Urban Planning, University-Style "Cities used to be planned by professional city planners. But the planning profession as we know it arose, to a large extent, as a response to the urban renewal legislation of the 1950s and '60s, when federal funds poured into cities. Now federal money has dried up. Planning agencies in most cities are underfunded and weak. They react to proposals, rather than initiating anything themselves... So who's doing serious planning? Look around. Harvard is planning a whole new neighborhood in Allston. Columbia, already the third-largest landowner in New York, has hired noted architect Renzo Piano to help mastermind its expansion into an area called Manhattanville. The University of Pennsylvania, the largest employer and largest landowner in Philadelphia, is reaching out to revitalize the city." Boston Globe 03/20/05
Posted: 03/20/2005 10:37 am
Independent At All Costs When Minneapolis's Walker Art Center opens its striking new addition to the public next month, it will likely be a big deal in the Twin Cities. But anyone looking for the locally popular Walker to capitalize on the attention by hosting huge touring shows shows and trying to draw massive crowds would be missing the point. "Welcome to the contrarian world of the Walker, a place that prefers artful provocation to blockbuster entertainment, privileges the obscure and experimental over the tried-and-true, and cultivates a willful insouciance about the forces that govern most big museum establishment... [The museum's] insistence on creative independence has meant turning down a chance at tens of millions of dollars in state support, despite a financial crisis that has crippled the Walker's endowment and led to painful staff cuts." The New York Times 03/20/05
Posted: 03/20/2005 10:19 am
- That State Money Sure Would Have Helped, Though Speaking of the Walker Art Center, its renovation is considerably over budget, even with $5 million in unforeseen costs deferred to future years... Minneapolis Star Tribune 03/20/05
Posted: 03/20/2005 10:15 am
Buren & Guggenheim, Together At Last More than 30 years ago, New York's Guggenheim Museum acquiesced to the complaints of a number of artists involved in the museum's sixth International exhibition, and removed a massive piece of installation art, which was supposedly blocking views of other works, from its center well. "An acrimonious debate about the work's removal continued long after the event had passed, leaving lasting antipathies between artists and leading to the departure of a curator, Douglas Crimp." This week, Daniel Buren, the artist responsible for the offending work, returns to the Guggenheim with his own show, and the centerpiece is a massive tower of mirrors that dwarf the piece the museum once felt compelled to reject. The New York Times 03/20/05
Posted: 03/20/2005 10:10 am
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Who Will Speak For Opera? Finding someone with the skills to replace Beverly Sills as chair of the Metropolitan Opera will be a challenge, but a surmountable one. Finding someone to replace her as "the public face of opera and the performing arts" for a country increasingly saturated by pop culture and uninterested in more intellectual pursuits may well be impossible. The New York Times 03/20/05
Posted: 03/20/2005 10:33 am
New Contract in Utah, But Controversy Remains The musicians and management of the beleagured Utah Symphony & Opera have reached tentative agreement on a new contract, after spending the better part of the season in "play-and-talk" mode. The new contract is unlikely, however, to quiet the controversy surrounding the organization's business model, which has been under fire since the results of an independent study questioning the wisdom of merging Salt Lake City's symphony and opera company were made public a few weeks ago. Salt Lake Tribune 03/19/05
Posted: 03/20/2005 9:57 am
Did Muti Dig His Own Grave In Milan? Riccardo Muti is more than a larger-than-life character in the world of Italian opera. He is also a shrewd politician, and while he may have gotten himself into a world of trouble with his latest attempts to consolidate power around himself at La Scala, it would be a mistake to count him out just yet. Still, there is little question that Muti is losing this battle: "Talent or no talent, most people in the house have had enough of a regime where, as one described it, 'Supplicants gather outside his door like the Marschallin's levée.'" The Independent (UK) 03/20/05
Posted: 03/20/2005 9:16 am
