NY Sun: AJ Bloggers Meet Readers So you missed last week's ArtsJournal Live at the Landmark Tavern in New York? Here's New York Sun columnist Gary Shapiro's take on the evening... New York Sun 03/05/04
Posted: 03/09/2004 5:16 pm
First A Helping Hand, Then A Slap To The Face Back in January, the Toronto city council voted almost unanimously to move the Museum of Canadian Contemporary Art from its current home in North York to the center of a growing arts district in the city's downtown. But budget crunches are forcing the city to cut back all over, and one of the items slated for a serious fiscal blow is the MCCA's budget. Under the current plan before the council, the museum would lose more than a third of its annual budget, which will force it to curtail most of its programming for the year. Toronto Star 03/10/04
Posted: 03/10/2004 7:31 am
Modernism Meets The Assembly Line "What if modern architecture could meet up frankly, honestly with mass production the way that French architect Le Corbusier imagined it? What if you could actually afford to buy a house by award-winning architects? If the project of modernism took hold, North America might start to look like a place of gritty, tenacious promise and less like a bad copy of its past. To help undo the prevailing nostalgia for architecture, in which new houses typically look as dated as top hats and waistcoats, there is the Royal Q series of modernist homes or cottages designed by Kohn Shnier Architects." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 03/10/04
Posted: 03/10/2004 7:24 am
No Rodin For Barrie: MacLaren May Close "A multimillion-dollar deal to bring hundreds of bronze sculptures attributed to the French master Auguste Rodin to a small Ontario art gallery has collapsed, with the result that the gallery may be forced to close its doors as early as next month." The 510 bronze pieces, reportedly worth as much as CAN$135 million, were expected to be the linchpin of an ambitious art project which would have placed Canadian and international sculpture in and around the town of Barrie, Ontario, home of the MacLaren Art Centre. But questions cropped up about the proposed deal to bring the bronzes to Barrie, with some experts even questioning whether all 510 pieces exist. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 03/10/04
Posted: 03/10/2004 6:32 am
The End Of Photography? Not! So David Hockney has declared the end of photography. Oh really? asks Joel Sternfeld, winner of the Citigroup photography prize: "The Hockney argument is as simplistic as saying that any non-fiction book is truthful. You can never lose sight of the fact that it's authored. With a photograph, you are left with the same modes of interpretation as you are with a book. You ask: what do we know about the author and their background? What do I know about the subject?" The Guardian (UK) 03/10/04
Posted: 03/09/2004 9:51 pm
- Previously: Hockney: Photography Is Dead David Hockney says he believes that photography as an artform is dead. "Hockney says he believes modern photography is now so extensively and easily altered that it can no longer be seen to be true or factual. He also describes art photography as "dull". Even war photography, once seen as objectively "true", has now been cast in doubt by the ubiquitous use of digital cameras which produce images that can be easily enhanced or twisted." The Guardian (UK) 03/04/04
Long-Unseen Boticelli Goes On Display A long unseen Botticelli is among a collection of the master's work that goes on display in Florence this month. It's being called the largest show of the painter's work ever mounted. "The never previously displayed masterpiece is the last of four panels that make up one of Botticelli's most disturbing works - The Story of Nastagio degli Onesti." The Guardian (UK) 03/10/04
Posted: 03/09/2004 9:40 pm
Why UK Museums Want More Funding Some 2000 British museums say that funding of museums hasn't kept up with costs in recent years. Museums generate £3bn for the economy and employ 40,000 people. And members of the public make 100 million museum visits per year - more than the total crowds at all the UK's live sporting events put together." BBC 03/09/04
Posted: 03/09/2004 5:52 pm
- A Museum's Chance In Hell (For Funding, That Is) So what are UK museums' chances of getting a 25 percent increase in their funding from the government? "If the words "snowball", "chance" and "hell" were in the air, a week before budget day and a few months before a tough spending review, nobody uttered them." The Guardian (UK) 03/10/04
Posted: 03/09/2004 5:44 pm
Audition Horror Stories There may be no more stressful way to job hunt than to take an audition for a big-time orchestra. Flying around the country at your own expense for the chance to play the hardest excerpts in the orchestral repertoire for three minutes, before being summarily dismissed by a disembodied voice - it's not the most relaxing job interview environment. So you can imagine how Boston-based violist Karina Schmitz felt at her last two auditions: the first in Detroit, where airline mishaps got her to the hall after a night of unscheduled flights around the Midwest; and the second in Los Angeles, where the power on stage went out as she was playing her concerto. Boston Herald 03/10/04
Posted: 03/10/2004 7:07 am
BSO Reconsiders Price Hikes The Boston Symphony Orchestra has had a change of heart regarding its recent decision to hike the prices of some tickets at Symphony Hall by as much as 80%, after hearing from hundreds of angry subscribers. High ticket prices have become a way of life for major American orchestras, and the BSO's are some of the highest in the industry, but in the process of reassessing its pricing scale, the orchestra had decided that a batch of seats in the second balcony had been dramatically underpriced, and hiked the per-concert price from $57 to $83. After weeks of protest and the launching of a web site excoriating the price hikes, the BSO announced that it will offer subscribers some relief from the new prices. Boston Globe 03/10/04
