DANCE
http://www.artsjournal.com/dance
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The Politics Of Frogs: "A funny thing or two has happened to the original Frogs on its way to the present [at New York's Vivian Beaumont Theatre]. It has grown increasingly politicized. The creatures who give the play its title have evolved from a simple chorus of amphibians that serenades Dionysus on his disquieting ferryboat ride into today’s know nothing, say nothing, do nothing populace, lulled by leaders of dubious qualifications to okay “a war we shouldn’t even be in.” The present version seems to fancy itself something of a left-leaning rabble-rouser, destined not to tour to the Red States. At the same time, the latter-day Frogs has become more theatrically ingenuous." Seeing Things (AJBlogs) 08/15/04
http://artsjournal.com/dance/redir/20040815-50447.html
The Shadowy Mr. Tudor: "Unlike his contemporaries, the more showy and abstract Balanchine or the decorative Sir Frederick Ashton - whose centenary is also being marked globally this year - Anthony Tudor has been the subject of few revivals and even less academic study. He is a shadowy figure, forever dancing in the dark." Scotland On Sunday 08/15/04
http://artsjournal.com/dance/redir/20040815-50440.html
Dancers For Sale: "In a surprisingly entrepreneurial move, American ballet companies have recently begun allowing donors to sponsor individual dancers, for amounts that range from $2,500 to $100,000 a year. Some ballet companies even compile and distribute rosters, which look eerily like shopping lists, specifying their dancers' ranks and prices." The New York Times 08/15/04
http://artsjournal.com/dance/redir/20040815-50408.html
Will NYCBallet Get To Keep Saratoga Residency?: New York City Ballet sold five percent more tickets this summer during its summer residence in Saratoga. "But are those increased sales and a loss of $600,000 instead of $750,000 enough to maintain the ballet's annual stay in Saratoga after next year -- especially if some of that money could be one-shot contributions from people responding to efforts to 'save the ballet'?" The Saratogian 08/15/04
http://artsjournal.com/dance/redir/20040815-50402.html
MEDIA
http://www.artsjournal.com/media
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South Florida's Renegade Radio In south Florida, pirate radio - unregulated stations - have become popular, especially in ethnic communities. "Renegade radio operators have become successful through personal relationships with immigrant small-business owners and concert promoters. 'The Haitian population has a lot of small business. Their ad budgets are not as large as those of corporations. Corporations will not be attracted to the underground stations." Miami Herald 08/15/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/media/redir/20040815-50450.html
MUSIC
http://www.artsjournal.com/music
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Sex Sells (Even Classical Music) How about a little sex appeal when marketing classical musicians? "It's useless to be shocked by such tactics, and the shock, by today's standards, is pretty mild. You'd page right past these photographs in a fashion magazine ad without even pausing. Sex appeal has been propelling stars for a century -- and, for that matter, classical stars for longer than that." Boston Globe 08/15/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20040815-50441.html
Rock The Vote (With Music) Pop music (and musicians) are getting more politically active this year than they have in years. "Less than 34 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 bothered to vote in the last presidential election, but if activity in the world of music is any indication, those numbers could increase dramatically this year." Chicago Tribune 08/15/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20040815-50420.html
NY Phil Looks To A New Tour Model The New York Philharmonic has canceled some recent tours. Philharmonic officials are determined to "fix" the tour business model so it works. "Like so much else in the orchestral world, tour financing began to sour in mid-2002, with the recession and fears of terrorism. That was about the same time that several midlevel North American orchestras began to threaten bankruptcy." The New York Times 08/15/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20040815-50410.html
The Musical Bounty Of Berlin "Certainly, when it comes to classical music, few cities are so abundantly and audaciously full of life. As an inheritance from its decades of division into East and West, unified Berlin boasts a gloriously impractical number of musical institutions: eight orchestras and three opera companies. Municipal finances are in a shambles, and institutional squabbling abounds, but if you tuned out all the background noise this summer, you could find a thrilling array of options: fiendishly good orchestral concerts, willfully scandalous opera productions, open-air concerts on a beautifully restored square, contemporary chamber music and even music piped underwater into a swimming pool." The New York Times 08/15/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20040815-50407.html
