Ideas

Arts & Science - A Clash Of Cultures Why are arts people so wary when scientists tread into arts territory? "Humanists are trained to make judgments and support them with a range of qualitative evidence and arguments; scientists are trained to test arguments with empirical, replicable evidence and to use quantification as a tool. Interdisciplinary work will flourish when both sides realize that scientific questions about art do not replace humanistic ones. They are simply different. The disciplines of the sciences and art history ought to trade insights rather than insults." Chronicle of Higher Education 07/02/04
Posted: 07/19/2004 5:16 pm

Visual Arts

Rare Statue Recovered From Seine A rare Claudel-Rodin statue was recovered from the bottom of the Seine in Paris after days of searching. "Stolen from Versailles several weeks ago, the statue - valued at £530,000 - was feared lost after those suspected of the robbery were arrested and confessed to throwing it into the Seine. But a police diving team launched a painstaking search of the river in an area where witnesses reported seeing the suspects dispose of the statue." The Scotsman 07/20/04
Posted: 07/20/2004 7:49 am

Laguna Fest Votes On Licensing Pageant "The Pageant of the Masters, a 70-year-old Laguna Beach California hallmark, reenacts art masterpieces with live models, called tableaux vivants. A 2002 plan by then executive director Steven Brezzo to have the pageant produced in other communities caused an uproar among members." Now members of the festival are considering whether to prohibit such licensing without approval of the festival members. Los Angeles Times 07/20/04
Posted: 07/20/2004 6:53 am

British MP's: Museums Must Be Better At Business A British parliamentary committee says museums need to be more business-like. "Unbelievably, some museums and galleries have made losses on activities that were supposed to generate income, and have an inadequate grasp on the costs involved," says one critic. "All museums and galleries must be more robust in their planning. They should establish five-year targets for income growth and set out how these will be achieved; in doing so they must properly identify which activities are profitable and the risks to be managed. Seventeen government-sponsored venues received grants worth £280m last year, and generated an additional £108m." BBC 07/20/04
Posted: 07/20/2004 6:36 am

A Pension Plan For Artists Artists often live in poverty, and old age is tough. Now there's a new plan to help out. "The Artist Pension Trust invites up-and-coming artists to contribute 20 pieces of their work to a tax-protected fund over a 20-year period on the theory that some of the art will appreciate significantly. All the artists will share the profits, even if their initial promise never translates into increased value. It's a way of taking advantage of the capitalistic nature of the market and mix in a healthy dose of socialism to create a hybrid form." The New York Times 07/20/04
Posted: 07/19/2004 7:19 pm

Understanding Jasper Johns "Jasper Johns might have initially looked like a pop artist, but there was always something deeper going on. And if, over the past half-century, Johns has deepened what was already a pretty complex painting game, he has also mystified us. If, at the end, he is painting anything, it is the process of the mind at work, filled with stray thoughts, its affinities and enthusiasms. A mind led by curiosity, and haunted by its own past, from which it cannot extricate itself." The Guardian (UK) 07/20/04
Posted: 07/19/2004 6:42 pm

Dodd Quits Institute Of Contemporary Art Philip Dodd is resigning after seven years as director of London's Institute of Contemporary Art. "What I have done is accept that the walls between art and science, culture and economics, art and politics have collapsed. I have tried to work in the rubble of those walls and accept that the distinctions between those things don't exist any more." The Guardian (UK) 07/20/04
Posted: 07/19/2004 6:37 pm

Liverpool Dissipates Cloud Liverpool has abandoned plans to build the Cloud, a 10-storey globe that "would have been the 'Fourth Grace' on the city's Pier Head, joining three others landmarks, including the Liver building, known as the Three Graces. But yesterday the public sector partners involved in the scheme said it was "no longer viable" due to rising costs, design changes and potential planning problems. The structure, designed by Will Alsop, whose work includes the Peckham library in London, caused controversy in December 2002 when promoters announced it had won an architectural competition." The Guardian (UK) 07/20/04
Posted: 07/19/2004 6:30 pm

Music

Conlon Give Up Paris Opera For the Road Conductor James Conlon is giving up being chief conductor of the Paris Opera for a life of guest conducting. "A stocky and energetic 54-year-old, he says that he feels wistful about leaving Paris, but that he is happy to trade administrative duties for the freedom of wandering America (and occasionally Europe) as a guest conductor." The New York Times 07/20/04
Posted: 07/19/2004 7:11 pm

Pondering The English National Opera "What is going on at the English National Opera? Is this much-loved company, having been wracked by disasters - the troubling resignation of an admired general director two years ago; a deficit of £1.3m for 2001-2; an emergency rescue package from Arts Council England; a chorus on strike - getting back on track? Or are stormy times just around the corner? The answer depends on who you ask." The Guardian (UK) 07/20/04
Posted: 07/19/2004 6:19 pm

Arts Issues

New Woodstock Performing Arts Center Ground was broken thios week for a new performing arts center on the site of the original Woodstock Music Festival. "When completed in 2006, the $63 million center, christened the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, will be the first permanent structure to be erected on the site. It will feature a 4,800-person indoor seating theater that can hold another 12,000 spectators on the lawn." USAToday 07/20/04
Posted: 07/20/2004 7:28 am

