Hotel's Big Budget Benefits Colorado Artists "Colorado artists are set to get a windfall worth nearly $1 million as decorators for the new $278.5 million hotel across from the Colorado Convention Center go shopping for art. ... Another $1.5 million worth of artworks will be purchased through the city's long-running percent-for-art ordinance, which requires that 1 percent of city-funded construction budgets be set aside for art." Denver Post 10/07/04
Posted: 10/07/2004 6:28 am
The World As One Giant Design Project "Massive Change," Bruce Mau's much-anticipated, optimistic but uneven new show on the future of design, has arrived. "The exhibition doesn't set out to map the future of design in any way one might expect.... (It) maps, instead, the often invisible design of things such as the global market economy, advances in medicine and agriculture, systems of ecological renewal and human transport. Every activity mankind engages in, everything that leaves our material stamp on the world, must be contemplated as a design project, says Mau. And we have choices." The Globe and Mail (Canada) 10/07/04
Posted: 10/07/2004 5:47 am
Cattelan's Hanging Child Does It Again "An exhibit depicting a hanged child at an art fair in the southern Spanish city of Seville has sparked a row between the gallery and local authorities, who yesterday demanded it be removed. The work in resin by Italian sculptor Maurizio Cattelan is on show at the Biennial of Contemporary Art but has sparked controversy -- as it did in Milan last May." The Globe and Mail (Canada) (AFP) 10/07/04
Posted: 10/07/2004 5:38 am
MoMA Rethinks Design: Less Tiffany, More Kevlar There will be much more to see in the Museum of Modern Art's design collection when MoMA reopens Nov. 20. Rethought during the closure, the collection now includes objects from 1821 to 2004. "But the new installation does not seize the popular moment, with respect to two important cultural developments: the arrival and establishment of virtual design and the Internet, and the remapping of the domestic landscape because of multiculturalism." The New York Times 10/07/04
Posted: 10/07/2004 3:44 am
In Terminal 5, Art Lovers Behaving Badly When the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey agreed to allow an art exhibition in Kennedy Airport's vacant Terminal 5, the landmark Eero Saarinen building that Steven Spielberg used in "Catch Me If You Can," it probably wasn't envisioning graffiti on the walls or vomit and broken glass on the floor. But no, artists weren't responsible for those displays. The damage was done by guests at an opening-night party that got out of hand, and now the show of installations, which was to have run through Jan. 31, has been closed. The New York Times 10/07/04
Posted: 10/07/2004 3:19 am
Chelsea's Guerillas "Two weekends ago, the staid art galleries of [New York's Chelsea neighborhood] got a shot of guerilla art, when the RIDER Project parked in the area. The inside of the 15-foot truck had been meticulously sheetrocked, taped and painted white, turning it into a white cube art space showcasing the work of 17 emerging artists... Some of the gallery owners were not so pleased." The New York Times 10/06/04
Posted: 10/06/2004 10:20 pm
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Clutch Performances There's never an easy solution when a soloist cancels on an orchestra, and for the Oregon Symphony last weekend, a sudden hand injury to pianist Louis Lortie only hours before showtime left a major void in their concert where Rachmaninoff's 3rd should have been. On one half-hour's notice, the orchestra's musicians agreed to sight-read Tchaikovsky's ultra-familiar 4th symphony as a replacement, and won a standing ovation for their efforts. Even more amazingly, with one concert still to be performed the next night, the symphony managed to convince an award-winning soloist to board a plane from Alabama to the Pacific Northwest and perform the original concerto with no rehearsals. The Oregonian (Portland) 10/06/04
Posted: 10/06/2004 8:00 pm
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Actors' Insurance An Ever-Dicier Proposition "Living the actor's life often means uncertainty. Your job, working environment, and level of income are constantly in flux. While most actors are happy to choose this sometimes thrilling, sometimes terrifying existence over the grind at a fluorescent-lit cubicle, the very nature of it also means that certain necessities aren't a given. Like rent money. Or health insurance. The process of getting and maintaining reliable coverage is a chief worry for the working actor." Back Stage 10/06/04
Posted: 10/07/2004 6:51 am
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Poet Laureate Puts His Foot In It In a major embarrassment for the Scottish Executive, the new poet laureate signed an infamous declaration calling for Scotland to secede from the UK hours before one of his poems was to have been read before the British Queen. Edwin Morgan, "who was yesterday given a £5000-a-year stipend for being the national poet, or makar, said his sympathies were very much with the republicans." The Herald (Glasgow) 10/07/04
Posted: 10/06/2004 10:28 pm
Revising The Brando Legacy Marlon Brando was a brilliant actor, but his various eccentricities turned him into something of a walking caricature late in life, and his death this year did little to dispel the popular vision of him as a Hollywood joke. But now, "some of the people closest to the actor, who was known for protecting his privacy, have begun to speak publicly about his life, partly to correct the notion, fostered by tabloid stories, that he died a recluse, almost penniless and deeply in debt." The New York Times 10/07/04
