Revitalization, The Right Way Using the arts to revitalize urban areas is an old trick, of course, but seldom is it really done well, for the simple reason that doing it well isn't all that easy. "A single arts building or initiative can't redirect the tidal forces of urban activity. Instead, it requires the synergistic efforts of government, for-profits, nonprofits, and citizens -- whether working collaboratively, or accidentally, toward a common goal." A new paper from the Brookings Institute aims to break down exactly how successful turnarounds have been achieved, and what the essential steps are for getting there. The Artful Manager (AJ Blogs) 07/27/05
Posted: 07/27/2005 10:05 pm
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Ex-Newfoundland Gallery Director Speaks Out Why did the director/founder of Newfoundland's provincial art gallery suddenly resign? "Gordon Laurin said he had objected to a proposed restructuring of gallery staff and management, including cutting staff by 40 per cent, to eight employees. This move would eliminate several key positions, leaving only two curators, two administrative assistants, and those who look after the collections. It would also see some staff, such as technical or outreach workers, reporting to different provincial departments including financing and marketing, diluting the gallery's in-house ability to handle such processes as exhibit loans, or artist-in-residence programs, he said." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 07/28/05
Posted: 07/28/2005 7:42 am
The Race Is On To Be Tallest Will Chicago build America's tallest building? There are plans, of course. Worldwide, the competition for "tallest building" continues. "There are real bragging rights to being the tallest that go back 3,000 years. Exceeding or exalting for spiritual reasons or a demonstration of power dates back from Babylon on - wanting to take a place in history, reserve a place in the timeline. Height is a fixation." The New York Times 07/28/05
Posted: 07/28/2005 6:49 am
Christo Goes After Colorado Christo and Jeanne Claude are pressing forward with their plans to cover part of a Colorado river with fabric. "State, local and federal governments permitting, "Over the River" would occur over two midsummer weeks in 2008, at the earliest, the husband-and-wife team said. Their display, whose seven increments would range from a half mile to 2 1/2 miles long, is designed to be observed from above by motorists on U.S. 50 and from below by hikers and rafters, they said. The fabric is designed to reflect the sky for those watching from above and to diffuse the light when seen from below." Denver Post 07/28/05
Posted: 07/28/2005 6:27 am
Tate Rejects Stuckists The Tate Museum has turned down a proposed gift of 160 paintings offered by a group of artists known as the Stuckists. Tate director Sir Nicholas Serota wrote to the Stuckists, who offered the gift: "We do not feel that the work is of sufficient quality in terms of accomplishment, innovation or originality of thought to warrant preservation in perpetuity in the national collection." The Times (UK) 07/28/05
Posted: 07/28/2005 6:23 am
Louvre Gets $20 Million For Islamic Wing A member of the Saudi royal family has donated $20 million to the Louvre, with the money earmarked for the construction of a new wing to house the French museum's collection of Islamic art. The gift is the largest ever received by the Louvre. "The design for the new wing, unveiled at the ceremony, would involve covering much of the Louvre's Cour Visconti, a neo-Classical courtyard, with a contemporary sail-like roof made up of small glass disks. Officials put the total cost of the wing, by the architects Mario Bellini and Rudy Ricciotti, at $67 million and predicted it would open in 2009." The New York Times 07/28/05
Posted: 07/27/2005 10:23 pm
Stirling Shortlist Announced Six finalists have been announced for the "£20,000 Stirling prize, awarded for the building that 'has made the greatest contribution to British architecture in the past year'." The new Scottish Parliament made the list, as did the Jubilee library in Brighton. The oddsmakers are already cranking, of course, but predicting the Stirling winner has historically been quite difficult. The award will be announced on October 15. The Guardian (UK) 07/28/05
Posted: 07/27/2005 9:29 pm
Stonehenge 'Improvement' Plans Slapped Down British plans to reroute traffic around Stonehenge and to erect a visitors' center near the site have been crushed by a local council. Local residents had opposed the plans from the beginning, as had a vocal contingent of Britons with long memories of the last disastrous time the government tried such a scheme. The Guardian (UK) 07/28/05
Posted: 07/27/2005 9:25 pm
