Where's The Outrage? No, Seriously, Where Is It? To hear some "pro-family" groups and government regulators tell it, you would think that America's television screens had recently been hijacked by a marauding band of pornographers, and that the future of the republic depended on their being beaten back. Frank Rich has had it with the so-called "moral values" crowd and their false piety, especially since even a cursory investigation reveals that no one seems to get exercised about TV smut until they're instructed to do so by well-funded professional outrage groups. Even worse, the supposed stacks of complaints received by the FCC regarding certain televised "incidents" have been grossly exaggerated, and usually consist of dozens of carbon copies of the same professionally generated complaint letter. The New York Times 11/28/04
Posted: 11/28/2004 10:23 am
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Authenticating Art, Pixel By Pixel A computer program that purports to be able to authenticate and identify artwork is making waves in the highly subjective and specialized world of art analysis. Most art experts are openly skeptical of the program and its creator, but many also admit that a judicious use of technology could be quite helpful in supplementing the work of trained (human) authenticators. Washington Post 11/27/04
Posted: 11/28/2004 11:40 am
Saatchi vs. Tate, Yet Again "The longstanding rivalry between Charles Saatchi, the British advertising magnate and art collector, and Sir Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate here, is heating up again. Mr. Saatchi says Sir Nicholas turned down his offer to give the Tate his entire collection, while Sir Nicholas says no such offer was made." There has long been bad blood between these two heavyweights of the British art world: Saatchi believes the Tate is stuffy and uninterested in seriously promoting new Brit-art, while the leadership of Tate Modern views Saatchi as a cowboy more interested in generating controversy and winning turf wars than securing the future of art. The New York Times 11/27/04
Posted: 11/28/2004 10:09 am
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KC Center Gets Three Big Anchor Tenants Kansas City's new $300 million performing arts center will be home to three of the city's biggest arts groups when it opens in 2008. The Kansas City Symphony, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and Kansas City Ballet have all signed letters of intent, promising to take up residence in the PAC for at least 20 years, and have agreed to rental terms with the center's management. "The commitments let the Missouri Development Finance Board add $12.5 million each year over 2005-2006 to the annual allowable tax credits. The board currently has a $10 million annual cap." The PAC suffered a funding setback this November, when voters rejected a bistate tax which would have created a significant new source of arts funding. Kansas City Star 11/27/04
Posted: 11/28/2004 12:16 pm
When Concert Halls Attack! The Los Angeles Philharmonic's glittering new home may be glittering just a bit too much for its neighbors. "The world-famous Walt Disney Concert Hall -- crown jewel of downtown Los Angeles' revival -- must lose some of the luster from its polished stainless-steel exterior before somebody goes blind, according to a new report. The brilliant rays blind drivers, pedestrians and nearby residents, and create sauna-like conditions in condominiums and businesses. Temperatures on the sidewalks surrounding the hall have been measured at up to 138 degrees." Los Angeles County officials are considering a plan to sandblast the shimmering stainless steel walls of Disney Hall to dull the glare. LA Daily News 11/26/04
Posted: 11/28/2004 12:08 pm
Come See The Music Classical music aficionados are a notoriously conservative bunch, particularly in Philadelphia, where attempts to modernize the concertgoing experience have nearly always been met with overt hostility. Video screens, in particular, have always been most unwelcome guests in the concert hall, even when the music demands their presence. "The issue is crucial among many who care about the future of classical music: The rationale is that visualizing this centuries-old art form could compensate for dwindling music-education programs in public schools, and could help cultivate a new, under-40 audience... Success often rests on two factors: Suitable visual content and the technical coordination with the music." Philadelphia Inquirer 11/28/04
Posted: 11/28/2004 11:57 am
Naxos Goes Modern Mention Naxos, the low-budget, high-volume classical label that has been one of the only success stories in an otherwise-blighted corner of the record industry over the last decade, and you won't find a lot of love from many musicians and other guardians of high recording fees and big-name promotions. But Naxos is quietly expanding its reach in the music world, and a major new project has the company commissioning, recording, and promoting a series of ten new string quartets from the British composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. "The conventional wisdom at most major labels is that it's hard enough to sell new music. Going out and helping it come into being is virtually unprecedented." The New York Times 11/27/04
