Check Out Stories From AJ's Weekend Edition Museums are facing an identity crisis (this is their most precarious moment in many years)...Why can't a set of $50 million Strad instruments travel to Canada?...The New York Phil cancels a European tour... Complaints that a garden-show host will emcee this year's BBC Proms coverage...Cleveland Play House is rising from the ashes...The Walkman is 25 years old this year... All these and more in the AJ's weekend edition. ArtsJournal 07/10-11/04
Posted: 07/12/2004 8:15 am
Exhibiting For All The Marbles Unsuccessful at convincing the British Museum to return the Parthenon Marbles, the Greek government is staging an exhibition at the Parthenon to run while the Olympics are in Athens in August. "The intention of the exhibit will be to show the world our case, that we would like to unite the pieces of the frieze and the statues. Now we think the Olympics will be a chance to get the world interested, to put the pressure on the British to finally return these important pieces of our heritage." Boston Globe 07/12/04
Posted: 07/12/2004 7:34 am
Checking Out The Monets-To-Vegas Deal A Association of American Museum Directors is examining the deal that sent 21 of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts' Monets to a Las Vegas casino last winter. "The AAMD is concerned that commercial initiatives such as this could jeopardise the not-for-profit status of museums in the US and the directors’ organisation is now moving towards self-reform before tax-hungry legislators target museums and end their tax-exempt status. The AAMD guidelines stipulate that 'In any decision about a proposed loan from the collection, the intellectual merit and educational benefits, as well as the protection of the work of art, must be the primary considerations, rather than possible financial gain'.” The Art Newspaper 07/09/04
Posted: 07/12/2004 7:20 am
Barnes-Lovers Gear Up For Battle In September a judge will hear further arguments about whether the Barnes Collection ought to be allowed to move to downtown Philadelphia. "On the face of it, opponents of the move appear overmatched by the trustees, the deep-pocketed foundations subsidizing the plan, the Philadelphia tourist industry, and many cultural leaders. But they have begun to mobilize for what might be the Barnes loyalists' last chance to keep the foundation's collection in Merion and its school intact. The mobilization has taken two forms, fund-raising and public relations." Philadelphia Inquirer 07/11/04
Posted: 07/11/2004 7:34 pm
Today's Architects - Flashy Design Over Structural Soundness? What's wrong with architects these days? There have been a number of high-profile design failures - leaking rooks, structural malfunctions.... "These setbacks and controversies have allowed sober-minded skeptics to accuse the profession of abandoning its original purpose — holding up a roof and keeping out the weather — in favor of reckless and phantasmagorical aesthetic effects, best exemplified by the wavy titanium surfaces of Frank Gehry's Bilbao Guggenheim or the angled walls of Mr. Koolhaas's new Central Library in Seattle." The New York Times 07/10/04
Posted: 07/11/2004 6:23 pm
Gavelling Vermeer It's not every day that a Vermeer is auctioned. Indeed, the last time one came on the market was 80 years ago. So the auction itself was an extraordinary event... National Public Radio [audio link] 07/10/04
Posted: 07/11/2004 6:03 pm
MacGregor: National Opera Company Is Important Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, has criticized the Scottish government for its treatment of Scottish Opera. " 'If a European country of the size of Scotland cannot support a musical life that encompasses an opera company, that is very serious. It would be 'unimaginable' for comparable countries such as Denmark not to have major orchestras, opera houses, ballet companies, as a central part of their national existence.' Mr MacGregor said the fate of the opera company was not simply a matter of funding, but had elements of a Scottish Calvinist tradition in which music was not seen to be as important as literature." The Scotsman 07/12/04
Posted: 07/12/2004 8:05 am
Rushing To Complete La Scala La Scala opera house is scheduled to reopen December 7. But the construction is still a long way from being finished. "La Scala's $67 million renovation added precious storage space for sets which will allow the opera house to mount more productions and performances to meet growing demand for seats." Backstage 07/09/04
Posted: 07/12/2004 7:27 am
US Music Dominates UK For the first time, last year American music has outsold UK music in the UK."American artists sold 45.4% of albums compared with the UK's 42.3%, the British Phonographic Industry said. The BPI said the figures could be explained by huge-selling albums by US singers Justin Timberlake and Norah Jones - against scant UK competition." BBC 07/12/04
Posted: 07/12/2004 7:15 am
