Is There A Better Case To Be Made For The Arts?: Getting Down To Cases What do Bill Ivey, Midori, Robert L. Lynch, Glenn Lowry, Ben Cameron, Andrew Taylor, Joli Jensen, Jim Kelly, Adrian Ellis, Phil Kennicott and Russell Willis Taylor have in common? They're taking part in a week-long blog debate on ArtsJournal about the value of the arts: Is not part of the preoccupation with re-grounding the arguments for public and philanthropic funding for culture driven by our awareness that, uncomfortable though it is to say, the nonprofit cultural sector will inevitably need to contract if there is to be some sustainable equilibrium; and that the current arguments in support of culture do not appear to give us very nuanced criteria for managing that contraction and managing the tough choices with which arts administrators and arts funders are being faced?" A Better Case For The Arts (AJBlogs) 03/08/05
Posted: 03/08/2005 9:35 pm
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Art Fairs - The Game Of Getting In Early With the art market cranking at full speed, the competition to buy desirable work is fierce. And getting into art fairs early to see what's on offer has become a game. "From big machers on museum boards with millions to spend to relative nobodies with a few grand saved up, anyone who wants a leg up on the competition tries to see the merch first. Competition is so fierce because of a long-overheated art market in which nearly every gallery exhibition sells out and waiting lists are the norm. Since the Armory Show is arguably the most important contemporary art fair in North America, there’s a lot of work that collectors might not get a crack at otherwise." New York Observer 03/09/05
Posted: 03/09/2005 7:53 am
Is Philadelphia Museum's Thai Mask Stolen Art? Questions are being raised about a 22-karat gold, jewel-encrusted crown believed to have been made in Thailand in the 15th century, and owned for the past 23 years by the Philadelphia Museum. "The crown, which resembles a cylindrical helmet, is featured on the museum's Web site and in its collections handbook. Now, with the opening of an exhibition of Siamese art in San Francisco that includes the crown, questions have been raised in Thailand as to whether this regal object was removed from that country illegally nearly half a century ago." Philadelphia Inquirer 03/09/05
Posted: 03/09/2005 7:47 am
Does New American Indian Museum Make Too Many Compromises? Washington's new Museum of the American Museum tries for so much. But does it deliver? "Although architect Douglas Cardinal's building has powerful moments, and several of the exhibits are intriguing, the $220 million museum is mostly a disappointment, a casualty of political infighting, scholarly temporizing and curatorial confusion. But the exhibits are the bigger letdown, mainly because with 800,000 artifacts in its possession, including the fabulous Heye Collection, the museum is in a position to do something spectacular. Yet the exhibits are technology-rich and object-poor and so badly organized that it is difficult to know where you are or how one section or theme relates to another." Dallas Morning News 03/09/05
Posted: 03/09/2005 6:56 am
Qatar Sheik Loses Government Art Post "A wealthy sheik from Qatar who has emerged over the past three years as the world's single biggest buyer of art has been dismissed as his country's art acquisitions chief after a disagreement with the emir of Qatar over his spending habits, art world figures familiar with the case said." The New York Times 03/09/05
Posted: 03/08/2005 8:18 pm
CT: Tut Not Murdered "King Tutankhamun was not murdered, but may have suffered a bad broken leg shortly before his death at the age of about 19, a CT scan on the 3,300-year-old mummified body of the pharaoh has revealed. Discovery 03/08/05
Posted: 03/08/2005 8:01 pm
Baltimore Bid To Help Schools With Giant Crabs Baltimore city officials have a plan to raise money for schools. Art. Giant fibreglass crabs. "The goal is to put 200 of the sculptures around town -- and to raise $1 million from businesses, foundations and individuals for a city-sponsored campaign to make physical improvements in school facilities, including money raised from an auction of the sculptures after they have been on display through the spring and summer." Baltimore Sun 03/08/05
Posted: 03/08/2005 7:58 pm
The Science Of Saving The New (Art) Restoration of old artworks has long been a refined science. But saving new artworks is getting to be a bigger headache. "Modern works crumble, get moldy or disintegrate as restorers try to keep them from falling apart. Thoughtlessness, new materials and unusual ways to work with them make sculptures, paintings and installations appear old or cause them to decay even before their creators have suffered the same fate." Deutsche Welle (Germany) 03/08/05
Posted: 03/08/2005 7:53 pm
Nowegian Hotel Eager To Rehang Munch Art A spokesman for the hotel from which three Munch artworks were stolen last weekend says they are eager to get the work back and We will continue to hang art on the walls. "We haven't considered changing our product." The Refsnes Gods is an exclusive hotel, dating from the 1770s and known for its art, its gourmet kitchen and wine tasting seminars, and its location on the Oslo Fjord. Aftenposten 03/08/05
Posted: 03/08/2005 7:50 pm
