Weekend, February 4-5
Our Eroding Cultural Lingua Franca "Not so long ago it seemed as if we all spoke the same pop-culture language. But in an era of 500 TV channels, billions of Web pages, unlimited Netflix rentals, and iPods with music libraries of Smithsonian proportions, popular entertainment has suddenly become mind-bogglingly vast. As the overlap between what we all watch, read, and listen to steadily erodes, the water cooler has become a modern-day tower of Babel, where conversations sound like the jumbled voices emanating from the jungle in "Lost." (If that reference is lost on you then, well, Q.E.D.)" Christian Science Monitor 02/03/06
Posted: 02/05/2006 12:28 pm
The Arts Race Colleges are escalating their arts offerings. "According to College Board data, there was a 44 percent increase from 1996 to 2005 in the number of high school seniors who say that they plan to major in visual and performing arts. For business and commerce majors, the gain was much less modest, at 12 percent, while the percentage who plan to major in social sciences and history has decreased by 15 percent." InsideHigherEd 02/03/06
Posted: 02/05/2006 12:24 pm
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The China Factor - Getting In To Western Art "China's spectacular economic rise over the past quarter-century has started to create enormous wealth, and prices for Chinese art have risen steeply, especially in the last three years. But Chinese art collectors have barely begun to show interest in Western masterpieces. Few doubt that in the years to come, wealthy Chinese on the mainland and in Hong Kong will become important buyers of Western art." The New York Times 02/04/06
Posted: 02/05/2006 12:36 pm
Important Art - Return To Sender? (A List) Numerous important artifacts in major museums have disputed ownership. Roger Atwood makes a list... The Guardian (UK) 02/03/06
Posted: 02/05/2006 12:32 pm
Negotiating The Met's Return Policy The Metropolitan Museum has agreed to send disputed artifacts back to Italy. So now the negotiating for how and when intensifies. "The Met has requested that it be allowed to keep the krater and a disputed set of Hellenistic silver at least through the end of next year so that the objects can be on display for the opening of the museum's expanded Roman galleries in spring 2007. The two sides are also still discussing the possibility that the vase, which the museum bought for $1 million in 1972, might be allowed to return to the Met at some point as a loan from the Italian government and remain in the United States for as long as four years." The New York Times 02/04/06
Posted: 02/05/2006 12:29 pm
Chinese Art Takes Center Stage "Chinese work has seized the imagination of the Western art world for several reasons. There's the sense that Chinese artists have sprung up seemingly full-blown since the end of the repression and censorship of the Cultural Revolution. There's a fascination with a country that's become a world economic powerhouse. And there's the intoxicating fascination of new love: Chinese artists are spending as much time and energy trying to figure us out as Western art lovers are trying to figure them out." Boston Globe 02/05/06
Posted: 02/05/2006 10:49 am
The New Art History "College art-history textbooks are undergoing an extreme makeover. Publishers and editors, stung by criticism that they have lost touch with their young readership and driven by market forces that may have little to do with fresh artistic scholarship, are literally rewriting art history—more often and more aggressively than ever before." ArtNews 02/06
Posted: 02/05/2006 10:47 am
LA County Museum Hires Michael Govan As Director "Govan, 42, is a well-known figure in the art world who rose from deputy director at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York to the top job at Dia, a leading cultural institution that collects contemporary art, supports massive outdoor projects in the American West and maintains large exhibition spaces in Manhattan and Beacon, N.Y. During his 11-year tenure, he is credited with transforming Dia from a highly specialized source of funding for individual artists' projects into an institution that brings contemporary art to a broader audience." Los Angeles Times 02/04/06
Posted: 02/05/2006 10:39 am
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So It Matters How You Play Carnegie Hall... "The distinction between renting the hall and being invited by Carnegie's programmers may not strike many concertgoers, who see the same black concert dress onstage and hear the same canon of orchestral works. But the difference is sharp, both in prestige and in fees." The New York Times 02/05/06
Posted: 02/05/2006 12:01 pm
Questionable Mozart Article after article has appeared about Mozart in this 250th anniversary year. So how much have you been paying attention? Take another one of the Guardian's famous quizes of your Mozart knowledge... The Guardian (UK) 02/05/06
Posted: 02/05/2006 11:39 am
Just What Exactly Do The Grammys Reward? The Grammys are based on the idea of rewarding the best music. But is it really possible? "Once upon a time, when there were only a handful of record labels and a few thousand albums a year to track, it seemed possible to sort out the albums that mattered, or should matter. Now, it is estimated that more than 35,000 CDs are released annually on hundreds of record labels, in addition to thousands more that surface through Internet and underground channels." Chicago Tribune 02/05/06