Posted: 03/10/2004 6:51 am
PA Summer Venue Shuts Down "Seven months after it opened, the Mountain Laurel Center for the Performing Arts in the Poconos has run out of money and canceled its summer concert season featuring the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra." The PSO was notified of the decision in a letter dated February 26. The center may be able to reorganize and emerge as the high-profile summer venue it was intended to be, but at this point, all the big plans are on indefinite hold. Allentown Morning Call 03/10/04
Posted: 03/10/2004 6:43 am
- Good Idea, Lousy Execution The short, sad story of the Mountain Laurel Center is a lesson in the risks of overreaching in the service of a great idea, writes Dan Majors. The project was underfunded from the start, and last summer, construction was still ongoing when the Pittsburgh Symphony showed up for the gala opening concert. Now, with Mountain Laurel officials looking for a state bailout only seven months after that gala, one has to wonder why no one addressed the financial precariousness of the project earlier. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 03/10/04
Posted: 03/10/2004 6:42 am
Northwestern Kills Off Organ Program "Northwestern University on Monday officially ended the school's storied organ and church music degree programs, citing the lack of enrollment and need to focus music department resources elsewhere." But students in the program, who are protesting the decision, have some powerful allies - members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra who are on faculty at the university are speaking out against the cutbacks, and letters of support have come from CSO music director Daniel Barenboim and Chicago Lyric Opera director Andrew Davis. Northwestern's organ program has been a cornerstone of the school's music department since the 1890s. Chicago Tribune 03/10/04
Posted: 03/10/2004 5:57 am
Oregon Symphony To Appoint New Prez For mid-sized orchestras, finding and holding onto quality executives can be a difficult task. If an executive succeeds in creating a sustainable orchestra model at a top regional orchestra, s/he will likely be snapped up in short order by a more high-profile ensemble. Such was the case in Portland this past year, where Oregon Symphony president Tony Woodcock was snatched away by the Minnesota Orchestra, leaving Oregon scrambling to find a replacement who could match Woodcock's skills. Today, the symphony will announce William A. Ryberg, a tenor-turned-banker who has lately been running a small orchestra in Michigan, as its new president, and all involved will cross their fingers in the hope that they've found another quality administrator, and that this one might stay. The Oregonian (Portland) 03/10/04
Posted: 03/10/2004 5:43 am
Writing Music Anytime, Anywhere "Composers today, both professionals and amateurs, can write and produce music in home recording studios using versatile recording software and powerful computers. They can combine multiple tracks, mix in various instruments and even buy the rights to recordings by well-known artists to augment their music. The final product is digital music, and the sound is very, very close to studio quality." Miami Herald 03/09/04
Posted: 03/09/2004 8:10 pm
Tommasini: Wait Weight, Don't Tell Me Anthony Tommasini is "flabbergasted by the decision of the Royal Opera at Covent Garden in London to drop the soprano Deborah Voigt from a new production of Strauss's 'Ariadne auf Naxos' in June because she was deemed too heavy for a slinky black dress that is central to the director's concept of the role. The company's move is so appalling that you have to wonder whether there is more to the story." The New York Times 03/10/04
Posted: 03/09/2004 8:02 pm
Guilty Or Not, It's A Damned Creepy Way To Make A Living "A German scientist who created an exhibition of human corpses has been cleared of allegations that he illegally obtained some of the bodies. Gunther von Hagens was accused in several press reports last year of using bodies from China and Kyrgyzstan. But prosecutors in Heidelberg, Germany, said the corpses had been sold legally by institutions such as hospitals... Dr von Hagens was allowed to buy the corpses from such institutions because they were legal custodians of the bodies if the relatives of the dead had not claimed them." BBC 03/10/04
Posted: 03/10/2004 5:36 am
Could Canadian Artists Be Charged With Child Porn? "Under a proposed change to Canada's child pornography law, depictions like that of children in sexual situations could be criminalized, say artists and writers. The proposed change removes 'artistic merit' as a defence for any written or visual material charged under child porn laws. If Bill C-12 is adopted, any film, painting or book depicting sexual activity involving people under 18 can only escape prosecution if a judge rules it serves 'the public good and does not extend beyond the public good'." Toronto Star 03/09/04
Posted: 03/09/2004 7:13 pm
Huntington On The Attack (Wow!) Samuel Huntington has sparked a firestorm of controversy. "Writing in the March-April issue of Foreign Policy magazine, Huntington - the noted author, scholar and chairman of Harvard University's Academy for International and Area Studies - has identified a 'major potential threat' to this great nation's 'cultural and political integrity.' The threat is: Mexicans. Other Hispanics, too, but mostly Mexicans." Washington Post 03/09/04
