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Wednesday, June 30




Ideas

In Praise Of "Difficult" Art "Life in the cultural universe of the difficult tribe could be bleak - yet perhaps this is a time to revive those debates, for the silencing of such severe examinations of value has occurred in step with the closing down of cultural spaces wherein complexity or difficulty might thrive. The enemy of complexity has always been the commodity - the work of art reduced to mere gratification." The Guardian (UK) 06/30/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 3:15 am

Visual Arts

Bellevue Art Museum Gets A New Leader For Comeback Plan The Seattle-area Bellevue Art Museum, which suddenly closed last year, has gone out and found itself some serious new leadership to help it reopen. "Michael Monroe, the former curator-in-charge at the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery, which specializes in craft such as ceramics, textiles and glass work, will become chief curator and executive director." Seattle Times 06/30/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 12:18 pm

Why Does Canada Have So Little Regard For Important Architecture? Lisa Rochon decries the treatment of architect Arthur Erickson's buildings in Canada. He "is the éminence grise of modernism in this country. He led a postwar movement of design that extends landscape through architecture, something Canada's new generation of award-winning practitioners have absorbed into their own thinking. It's easy to blame lack of money. Or zoning. Running through all of these moronic moves is a lack of will to safeguard our national treasures." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/30/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 11:11 am

Tumult Over 10-Story Jersey Teardrop "Chances are there would have been some degree of opposition sooner or later had anyone suggested building a 10-story, 175-ton nickel-surfaced teardrop suspended within a bronze-clad tower on a pier across the water from the World Trade Center site as a 9/11 memorial. But when the artist turns out to be Zurab Tsereteli, a Russian sculptor whose works — like a 300-foot statue of Columbus or a 165-foot Peter the Great — are so controversial that opponents once threatened to wire Peter with explosives and blow him up, another level of tumult is pretty much guaranteed." The New York Times 06/30/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 3:51 am

Has New York Museum Passed Its Expiration Date? With the attentions of the city focused elsewhere for tales of its history, the Museum of the City of New York is at risk of becoming a footnote among cultural institutions interpreting the city's heritage... The New York Times 06/30/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 3:27 am

Remaking London's Skyline London is "looking quite literally for a new profile, one with shapely skyscrapers designed by big-name architects proclaiming the city's determination to be known as an innovative 21st-century metropolis. By 2010, not just the majestic dome of St. Paul's Cathedral but also a new forest of glass and steel will symbolize the ancient heart of London. After centuries of sprawling growth, the city is finally reaching for the sky." The New York Times 06/30/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 3:22 am

Hughes: Closing The Chapter On 80s Art Twenty-five years after Robert Hughes' wrote "The Shock of the New", he goes back to update. But how? "Most of the 1980s artists over whom such a fuss was made have turned out to be merely rhetorical, or inept, or otherwise fallen by the wayside. Is there anyone who really cares much what Julian Schnabel or David Salle, for instance, are now doing? Do the recent paintings of Sandro Chia or Georg Baselitz excite interest? Maybe in your breast, but not in mine." The Guardian (UK) 06/30/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 2:58 am

Vandal Breaking Venetian Art Venice authorities are puzzled over the cause of damage inflicted on religious statues all over the city. "Witnesses reported seeing a man with a hammer climb a decorated column at the Doge's Palace in the Piazza San Marco and smash the hands of a statue. Similar damage has recently been found on religious statues at other historic buildings around the city. Mayor Paolo Costa said the attacks were the work of an isolated lunatic." BBC 06/30/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 2:19 am

Pakistan's First E-Museum Museum attendance in Pakistan is very low. So the owner of a museum in Lahore wants to create an e-museum to display artwork. " 'I would like to make our collections accessible to as many people as possible and the e-museum seems like a great way to do this.' The family also hopes subscriptions to the e-museum will provide much-needed revenue." BBC 06/29/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 1:21 am

Police Hunt Dali Fakes An exhibition marking 100 years since Salvador Dali's birth has been closed by police in Helsinki, who seized works amid suspicions they were forged BBC 06/29/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 1:15 am

Music

Grand Estonian Grand Ten years ago, the Estonian Piano Factory was in such disrepair it almost went out of business. But after a young entrepreneur bought the company and revamped the instruments' design, the company turned around. "Today, 90 percent of the approximately 500 Estonias handmade each year end up at U.S. dealerships. Estonias account for a fraction of U.S. sales, which were 40,000 grands and baby grands, and 57,000 smaller upright pianos in 2003." Rocky Mountain News 06/30/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 12:09 pm

