Kids Of Bipolar Parents Score High In Creativity "Researchers said a sample of children who either have or are at high risk for bipolar disorder, which was formerly called manic-depressive illness, score higher on a creativity index than healthy children." Science Daily 11/10/05
Posted: 11/10/2005 7:24 am
Study: Workers Get Stalled By Tech A new study claims that technology in the workplace is so complicated, that some workers waste up to a month per year trying to figure out how to make technology on their jobs work. "The demands of the 21st century office leave almost one in five workers (17 per cent) struggling to get their heads round simple tasks asked of them, according to the report." The Scotsman 11/10/05
Posted: 11/10/2005 7:20 am
It's Art. It's Not Supposed To Be Cool. "Cool is a word that often crops up when describing art or artists. It’s always been a term that has bugged me. The minute something is described as cool, my instincts tell me that it is on the wane. For me, being creative is being prepared to make a fool of myself — in a nutshell, the opposite of cool. In my experience embarrassment is not fatal. Coolness somehow implies that there is a right thing to do, whereas creativity is mistakes. I recall in sixth-form art lessons that the coolest boy just churned out copies of his favourite album covers... In years to come we will look back at our obsession with appearing cool as we look at the medieval chivalric code. I think the time has come for adulthood and wisdom to be seen as things worth aspiring to." The Times (UK) 11/09/05
Posted: 11/09/2005 9:22 pm
Click here for more Ideas stories...
A Starchitect Plan For The United Nations Neighborhood Architects Richard Meier and David M. Childs have unveiled a master plan for four buildings, a park and an ice rink on part of an enormous nine-acre site near the United Nations. "They say the designs, filed with the city last week as part of an environmental assessment statement, will restore a sense of the Manhattan grid to the edge of the East River. The project is part of a four-parcel property between 35th and 41st Streets that Sheldon H. Solow, the developer, bought from Con Edison for $630 million in a deal approved last year." The New York Times 11/10/05
Posted: 11/10/2005 7:14 am
David Smith Sculpture Sells For Record Price Larry Gagosian, the Manhattan dealer, fought off five aggressive bidders and paid $23.8 million at Sotheby's for David Smith's "CUBI XXVIII" (1965), the last of the artist's renowned Cubi series. "The reason for the high price was plain to lovers of contemporary art: this elegantly composed melding of boxes and columns may be the last example of the series to come on the market for some time. Most of the others are in museums or collections where they will stay for generations. So this last-chance opportunity was irresistible, which is why the sculpture's final price was nearly double its high estimate, $12 million." The New York Times 11/10/05
Posted: 11/10/2005 7:01 am
Why Does Looking At Art Have To Be So Loud? If you've noticed that museums and galleries seem to be getting louder in recent years, you're not alone. Sound bleeding from those headphone-equipped self-guided tours mingles with the shrieks of schoolchildren and leaves some art lovers decidedly irritated. "It's certainly become increasingly difficult to tour a gallery or museum without being assailed by extraneous sound, and virtually impossible to look at a painting or sculpture in any sort of contemplative tranquillity. Galleries and museums used to be regarded as temples of art, to be approached with a certain reverence - glass cases, do not touch. Now it's all lights up, hands-on and enjoy." The Telegraph (UK) 11/10/05
Posted: 11/09/2005 9:16 pm
Is The Aboriginal Art Market Overvalued? Aboriginal art has become a booming industry in Australia, despite the inherent complications of marketing and trading in a product manufactured by artists whose culture does not accept Western ideas of ownership. But the craze seems to be beginning to die down, and "amid the frenzied buying and selling, with important Aboriginal art objects changing hands as often as several times a year, there is still a pervasive anxiety that Aboriginal art might be a con." The Guardian (UK) 11/10/05
Posted: 11/09/2005 9:00 pm
As Art Goes For The Everyday, Architects Shoot The Moon "The ordinary has become the universal currency of contemporary art... Contemporary British culture fetishises the ordinary, whether it's Tracey Emin or Coronation Street, Reality TV and its stream of pleb-celebs, or the slightly condescending, awkward glory of Mike Leigh, Alan Bennett and Martin Parr... The odd thing is that while other arts increasingly revel in everydayness, architecture, the art that touches our lives in the most practical and everyday ways, remains in thrall to the gravitational pull of the 'icon'." Financial Times (UK) 11/09/05
Posted: 11/09/2005 8:56 pm
Rothko Sale Sets Record at Christie's "An oil painting by Mark Rothko has set a new world record of $22.4m for any post-war work sold at auction. The work, entitled Homage to Matisse, was sold at Christie's post-war and contemporary art sale in New York on Tuesday evening. New records were also set for Roy Lichtenstein, Francis Bacon and several other artists. Lichtenstein's In the Car sold for $16.2m, while a Willem de Kooning untitled work from 1977, sold for $10.66m, far above the high estimate of $6m. The sale took a total of $157.4m, exceeding the pre-sale high-end estimate of $145m, with only four of the 70 lots on offer failing to sell." BBC 11/09/05
Posted: 11/09/2005 8:40 pm
Rodin Coming To Raleigh A collection of 22 Rodin sculptures valued at $25 million is to be given to the Raleigh-based North Carolina Museum of Art as part of a major donation from the Cantor Foundation. The museum will house the collection in a new $75-million wing it plans to build, and will establish a companion study center. Charlotte Observer (AP) 11/10/05
Posted: 11/09/2005 8:13 pm
Click here for more Visual Arts stories...
