Tuesday, February 7
Prize Portents "In the fields of literature, movies and music, prize scandals prompt people to pay attention to awards, if only to see what gauche lapse in taste happens next. And debates about the credibility of a prize, by their very existence, benefit the concept of art and artistic value by implying that they exist in a realm separate from politics and compromise. Clearly, questions about prizes' credibility haven't hampered their proliferation: ours is a culture beset by and obsessed with prizes, even if we disagree about their meaning. So what do they mean?" Toronto Star 02/07/06
Posted: 02/07/2006 8:11 am
The Neuroscience Of Dance Improv Neuroscientists are studying improvisation in dance. Is there some similarity with how birds move in flocks? "There's no lead bird who dictates, 'Now we'll be in this V.' They're forming patterns by sensing where they all are in space, by wind currents, all the different variables. They're self-organizing themselves into a pattern. That's what the dancers are experiencing, they're forming their own patterns from within." San Diego Union-Tribune 02/07/06
Posted: 02/07/2006 7:43 am
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Knight: New Director Lands In America's Most Interesting City For New Art That's what Los Angeles has become, claims Christopher Knight: "Los Angeles has emerged as America's most interesting and exciting production center for new art. Meanwhile, New York has consolidated its position as art's primary consumption center. What this dichotomy means for art museums is significant. New York's museums are ruled by patterns of consumption. Because of it, their contemporary art programming is a shambles — mostly safe, conservative, star-driven, geared toward cultural tourists, oriented toward the bottom line. It's the art equivalent of popular entertainment, with the museum as Hollywood movie studio. By contrast the most consistently vivifying contemporary art programming will be found in LA, which reflects the city's prominence as a production center." Los Angeles Times 02/07/06
Posted: 02/07/2006 7:15 am
Hermitage Working On $100 Million Expansion The Hermitage Museum says it will complete a $100 million expansion within three years. The new complex "is a state-of- the-art museum space that will allow us to experiment with different methods of exhibiting art works." Bloomberg 02/07/06
Posted: 02/07/2006 6:37 am
Belgian Town Bans Saddam Picture Officials in a Belgian town have banned an artwork depicting Saddam Hussein. "The piece, called Saddam Hussein Shark, shows the handcuffed ex-Iraqi ruler suspended in liquid and wearing nothing more than underpants. The mayor of Middlekerke, Michel Landuyt, said the work could 'shock people', including Muslims." BBC 02/07/06
Posted: 02/07/2006 6:29 am
The Art Fair Problem Though art fairs like Frieze and Art Basel Miami are doing well, there is mounting evidence that many traditional art fairs are struggling to survive... The Art Newspaper 02/04/06
Posted: 02/06/2006 8:34 pm
Dutch To Consider Art Return The Dutch government is deciding whether to return a major art collection to the descendants of a Jewish art dealer whose holdings were taken by the Nazis... Los Angeles Times (AP) 02/04/06
Posted: 02/06/2006 7:18 pm
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Largest Mexican Music Festival Is A Free For All "Once on the verge of extinction, the fast-paced and irresistibly rhythmic son jarocho (pronounced ha-RO-cho) is undergoing a revival. The genre is being fueled by a new generation of jaraneros, a name derived from the genre's typically small guitar, or jarana. This evolution of son jarocho doesn't have a new name yet, but it definitely has a new energy and fresh sound." Los Angeles Times 02/07/06
Posted: 02/07/2006 7:23 am
Ottawa Orchestra Says Missing Zukerman Will Return Ottawa's national Arts Center Orchestra announced its next season Monday, saying that wayward music director Pinchas Zukerman will return to lead the orchestra. Zukerman mysteriously bolted from the orchestra part way through this season, claiming need for a break. Orchestra manager Christopher Deacon said the NAC is working on a suggestion by Zukerman to bring in a facilitator to 'improve communication and better the working atmosphere'."
