Norway To Overhaul Museum Structure Norway is planning a major reorganization of its national art collection as part of a modernization effort aimed at the country's museums. "At the core of the overhaul are plans to merge four existing institutions into one that will give greater prominence to contemporary art, to be called The New National Museum for Art, Architecture and Design... [But] critics of the project fear that the changes could do more harm than good," and are raising objections to the individual selected to coordinate the reorganization. The Art Newspaper 09/26/04
Posted: 09/26/2004 8:22 pm
Has Chelsea Finally Arrived? It's taken more than seven years, but New York's Chelsea neighborhood finally seems to be making good on its claim to being the next great art neighborhood. "It now takes two full days, morning to night, to visit just the best-known Chelsea galleries. But for the first time that I can remember, doing the autumn rounds felt mostly worthwhile. There was real variety on view -- of medium, subject matter, approach, scale. More important, there were a few artists and works that didn't fit into convenient pigeonholes." Washington Post 09/26/04
Posted: 09/26/2004 8:18 pm
Pop Art's Sticky New Medium "Inspired by graffiti, posters and the communal culture of the Web, stickers are gaining wide attention as an artistic phenomenon, academics and practitioners say. Hand-drawn, stenciled or screen-printed, the images float on the Internet, available for downloading, printing and pasting in ways that the creators could only have imagined. And as they make their way around the globe, from one e-mail in-box to the next, one cultural context to another, their meaning tends to morph." The New York Times 09/26/04
Posted: 09/26/2004 6:59 pm
Tortured Artists Of A Different Kind Three Canadian artists will have their first UK exhibition this fall, and if they achieve anything like the success they are enjoying in their home country, it will be a truly groundbreaking moment in the annals of art history. All three come from troubled backgrounds, and were educated in a program designed to combat a lifetime of depression and to build their self-esteem through art. Oh, and all three are chimpanzees. Not that there's anything wrong with that. The Observer (UK) 09/26/04
Posted: 09/26/2004 6:41 pm
Expert: Barnes Can Sell Its Art According to one of the many duelling art experts called to testify in the Barnes Foundation court battle, the foundation is legally and ethically free to sell pieces from its collection in order to stabilize its finances, because the foundation was established as a school and not a museum. The expert's contention is directly at odds with the stance of the foundation's directors, who have been deemphasizing the educational aspect of their mission as part of the push to move the collection to Central Philadelphia. The directors called an expert of their own last week to back up their claims that fundraising could double with the move to the urban core. Philadelphia Inquirer 09/25/04
Posted: 09/26/2004 5:35 pm
No Love For The Handicapped Since this past February, the city of San Francisco has been deluged with dozens of five-foot fiberglass hearts decorated by area artists. Reaction has largely been positive, but now, the former head of the Mayor's Office on Disability is charging that the scultures are a distinct hazard to the blind, placed as they are in the public right-of-way. San Francisco Chronicle 09/25/04
Posted: 09/26/2004 5:30 pm
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Orchestra Bumped From Weekend By Touring Shows The Florida Orchestra is hoping that audiences in Tampa enjoy the music enough to attend concerts regardless of what night they're held. "In a risky move, the orchestra has switched all 12 of its masterworks programs during the upcoming season in Tampa from Friday to Monday night. It is an attempt to bring some consistency to the orchestra's schedule at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, where the preferred, 2,500-seat Morsani Hall isn't always available to the orchestra because the center gives priority to lucrative Broadway tours and other presentations." St. Petersburg Times 09/25/04
Posted: 09/27/2004 6:37 am
Watching The Music (Finally) Classical music has never really found a home in the world of home video. Aside from a brief flirtation with the laser disc (the bulky, expensive, LP-sized predecessor to the DVD), there has been almost no way to enjoy both the sights and sounds of a classical performance other than to actually attend one. But with the advent of the DVD, and advances in video transfer technology, the classical market is rapidly growing. "Sales [of classical DVDs] regularly hit 5,000 units, the standard break-even figure for classical CDs, and go as high as 40,000 worldwide." What's the attraction? Here's a hint: "Even the most expensive DVD operas cost less than sound-only, full-price CD sets." Philadelphia Inquirer 09/26/04
Posted: 09/26/2004 7:22 pm