Posted: 03/09/2004 6:58 pm
Call It The Christian Counterculture "Rather than rejecting popular culture outright, a growing number of Christians are producing and consuming their own popular media on the fringes of the mainstream entertainment industry. Still others are gathering in church basements and living rooms to promote their own brand of media literacy—seeing commercial culture as a “window” into the culture of unbelievers. What we see here is consistent with what media scholars have found within other subcultural communities—a desire to make and distribute your own media and the desire to challenge and critique mainstream media." Technology Review 03/05/04
Posted: 03/09/2004 6:40 pm
Berlin's Future - In Start-Up Creatives? The city of Berlin thought companies would flow into the city to invest after the city was unified. It hasn't happened, and Berlin is broke. Now, small creative enterprises are springing up in vacant buildings across the old East Berlin, "many of them former squatter colonies gone legit. Their stock in trade is art, music, publishing, software. 'You can see them as seedbeds. These developments everywhere in these derelict places are perhaps the best hope the city has for better times'." Washington Post 03/09/04
Posted: 03/09/2004 4:18 pm
LA Considers Eliminating Culture Department The city of Los Angeles is facing a budget crisis. So officials are considering "eliminating Los Angeles' Cultural Affairs and Environmental Affairs departments. The Cultural Affairs Department grants about $3 million each year to the arts, offers neighborhood classes for adults and children, oversees a city-owned gallery and theaters, and is in charge of the landmark Watts Towers." Los Angeles Times 03/09/04
Posted: 03/09/2004 4:15 pm
The Musician Who Incited A Civil War (Maybe) Rwandan musician Simon Bikindi has been arraigned before a UN tribunal in Tanzania, charged with inciting genocide in his native country through the lyrics of his music. Prosecutors claim that Bikindi's music was designed explicitly to promote solidarity among the Hutu of Rwanda, and to stir up ethnic hatred against the minority Tutsi. Bikindi has pleaded not guilty to all charges. BBC 03/10/04
Posted: 03/10/2004 5:26 am
Gray: My Wrecked Life Spalding Gray had been depressed for some time before he disappeared a few months ago: "It's another rocky time. I'm still limping from the car accident. My skull was fractured in the car accident, my hip was broken and my sciatic nerve was almost severed. The hospital they sent me to was not very good. There was no medicine they could find that was very helpful. It's depressing. I can't swim. I'm not cross-country skiing. I'm not hiking the way I used to. It's ragged time. I'm just not whole." Denver Post 03/09/04
Posted: 03/09/2004 5:09 pm
- Gray - It Was All About Me Spalding Gray was an artist all about self-absorbtion. "He called himself a poetic journalist, and the rhyme scheme went something like: Me-Me-Me-Me-Me." Washington Post 03/09/04
Posted: 03/09/2004 4:44 pm
Documenting The Cardinal On Stage A new play in Chicago turns Boston Cardinal Bernard Law's testimony about the priest sexual abuse case into drama. "Part of the power of 'Sin' comes from its being strictly documentary. Michael Murphy, a playwright who lives in California, distilled it from the 11,000 pages of Cardinal Law's depositions and from hundreds of newspaper articles. He took some dramatic liberties, like condensing the dozen lawyers who questioned Cardinal Law into just two, but did not add any dialogue." The New York Times 03/10/04
Posted: 03/09/2004 8:06 pm
Rushdie To Lead PEN Salman Rushdie has been named the new president of PEN, the international writers organization. "Rushdie, who was officially named on Monday to serve a two-year term, succeeds Joe Conarroe, a former president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the former head of the Modern Language Association." Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AP) 03/09/04
Posted: 03/09/2004 9:59 pm
Are You There, Walt? It's Me, Judy. In a clear effort to show that it is serious about recapturing the imagination of the youth market, Disney has bought the rights to several of author Judy Blume's novels for young adults, and plans to turn out a series of films based on them. The move comes less than two weeks after Disney announced that it had bought the rights to C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia series. BBC 03/10/04
Posted: 03/10/2004 5:30 am
Acting Out - Movieoke And now... we give you the Next Big Thing - movieoke: "The concept almost explains itself: instead of making a fool of yourself singing in front of strangers, you do it by acting in front of a movie screen with the sound turned low." The New York Times 03/10/04
Posted: 03/09/2004 7:37 pm
PBS Demands Payment From Seattle Station PBS has told Seattle affiliate KCTS it wants immediate payment of $3.8 million in back dues, part of $5.2 million the station owes for 2000, 2001 and 2003. "KCTS has until sometime next month to come up with a plan for repayment. Should Channel 9 be unable to do so, PBS could begin sanctions to force KCTS to become a "pass through" station, taking a direct feed through satellite and forgoing local content. Worse, KCTS could lose its affiliation." Seattle Post-Intelligencer 03/09/04
Posted: 03/09/2004 5:27 pm
The NY Dance Biz - Big Dance is big business in New York City. "A first-ever study of dance's economic impact on New York City shows a quarter of a billion dollars in direct activity and over $400 million total in 2002-2003. The report also states that over a million paying patrons attended NYC dance performances in 2002." Backstage 03/09/04
Posted: 03/09/2004 8:12 pm