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Canadian Orchestras On The Rebound Three years ago, exoperts were predicting the death of Canadian symphony orchestras. That has changed dramatically. "After more than a half-century of resolutely resisting change in the name of purism, our symphonies, with nothing to lose, began experimenting, and have largely succeeded in bulking up their audiences and making a start at balancing their books. Insiders remain edgy, worried about the future. They voice concerns about the efficacy of subscriptions (younger people tend not to book in advance) and the increasing scarcity of patrons willing to donate money and time to orchestras. But overall, the mood has become markedly more bullish in the orchestral world." CBC 07/26/05
Posted: 07/28/2005 6:55 am
Lebrecht on Alsop: A True Musicians' Conductor Norman Lebrecht says that Marin Alsop handled the Baltimore dust-up with all the aplomb, dignity, and compassion one would expect from her. "This seemed to be just another of those occasions when musicians pick the worst possible moment to air unrelated internal grievances," but Alsop responded by quietly asking to meet with the musicians directly, and then asking what she could do to help them. "That's Marin Alsop, through and through. Of all current conductors, she is probably the best facilitator, the one who gets things done." La Scena Musicale 07/27/05
Posted: 07/27/2005 9:08 pm
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How's That Online Obscenity Ban Been Working Out? Obscenity has always been a tricky subject for American courts, as they try to balance First Amendment rights against the right of communities to reject things that violate their collective values. A 2001 lawsuit, filed by an artist whose website includes images of sadomasochism and bondage, was intended to force yet another official answer to the seemingly insoluble problem by challenging the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which bans the distribution of obscene content on the Internet. The case has made its way to Federal District Court, where this week, a panel of judges ruled against the artist. But there is little question that the case will eventually land before the Supreme Court. The New York Times 07/28/05
Posted: 07/27/2005 10:27 pm
Another Grave Threat To Copyright Stamped Out The Olympic Hopefuls are a highly successful Minneapolis-based band believed by many to be on the verge of breaking out nationally. But if that breakout occurs, the band will be missing half its name. In a strange case of copyright enforcement that recalls the recent dust-up between the U.S. Postal Service and the band known as Postal Service, the U.S. Olympic Committee has firmly pointed out to the Olympic Hopefuls that the word "olympic" was copyrighted by an act of Congress in 1950. In the case of USPS vs. Postal Service, things worked out fine, with the band keeping its name in exchange for a free performance and some promotional work. But the Olympic Hopefuls are now just The Hopefuls, hoping that their fans will still recognize them. Minneapolis Star Tribune 07/28/05
Posted: 07/27/2005 10:11 pm
Safe At Home (But At What Cost?) Keeping important works of art in their country of origin is a dicey business, partly because collectors frequently have other ideas, and also because the general public often gulps at the cost of outbidding such collectors. In 2004, the UK government managed to use a combination of parliamentary maneuver and serious cash to keep the Macclesfield Psalter, a supposedly critical part of British art history, in country. But how truly important is the book, and was it really worth £1.7m just to keep it out of California? The Guardian (UK) 07/28/05
Posted: 07/27/2005 9:40 pm
The London Aftermath New York's cultural marketplace was devastated after the 9/11 attacks, and in London, fears that a similar fate could befall the city's arts purveyors has been intense since the subway and bus bombings of July 7. It's too early for much more than anecdotal evidence, but early research indicates that theatres were hit hardest, with most galleries and museums returning quickly to normal patron levels. At the BBC Proms, walk-up sales are down, but overall, concerts are more full than at the same point last summer. Of course, no one yet knows whether the attacks will be an isolated event, or the beginning of a new campaign of terror in England's capital city, and that, more than anything, will likely determine the long-term implications of the July 7 bombings. The Guardian (UK) 07/28/05
Posted: 07/27/2005 9:34 pm
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Stanley Kunitz At 100 He becomes a centennarian this week. "In his time, Kunitz seems to have known or had contact with practically everyone of note in the poetry world. He has also won virtually every prize and honor, and propelled or redirected the careers of dozens of poets. He won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, and served as consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress from 1974 to 1976 and again from 2000 to 2001, at age 95, after the position was renamed poet laureate." Boston Globe 07/28/05