Enjoying The Diversity Of Today's Music Andrew Druckenbrod sums up a recent online blog on ArtsJournal about the stylistic future of music: "The critics essentially responded the same way: that there really isn't a dominating musical language -- such as tonality, serialism or polyphony -- anymore. We are even beyond a postmodern reaction to modernism. Today, anything goes. That's a good thing, since it allows composers to be unfettered in their creativity and critics to pick based on quality, not camps." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 08/15/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/music/redir/20040815-50403.html
PEOPLE
http://www.artsjournal.com/people
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Czeslaw Milosz, 92 "Polish Nobel laureate Czeslaw Milosz, a poet who documented the fight against communism, has died aged 93. His best known work was The Captive Mind, which looked at the treatment of intellectuals under communist rule." BBC 08/15/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/people/redir/20040815-50414.html
PUBLISHING
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing
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When Book Reviewers Forget That Reviewing Is Their Job "Book reviewers, being journalists, are ephemeral. Yet literary criticism - what TS Eliot called the proper activity of the civilised mind - makes judgments which, because of their subject as well as their quality, are not diminished with time. Reviewers who develop ideas above their station ought to bring themselves down to earth with examples of a perfection to which they can barely aspire." The Observer (UK) 08/15/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing/redir/20040815-50445.html
Are Today's Novelists Undermining Fiction? New Republic critic James Wood is famously harsh on contemporary post-modernist fiction: "Part of my anxiety and unease about novels by Foster Wallace, Franzen, and others is that they have swallowed a great deal of journalism, sociology, and cultural studies, which means they are no longer doing something that's not replaceable that another medium can't do as well or better. . . . I am accused of being too harsh, but the critic's job is to look at the threats, the menaces to literature." Boston Globe 08/15/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing/redir/20040815-50439.html
Publisher Pulls Khouri Book (Says Memoir Is Probably Fiction) Random House has concluded that Norma Khouri's "Forbidden Love," was probably a work of fiction. "The publisher said it would permanently withdraw the book from circulation and cancel the planned publication of a second book by the author. Last month it temporarily withdrew the book pending its investigation." The New York Times 08/15/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing/redir/20040815-50409.html
The Book Critic And 130,000 Books A Year Is it true that newspapers, while "too dumb to be stylishly snarky, also do a disservice by running reviews that are 'advertising posing as criticism'?" So what is the role of the modern book reviewer? (in the 130,000-books-a-year universe, it's not so easy a question to answer...) Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 08/15/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/publishing/redir/20040815-50405.html
THEATRE
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre
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A Coconut Plan Miami's Coconut Grove Theatre hosted the first American production of Waiting for Godot. Now it looks like some major changes may come to the historic building. "In recent years, the operative plan was to renovate the existing building and add a third theater and a parking garage. Then came a newer scheme suggested tearing down all but the façade and building anew. Now there are other options that have enormous implications for history and preservation and the community at large." Miami Herald 08/15/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre/redir/20040815-50451.html
Backstage O'Neill The O'Neill Theatre Center has had a tumultuous year. "This summer's off-stage labor is as riveting as what was happening in the center's amphitheater. And last year's backstage drama was also quite a show." Hartford Courant 08/15/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre/redir/20040815-50449.html
Edinburgh Fringe Wants More Support The director of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival blasts the Scottish Arts Council for not supporting the Fringe. "There are practical ways things that can be done. We have performers from all over the world here and the SAC should be getting them to Dundee and Aberdeen. Equally, they should be encouraging Scottish audiences to the Fringe from a slightly wider area." The Guardian (UK) 08/14/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre/redir/20040815-50426.html
West End Theatre Gets Political "Thoughtful social comedies and gentle farces are being upstaged by a blast of radical writing. Not since the socialist agit-prop shows staged in Russia early last century, or the satirical cabaret in Berlin during the Thirties, have audiences been challenged by so many overtly ideological plays. The renewed demand is all the more remarkable since at least six West End plays with more conventional appeal have closed this summer." The Observer (UK) 08/15/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre/redir/20040815-50424.html
