Diversify This! Cultural diversity in the UK is mainstream policy for arts organizations. "The pursuit of aesthetic or historical understanding, of attempting to distinguish good paintings from bad or correct interpretations from false ones, is deemed impossible. Instead, all cultural institutions can do is to revel in 'diversity', by promoting different kinds of art and competing judgements. Today's cultural policy rejects the ways of the traditional cultural elite, and presents itself as far more enlightened. However, if we examine the legacy that cultural diversity policy has rejected, we find that some valuable principles have been lost by the wayside." spiked-online 04/07/04
Posted: 04/09/2004 6:43 am
- Sorting Out The "Multi" In Multi-Culti The latest attacks on multiculturalism in Britain have been coming from the left. "An elite that is unwilling to make judgements about why any one cultural practice is better than another, to set universal standards about what role individuals should be expected to play across society, and to promote a distinct set of values that a society should agree upon, finds a useful tool in multiculturalism. This is why it has been so well-suited to Western societies in the past few decades, increasingly disorientated by the erosion of cultural and political certainties. Clearly, the official promotion of multicultural policy has not provided any solution to this disorientation - indeed, by actively encouraging expressions of difference and divisions between communities, it may well have fuelled the process of fragmentation." spiked-online 04/09/04
Posted: 04/09/2004 6:37 am
Picasso To Go "In Germany, you don't have to shell out thousands of dollars to live with an original Andy Warhol. As you would a book from the library, you can check out original art from one of 140 publicly funded "art libraries," or artotheken. Born in the 1960s to increase Germans' contact with art, "art libraries" are now an established tool of municipal cultural policy, and one which, for many, act as a door opener." Christian Science Monitor 04/09/04
Posted: 04/09/2004 6:32 am
Iraq Art Treasures Deteriorating In Storage Some of Iraq's most valuable antiquities are deteriorating in storage. "The exquisitely carved Nimrud Ivories have been suffering from dampness, following flooding by sewage-contaminated water last April, during the fighting. It is now clear that this has already caused some fragmentation and mould." The Art Newspaper 04/09/04
Posted: 04/08/2004 10:43 pm
The Educated Museum - Cause For Concern? In recent years museums have become more and more involved with arts education. "To all those of us who value museums and education this may seem like a good thing. But on closer examination there is cause for concern. There are problems with spelling out and dictating a relationship between museums and education. There should be no school ties." The Spectator 04/08/04
Posted: 04/08/2004 10:19 pm
Greek Court Gives Go Ahead To Acropolis Museum Construction Greece's highest court has ruled that work can proceed on a museum at the Acropolis. "Court sources said the Council of State dismissed arguments that construction work would damage ancient building remains found on the plot earmarked for the 94-million-euro museum." Kathimerini (Greece) 04/06/04
Posted: 04/08/2004 4:34 pm
Christo And Jeanne-Claude In Central Park Next February, Central Park will be home to a Christo and Jeanne-Claude. "After two and a half decades of refining the work and banging on official doors for a hearing, they are about — thanks to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's approval — to achieve their goal, with a project called "The Gates." It is logistically one of the team's most complicated to date, and certainly, at 25 years, the longest in gestation." The New York Times 04/09/04
Posted: 04/08/2004 4:25 pm
- How Do You Judge A Christo? How do you judge Christo and Jean-Claude's project to build gates in Central Park? Is it "possible for the project, once completed, to fail aesthetically. Is there a wrong way to arrange 7,500 gates in Central Park? If not, then in what sense is its realization an artistic success? Proposition: If difference in a work of art does not affect its value as art, then maybe it isn't art to begin with. If Beethoven had written di-di-di-deem rather than di-di-di-dum, the result would have been not merely different but discernibly worse. If Shakespeare had written "Should I or shouldn't I" rather than "To be or not to be," the result would have been not merely different but worse. And if Raphael had painted Plato and Aristotle out of proportion with the rest of the figures in The School of Athens, or if he'd painted Aristotle gesturing up and Plato gesturing down, rather than vice-versa, the result would have been not merely different but worse." National Review 04/07/04
Posted: 04/08/2004 4:18 pm
Natural History Staff Charges "Culture Of Fear" At Museum Staff at London's Natural History Museum are charging that a "culture of fear" has taken over the museum. "Twenty-five keepers, professors and managers have written to museum trustees reporting a 'breakdown of trust at all levels' caused by the suspension and reinstatement of three maintenance staff. They were suspended in December, six months after an internal audit was unable to account for £1.8 million alleged to have disappeared from the museum's budget." London Evening Standard 04/07/04
Posted: 04/08/2004 2:26 pm
Scottish Opera - Doin' The Limbo "Scottish Opera is in limbo, struggling on an already meagre budget and warned that it must pay back a £4 million advance and will receive nothing above its current annual £7.5 million. The most imaginative company in the world cannot survive on nothing, so it seems certain that unless it is thrown a lifeline quickly, Scottish Opera will sink." The Scotsman 04/08/04
Posted: 04/08/2004 10:38 pm
