio with its plans for a timeshare and new housing will quadruple the size of the community and ruin their tranquil way of life." The Scotsman 02/15/04
Posted: 02/15/2004 4:32 pm
Pakistani City Sees Its First Ballet Lahore, Pakistan saw its first Western classical ballet ever this weekend, as members of the Bolshoi Ballet performed. "The skilled grace of the ballerinas and the expansive power of two highly honoured singers were of a quality rarely seen at Al-Hamra." Daily Times (Pakistan) 02/16/04
Posted: 02/15/2004 5:33 pm