New Pressure Squeezing Out American Arts Education Under George Bush's No Child Left Behind initiative, "arts education was listed as a core subject for the first time in federal law. But reports released over the past several months have documented that arts classes are getting squeezed out because the law doesn't require that students be tested for proficiency in art, music, dance or drama. Many people also see arts classes as 'academic frills,' so they often are the first ones eliminated when school districts run short of money." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 07/19/04
Posted: 07/20/2004 6:59 am

People

Remembering Carlos Kleiber "Unlike some conductors, Mr. Kleiber was equally convincing in concert works and opera. A fabled perfectionist, he demanded long hours of rehearsal as his reputation grew and allowed him to obtain such concessions. But he made all that work pay off in performances that blended exactitude with impassioned spontaneity." The New York Times 07/20/04
Posted: 07/20/2004 8:35 am

• Previously: Conductor Carlos Kleiber, 74 According to this German website, the renowned conductor Carlos Kleiber has died at the age of 74. Sueddeutsche 07/19/04

Reconsidering Isaac Bashevis Singer "The discoveries about Singer inflame persistent arguments about his work. Did his highly accessible, highly sexual, idiosyncratic mix of Eastern European folklore - full of supernatural demons and dybbuks and frenzied primitive emotion - really deserve the Nobel Prize? Did the Swedish Academy slight better Yiddish writers?" Philadelphia Inquirer 07/20/04
Posted: 07/20/2004 8:11 am

• Previously: Sights On Celebrating Singer Celebration of the 100th birthday of Isaac Bashevis Singer has proven controversial. "While many consider him one of the best Jewish writers of all time, others in the Yiddish literary world see him as melodramatic, profane, and even unworthy of the Nobel Prize he received in 1978." Boston Globe 07/18/04

Vegas Hotel Boots Ronstadt After She Praises Michael Moore Linda Ronstadt praised Michael Moore during a performance at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas and called him a "great American patriot" and "someone who is spreading the truth" Saturday. "Some among the crowd of 4,500 stormed out, tore down concert posters and tossed cocktails into the air. Aladdin president Bill Timmins said Ronstadt was escorted off the property, saying she "spoiled a wonderful evening for our guests and we had to do something about it." BBC 07/20/04
Posted: 07/20/2004 6:43 am

• Vegas Hotel Manager Bans Ronstadt "Aladdin President Bill Timmins ordered security guards to escort pop diva Linda Ronstadt off the property following a concert Saturday night during which she expressed support for controversial documentary filmmaker Michael Moore. Timmins, who was among the almost 5,000 fans in the audience at the Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts, had Ronstadt escorted to her tour bus and her belongings from her hotel room sent to her. Timmins also sent word to Ronstadt that she was no longer welcome at the property for future performances." Las Vegas Sun 07/20/04
  Posted: 07/20/2004 6:21 am

• Ronstadt's Wolf Trap Adventure At a concert earlier this month at Wolf Trap, Linda Ronstadt also dedicated an encore to Michael Moore: "The biggest excitement of the night, by a long shot, came when Ronstadt then dedicated her encore of "Desperado" to filmmaker Michael Moore, kick-starting a boo-cheer competition throughout the venue that drowned out her singing and left grown-ups in tuxes and evening gowns yelling at each other on their way to the parking lot." Washington Post 07/02/04
  Posted: 07/20/2004 6:10 am

Remembering The Chess Side Of Bobby Fischer With chess master Bobby Fischer now in custody, attention focuses on the unpleasant side of his personality. But Gary Kasparov would like to see beyond that: "Despite the ugliness of his decline, Bobby Fischer deserves to be remembered for the great things he did for chess and for his immortal games. I would prefer to focus on not letting his personal tragedy become a tragedy for chess." OpinionJournal.com 07/19/04
Posted: 07/19/2004 4:51 pm

Theatre

Guthrie Theatre's Blow-out Good Year "Buoyed by popular plays and musicals the theater increased the total audience for its main stage, Lab and touring productions by nearly 30 percent, drawing 417,528 patrons compared with 319,888 last year. It was the theater's highest overall attendance figure since 2000. The attendance news, announced Monday at the annual meeting, was compounded by an upbeat financial report that included balanced books, improved revenues and increased fundraising." The Star-Tribune (Mpls) 07/20/04
Posted: 07/19/2004 10:04 pm

Looking For Ethnic Ambiguity Talent agents, casting directors, and talent management firms are receiving more requests for actors who are 'ethnically ambiguous,' of 'mixed ethnicity,' or have a 'global look,' especially for commercials, films, and television shows. "There is more opportunity for actors who are ethnically mixed than ever before. I often get requests for actors who are biracial. Sometimes it's very specific, like African-American and Caucasian; other times, the request for biracial is broadly nonspecific, leaving it wide open. The breakdowns for many musicals now include 'all ethnicities, unless otherwise noted.' " Backstage 07/19/04
Posted: 07/19/2004 5:38 pm