Ode To The Studio Musician "Most of the music you will ever hear will be played by people you will never see and whose names you will neither know nor think to ask. It will be recorded in windowless rooms, witnessed sometimes only by an engineer or producer, the now-ancient technology of the overdub making the presence even of other musicians unnecessary. For every superstar singer or guitar heroine whose name adorns a T-shirt or tattoo, there are hundreds whose work is done anonymously, or as good as. Who play their part, collect their pay and go home." LA Weekly 04/08/04
Posted: 04/08/2004 10:32 pm
Wringing More Profits Out Of Downloads "Unburdened by manufacturing and distribution costs, online music was supposed to usher in a new era of inexpensive, easy-to-access music for consumers. In many cases, buying music online is still cheaper than shopping for CDs at retail outlets. But just a year after iTunes debuted with its 99-cent songs and mostly $9.99 albums, that affordable and straightforward pricing structure is already under pressure. All five major music companies are discussing ways to boost the price of single-song downloads on hot releases -- to anywhere from $1.25 to as much as $2.49." Wired 04/08/04
Posted: 04/08/2004 8:37 pm
Gioia Presents NEA Budget To Congress National Endowment for the Arts chairman Dana Gioia presented the Bush administration's request for a 15 percent budget increase to Congress. "The need for national arts leadership has never been more critical. There is presently a national crisis in state, local, and private arts funding across the United States. Budget cutbacks are nearly universal, and the majority of institutions in most arts fields are currently operating at a deficit with numerous bankruptcies, even among established organizations. Our appropriations -- 40% of which are directly allocated to state arts agencies and regional organizations -- provide much needed stability in this challenging environment." Backstage 04/09/04
Posted: 04/09/2004 7:29 am
Bruni Gets NYT Restaurant Critic Job Frank Bruni has been named the New York Times new restaurant critic. "Mr. Bruni, 39, joined The Times in 1995 as a reporter for The Metro Section before becoming a national correspondent, first in San Francisco and then in Washington. He covered the presidential campaign of George W. Bush and the first eight months of the Bush administration, and went to the Rome bureau in 2002." The New York Times 04/09/04
Posted: 04/09/2004 6:17 am
- Crying About The NYT's Interim Restaurant Critics The position of restaurant critic, is one fraught with danger. Since William Grimes left the job at the New York Times, the paper has used interim critics, but the restaurant industry is angry at the results. "Mr. Grimes wasn’t exactly beloved by the city’s restaurant industry—many considered him sensationalist, too transfixed by his fine-tuned prose to appreciate or even understand the joys of the table—but now his controversial tenure seems like the good old days." New York Observer 04/06/04
Posted: 04/08/2004 8:51 pm
"Wife" - In For A Pulitzer Bounce? Doug Wright's "I Am My Own Wife" won the Pulitzer for drama last week, and the question is how much the award will have an impact on its commercial prospects. "In the last decade only two plays have won the Pulitzer while running on Broadway, and both eventually made back their investments. But this evidence is by no means conclusive. The 2002 winner, "Topdog/Underdog," opened the same week it won the award, so it is difficult to discern the effect the prize had on sales. And in 2001 "Proof" received only a slight bump." The New York Times 04/09/04
Posted: 04/09/2004 8:11 am
Mamet: The Lowly, Slimy Producer David Mamet doesn't have a high opinion of producers: "They watch while the lowly make bricks and suggest, at regular intervals, that the brick-makers begin to gather their own straw. And they propound heresy. They sell all parts of the pig but the squeal. And then they sell the squeal." The Guardian (UK) 04/09/04
Posted: 04/08/2004 9:33 pm
London's Two New Theatres London is getting two new theatres (in one). "The old Whitehall Theatre near Trafalgar Square will house a 100-seat and a 400-seat space to create the Trafalgar Studios. The theatre first opened in 1930 and is owned by the Ambassador Theatre Group." The smaller spaces are intended to attract younger audiences, and the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Young Vic have signed up to produce there. BBC 04/07/04
Posted: 04/08/2004 4:22 pm
China To Privitize Publishers China has more than 500 state-owned publishing houses. As part of the country's economic reforms, many of those publishers will be cut loose to operate as private businesses, which should revolutionize publishing in the world's most-populated country. Interfax 04/09/04
Posted: 04/09/2004 7:37 am
Judge Says There's Evidence Clear Channel "Abused Its Clout" "A federal judge in Denver has ruled that there is evidence that Clear Channel, the nation's biggest radio broadcaster and concert promoter, abused its clout by threatening to keep artists off the air unless they performed at its shows." Los Angeles Times 04/09/04
Posted: 04/09/2004 8:01 am
Surprise: "Passion" Breaking Box Office Records In Middle East "Mel Gibson's controversial movie "The Passion of the Christ," is breaking box office records across the Middle East. With the approach of Easter, Arab Christians identify primarily with the religious message. But it's the film's popularity among Muslims - even though it flouts Islamic taboos - that's turning it into a phenomenon." Christian Science Monitor 04/09/04
Posted: 04/09/2004 6:27 am
The DVD Player That Skips The Naughty Parts Afraid of having your sensibilities offended by something you might see on TV? "Wal-Mart, America's mightiest retailer, is preparing to ship a $79 DVD player that automatically strips out potentially offensive content." BBC 04/07/04
Posted: 04/08/2004 4:27 pm
Clear Channel Drops Stern After FCC Threats Clear Channel has permanently dropped the Howard Stern show after being threatened with $475,000 in fines for indecency. "Mr. Stern's show has created a great liability for us and other broadcasters who air it. The Congress and the FCC are even beginning to look at revoking station licenses. That's a risk we're just not willing to take." Los Angeles Times (AP) 04/07/04
Posted: 04/08/2004 2:19 pm