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The New Jazz Labels (Musician-Led) More and more jazz artists are taking the recording business into their own hands. "Artist-run independent labels are nothing new, especially in jazz. (Decades ago, bassist Charles Mingus and drummer Max Roach formed Debut Records; singer Betty Carter once founded her own BetCar imprint.) But established jazz musicians are going their own way in surprising numbers today, touching on age-old and new business issues." Wall Street Journal 03/09/05
Posted: 03/09/2005 9:25 am
Music For All! (And Profits Too) A Canadian professor has an idea he thinks would breathe new life into the music business. He "proposes putting all recorded music on a robust search engine -- Google would be an ideal choice, but even iTunes might work -- and charging an insignificant fee of, say, five cents a song. In addition, a 1 per cent sales tax would be placed on Internet services and new computers -- two industries that many argue have profited enormously from rampant file-sharing, but haven't had to compensate artists. The assumption is that if songs cost only 5 cents, people would download exponentially more music. The extra windfall for musicians and those who own the publishing rights to the songs could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, or more, Pearlman." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 03/09/05
Posted: 03/09/2005 6:29 am
Recording Company And Scholar Clash Over Old Music A recording company (Hyperion) wants to record ancient music. A scholar claims copyright on his work recreating them. Impass. "What are the consequences? The gloomiest scenario doing the arty rounds is that, since most old musical compositions and stage works have been edited in some way, thousands of scholars will now claim millions of pounds in royalties, destroying the finances of performing organisations already operating on the most precarious budgets. The Times (UK) 03/07/05
Posted: 03/08/2005 8:31 pm
When The Downloader Is Sued... "Of the millions of people who illegally download free music using various peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, only about 8,400 have been sued by the recording industry—including, last month, an 83-year-old dead woman from West Virginia. Those odds seem pretty good, until it happens to you..." Village Voice 03/08/05
Posted: 03/08/2005 8:00 pm
Muti Speaks out On La Scala Strife Riccardo Muti speaks out about the labor strife that has thrown La Scala into chaos. "Today, I am accused of not wishing to be just musical director, but artistic director as well, and perhaps also superintendent, or even of influencing the candidature for the next mayor. I would have to smile, if the spectacle were not so depressing. However, I was prompted by the serious concern of many people who with me perceived the slow but inexorable decline of La Scala’s artistic programme, in stark contrast to the improvement in the quality of artistic production. At a certain point, I decided to protest to the board, and to the mayor, about a situation that was threatening La Scala’s image, and before which I felt impotent." Corriere Della Sera 03/08/05
Posted: 03/08/2005 7:49 pm
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Arts Funding? Why Not An Endowment? Philadelphia is in need of some major new arts funding. But where to get it? Tom Ferrick Jr. has an idea: how about a three-year increase of one percent in the sales tax? It would generate about $600 million, which could be invested in an endowment for arts and culture over the next 20 years... Philadelphia Inquirer 03/09/05
Posted: 03/09/2005 9:31 am
Hall: Arts Funding Crucial To A Healthy Country Tony Hall, chief executive of London's Royal Opera House, says increasing funding for the arts is a "no-brainer" for government. "If you put the arts in the bigger picture, and talk about them as part of the framework of the creative and cultural industries, the argument that asks 'can the arts really make a splash, do they really matter?' becomes very clea. "They are part of something fundamental and big, which is the creative economy, which is now what we live off. And when you look at it like that then arts funding becomes a no-brainer ... our future depends on creativity." The Guardian (UK) 03/09/05
Posted: 03/08/2005 7:56 pm
Sharpton Calls For Ban Of Artists Connected To Violence The Rev. Al Sharpton says that there is a need for a new law that would ban "artists who are connected to any violent acts, denying them airplay on radio and television for 90 days. 'There's a difference in the having the right to express yourself and in engaging in violence and using the violence to hype record sales, and then polluting young Americans that this is the key to success, by gunslinging and shooting'." ABCNews.com 03/08/05
Posted: 03/08/2005 7:55 pm
Dubai Launches Anti-Crude Art Campaign The United Arab Emirates is launching an expensive "Say No To Crude Art campaign. "We will launch a campaign to fight this phenomenon, especially indecent video clips and messages telecast on TV. The campaign will be funded by several groups which have shown interest in fighting this phenomenon. Khaleej Times (UAE) 03/08/05
Posted: 03/08/2005 7:52 pm