Duncan: Broadway Is Broken Sandy Duncan despairs over the state of the Broadway theatre business. "Once an industry run by producers with vision and heart, she says, Broadway has devolved into a business now run by 'money men who don't have an eye for the product. It used to be that producers would make a profit, with the idea that they would put that money into a new show. Now, they want to make a killing, and so they're flogging these shows into 10-, 12-, 14-year runs. It hurts the whole creative community'." St. Paul Pioneer-Press 07/19/04
Posted: 07/19/2004 9:35 am

Publishing

America - Where We're Encouraged To Do Anything But Read Why aren't we reading more, asks Carlin Romano? Our media encourages us not to. "We're left with a general media environment in which the readerly commit a kind of cultural suicide in pursuit of the less readerly. In magazine and newspaper offices across the country, well-educated editors stuff their publications with pieces about trash movies, hip-hop hotties, reality-TV spinoffs, and ingénue profiles -- then go home and read a book. As print people drive their hordes toward nonprint media, TV folks -- supposedly a dimmer breed -- cleverly ignore the competition, rarely acknowledging what's in the local papers and almost never devoting a minute to a nonpresidential book." Chronicle Of Higher Education 07/19/04
Posted: 07/19/2004 5:45 pm

• Did Dr. Seuss Take The Fun Out Of Reading? "When you can point the finger at televisions, and now computers, as the obvious hijackers of the reading habit, why focus on a favorite book? Because the arrival of the cat marked the moment when the traditional line between primer-reading and pleasure-reading began fading rapidly—and along with it a crucial prerequisite (as well as product) of being a real reader: a sense of privacy..." Slate 07/19/04
  Posted: 07/19/2004 5:07 pm

• Look How Many People Are Reading! Last week's NEA study that reported the decline of reading in America suggested that an amazing number of people still read. "For example, if one were to ask most of my conservative friends to name the percentage of Americans who read fiction, poetry or plays, they'd likely have guessed 25% at most, not the actual 46.7%. Extrapolating its data to actual readers, the Endowment finds the number of people reading or listening to poetry in 2002 was 30 million. Thirty million! What are they reading? If only 20,000 of them read John Donne, Wallace Stevens or Yeats just for the pleasure of their company, the nation's mental health is more certain than we imagined. Seven million read plays. That seven million Americans would read a play for pleasure is astonishing." OpinionJournal.com 07/16/04
  Posted: 07/19/2004 4:57 pm

Media

In Canada: Muzzle Al-Jazeera, Muzzle Fox? So Canada is going to begin showing the Al-Jazeera network on TV (though its programming will be censored). "Many people applauded how cable operators must tape and monitor Al Jazeera 24/7 to head off possible offensive material. So, now that the cable industry has yet another application to import Fox News before the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), will anyone call for Fox to be similarly muzzled to stop potentially 'abusive comment' on the U.S. channel?" Toronto Star 07/20/04
Posted: 07/20/2004 7:37 am

UK's Blockbuster Cinema The UK film industry posted a record level of production last year, while admissions at UK cinemas reached their second highest level in 30 years. "About £742m was taken at the UK box office. The box office tally marks an increase of 136% on the previous decade, with one in four people now attending the cinema once every month." BBC 07/19/04
Posted: 07/19/2004 5:10 pm

Dance

The Diaghilev Legacy "It is 75 years since the death of Serge Diaghilev, the founder director of the Ballets Russes. Though not himself a dancer, choreographer, musician or designer, Diaghilev had as great an influence on the arts of his time as any primarily creative person. He was a true artistic director, not just an impresario as he is often called. Through his knowledge and ambition, he pushed the frontiers of taste towards a new and untried world." The Telegraph (UK) 07/20/04
Posted: 07/19/2004 6:55 pm

Reconstructing Petipa The Bolshoi Ballet has taken five years to "reconstruct" an early Petipa ballet. "The Bolshoi Ballet's project to recover this fascinating curiosity started five years ago, paralleling the attempted reconstruction by Russia's other great company, the Kirov, of two Petipa masterpieces, The Sleeping Beauty and La Bayadere, as he produced them. But is reconstruction of such old ballets possible? And what are its consequences for the art? Revolutionary, potentially." The Telegraph (UK) 07/20/04
Posted: 07/19/2004 6:50 pm

Renewing The Bolshoi The Bolshoi Ballet has had a tough few years. Long-time director Yuri Grigorovich was forced out in 1995. Four artistic directors in five years, a "disintegrating theatre, slipping artistic standards, appalling financial worries, and the rise and rise of St Petersburg's Kirov under the dynamic leadership of Valery Gergiev. Then there was the Affair of the Overweight Ballerina. "Now things look brighter. The Moscow theatre is undergoing a massive redevelopment. The government has upped its funding, providing 55% of the Bolshoi's £18m budget. And on January 1 a new artistic director took up his post: the 35-year-old St Petersburg-born, Moscow-trained dancer and choreographer Alexei Ratmansky." The Guardian (UK) 07/20/04
Posted: 07/19/2004 6:12 pm