The Cleveland Museum's New Future The Cleveland Museum had a big week of life-changing announcements. "First came the awe: After a decade of planning, the museum's 26 voting trustees agreed unanimously on Monday to go ahead with a visually stunning, $258 million expansion and renovation designed by Rafael Vinoly of New York. Now comes the shock: The six-year construction process, which will start in September, means that the museum's spectacular permanent collection will be off-limits and out of sight for at least several years." The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 03/13/05
Posted: 03/14/2005 6:53 am
Do Art Dealers Have Too Much Impact On The Art World? "The era from the Renaissance through to the mid-19th century was one of patronage. But then the capitalist intermediary, the dealer, took over. And as early as 1871 the prestigious periodical the Art Journal was lamenting their part: 'The influence of the dealer is one of the chief characteristics of modern art… to him has been owing… the immense increase in the prices of pictures.' The pervasive influence of the dealers hasn't stopped since." The Telegraph (UK) 03/12/05
Posted: 03/13/2005 10:09 pm
The Hotel And The Munches What kind of hotel has original Edvard Munch artwork on its walls? "Munch would seem the least likely artist to be at home among the chat and cheer of a posh restaurant overlooking Oslofjord, across the water from the village where he used to summer in the 1890s when he was painting The Scream and other images in his cycle The Frieze of Life. Yet here he is, watching over the business lunchers in the Hotel Refsnes Gods' Restaurant Munch (no pun intended)." The Guardian (UK) 03/14/05
Posted: 03/13/2005 9:59 pm
Into Every Painter Of Light A Little Rain Must Fall Thomas Kinkade is making a crusade out of his career. "The 47-year-old painter sees himself as a fine-art rebel at war with elitism. He makes it sound downright radical to be the leading creator of easy-access art in the traditions of Walt Disney, Norman Rockwell and, believe it or not, Andy Warhol. 'My art is a populist form of art. The official art of our day - the art that our tax dollars pay for - is an art of darkness, it is an art of alienation from the public. ... What I create is very much a reaction to that system." Sacramento Bee 03/13/05
Posted: 03/13/2005 9:23 pm
A Picture's Worth... "The art world, layered with prestige, the weight of history, serious scholarship and not a little pretense, has finally embraced photography, but the verdict is still out about the medium's position as an arriviste. Serious collectors of art are now seriously collecting photographs, but so are people with cash on their hands who view photography as just another status collectible. That status depends in part on the belief that these fantastic prices reflect some inherent worth, not just canny marketing. Do they?" The New York Times 03/14/05
Posted: 03/13/2005 9:05 pm
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The Day Aussie Orchestras Died? A new Australian government report recommends reducing the number of musicians in the country's major orchestras. The author of the report "doesn't like to call them 'player cuts'. He refers to 'a reduction in the permanent establishment' of the Queensland Orchestra (from 89 to 74 musicians), Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (from 74 to 56) and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (from 47 to 38, or a large chamber orchestra). 'Any suggestion there be less players [will be] met with some emotion. But we've tried to be realistic and look at long-term viability'."
