Art On The Defensive Is the world of art becoming cowed by a culture that is increasingly hostile to anything that smacks of intellectualism? "Faced with pre-emptive, Internet-driven attacks on what they might do or say at any given moment -- and self-fulfilling prophesizing as to whom they surely will offend -- movie stars, comedians, even news anchors, increasingly spend their time in reactive mode. Good art -- and lively entertainment -- sets agendas. Defensive art typically is unwatchable." Chicago Tribune 03/06/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 10:49 am
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Two Museums, One Increasingly Tangled Mission Minneapolis's Walker Art Center is about to unveil its huge expansion, turning the city's modern art showcase into an even more prominent local landmark than it already was. But a few blocks away, the more tradition-bound Minneapolis Institute of Arts is preparing to open 27 new galleries, and it, too, will be putting the focus on recent art. "Officials at both the Walker and the MIA dismiss the notion of a rivalry, even though they clearly are fishing for donors in the same relatively small pool of big-time Twin Cities area art collectors." Minneapolis Star Tribune 03/06/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 11:28 am
Caravaggio, Brought To You By The Religious Right "Day after day the crowds flock to the National Gallery's 'Caravaggio: The Final Years' exhibition, fascinated in equal measures by the artist's debauched lifestyle and the power of his paintings... But what the crowds are unlikely to appreciate is that the acclaimed exhibition was made possible thanks to the generous donation of a reclusive US millionaire who bankrolled a fundamentalist religious movement founded by a man who endorsed the execution of homosexuals and adulterers." The Observer (UK) 03/06/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 11:14 am
Crafting An International Art Movement The Arts & Crafts movement began as a flat-out rebellion against an increasingly commercial world, and grew into one of the 20th century's most successful arts philosophies. But even as the movement became an international phenomenon, it didn't always work out the way its founders intended. "The sheer goodness of the movement, bound as it is to folk art and the quest for national authenticity, made it vulnerable to nationalistic exploitation." The Guardian (UK) 03/05/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 11:02 am
- Has Arts & Crafts Lost Its Charm? "Although there are some very good things being made, the craft world at the moment is set up to preserve something that can't look after itself... Craft has lost its way and become precious; self-consciousness is one of its great cankers. Sometimes there are peevish voices in the craft world demanding respect from the contemporary art world. It is a bit like an Englishman in France shouting in English. If you want to be accepted in the contemporary art world, you have to accept its culture and speak its language." The Guardian (UK) 03/05/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 11:00 am
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Does New Have To Mean Noise? When the Boston Symphony hired James Levine as music director, it knew that its audiences would be in for a healthy dose of modern music amid the Sibelius and Beethoven. But less than a year into Levine's tenure, some are beginning to ask why the maestro seems to go out of his way to select the most tiresome, unlistenable examples of 20th and 21st-century music. "Most of those contemporary composers favored by Levine, such as Elliott Carter and Milton Babbitt, have little patience with anything that smacks of tonality or emotional catharsis. These sons of Schoenberg... also could not care less about music that could rebuild an audience for classical music." Boston Globe 03/06/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 10:41 am
Learning To Reach Out Studying music in a conservatory is very different from being a professional musician, as graduates of such cloistered institutions as Juilliard and Curtis quickly discover. But an innovative outreach program at Boston's New England Conservatory is aiming to prepare its young participants for the work they will be expected to do as professionals, as well as bringing high-quality, low-cost music to underprivileged corners of the community. Boston Globe 03/06/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 10:00 am
Chicago's Other Top Conductor Even as the Chicago Symphony prepares to usher in a new era with the departure of music director Daniel Barenboim, one familiar face at Orchestra Hall won't be going anywhere. Pierre Boulez, the onetime enfant terrible of contemporary music, has made a home for himself in Chicago as the CSO's principal guest conductor, and some would argue that his effect on the orchestra has been more profound than even the music director's. "His presence has enlivened the contemporary music scene throughout the city. Some listeners who hear his lucid, highly honed performances of new music with the CSO have been tempted to seek it out elsewhere." Chicago Sun-Times 03/06/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 9:48 am