Trading Short-Term Debt For Long-Term "With debts mounting and its future on the line, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has drafted an unusual proposal to take out the equivalent of a 30-year mortgage on its house in order to fund new programs that it hopes will boost revenue and finance a deficit that is expected to grow to $12 million by 2008. The BSO's board has agreed in principle to sell Meyerhoff Symphony Hall to a newly created nonprofit subsidiary, which will finance the purchase by issuing as much as $30 million in tax-exempt bonds, under one scenario presented to directors. The orchestra would then lease the concert venue back from the subsidiary for an amount to be determined." Baltimore Sun 09/25/04
Posted: 09/26/2004 6:23 pm
Tracking The Audience Nearly every American orchestra is in search of a larger core audience, and the question of where the classical music audience has gone is a subject that has filled books, magazines, and countless seminars within the industry. "No one-size-fits-all answer to the dilemma exists, but orchestras around the nation are trying different approaches - and some of them seem to be working." The American Symphony Orchestra League has been studying the marketing techniques that work, and the ones that don't, in an effort to provide its members with a concise and (dare we say?) simple strategy for getting butts in the seats. St. Louis Post-Dispatch 09/26/04
Posted: 09/26/2004 6:14 pm
Three's Company An American music director is increasingly expected to be all things to all people, and when a major orchestra loses one of the good ones, as the Pittsburgh Symphony unquestionably has with the departure of Mariss Jansons, it can be difficult to know what course to follow next. That's why the PSO's decision to hire three well-regarded conductors to handle the various duties with which a music director would ordinarily be saddled is "a refreshingly honest response to difficult and conflicting realities," says Mark Kanny. "Here is a trio that has the potential to excel in a broad range of repertoire few other orchestras will be able to match." Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 09/26/04
Posted: 09/26/2004 6:04 pm
- Previously: In Need Of A Conductor, Pittsburgh Hires Three The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, in the early stages of its search to replace departed music director Mariss Jansons, will fill the leadership void with a triumvirate of conductors in supporting roles. Sir Andrew Davis will take the title of Artistic Advisor, and will program most of the orchestra's concerts. Yan Pascal Tortelier will become principal guest conductor. And Marek Janowski will be a guest conductor with a specially endowed chair. The arrangement is already being compared with the innovative (and controversial) leadership model adopted last year by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 09/22/04
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America's Global Art Program The U.S. State Department's Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation might be America's best (and least known) method for building global good will. The program, now in its fourth year of existence, "assesses proposals for funds to local cultural heritage projects put forward by US ambassadors in 121 countries rated medium and low in the UN human development index." The annual budget is a paltry $1.2 million, but considering where the money is going, that kind of cash infusion can go a long way. The Art Newspaper 09/26/04
Posted: 09/26/2004 8:29 pm
The Art Of Activism Artists and musicians are no strangers to politics, of course, but this year, the Bush vs. Kerry presidential campaign has drawn the activism of an unusual number of musicians, actors, and other performers. Some of the newfound activism can be chalked up to Hollywood's usual inflated sense of its place in the world, but the trend is far more widespread than a few loudmouthed movie stars. "So, is this an unprecedented convergence of art and popular culture in the 2004 election, or does it just seem that way? And more important, will it make a difference to voters?" Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 09/26/04
Posted: 09/26/2004 7:28 pm
- Modern Politics, Media Beget Modern Activism The presence of a never-sleeping, always-hungry mass media beast may have a lot to do with the current bumper crop of high-visibility activists in the arts. In the years before all-news cable channels and the internet, artists who wanted to get involved may have figured that their efforts would be best concentrated behind the scenes. But in an age when getting your message in front of the public is all too easy, the allure of putting one's face on a political cause is apparently all too tempting. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 09/26/04
Posted: 09/26/2004 7:27 pm
Digging In The Same Pockets Big arts organizations are always in competition with their counterparts in the same city for the limited pool of donors available. Usually, all sides manage to keep it civil, but this season, the Canadian Opera Company has been embroiled in a nasty behind-the-scenes spat with the National Ballet of Canada over the timing of a major fundraising event by the ballet. Toronto Star 09/26/04