Dump The MP3 Is it time to dump the MP3 format for music? "In order to keep file sizes down MP3 encoding loses a lot of data, a lot more than modern formats, and this shows in the quality of the listening experience. The way it compresses files and plays them back means that the music too often sounds awful on anything but tinny laptop speakers or cheap earphones. We cannot let some sort of techno-nostalgia get in the way here. There is no reason to defend MP3, no reason why everyone who currently listens to MP3s stored on their hard drive should not move to something significantly better." BBC 07/12/04
Posted: 07/12/2004 7:12 am
The Incredible Shrinking Band Band breakups are often spectacularly dirty. But "the music world — full of notoriously volatile and dysfunctional types who have long preferred to rock it out, not talk it out — has become more receptive to therapists and their ministrations. Though the notion of seeking help remains one of rock's dirty little secrets, some of these therapists have become a regular part of band retinues." The New York Times 07/11/04
Posted: 07/11/2004 7:06 pm
Morris: Musicians Have Lousy Rhythm! Mark Morris is known as a particularly musical choreographer. And he has some Particularly strong opinions about musicians. At Tanglewood this summer he has musicians up dancing. "This experience makes musicians better. Way better! The thing is, I'm the enemy of the conservatory, because it kills music. Nobody gives a damn about intonation. It's not about that. Imagination has been wrung out of these people, and it's tragic. Really, musicians have lousy rhythm." The New York Times 07/11/04
Posted: 07/11/2004 6:40 pm
Pearl Now World's Biggest Piano-Maker The Pearl River Piano Company based in the southern Chinese metropolis of Guangzhou, is now the world's largest piano maker. At the company's spotless factory, 280 pianos a day roll off the production line like cars in an auto plant. "China's one-child policy has created a culture where parents invest heavily in their children's education – a boon for piano makers like Pearl River." The Star (Malaysia) 07/10/04
Posted: 07/11/2004 6:09 pm
Underwater Symphony "A symphony conductor donned scuba gear and used a red snorkel for a baton to lead a group of underwater 'musicians' wearing tuxedos and sequins Saturday in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. The scene was part of the yearly Underwater Music Festival that attracted more than 400 divers and snorkelers to Looe Key Reef, about 6 miles south of Big Pine Key." Miami Herald (AP) 07/10/04
Posted: 07/11/2004 6:07 pm
How About An Arts Minister Who At Least Knows The Arts? Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin is expected to name a new minister overseeing culture this week. His last appointment to the Heritage Ministry job had no background in the arts. "The hope is that this time around, Martin will, in the words of the Canadian Conference of the Arts, 'appoint a minister . . . with knowledge of, and experience in the arts and cultural sector'." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 07/12/04
Posted: 07/12/2004 7:51 am
Actors Contract Talks Break Down Negotiations between Broadway producers and the actors union Equity broke down over the weekend. "No new negotiations are scheduled but Broadway and touring shows were not disrupted because the guild has kept its members working throughout the past few weeks of tense negotiations." Backstage 07/12/04
Posted: 07/12/2004 7:30 am
Touring Theatre Moves On... The days of the sell-em-out touring mega-musicals is over and the business of touring theatre has changed substantially. Eight years ago Equity actors logged 44,000 tour-weeks of work. By last season it was 21,000. More shows are hiring non-union actors, and more venues are vying for the shows that are out there. It all makes current negotiations on a new union actors contract a dicey affair... Washington Post 07/10/04
Posted: 07/11/2004 7:23 pm
Cheap Online Books Worry Publishers "Publishers, particularly textbook publishers, have long countered used-book sales by churning out new editions every couple of years. But the Web, particularly sites like Amazon and eBay, have given millions of consumers an easy way to find cheap books - often for under $1 - without paying royalty fees to publishers or authors. Mass-market publishers are not certain the used-book phenomenon is a problem worth addressing, but others in the industry have already made up their minds." The New York Times 07/12/04
Posted: 07/12/2004 8:00 am
Got The Picture? "The number of illustrated books for older children and adults seems mysteriously to have dwindled in recent years. Publishers argue, very reasonably, that it makes books more expensive. Readers of fantasy fiction have their imagery packaged for them in the all-powerful special effects of the big screen. But there are signs now that the illustrated novel, which aims to elicit a more leisurely, intimate response, is due for a comeback." The Guardian (UK) 07/11/04
Posted: 07/11/2004 8:03 pm