Milwaukee Hopes For An About-Face Even by today's low standards, the Milwaukee Symphony is struggling mightily at the box office and on the ledger sheet. A new management team has garnered early praise, but the coming season will represent a watershed moment for the orchestra, as it attempts to recoup recent sales losses and reconnect with the city. The desperation for a quick turnaround has led the MSO to program a season made up almost entirely of guaranteed classical hits like Beethoven's 9th and "Carmina Burana," to introduce "subtle theatrical elements" to the concert experience, and even to experiment with a video component. On top of all that, the orchestra is cutting ticket prices on a wide variety of concerts. Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel 03/05/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 9:07 am
The Problem With Porgy George Gershwin's Porgy & Bess is arguably the greatest American opera ever composed. But despite its popularity, the opera is rarely staged, either in the US or in Europe. The sticking point is the Gershwin estate's insistence that all the roles in any production of the work must be filled by black singers. "At a time of widespread discrimination, the socially conscious Gershwins had no intention of undermining Porgy's credibility by parading before their audience a white cast crudely disguised in blackface. Admirable as their attitude may have been, it has necessarily slowed down the entry of Porgy and Bess into the standard repertory. Though the situation is changing for the better, most opera companies still have limited access to black singers. Producing Porgy effectively means hiring a second company." Toronto Star 03/05/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 8:53 am
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Small Groups At Risk In Buffalo Buffalo's arts scene took a big hit last week when the state legislature scrapped $1 million in county-based arts funding. The city's largest arts groups will still get their money, but 42 smaller organizations are scrambling to find alternate funds, having already absorbed several rounds of cuts. "The county rollback will disproportionately affect grass-roots organizations whose educational programs serve primarily urban families... By halving the $5.5 million originally budgeted for the arts and radically altering distribution of the remaining $2.7 million, lawmakers called into question the future of the volunteer Erie County Cultural Resources Advisory Board, which was formed 20 years ago to correct inequities in cultural aid." Buffalo News 03/05/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 10:30 am
IS KC Getting Ready To Scrap The PAC? Kansas City's plans for a massive downtown performing arts center are in danger of being scrapped or severely scaled back if new funding cannot be found. Organizers announced last week that they are suspending the PAC's official capital campaign, and business leaders in the city say that the center cut off all contact with potential donors last fall after a proposed bi-state tax failed at the polls. Kansas City Star 03/06/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 9:38 am
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Max Fisher, 96 Detroit's most famous classical music benefactor wasn't a big fan of music, and rarely attended concerts at the glittering performing arts complex that bears his name. Max Fisher's generosity was a gift not so much to an orchestra as to a city he loved, and desperately wanted to see brought back. Fisher died this past week, leaving behind a rich legacy of philanthropy born of an abiding sense of duty. Detroit News 03/06/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 10:14 am
The Money Behind The Curtain They don't play instruments, paint landscapes, or take bows, but those wealthy men and women who sped their evenings in formalwear, going from cocktail party to reception to gala, are an integral part of any city's cultural scene. In tony Boston, the glitterati have traditionally formed a very exclusive club, but things are changing. "Gone are the closed ranks of the Boston Brahmin, when your place in the Social Register was a question of pedigree. Today, membership in the club is more dependent on how much you can do -- and give -- for worthy causes. And, with the pool of local corporate benefactors shrinking through mergers and out-of-town ownership, the donations from this club are becoming more critical to a wide array of the city's social services and the arts." Boston Globe 03/06/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 10:07 am
Conductor Sergiu Commisiona, 76 "Sergiu Comissiona, the elegant Romanian-born conductor who transformed the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra from a little-known ensemble into a nationally respected orchestra, taking it to Carnegie Hall and Europe and winning for it the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, was found dead yesterday in his Oklahoma City hotel room. Maestro Comissiona apparently died of a heart attack, hours before he was to serve as guest conductor for the Oklahoma City Philharmonic." Baltimore Sun 03/06/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 9:29 am