Michigan Opera: Subscriptions Down, Ticket Sales Up Detroit's Michgan Opera Theatre ran a very modest deficit for the past season. Michigan's weak economy continued to take a toll on corporate and individual giving to the company, which remained flat. Ticket income dipped slightly, but the bigger story is that subscription income fell short of goals by $140,000. Subscription sales have now declined for five straight seasons, which officials attribute to aging audiences and lifestyle changes that find younger patrons less willing to commit. Still, single-ticket sales exceeded goals in 2005 because of a surge for the world premiere of Margaret Garner." Detroit Free Press 11/09/05
Posted: 11/10/2005 6:08 am
The "Messiah" Network "Nobody does Messiah like the English. We own the score (at the British Library), the language, the history, the continuity, the board game. We have the music in our bloodstream, the motives in our national character. Band Aid, Live Aid and all similar philanthropic outpourings are, wittingly or not, offshoots of Handelâs example in his London Messiah. So when some continental comes along with a baton and tells us weâre doing it all wrong, we canât count crotchets in Comfort-Ye or tell a pp from a ppp, weâre not, for once, going to nod obeisance and say musical Europe always knows best. Hands to ears, we English donât need be to be told how to sing Messiah, right?" La Scena Musicale 11/10/05
Posted: 11/10/2005 6:05 am
The Prodigy Problem Stephen Moss has never been a fan of the hype surrounding child musical prodigies. "Great classical musicians should be planets, not meteors; careers built steadily, stealthily. A violinist, bowing arm permitting, can last 40 years; a pianist 60. When you are 12, don't play Carnegie Hall, play football." But upon meeting four of Britain's hottest young musicians, Moss finds that they have many of the same concerns he does: "Being labelled a prodigy can be a curse. It can be dangerous because it's not about the music; it's about business and hype... Young people are children first. They have social and emotional needs, and they must be in balance if the individual is to achieve his or her potential." The Guardian (UK) 11/10/05
Posted: 11/09/2005 9:09 pm
Black Ink In Detroit, But Challenges Remain The Detroit Symphony ran a $100,000 surplus for the 2004-05 season, and raised the most money in its history to help pay down a $2-million accumulated deficit. "The single biggest factor in the orchestra's fund-raising success was a challenge grant that led to 3,100 new or increased gifts to the orchestra from individuals and businesses totaling $2.2 million... The DSO slashed expenses the last two seasons through negotiated pay cuts for the musicians and cuts in staff salaries, jobs and administrative costs. But this year, increases in musician salaries will drive up the budget by nearly $1 million." Detroit Free Press 11/09/05
Posted: 11/09/2005 8:32 pm
Australia's Alsop Simone Young, who will shortly become only the third woman ever to conduct the notoriously all-male Vienna Philharmonic, is no stranger to controversy, or to taking on the challenge of leading Europe's best (and most difficult) orchestras. "Since Young's controversial departure from Opera Australia, the maestro has further consolidated her reputation in a variety of work, including guest conducting for Placido Domingo's Los Angeles Opera and at the Opéra Bastille in Paris. Young recently took the management and artistic reins of the Hamburg State Opera... In several interviews over the years she has talked frankly about the jeers and sexist attitudes of male colleagues. She stands her ground - in high heels, of course - and invariably wins them over with her focus, authority and style." Sydney Morning Herald 11/10/05
Posted: 11/09/2005 8:27 pm
Click here for more Music stories...