Seattle's 16 Concertmasters The Seattle Symphony is in the market for a new concertmaster, following music director Gerard Schwarz's decision to fire Finnish violinist Ilkka Talvi, who had held the post for two decades, and a mind-boggling sixteen candidates have been invited to sit in the orchestra's first chair before a decision is made. But there's a lot more to winning the one of the more coveted positions in the orchestral business than just being a top-notch violinist... Seattle Times 03/20/05
Posted: 03/20/2005 9:04 am
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The Great Big Art FAQ There's no need to be intimidated by the arts, no matter how off-putting some of the self-importance that surrounds them might be. But just in case you're still a bit uncertain about how to act, dress, applaud, or appreciate the art event of your choice, the populist critics of the Chicago Tribune are here to help... Chicago Tribune 03/20/05
Posted: 03/20/2005 10:42 am
Imax Operators Defer To Religious Zealots "Several Imax theaters, including some in science museums, are refusing to show movies that mention [evolution] - or the Big Bang or the geology of the earth - fearing protests from people who object to films that contradict biblical descriptions of the origin of Earth and its creatures. The number of theaters rejecting such films is small, people in the industry say - perhaps a dozen or fewer, most in the South. But because only a few dozen Imax theaters routinely show science documentaries, the decisions of a few can have a big impact on a film's bottom line - or a producer's decision to make a documentary in the first place. People who follow trends at commercial and institutional Imax theaters say that in recent years, religious controversy has adversely affected the distribution of a number of films." The New York Times 03/19/05
Posted: 03/20/2005 10:04 am
Um, What Kind Of Penalties, Exactly? One of Scotland's leading political parties is "calling for the effective abolition of the Scottish Arts Council and the creation of a Scottish Academy instead... They argue that companies such as Scottish Opera, Scottish Ballet, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, should be funded directly by the Scottish Executive... The direct funding method, as used for the National Galleries, National Museum and National Library of Scotland, would be contract-based. The bodies would agree on a programme, modes of delivery, and would incur 'penalties for not delivering'." Sunday Herald (UK) 03/20/05
Posted: 03/20/2005 9:45 am
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Axelrod Awaits Sentencing, Could Get Three Years New Jersey philanthropist Herbert Axelrod, who pled guilty to tax evasion and has been accused of defrauding the New Jersey Symphony in the $17 million sale of a collection of supposedly rare string instruments, will be sentenced for his crimes on Monday, and faces a possible 3-year prison sentence. The 77-year-old Axelrod fled the U.S. shortly after being indicted, and was eventually captured in Germany. Philadelphia Inquirer (AP) 03/19/05
Posted: 03/20/2005 9:50 am
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RSC Chooses Architects For Stratford Renovation "An architectural partnership which has designed only one previous theatre was yesterday appointed to the £100m transformation of the art deco Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. Bennetts Associates, whose Hampstead theatre, north London, opened in 2003, will convert the 1,400-seat end-on auditorium into a 1,000-seater with an improved relationship between actors and audience." The Guardian (UK) 03/20/05
Posted: 03/20/2005 10:48 am
Casting the Canadian LoTR Dream Team So Toronto will play host to the first theatrical staging of Lord of the Rings. That's all well and good, but who exactly is going to headline such a blockbuster show? If we know Canada, the best bet to sell tickets will be to pack the cast with Canadian superstars, so what about Christopher Plummer as Gandalf, Jim Carrey as Gollum, Martin Short as Bilbo Baggins, or even (wait for it) Celine Dion as Legolas? Hey, it could happen... Toronto Star 03/19/05
Posted: 03/20/2005 8:37 am
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Saudi Censorship Starting To Crumble "Pioneered two decades ago by men whose work is banned here, a genre of politically charged fiction in Saudi Arabia is now being produced by more writers and in greater quantity than ever before. It marks an artistic advance in a society in which writers have long confronted the deadening effect of state censorship, and a milestone in a desert kingdom where most people were illiterate a generation ago. The writing reflects the rising discontent in the kingdom and across the Middle East, where young populations increasingly exposed to Western ideas are demanding more social and political freedom. By taking on the powerlessness of women, the tyranny of tribal society and the role of religion in the birthplace of Islam, the writing is slowly undermining the cultural conventions that have kept provocative fiction off bookshelves here for years." Toronto Star 03/19/05