Sydney Morning Herald 03/14/05
Posted: 03/14/2005 7:31 am
- Critics: Aussie Orchestra Report Will Kill Orchestras "Sydney is the only city in Australia that can justify two orchestras, and it's unrealistic for the others to expect world-class standards from even one, a new report says." Sydney Morning Herald 03/14/05
Posted: 03/14/2005 7:30 am
Chicago And Music Make Up The City of Chicago and its musicians have been on uneasy terms for several years. But "a multifaceted dialogue involving city officials, club owners, record-company and studio owners and music-industry veterans has created the Chicago Music Commission, which aims to raise Chicago's profile internationally, turn its musical variety into a major tourist attraction and bring millions of additional dollars into city coffers and businesses. One city official called it the Chicago cultural equivalent of the Czech Republic's "velvet revolution," in which the communist regime quietly gave way to the coun-try's first free elections in 40 years." Chicago Tribune 03/13/05
Posted: 03/14/2005 7:06 am
Do Music And Images Really Belong Together? David Patrick Stearns doesn't think much of attempts to marry orchestra music with images. "My newest theory on the subject is this: Sight and sound are a perpetually uneasy marriage and always will be. So how about an annulment, or at least separate bedrooms - allowing cohabitation rights without the responsibility of mutual support? Even when video and music are successfully manipulated to work toward one goal, they just might compete for the same part of your brain and cancel each other out. Maybe sight and sound can happen simultaneously without everyone working so strenuously to achieve some unified statement. Maybe greater dividends arise from an un-unified statement." Philadelphia Inquirer 03/13/05
Posted: 03/14/2005 6:57 am
Music On The Brain Why does music sometimes get stuck in your head? "A team from Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, played music to volunteers while using a technique called functional magnetic resonance imagery to scan their brains. As the music was played, parts of the tune were cut. Researchers found volunteers mentally filled in the blanks if a familiar song was missing snippets, although the same effect was not seen with unfamiliar tunes. The brain activity was picked up by the scan and found to be centred in the auditory cortex." The Scotsman 03/10/05
Posted: 03/14/2005 6:24 am
Muti Refuses To Conduct La Scala Riccardo Muti has refused to conduct the La Scala orchestra, saying that the company is in crisis. "I believe that, at the moment, there are not the conditions for us to play music together." His announcement forced the theatre to scrap a concert by La Scala Philharmonic that was to have been performed on Friday, the latest in a string of cancellations pitching the house into financial crisis. The Guardian (UK) 03/14/05
Posted: 03/13/2005 9:34 pm
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Runaway Boards? As the actions of the boards of several arts organizations in the Pacific Northwest have shown in recent months, arts boards have a lot of responsibility (and headaches). "I think there’s a belief that to be on a nonprofit arts board, you maybe just show up at some meetings a few times a year. The truth is, the “hand-to-mouth business” of nonprofit art is scary and dangerous, and takes a lot of care and coddling and attention." Tacoma News-Tribune 03/13/05
Posted: 03/14/2005 8:52 am
That Complicated France/America Thing "While American Francophobia can seem transient, news oriented, associated with the political right and theatrical in character, French anti-Americanism - like a venerable Old World tradition - reaches far and deep. It is championed by both the left and right. And over its long evolutionary course, various scientific, philosophical, political, social and racial justifications have been offered. Its convictions are so fundamental that they are barely recognized, and they are spreading." The New York Times 03/14/05
Posted: 03/14/2005 7:15 am
Three Theatres Reach Finals Of Business Competition "Three not-for-profit theatres have arrived at the final round of the third National Business Plan Competition for Nonprofit Organizations, a project of the Yale School of Management-The Goldman Sachs Foundation Partnership on Nonprofit Ventures." Back Stage 03/13/05
Posted: 03/13/2005 8:37 pm
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Charlie Parker, 50 Years Later Charlie Parker died 50 years ago. "It said "pneumonia" on the death certificate, but it might have been more accurate to have written "everything". At that point he had advanced ulcers, dropsy and a bad heart, and his liver was gravely damaged. The influence of Charlie Parker has been so all-pervading that it's hard to imagine music without it; his influence has reached places where it would scarcely be suspected." The Telegraph (UK) 03/12/05
Posted: 03/13/2005 10:23 pm
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Tacoma Theatre Loses NEA Grant The struggling Tacoma Actors Guild theatre loses a $25,000 NEA grant for producing Shakespeare. A production of "Comedy of Errors" was canceled after the theater announced $350,000 in debt and laid off its staff in December, reopening with a scaled-back production cycle that includes, instead, “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged).” That disqualified TAG from the competitive Shakespeare for a New Generation program. TAG was selected as one of 22 participating theaters in the nation. These have to be full productions of Shakespeare’s work."