Posted: 02/05/2006 11:02 am
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Violence Escalates Over Cartoons Violence erupted in the Middle East over the weekend as crowds of Muslims protested Danish cartoons depicting Muhammad. "Those attacks earned widespread condemnation from European nations and the U.S., which accused the Syrian government of backing the protests. The Danish foreign minister said: 'enough is enough. Now it has become more than a case about the drawings: Now there are forces that wants a confrontation between our cultures. It is in no one's interest, neither them or us.' Syria blamed Denmark for the protests, criticizing the Scandinavian nation for refusing to apologize for the caricatures of Islam's holiest figure." Yahoo! (AP) 02/05/06
Posted: 02/05/2006 12:46 pm
Cartoon Culture = Clash Of Civilizations? It's easy to leap to the extremes of the uproar over the Danish cartoons of Muhammad. "Perhaps these cartoons really do crystallize why Islam and the West are incompatible and must hunker down for a 'long war.' The only other option, it seems, is to remember that if vastly different worldviews can find no accommodation on a subject, then perhaps it's too early, in human history, to have the conversation." Washington Post 02/04/06
Posted: 02/05/2006 11:57 am
Selling Denver's Arts Denver wants to be known as an arts city. But lots of cities want to be known as arts cities, and marketing efforts abound. So how exactly does a city distinguish its arts scene from others? Denver Post 02/05/06
Posted: 02/05/2006 11:17 am
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The Shakespeare Picture (Is It?) Lloyd Sullivan has spent almost two decades and as much as $1-million trying to prove that the portait his family has owned for more than four centuries is that of William Shakespeare. "Events in the last year have convinced Sullivan that his heirloom is within striking distance of being named an authentic lifetime likeness of Shakespeare. If he's right, the painting could be worth as much as $20-million. Certainly it's a claim that's going to receive renewed attention this spring as a much-anticipated Shakespeare-themed art exhibition goes up in London." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 02/05/06
Posted: 02/05/2006 11:28 am
John Williams, Mr. Movie Score The composer has written 101 movie scores and has been nominated for 45 Oscars, "tying the record for best-score nominations set by his mentor, Alfred Newman. Williams is now the second-most-nominated person ever, after Walt Disney (with 59)." Boston Globe 02/05/06
Posted: 02/05/2006 10:52 am
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Fears That Go Bump In The Night (Live! Onstage!) Chicago theatres are opening their stages to anxiety this season. "Audiences seeking to exorcise the demons that plague us in the midnight hours can face down their fears a little earlier, in the collective warmth of a theater, and emerge cleansed of anxiety when the lights come up and the world rearranges itself around us, still intact for the time being." The New York Times 02/05/06
Posted: 02/05/2006 12:04 pm
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Twain As Literary Lincoln A new biography of Mark Twain attempts to measure the author's importance to American literature: "His way of seeing and hearing things changed America's way of seeing and hearing things ... he was the Lincoln of American literature.' In his prime, a century after the Declaration of Independence, Twain was a Yankee original who rendered the vocabulary and tone of the American vernacular, previously despised, in a way that was neither parody, nor caricature, but literature." The Guardian (UK) 02/04/06
Posted: 02/05/2006 11:52 am
Dear Mr. Bin Laden: Please Endorse My Book "To publishers and new writers, the imprimatur of a famous author has always been gold, carrying, as it does, all the solemnity of naming a successor. But the new vogue for non-literary champions - Robert Plant or Jarvis Cocker, for example - works on a much simpler syllogism: if you like Robert Plant, and Robert Plant liked this book, why then, you'll like this book." The Observer (UK) 02/05/06
Posted: 02/05/2006 11:46 am
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France Considers New File-Sharing Plan France is considering a new law that would legalize file-sharing in return for flat-fee licensing. "The entertainment industry is preparing a massive lobby against the law, saying it would undo years of anti-piracy work and leave artists destitute." CBC 02/05/06
Posted: 02/05/2006 10:43 am
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Is Dance Training Failing The ArtForm? "Increasingly, questions are being asked about how to prepare young people for an art form whose core values are so antithetical to today's me-centred consumer culture. Have they got the necessary self-discipline? Are they tough enough? Some of those who run ballet companies doubt it, and point the finger at teachers who, they claim, are too soft on their students." The Observer (UK) 02/05/06
Posted: 02/05/2006 11:48 am
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