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What Comissiona Meant To Baltimore Conductor Sergiu Commisiona was music director of the Baltimore Symphony beginning in 1968. "Without Comissiona's long, eventful tenure - he served until 1985, when he was named conductor laureate - I doubt many people beyond the Baltimore Beltway would know there was an orchestra in the city, let alone such an important one." Baltimore Sun 03/08/05
Posted: 03/08/2005 7:59 pm
Heppner - Looking For Signs Of Tenor Trouble A little over a year ago, tenor Ben Heppner had to shorten two recitals when he experiences vocal problems. "Ever since, the burly Canadian tenor has had to contend not just with demands of the music at hand, but with the public memory of those unfortunate, exceptional evenings. Two wretched nights in a 17-year international career is not much, but it's enough to sharpen everyone's ears for the next sign of trouble." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 03/08/05
Posted: 03/08/2005 7:16 am
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Off-Broadway - For What Ails America "This spring there is an exceptional crop of new work by living writers including David Mamet, Stephen Adly Guirgis (who wrote Jesus Hopped the A Train) and Stephen Belber. Watching these plays, it becomes clear that American dramatists are obsessed by the failure of existing legal, religious and political systems to deal with the rising tide of prejudice. They suggest you can actually smell hatred in the air." The Guardian (UK) 03/08/05
Posted: 03/08/2005 8:13 pm
The RSC's Home-In-A-Shed The Royal Shakespeare Company has a new temporary home. "Those who have seen images of it might call it a large, rusty, flat-roofed shed resembling a giant container that has fallen off a cargo ship steaming up the Avon in Warwickshire. The theatre, a sonnet's throw from the Royal Shakespeare Theatre (RST) in the centre of Stratford-upon-Avon, is a key element in plans for a reshaping of the company's principal performance space." The Guardian (UK) 03/09/05
Posted: 03/08/2005 8:08 pm
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The Funny Pages Move Online Many of the best young cartoonists are moving out of newspapers and on to the web. "In many ways the migration of comic strips to the internet is a sound business decision. Reacting to the twin pressures of rising newsprint costs and dwindling readerships, newspaper publishers over the years have drastically reduced the space devoted to strips. As a result, most strips today run at about half the page size that Little Orphan Annie did 50 years ago. The diminishing importance of comic strips, combined with a reluctance to recognize new talent, has resulted in a whole generation of cartoonists who see newspapers as a fading relic. Since 2000, dozens of young cartoonists have used the web as a self-syndication scheme." CBC 03/09/05
Posted: 03/09/2005 6:48 am
Do Readers Make Better Police Officers? The mayor of Nezahualcoyotl, Mexico, has "ordered all 1,100 members of the municipal police to read at least one book a month or forfeit their chance of promotion. 'We believe reading will improve their vocabulary and their writing skills, help them express themselves, order their ideas and communicate with the public. Reading will make them better police officers and better people'." The Guardian (UK) 03/08/05
Posted: 03/08/2005 8:15 pm
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Ode To John Tusa The BBC3 radio interviewer is refreshing, writes Gillian Reynolds. Tusa's series, monthly interviews with people significant in the arts, regularly restores my faith in the media in general and radio in particular with its honesty, directness, seriousness and sensibility. In other words, it is not pegged to some new volume or show and therefore not part of that promotional circus whose noisy parade daily fills the airwaves." The Telegraph (UK) 03/09/05
Posted: 03/08/2005 8:04 pm
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A Home Of Its Own: Ailey Does It Right The Alvin Ailey Company has moved into a beautiful new home. "Conventional wisdom holds that nonballet dance troupes lack the business savvy or community support to raise the kind of money needed for their own buildings, but the new Ailey home shines as a model of how it can be done." Philadelphia Inquirer 03/09/05
Posted: 03/09/2005 7:43 am
Peter Boal Heads West Later this year Peter Boal leaves New York City Ballet to take over Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle. "NYCB is the major repository and custodian of the Balanchine heritage. PNB is a bit like NYCB in its early days, when every Balanchine premiere stirred controversy as well as delight. And the Seattle company can afford to take chances on new ideas as to what dancing is all about. Peter Boal's mental suitcase is packed. In many ways, he has already left home." Village Voice 03/08/05
Posted: 03/08/2005 8:03 pm
Controversial Diana Ballet Debuts "Diana the Princess, created by Danish choreographer and friend of the Royal Peter Schauffus, portrays the Prince of Wales as a heartless brute, sternly dressed in a double-breasted suit. The Prince, who spurns his wife throughout, is shown passionately cavorting with Camilla Parker Bowles in the early stages of his marriage." London Evening Standard 03/08/05
Posted: 03/08/2005 7:51 pm
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