Posted: 11/28/2004 10:17 am
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Sea Slug Or Not, Cardiff PAC Is Open For Business The £106 million Wales Millenium Centre in Cardiff may be the most maligned new performing arts center ever to receive public funding, but on its opening weekend, organizers were giddy with excitement, and promised that the center, which has been derisively referred to a "beached whale" and a "sea slug", will finally fulfill the dream of a uniquely Welsh performance venue. The Guardian (UK) 11/27/04
Posted: 11/28/2004 1:02 pm
Newspaper: SPAC Must Change Its Corporate Culture, And Fast The blistering audit of New York's Saratoga Performing Arts Center that was released this week offered stunning revelations of mismanagement and near-criminal conduct by those in charge of the popular summer venue. Still, SPAC cannot be allowed to wither further on the vine, says its hometown newspaper: "The public trust has been understandably shaken. But to turn away from SPAC would be a grave mistake. SPAC is too wonderful a venue and too valuable to the community." The Saratogian (NY) 11/28/04
Posted: 11/28/2004 11:51 am
- Previously: Saratoga Center Dinged For Poor Management The Saratoga Performing Arts Center, which last summer tried to end a longstanding summer residency by New York City Ballet, has been cited for bad management by an audit of the organization. "Over the last few years, the Saratoga arts center has struggled with an annual deficit of $400,000 to $500,000 on an operating budget of $13 million and been forced to dip into its $7 million endowment to cover operating expenses." The New York Times 11/23/04
Big Cuts At Interlochen Interlochen Center for the Arts, the northern Michigan-based arts academy which runs a full-time arts high school as well as a massive summer camp program, has made some big cuts to its summer offerings. 37 faculty members received notification this week that they would not be brought back in 2005, and the summer camp will be shortened from eight weeks to six. Interlochen administrators say that the cuts were necessary to insure financial stability and allow for basdly-needed raises for the remaining faculty. The summer program had 247 instructors and more than 2000 students this past summer. Traverse City (MI) Record-Eagle 11/27/04
Posted: 11/28/2004 11:04 am
- Lean & Mean, Or Just Watered Down? AJ Blogger Drew McManus, an alumnus of Interlochen, has a number of questions about this week's cuts, and is curious about the creation of 18 new positions for "teaching assistants," who will presumably be paid considerably less than the more experienced full-time faculty. "These assistants report directly to the newly created area coordinators, the same people responsible for evaluating and recommending the faculty members who were on the current 'massacre' list... I don’t know how enthusiastic I would be to send my son or daughter off to camp if part of their instruction is not going to come directly from resident faculty members." Adaptistration (AJ Blogs) 11/28/04
Posted: 11/28/2004 11:00 am
The More The Merrier In Denver Nothing strikes terror into the hearts of planners of local holiday shows like the news that the Rockettes are coming to town. The touring version of the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular has been a mass-marketing juggernaut in many cities, severely cutting into ticket sales for local productions of The Nutcracker and other holiday favorites. But in Denver, where the Radio City show is debuting this year, "the show's ubiquitous advertising and numerous public appearances have brought earlier and increased awareness to all consumers of their impending holiday entertainment choices. And early returns indicate everyone seems to have benefited." Denver Post 11/27/04
Posted: 11/28/2004 10:03 am
Putting The Public Back In Public Art Chicago artists have long complained that the city's public art program is unnecessarily secretive and unresponsive to public concerns. A corporate lawyer named Scott Hodes has been fighting to get the program's inner workings open to scrutiny for years, and now, he appears to have won. Among other accusations of impropriety, Hodes "alleged that $20,600 in program funds were improperly channeled to artists and apprentices through a charity directed by [Chicago's First Lady Maggie] Daley." The city, which has always maintained that the program operates completely above board, has now agreed to meet with Hodes and, presumably, to satisfy his demands for a more transparent process. Chicago Tribune 11/27/04
Posted: 11/28/2004 9:56 am
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Chicago Artist Paschke, 65 Artist Ed Paschke, a supremely influential Chicago artist who helped lead the city's surrealist/pop-based art movement of the 1960s, died this past week. "His visual world was rooted in a variety of American subcultures (as captured in commercial art and magazines), and it also was powerfully influenced by the electronic media." Chicago Sun-Times 11/28/04