Eton's PVC Poet "Patience Agbabi, a bisexual, radical-feminist performance artist with cropped hair and tattoos, has been called 'the PVC poet' by the British media because of the lesbian, sadomasochistic and drug themes featured in her poetry. (PVC, or polyvinyl chloride, is used to make the shiny black material that is commonly worn by dominatrixes.) Ms. Agbabi earned this label during her recent, unusual assignment: writer in residence at Eton College, one of the oldest boarding schools in Britain, and almost certainly its grandest." The New York Times 03/05/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 8:38 am
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The New Wave Of Grassroots Censorship British culture has become ridiculously hypersensitive, says Mark Lawson, and the UK's theatre scene is becoming rapidly less relevant as self-censorship and a desire to please everyone become the norm. The religious-based campaign against the national tour of the Jerry Springer opera is only the latest example of the war being waged against creative expression. Worse, "while attempted censorship in the 1970s made artists more determined to speak out, there's a risk in this mind-your-language climate of subjects becoming no-go areas for the arts." The Guardian (UK) 03/05/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 11:18 am
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Scottish Writers Revolt Scotland's authors are proposing to break away from the Scottish Arts Council and are asking the Scottish Executive to start a special funding board just for literature. The move follows a dismal year for the Arts Council, and a similar breakaway request from Scotland's four largest performing arts groups. The Sunday Herald (UK) 03/06/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 10:23 am
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Warning: This Blurb Contains Jaded Cynicism Ever since the FCC "decency" crackdown began, US television networks have been slamming disclaimers on any program containing even mildly profane content or innuendo. Even PBS's award-winning documentary series, "Frontline," has run with disclaimers about language and content. What's the point? Well, obviously, the disclaimers give the networks a bit of plausible deniability if the FCC comes calling, but more importantly, studies have consistently shown that viewers want racy, controversial programming, and the disclaimer might even cause a few pairs of eyes to stay tuned. Chicago Tribune 03/05/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 8:48 am
Getting The Short End Of The Stick Lost in all the hype and glitz surrounding Hollywood is a sub-genre of the film industry that never seems to get any respect, and worse, never seems to get an opportunity to be seen by any but the smallest slice of the general public. "Short films can be found in such high-quality, low-glamour places as human rights and children's film festivals. They also have brief, sometimes one-night-only runs in alternative movie theaters, libraries, museums and foreign cultural centers... It's as if short-story collections were sold only at book fairs and independent bookstores on special occasions." The New York Times 03/05/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 8:40 am
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In A New York State Of Mind There is no easier way for a dance troupe to achieve validation than to score a hit in New York City. And this week, both of Colorado's high-profile dance companies are paying the Big Apple a visit. "But if the potential payoff for these trips to New York is big, so are the risks. Instead of the endorsement they crave, some companies get spanked." What's the solution? Well, it never hurts to hire a publicist with extensive knowledge of New York's strange and powerful arts world. Denver Post 03/06/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 10:54 am
Long-Overdue Overhaul Moscow's historic Bolshoi Theater is set to close this summer for a major renovation which should have started years ago. "The Bolshoi, which comprises both an opera company and a ballet company, will be leaving its historic home for the first time in 150 years. Turmoil at the theater, political infighting and haggling over architectural plans and costs have delayed the project for years." The New York Times 03/05/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 8:35 am
China's Dance Peacock Yang Liping may not be a household name in the US, but she may be China's most popular choreographer, with a sold-out run of her signature "Peacock Dance" sparking talk of a European/American tour. "The show is the latest coming-out party for Ms. Yang, who, though not well known outside of China, is known here as a stern but creative and independent force in Chinese dance." The New York Times 03/05/05
Posted: 03/06/2005 8:32 am
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