Posted: 03/20/2005 8:48 am
Free Market Competition Comes To Academia "In the academic world, the Chronicle of Higher Education is the newspaper of record. From stories of embattled administrators to the latest faculty appointments, its 140-plus pages have provided readers with industry news, job listings and similar information each week for nearly 40 years. Last January, three ex-employees challenged the Chronicle's grip on academic news by going online with a free, Web-based rival, insidehighered.com... In the coming months, insidehighered.com plans a major marketing campaign that will include advertising and direct mail," with the focus on the versatility and publication speed of the online model. The site's founders even expect it to turn a profit in the not-too-distant future. Chicago Tribune 03/19/05
Posted: 03/20/2005 8:28 am
Gilead Takes Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction has been awarded to Marilynne Robinson for her long-awaited second novel, Gilead, which chronicles the life of an Iowa minister. The circle's poetry prize went to Adrienne Rich. Boston Globe 03/19/05
Posted: 03/20/2005 8:18 am
Kelley Plagiarism Lawsuit Dropped A lawsuit alleging that celebrity biographer Kitty Kelley used another author's work without permission in her book about the family of President Bush has been dropped, after the plaintiff decided that he was likely to lose the case on a technicality. "Under federal law, if a copyright holder fails to register with the office before an alleged infringement takes place, the holder is limited in the damages and lawyer's fees he can recover." Kelley has always maintained that her use of material from the other author's web site was legal under the "fair use" doctrine. The New York Times 03/19/05
Posted: 03/20/2005 8:09 am
Lexicography For Hipsters Most people don't think of lexicographers as having a great deal of impact on their daily lives, but as guardians of language, the people who write dictionaries and create the rules of pronunciation and proper usage actually wield a fair amount of influence over what we say and how we say it. Now, a new generation of lexicographers has begun to reshape the language business, and they appear to be better equipped to take the reins of American English at a relatively young age than any of their predecessors. "Today's rise of young, hip lexicographers reflects changes in the culture at large," not the least of which is the profound impact of online culture in shaping the academic mind. The New York Times 03/19/05
Posted: 03/20/2005 7:50 am
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When The Money Doesn't Match The Talent From an artistic standpoint, most observers agree that Scottish Ballet has never been in better shape, and a return to the international festival circuit is in the offing. But fiscally, the company is in the same sinking boat as nearly every other Scottish performing arts organization, and ballet administrators are getting frustrated with the Scottish Executive's seeming unwillingess to make the arts a priority. Scotland On Sunday (UK) 03/20/05
Posted: 03/20/2005 9:41 am
Taking The Measure Of Merce Merce Cunningham is old, and there's no getting around that fact. At 86 years old, he is a physical shadow of his former self, unable to dance or even walk without a lot of assistance. "But if his body no longer wishes to do his bidding, his mind continues to inspire people who rightly regard him as the enemy of cliché and the champion of difference. The fact that one of America's greatest universities has mounted its largest-ever interdisciplinary arts project under the title Encounter Merce bears eloquent witness to the potency of his influence... And who better to embody creativity in the arts than a man whose entire career has been devoted to taking the path less travelled by?" Toronto Star 03/19/05
Posted: 03/20/2005 8:45 am
Is It Dance, Or Is It Theatre? Choreographer/director Matthew Bourne has a new dance on display at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, but he might object to that description. Specifically, Bourne insists that Play Without Words is not dance, but theatre. "Mr. Bourne and his allies insist on a distinction between abstract dance and narrative dance, which they barely see as dance at all. For Mr. Bourne, as quoted in The New York Times, 'I've always been excited by the strangeness of ballet, but I can't bear it when people just come forward and do a turn in the air for no reason.'" The New York Times 03/19/05
Posted: 03/20/2005 8:02 am
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