Supporting Artists, Not Just Their Art Norway's culture minister has announced plans for a $150,000 study of the living conditions of the country's artists. The eventual aim would be to find new ways for the government to provide support for freelance artists, who frequently move in and out of existing unemployment programs, and often lack retirement savings. Aftenposten (Oslo) 11/09/05
Posted: 11/09/2005 8:44 pm
Click here for more Arts Issues stories...
Guessing What's Ahead In Pittsburgh As Pittsburgh braces for the impact of the touring Radio City Christmas Spectacular to hit local arts groups, arts leaders are discovering that there's just no way to tell in advance what that impact will be. A holiday entertainment glut is a possibility, which might see ticketbuyers shunning the same old Nutcracker performances in favor of the shiny new Rockettes. But the expected 30% spike in winter heating costs could also cause sales slumps all around. In any case, the beleagured Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre doesn't need the new headache. Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 11/10/05
Posted: 11/09/2005 9:27 pm
Ordway In The Black Again St. Paul's Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, which plays host to a range of traveling musicals as well as serving as the home base for Minnesota Opera and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, has balanced its budget for the third year in a row. "For the first time in three years, the center was able to draw funds — about $600,000 — from its endowment... And, buoyed by a three-year, $1.5 million grant from the Fred C. and Katherine B. Andersen Foundation, the Ordway saw contributions increase by 17 percent over last year. After three years of fiscal discipline and a half-million-dollar bailout from the city of St. Paul, the Ordway seems again ready to look forward." St. Paul Pioneer Press 11/09/05
Posted: 11/09/2005 8:06 pm
Chicago Theatres To get Regulatory Break The City of Chicago is creating a new ordinance to ease licensing on theatres. "The new rules will cut much of the red tape associated with current applications for Public Place of Amusement licenses, whose guidelines would continue to govern larger theaters. "This will make it a lot less cumbersome for theaters to go through the licensing process. It is just much more sensible and user-friendly to look at small spaces in a different way from movie theaters, bowling alleys and nightclubs." In November 2003, inspectors from the city's Revenue Department abruptly closed down a number of off-Loop theaters and cited them for an array of previously unknown violations. Chicago Sun-Times 11/09/05
Posted: 11/09/2005 5:12 am
Will Buffalo Theatre Lose Its Funding? Buffalo artists are protesting a county funding plan that would cut loose one of the city's cultural biggies - the Studio Arena Theater. "The all-volunteer county Cultural Resources Advisory Board recently came out with that surprise decision. The plan offered by the committee - which after due deliberation makes recommendations on how much and who gets funds the county sets aside for cultural organizations - is for the $3.5 million tucked away for "the culturals" to be distributed among five prime institutions, instead of six that included Studio, which was the case in 2005." Buffalo News 11/09/05
Posted: 11/09/2005 4:29 am
Click here for more Theatre stories...
Study: Twice As Much Sex On Tv Today The Kaiser Family Foundation has released a study that says that children are exposed to twice as much sexual content on TV as they were seven years ago. "In the slightly more than 1,000 shows scrutinized in the study, nearly 4,000 scenes had sexual content, compared with fewer than 2,000 in 1998, when the foundation started studying TV sex. And yet the rate of teen pregnancy in this country has plunged by about one-third during approximately the same time." Washington Post 11/10/05
Posted: 11/10/2005 7:27 am
Analysis: FCC Indecency Attacks Blunted By Ineffective Process "A Washington Post analysis of all 92 known proposed indecency fines shows that the agency's record of policing the airwaves has been undermined by plodding investigations, insufficient fine amounts and inconsistent follow-up." Washington Post 11/10/05
Posted: 11/10/2005 7:17 am
Click here for more Media stories...
Byrd's Small Seattle Dance Company Goes Big Three years ago, choreographer Donald Byrd left New York to take over Seattle's Spectrum Dance Theatre, a small community company. Many were surprised Byrd would take on a company with little reputation, but in three years he has transformed Spectrum, and last week scored a hit, bringing the made-over company to New York where it earned enthusiastic reviews. Seattle Weekly 11/09/05
Posted: 11/10/2005 6:19 am
Click here for more Dance stories...