Does Clear Channel Really Own The Concert Instant-Recording Idea? One of the most promising innovations in the music industry is the ability to record and sell recordings of live concerts within minutes of their conclusion. "On Monday, Clear Channel announced that this summer, it will offer some 100 live recordings of various artists who will be taped throughout the country." But beware, independent artists who want to offer the service: "Clear Channel bought the patent for the live-recording technology from its inventors, and the company now claims it owns exclusive rights to the concept of selling concert CDs after shows." Chicago Sun-Times 06/30/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 10:45 am

Royal Opera House Rejiggers Cheap Ticket Plan When London's Royal Opera House launched a plan to sell 100 of the best seats for £10 each every Monday - "there was rejoicing all round. Until people looked at the small print: only one seat per customer would be available, 90 minutes before a performance. There was an outcry." So now a plan to rejigger the deal for next season... The Guardian (UK) 06/30/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 2:46 am

Mozart Opera Provokes Outrage In Berlin The premiere of a production of Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio (Entfuehrung aus dem Serail) at the Komische Oper in Berlin has been greeted with outrage from audiences and critics. The production's director says that "moving the Berlin opera's action to a modern-day brothel would highlight abuses in the sex trade." BBC 06/29/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 1:16 am

Arts Issues

NYC Increases Culture Budget Earlier this year, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed cutting the city's culture budget. But this week the mayor and city coucil actually increased the budget by almost 4 percent, from last year's $118.8 million to $123.3 million. The new budget takes effect July 1. Backstage 06/30/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 10:56 am

People

The "Girl Group" Of Classical Music The Girl-group string quartet Bond has a new album out. "They think it's funny to have to explain that they are virtuosos rather than vamps, a preconception that has plagued the comely classical crossover group since their debut "Born" sold more than 2 million copies in 2001." New York Daily News 06/30/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 11:49 am

US Charges Kurtz With Fraud (At Least It's Not "Bioterrorism") Retreating from its original investigations of artist Steve Kurtz for "bioterrorism", the US Attorney has charged the artist with mail fraud. "The charges do not relate to bioterrorism," U.S. Attorney Michael Battle said. "Very simply, this is a case about fraud." Wired 06/29/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 2:26 am

  • US Retreats From Kurtz BioTerror Charges Artist Steve Kurtz, who has been investigated by the FBI for bioterrorism was finally charged Thursday by a federal grand jury in Buffalo, New York-- but "not with bioterrorism, as listed on the Joint Terrorism Task Force's original search warrant and subpoenas, but with petty larceny. Also indicted was Robert Ferrell, head of the Department of Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh's School of Public Health. The charges concern technicalities of how Ferrell helped Kurtz to obtain $256 worth of harmless bacteria for one of Kurtz's art projects. The laws under which the indictments were obtained covering mail and wire fraud--are normally used against those defrauding others of money or property, as in telemarketing schemes." CAE Defense Fund Press Release 06/29/04
    Posted: 06/30/2004 2:12 am

Theatre

Philly Stage - It's A Hit! Philadelphia theatres had a good year. "At a time when much of the nonprofits arts community is hurting for support, most producing theaters in the area took the decent business of the season before and, if they didn't build on it, were at least able to match it." Philadelphia Inquirer 06/30/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 11:55 am

Media

Howard Stern - Higher Ratings = More Stations Howard Stern, who has been heavily fined for indecency on air, and was dropped by Clear Channel from four markets earlier this year, is adding nine new markets, including four where his show was taken off the air over indecency concerns. Stern has been a target of an FCC crackdown on content on American radio, bhut since the controversy began his ratings across the country have gonee up. Ne wYork Daily News (AP) 06/30/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 11:02 am

Dance

Saratoga Raising Funds To Keep City Ballet The Saratoga (New York) Performing Arts Center has raised two-thirds of the $600,000 it needs to keep New York City Ballet in residence next summer. "In February, SPAC's board decided to drop the ballet's summer residency, saying it was costing SPAC nearly $1 million per year. That decision was later reversed following a firestorm of public opposition." The Saratogian 06/30/04
Posted: 06/30/2004 3:44 am


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