Posted: 07/28/2005 7:52 am
No Dumb Soprano Jokes Here Russian mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina has developed quite a reputation as one of her generation's most opinionated divas. Two years ago, she walked out on conductor Antonio Pappano and the UK's Royal Opera House in a dispute over director Robert Wilson's approach to Aida, and just recently, she quit a La Scala production of Carmen when she discovered that the recitatives were to be spoken rather than sung. But her temperament seems to stem not from ego, but from a deep belief that there is a right way and a wrong way to approach music, and that she, as an artist, should not be asked to compromise her musical values. The Guardian (UK) 07/28/05
Posted: 07/27/2005 9:47 pm
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Theatre Calgary's New Top Guy Theatre Calgary has a new director. He's "Dennis Garnhum, 37, a London, Ont., native who has been living in New York for the past three years, is a chameleon director whose résumé includes musical theatre, opera, American and British political drama, murder mysteries and a number of new Canadian plays." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 07/28/05
Posted: 07/28/2005 7:45 am
Broadway On A Record Pace "Maybe it's the air-conditioning or the advertising or even - imagine this - the entertainment, but Broadway is sizzling. Eight weeks into the 2005-6 season and despite an oppressive blanket of heat flopped over the city, box-office sales are up by 9 percent over last summer, with a 5 percent increase in attendance, making for the industry's fastest start ever... The attendance and box-office figures, which include sales through Sunday, put Broadway on track to set records for both attendance and gross sales, good news for an industry that saw negligible growth last season. Bullish Broadway executives say much of the summertime boom is the result of a current crush of tourism, including many overseas travelers drawn to the United States by the weak dollar." The New York Times 07/28/05
Posted: 07/27/2005 10:18 pm
Tough Times To Be A Controversial Playwright "These are awkward times for provocative playwright Dennis Kelly. In May, he had a play at London's Hampstead Theatre with the controversial title Osama the Hero, and now his new one, After the End, shows what happens in the wake of a terrorist nuclear attack... Does Kelly have any doubts about writing about a terror attack now that one has happened? 'The bombs in London are so recent that I'm not really sure what I feel. The play is about how we behave, and it argues that terrorism, no matter how terrible, cannot change our society - only we can do that. It's us that choose to become monsters - terrorists can't make us monsters.'" The Telegraph (UK) 07/27/05
Posted: 07/27/2005 9:59 pm
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Disney Closing Last hand-Drawn Animation Studio Disney has announced it will close its last studio that draws cartoons by hand. "Disneytoon Studios (in Sydney, Australia) employees were informed of the decision Wednesday and were told the studio would shut down in mid-2006 after the completion of work on sequels to the films Brother Bear and Cinderella. Disney began with hand-drawn, two-dimensional animation in films like Pinocchio and Snow White. However, the most popular animated films are now of the computer-generated, three-dimensional variety, like Toy Story, Shrek and The Incredibles." CBC 07/28/05
Posted: 07/28/2005 6:58 am
And The Standard Is Now... Digital Major Hollywood studios have agreed on a standard for digital projection of movies. "Studios have spent the last three years working on the technology and have now settled on specifications they say are good enough for all types of movies. Some cinemas have already installed digital projectors, but the deal means an industry standard can be rolled out around the world." BBC 07/28/05
Posted: 07/28/2005 6:40 am
Payola Aside, The Airwaves Belong To The Rich New York's attorney general can take his fight against newfangled forms of payola as far as he wants, but it won't change the fact that the pop music business is now the purview of a handful of gigantic media companies that want nothing to do with the old method of letting a song rise to the top by virtue of its quality. "the major labels simply have more money and manpower to wheedle programmers into adding their music to broadcast play lists. The big players, far more so than their independent rivals, also have the wherewithal to build demand for their acts by subsidizing their tours and record-store advertising, producing music videos and landing them on television shows. This imbalance in resources accounts, in part, for the disparity between sales and airplay in the music business." The New York Times 07/28/05
Posted: 07/27/2005 10:20 pm
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