Posted: 10/06/2004 10:00 pm
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Off Off Broadway Missing From Revamped Times "The redesign of the Arts & Leisure section at the Sunday New York Times won no raves from Off Off Broadway. The small-print column known as the Guide used to provide a comprehensive listing of all legit shows, even those playing the tiniest venues. But as of Oct. 3, the Guide is gone." Yahoo! (Variety) 10/05/04
Posted: 10/07/2004 4:05 am
London Playhouse To Close "London's Bridewell Theatre is to close in January after failing to secure sufficient funding from the Arts Council. Over the past 11 years the theatre has won itself an international reputation for music theatre and become a powerhouse in the development of new British musical talent." The Guardian (UK) 10/07/04
Posted: 10/06/2004 8:56 pm
Maybe They Could Get Bill O'Reilly To Play Rumsfeld? The new off-Broadway political docudrama, Guantanamo: Honour Bound to Defend Freedom, featured an unexpected cameo this past week by an actor known the world over for his activist tendencies and opposition to the Bush Administration's policies at home and abroad. And no, it wasn't Alec Baldwin. The graying eminence presiding on stage as Lord Justice Steyn was, in fact, none other than Bishop Desmond Tutu, who, having wrapped up his engagement in New York, says that he is now awaiting his Tony nominations. The Guardian (UK) 10/07/04
Posted: 10/06/2004 8:48 pm
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Homer Tops A Best-Seller List (Thank You, Brad Pitt) "The ancient Greek Homer remains one of today's most popular poets, topping the chart of bestselling poetry books for 2004 with online retailer Amazon. Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey, which both dealt with the Trojan War, were the first and second bestsellers. His popularity has been partly put down to release of the movie Troy, starring Brad Pitt, which is based on The Iliad." BBC 10/07/04
Posted: 10/07/2004 6:41 am
Austria's Elfriede Jelinek Wins Nobel Prize "Acclaimed and controversial Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek, whose work often explores the role of women in society, was awarded the 2004 Nobel Literature Prize, the Swedish Academy announced." Yahoo! (AFP) 10/07/04
Posted: 10/07/2004 4:34 am
The Plot Against Philip Roth The swastika is illegal in Germany, but at the Frankfurt Book Fair, they seem to be everywhere, emblazoned across the front of several bestselling books. "All the more curious then that a shipment of [Philip Roth's latest] book was held up at German customs this week, apparently because of the swastika cover." The New York Times 10/07/04
Posted: 10/06/2004 10:07 pm
$100 Million Buys A Lot Of Verse Two years after a $100 million bequest fell unexpectedly into its lap, the formerly tiny and obscure Poetry Foundation has revealed just what it plans to do with the money. The group is planning "a host of projects, from a national recitation contest for high school students to 'the biggest and baddest Web site for poetry out there.' The projects are likely to comprise the most sweeping effort to promote poetry in the history of the United States or any other country. They may also make the Poetry Foundation a major force on the American cultural landscape." The New York Times 10/07/04
Posted: 10/06/2004 9:54 pm
Frankfurt Focuses On The Middle East The Frankfurt Art Fair is broadening its horizons, inviting Arab writers to participate in what has traditionally been a near-exclusively European event. The idea is to promote translations of Arab literature, and the strategy may already be having an effect. "Some 50 titles have been translated into German this year, compared to between 12-15 in previous years." BBC 10/06/04
Posted: 10/06/2004 8:19 pm
Scot Wins UK Poetry Prize "Scottish poet Kathleen Jamie has won the £10,000 Forward Prize - the UK's biggest annual poetry award. She took the best collection prize with The Tree House, a collection of poems embracing nature and spirituality. The award for best first collection was awarded to 29-year-old Leontia Flynn, from Fife, for her 'strikingly original' debut These Days." BBC 10/06/04
Posted: 10/06/2004 8:17 pm
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Induce Act To Make Progress, Talks Don't "After four days of painstaking negotiations, technology and consumer groups said they have failed to reach a consensus with the entertainment industry on the language of the Induce Act, a proposed bill making it illegal to encourage copyright infringement." Wired 10/07/04
Posted: 10/07/2004 7:15 am
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A Wild Success Could Be A Bad Omen New York's new bargain-basement festival, Fall For Dance, wrapped up its first season this past weekend, and the afterglow is something to behold. "Dance presenters, choreographers and artistic directors are full of praise for what they call courageous programming, for the audacity of trying (successfully) to fill a 2,700-seat theater for six nights of dance and for bringing five companies together on stage each night for a $10 ticket." And yet, some in the business are wondering if the success of the fest might not indicate a very real danger for the dance profession as a whole... The New York Times 10/07/04
Posted: 10/06/2004 9:49 pm
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