Readers = Involved Active Citizens (And Non-Readers?...) This week's survey by the National Endowment for the Arts "indicates that people who read for pleasure are many times more likely than those who don't to visit museums and attend musical performances, almost three times as likely to perform volunteer and charity work, and almost twice as likely to attend sporting events. Readers, in other words, are active, while nonreaders — more than half the population — have settled into apathy. There is a basic social divide between those for whom life is an accrual of fresh experience and knowledge, and those for whom maturity is a process of mental atrophy. The shift toward the latter category is frightening." The New York Times 07/10/04
Posted: 07/11/2004 5:53 pm
Left, Right & Center - The PBS Political Slant? Is PBS slanting right because it gave conservative Tucker Carlson his own show? "If the debate, then, is whether PBS is allowed to have a conservative on the air, well, that's the kind of ridiculousness that paints liberals into a corner and makes PBS look bad in the process, as if it knew it was biased all along." San Francisco Chronicle 07/12/04
Posted: 07/12/2004 8:11 am
Ingmar Bergman In The 21st Century Filmmaker Ingmar Bergman doesn't have the cachet he once had. "It is perhaps frivolous to speak of a great artist 'falling from fashion.' But many of the values that are so highly prized in artworks of the early 21st century -- irony, multiculturalism, a certain breeziness of affect -- are quite different from those that Bergman offers. He is an unapologetically "high culture" European modernist, from a very specific time and place, one deeply influenced by the Lutheran faith (which he abandoned but not without a struggle), by psychoanalysis and existentialism, and by the dreamlike chamber plays of his great countryman August Strindberg. To this heritage, he has added his own filmic innovations, his own anxieties and obsessions, and a matchless linear intensity." Washington Post 07/11/04
Posted: 07/11/2004 7:30 pm
Who Will Run CBC TV? The CBC is looking for a new executive to run its English-language TV netork. The "job isn't quite the plum it was even 10 years ago. The television universe is more crowded, competitive and confused than ever. Even with the continued popularity of Hockey Night in Canada, the CBC, like most traditional broadcasters, has lost audience share to the sundry cable and satellite-delivered services out there. Then, of course, there's the constant insecurity over just how much the CBC can expect each year from its parliamentary appropriation." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 07/10/04
Posted: 07/11/2004 7:13 pm
No Mystery Here - Uncompromising Filmmakers Make Hits AO Scott ponders the phenomena of Passion of the Christ and Fahrenheit 9/11's success at the box office. "It was clear long before anyone had seen a frame of either "Passion" or "Fahrenheit" that what audiences would witness was the uncompromised, unfiltered vision of a strong-willed, stubborn and bloody-minded director. Is it too idealistic of me to think that this freedom from compromise is part of what attracted audiences? Perhaps more than ever before, the movie studios are ruled by timidity, anxiously tailoring their releases to avoid giving offense. Yes, they sometimes engage in the mock-provocations of sex and brutality, but these tepid buttons are pushed much less forcefully than they were 30 years ago. For the most part, movies, intent on maintaining an illusion of consensus, tread cautiously around the thornier thickets of our civic life." The New York Times 07/11/04
Posted: 07/11/2004 6:56 pm
PBS On The Rocks? About a third of PBS' corporate underwriting has disappeared in the past three years, including 'the considerable loss of ExxonMobil's sponsorship of Masterpiece Theatre, which has yet to be replaced." So is the public broadcaster a sinking ship? San Bernardino Sun (Cal) 07/09/04
Posted: 07/11/2004 6:18 pm
What's Happened To The Joffrey? The Joffrey Ballet returned to New York last week to participate in the Ashton celebration. "In the old days," writes Tobi Tobias, "even when you weren’t feeling much admiration for it, you often still felt affection for the engaging personalities of its dancers and the troupe’s overall feisty spirit. My own happy acquaintance with several Ashton ballets comes solely from their Joffrey Ballet productions. Looking at Les Patineurs, A Wedding Bouquet, and Monotones I and II this past week I could only wonder, What happened? Not one of the stagings was as good as it should be—and had been." Seeing Things (AJBlogs) 07/11/04
Posted: 07/11/2004 8:05 pm
City Ballet Struggles With Saratoga Residency New York City Ballet used to draw 80,000-90,000 people in its Saratoga summer residencies. Now it's more like 55,000. Both City Ballet and Saratoga want to keep the company performing in the upstate New York town, but they differ how to boost attendance... Troy Record (NY State) 07/09/04
Posted: 07/11/2004 6:15 pm