Posted: 11/28/2004 12:54 pm
Author Hailey Dies "Arthur Hailey, the bestselling author who plucked characters from ordinary life and threw them into extraordinary ordeals, died in his home in the Bahamas, his wife said yesterday. He was 84." Toronto Star 11/27/04
Posted: 11/28/2004 11:31 am
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Playwrights Who Always Have Each Other's Back Boston playwright Patrick Gabridge has started "a 30-day online networking/marketing support group for playwrights" which encourages the participants to pool their knowledge of the business. "The Binge aims to create a sense of community. The group will tell their peers that this theater is amateurish, that director is hot. If a playwright can't travel to another city to see the production of his or her play, other Bingers who live in that city will attend and report back. Aside from the information, contacts, and encouragement, the group provides the best kind of peer pressure: seeing other people get their plays done because they've taken the footsteps." Boston Globe 11/28/04
Posted: 11/28/2004 12:49 pm
The Broadway Factory You've Never Heard Of Music publisher BMI is the force behind Broadway's most successful creative workshop, but the group flies so far below the cultural radar that even most theater aficionados are unaware of its existence. "The workshop is little known except among music-makers, but to those in that rarefied world, it is the Harvard of show tunes, helping develop a string of hits that include A Chorus Line, Nine, Little Shop of Horrors and Urinetown... Every year, 30 to 40 aspiring lyricists and composers are selected for the highly competitive two-year course devoted to fundamentals. The third year (which students take again and again) is devoted to projects in development and is by invitation only." The New York Times 11/28/04
Posted: 11/28/2004 12:38 pm
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Nothing Like A Good (Free) Book It's not a bookstore, not a library, and definitely not a profit-driven enterprise. It's Book Thing, the Baltimore-based book exchange where rich meets poor, elitism dances with populism, and everyone goes away with either a good book or a good feeling. Washington Post 11/27/04
Posted: 11/28/2004 11:33 am
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Toronto Film Industry Withering Fast "In economic impact, the [film] industry has brought $2.6 billion annually into Toronto's economy — to say nothing of the bragging rights the city has enjoyed as a metropolis sparkling with Hollywood glitter. But in recent years that bloom has withered dramatically. A generous system of provincial tax credits that allowed both domestic and foreign film productions a rebate on labour expenses incurred while in production in Ontario has been duplicated — and in most cases, bettered — all over the world... That, combined with a rising dollar, an increasingly hard line in Los Angeles against 'runaway productions' and the lingering effects of last year's SARS outbreak, has driven foreign production in Ontario down from $981.6 million in 2001 to $874.1 million in 2003." Toronto Star 11/27/04
Posted: 11/28/2004 11:18 am
- The Human Cost The downturn in Canadian film fortunes has had a very real impact on the people who make their living behind the scenes. Jobs are decidedly scarce for Toronto-based location managers, grips, and other crew members working for the TV and movie industries. Actors are having a rough time too, and many are wondering whether they can continue to make a living without moving south. Toronto Star 11/27/04
Posted: 11/28/2004 11:15 am
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Tapping A Diverse Array of Pocketbooks Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre is known far and wide not only for the skill of its dancers, but for the fundraising acumen of its management and board. The company's annual gala alone raised 11% of its annual budget last year, and this year's event is expected to do at least as well. "The Ailey company's success at raising funds is due in part to its special cachet. Ailey always insisted on having a multicultural group of dancers, even as his works celebrated his own African-American heritage. So the Ailey has always been both an ethnic institution and a colorblind one." The New York Times 11/28/04
Posted: 11/28/2004 12:34 pm
All-Star Dance Meets Russian Melodrama The Moscow Ballet is in the midst of a massive 75-city tour featuring 100 dancers culled from Russia's various professional troupes. A few bumps in the road are only to be expected during such a long tour, of course, but the Russians seem to be facing more than a couple of minor crises. "A disgruntled former director and performer, Valery Lantratov, has issued a couple of angry e-mails to the press complaining of 'an unacceptable contract which infringed on the rights of the artists' and 'discontent with the marketing practices' that included allegations of false advertising." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 11/27/04
Posted: 11/28/2004 10:36 am
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