Posted: 09/26/2004 5:46 pm
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From ABBA To Atwood: A Director's Crossover "There aren't many directors who would feel equally at home staging the nostalgic ABBA songfest Mamma Mia! as well as the futurist opera based on Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale." In fact, crossing between the worlds of opera and musical theater at all tends to be frowned on, but somehow, director Phyllida Lloyd seems to have won over the finicky devotees of each. Having engineered the current Toronto production of Handmaid, her next project is the English National Opera's Ring Cycle. Toronto Star 09/26/04
Posted: 09/26/2004 8:10 pm
The Filmmaker's Filmmaker Filmmaker John Cassavetes never really won over the public during his lifetime, and even some prominent critics gave him a continuous cold shoulder. "Like Orson Welles, he didn't always play well with others and he didn't make all that much money for the movie industry. The other reason for the discomfort, I think, is that he called himself an artist. Many critics prefer their art with subtitles or not at all." But a new box set of his work provides a window into the mind of a man who inspired a generation of better-loved filmmakers, even if his own work often went unappreciated by the powers that be. The New York Times 09/26/04
Posted: 09/26/2004 7:01 pm
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Do Edgy And Popular Have To Be Mutually Exclusive? Minneapolis-based Illusion Theater is one of the theater-rich Twin Cities' edgiest and most innovative venues, and yet, in an area which embraces modern art and modern music, Illusion can't seem to draw a crowd. "This 30th season finds Illusion mulling its identity and wondering what it takes to get people in the seats. Among [local] theaters its size, Illusion cuts the slightest swath through the public's consciousness." The company faces an array of obstacles to creating a more prominent regional identity, but with such a high percentage of the Cities' theater community pulling for it, some observers are saying that it's time for Illusion to do more to help itself. Minneapolis Star Tribune 09/26/04
Posted: 09/26/2004 6:51 pm
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By Writers, For Writers Literary journals, long a staple of university presses, seem to be enjoying a renaissance in Pittsburgh, courtesy of online publishing innovations and an influx of new writers willing to take risks. The city currently has no fewer than five new journals attempting to build a sizable readership, despite the fact that such publications traditionally bleed money. "The world of publishing is becoming so competitively commercial that there's no room for the serious writer. And the reason journals and small literary presses are beginning to survive is that there are more and more writers." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 09/26/04
Posted: 09/26/2004 7:40 pm
The Writers Who Never Seem To Finish "Like general contractors, writers are famously optimistic when it comes to estimating how long a project will take. Fortunately, publishers are more forgiving than homeowners; deadlines are routinely extended one, two, even three years. But there is another category of writer, one for whom the laws of space and time seem to disappear altogether. Years bleed into one another as file cabinets bulge with extraneous information... Only by scratching away the layers of Liquid Paper on the line of the contract reading 'delivery date,' as if it were an instant lottery ticket, is it possible to ascertain when exactly the manuscript was first due." The New York Times 09/26/04
Posted: 09/26/2004 7:14 pm
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Is Satellite Radio A Threat To Public Broadcasting? "Starting next week, when Bob Edwards, the longtime host of National Public Radio's 'Morning Edition,' returns to the radio, he will be heard not over the air on the FM band, but on the $10-a-month XM Satellite Radio service... But for most of the public radio establishment, Edwards's new gig is a harsh reminder that the future of public radio is very much in flux. If listeners prove willing to pay for satellite radio, much as viewers decided a generation ago to shell out for cable TV, then NPR and other programming providers will be sorely tempted to follow the money." Washington Post 09/26/04
Posted: 09/26/2004 8:20 pm
How To Build A Film Festival: Quality & Populism What has made the Toronto International Film Festival such a major event, while other large fests remain decidedly second-tier? "Over the years, Toronto has become a kind of Canadian Cannes equivalent for North American journalists and moviegoers. It's a great, awesomely packed film soiree that brings together movies, moviemakers, critics, reporters and audiences for a contemporary world film smorgasbord. It's also a more accessible festival. Cannes, the queen of the fest circuit, is a professional festival that doesn't sell tickets to the public. Toronto does -- and it also allows the paying audiences to choose their most important prize." Toronto Star 09/26/04
Posted: 09/26/2004 6:29 pm