Shakespeare & Company Regroups The 27-year-old Massachusetts theatre Shakespeare & Company is trying to regroup. "In the wake of the shake-up, the company is undergoing major changes. The budget was reduced from $4.5 million to $4 million, the season shortened, and the staff trimmed. Shakespeare & Company is selling off a chunk of the 63-acre property, purchased just four years ago, that has largely caused the financial troubles." Boston Globe 08/15/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre/redir/20040815-50419.html
Critic-Proof Theatre The critics are scathing, and Frank Wildhorn's musicals have failed to turn a profit on Broadway. (Newsday's Linda Winer says that Wildhorn writes "dunderheaded musicals for people who find Andrew Lloyd Webber too difficult.") But "even without making a profit on Broadway, and without critical approbation — but on the strength of his devoted fans — these shows can still earn money in international, regional, stock and amateur productions, as well as through recordings." So Wildhorn keeps cranking them out. The New York Times 08/15/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre/redir/20040815-50406.html
Can An Actor Make A Living Even In A Good Theatre Town? "Seattle is often ranked in the top 10 U.S. cities for quality live theater, offering up everything from Shakespeare dramas to mega-musicals like "Hairspray" for the area's thousands of theater-savvy patrons. And local actors, agents, arts educators and theater directors often say Seattle is a mecca for budding performers looking to hone their craft. But can they make a living? That's a challenge few can meet." Seattle Times 08/15/04
http://www.artsjournal.com/theatre/redir/20040815-50400.html
VISUAL ARTS
http://www.artsjournal.com/visualarts
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The Sad Saga Of The Acropolis Museum "Modern Greece may indeed be a last-minute culture, as so many Athenians have claimed in the rocky run-up to the Games. But in the case of the New Acropolis Museum, unlike the rest of the Athens 2004 construction projects, no amount of accelerated effort could get the job done. Today, the New Acropolis Museum remains little more than a series of foundation pilings. And the majority of the contentious sculptures they were to hold, a series of exquisitely sculpted marble friezes that once adorned the Parthenon, remain in the British Museum." Toronto Star 08/15/04
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20040815-50443.html
Denver To Build Clyfford Still Museum "After years of searching for a home for her husband's estate and realizing that time was running out, Patricia A. Still, 84, agreed to give 750 paintings and more than 1,400 works on paper to Denver on the condition it build and maintain a $7 million museum for them." Denver Post 08/15/04
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20040815-50423.html
New Indian Museum Attempts To Get History Right The Smithsonia's 16th museum - the National Museum of the American Indian - is opening in September. "The biggest difference between the new Smithsonian museum and others housing native artifacts is that Indians were consulted every step of the way. Even the most progressive museums have committed egregious errors in American Indian interpretation." Denver Post 08/15/04
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20040815-50422.html
Chicago Daily News Mural Held Hostage - Day 4000 A historic mural from the ceiling of the old Chicago Daily News Building was removed in 1993 after one of its panels was damaged. Its owner promised the mural would be restored and put back in place. But 11 years later... Chicago Tribune 08/15/04
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20040815-50421.html
New Blood For Venice Biennale “The Venice Biennale Foundation has announced that Maria de Corral and Rosa Martinez will co-direct the 2005 international art exhibition that opens next June, and that Robert Storr will organise the 2007 edition. The Biennale board seems to be concerned that the exhibition has become too sprawling and, in process, has lost its shape. They want to rejuvenate it and integrate it more fully into the overall Biennial programme (which includes architecture, cinema, and performing arts) and to achieve that they want the exhibition to have greater focus." The Art Newspaper 08/13/04
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20040815-50416.html
A Revolutionary Image Library Goes Online "A vast digital library of world art has gone online with its first 300,000 images. The project — known as ARTstor and financed by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation — could eventually revolutionize the way art history is taught and studied. It is available for nonprofit institutions only." The New York Times 08/14/04
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20040815-50411.html
James Wood: Goodbye To Chicago Art Institute At the end of this month, James Wood leaves as director of the Chicago Art Institute. One thing he wishes he could have done during his time there? Drop the admission charge. "I still have this idea that in the best of worlds it would be awfully nice to have no charge for a museum. It is an important piece of our cash flow so it's not something under present circumstances that one could do without. But there's still a certain intimidation factor, and particularly for what I've called our local citizens, anything you can do to encourage people to drop in and use the museum on a regular basis is desirable." Chicago Tribune 08/15/04
http://artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20040815-50399.html