Tacoma News-Tribune 03/11/05
Posted: 03/14/2005 8:57 am
The Difference Between English And American Theatre Critics? "The American drama critic, when he is not a failed playwright or actor, tends to be recruited from the ranks of journalists. The English drama critic comes to the "live theatre" after an immersion in upscale, university-bred culture. On some tacit level, play-going is always viewed as the more vulgar expression of Literature. But being better read and better educated than his American counterpart doesn't always insure more sensitive responses. Too often larger, and largely irrelevant, issues becloud his judgment and his mind is constantly distracted by generalities which are part of a political agenda, an elaborately-wrought esthetic, or merely the offshoots of an over-stuffed intellect." Swans.com 03/05
Posted: 03/13/2005 9:19 pm
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The Catch-22 Of First Time Fiction "Literary first novels are almost impossible to introduce into the marketplace. Bookstores will only order them in small quantities, if at all, and it is difficult to get reviews, especially in places that really matter. Additionally, getting a bookstore reading for a first fiction author is an effort that would make Sisyphus proud. A well–established independent bookseller once told me flat out that he would never book a first fiction author into his store. Furthermore, to even have a chance of selling, a first novel has to classifiable, meaning it has to fit neatly into a genre or niche—mystery, thriller, crime, etc. A one sentence selling line also helps. However, literary fiction often cannot be easily classified or described." MobyLives 03/13/05
Posted: 03/13/2005 9:24 pm
Paglia: Poetry's Sorry State Camille Paglia remembers the 1960s, when poetry mattered. "But over the following decades, poetry and poetry study were steadily marginalised by pretentious "theory" - which claims to analyse language but atrociously abuses it. Poststructuralism and crusading identity politics led to the gradual sinking in reputation of the premiere literature departments, so that by the turn of the millennium they were no longer seen, even by the undergraduates themselves, to be where the excitement was on campus. One result of this triumph of ideology over art is that, on the basis of their publications, few literature professors know how to "read" any more - and thus can scarcely be trusted to teach that skill to their students." The Telegraph (UK) 03/13/05
Posted: 03/13/2005 8:47 pm
Author Chosen For Peter Pan Sequel Geraldine McCaughrean has been chosen to write a sequel to Peter Pan. "The working title of the new story is Captain Pan, an indication of what happened to Peter Pan as he advanced in years. The children's hospital has said that the book must feature the original characters, including Peter, Wendy, Tinkerbell and Captain Hook." BBC 03/13/05
Posted: 03/13/2005 8:32 pm
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Rare Victory For Classical Radio In a reversal of the way these things usually go, Cincinnati's all-classical public radio station, WGUC, has purchased WVXU, the city's powerful public news and information station, along with the three-state network it was attached to. The merger has the potential to make WGUC a major force in the increasingly ratings-driven world of public radio, but unlike in so many other markets, where classical stations have been eliminated or converted to news/talk, the consolidation would seem to strengthen the place of classical music on Cincinnati's air. Cincinnati Enquirer 03/11/05
Posted: 03/13/2005 9:39 am
Warner Music To Go Public "As the music industry confronts declining sales, the Warner Music Group said yesterday that it had filed to sell up to $750 million of stock in an initial public offering. The company, which is the smallest of the world's four major record conglomerates by market share, said it expected to sell its stock on either the New York Stock Exchange or the Nasdaq. It did not detail the number of shares it planned to offer or their expected price range." The New York Times 03/12/05
Posted: 03/13/2005 8:09 am
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Sadler's Wells Risky New Gambit "When the historically pivotal Islington theatre was rebuilt with a Lottery grant of £30 million, there was much sneering at "ballet" getting "people's money". Seven years on, and Sadler's Wells is now the most virtuous theatre in London. It manages to be both local and international. Now a new stage begins. This week Sadler's Wells's chief executive Alastair Spalding announced a risky new development - risky because it challenges the theatre's knife-edge finances." The Telegraph (UK) 03/12/05
Posted: 03/13/2005 10:14 pm
The New African Dance African choreographers are inventing new forms of dance, but no one seems to be sure what to call them. "African dance is, by nature and tradition, both multidimensional and heterogenous. To suggest that choreographers should stay within the boundaries of some preconceived national dance expression is relativistic; to describe their work as derivative of American or European modern dance choreographers is elitist." The Guardian (UK) 03/14/05
Posted: 03/13/2005 9:50 pm
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