Ottawa Citizen 02/07/06
Posted: 02/07/2006 6:24 am
Like The Concert, Go Home With The CD John Eliot Gardiner is offering audiences for his new concert an instant recording. "As audiences leave Sir John Eliot's concert at Cadogan Hall in London, they will be able to walk away with a live recording of the music played in the first half of the evening - Mozart's Symphonies Nos 39 and 41 - produced by his own label, SDG." The Guardian (UK) 02/06/06
Posted: 02/06/2006 10:14 pm
Wanted: A Music Director To Conduct Us In Chapter 7? The Louisville Orchestra's current crisis will put the organization in bankruptcy, says the orchestra's board. But that isn't stopping Louisville from looking for a new music director. "Though a Chapter 7 filing would put the orchestra out of business for an indefinite period, orchestra manager Scott Provancher said it's still worth pursuing the music-director search in the meantime. The orchestra is seeking a successor to Uriel Segal; his contract was not renewed at the end of the 2003-04 season, with the board saying it wanted a music director with more of a community presence." Louisville Courier-Journal 02/06/06
Posted: 02/06/2006 6:39 pm
- In Louisville - A Musician's Take On An Orchestra's Labor Crisis In frustration with her orchestra's current labor impass, Louisville Orchestra musician Tamara Meinecke writes to the Courier-Journal: "I find it somewhat embarrassing and certainly distressing to have to defend the orchestra from its own board chairman..." Louisville Courier-Journal 02/06/06
Posted: 02/06/2006 6:32 pm
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Bush Culture Funding - Status Quo George Bush's proposed $2.77 trillion budget doesn't include any big increases for culture. "The modest boost will most likely offset inflation but not give enough cushion to try new things. On the other hand, none of the agencies received sizable cuts." Washington Post 02/07/06
Posted: 02/07/2006 8:18 am
Oda Named Canada's New Culture Minister Canada's new Conservative government has named Beverley Oda, the first Japanese Canadian elected to parliament as the country's new minister of culture. "In addition to working at Global Television and CTV, Oda helped launch Canada's First Multilingual Television station (CFMT), which is now Omni 1. A winner of the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal, Oda was also inducted into Canada's Broadcast Hall of Fame in 2003." CBC 02/07/06
Posted: 02/07/2006 6:33 am
- Canadian Artists Worry About Promised Funding Increases The Canadian arts community is pleased by the selection of Bev Oda as the new culture minister. But "some suggest that the concern isn't about Oda, but the new drive to make the path of money through federal agencies more transparent and accountable. The worry is that this could slow down promised funding increases, particularly the past Liberal government's pre-election promise in November to double the budget of the Canada Council for the Arts, the umbrella arts funding agency, in three years to $301-million." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 02/07/06
Posted: 02/07/2006 6:04 am
Where Are The Women? Everywhere But At The Top "Traditionally, if you look at our cultural institutions, most of them employ women in equal numbers. Women are certainly prominent in middle management. There is no question that women are good at what they're doing - but what they're generally doing is supporting male directors. There are, for sure, some art galleries with women directors. But if you start looking at national museums and galleries, no, there aren't. And if you start looking at orchestras in general, no again; we've got one woman director of an orchestra [the LSO]. There are fantastically few women film scriptwriters. Why should that be? These are bastions of male leadership." The Guardian (UK) 02/06/06
Posted: 02/06/2006 10:54 pm
Knight: Five Ideas For The Getty The Getty has seen its reputation tarnished over a series of missteps. Christopher Knight has five ideas he thinks would put Getty at the center of LA's cultural life. Los Angeles Times Los Angeles Times Los Angeles Times 02/05/06
Posted: 02/06/2006 7:39 pm
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The Museum Visitor Who Broke The Art Last month a man tripped down some stairs in a museum and broke some Chinese vases. "Nick Flynn, of Fowlmere, Cambridgeshire, said disaster struck after he realised he had gone up the wrong staircase and swung around to come down. He trod on his untied shoelace and fell forward. 'I was trying to grab hold of something but the walls were smooth marble and I couldn't stop myself'." The Guardian (UK) 02/06/06
Posted: 02/06/2006 10:46 pm
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The Global Theatre (Who Needs It?) It's easy to "think of globalisation as sneakers made in sweatshops in Malaysia, McDonalds's golden arches in Turkestan or call centres in Delhi." But globalism is a potent force in the theatre too, and maybe not a good one... The Guardian (UK) 02/06/06
Posted: 02/06/2006 10:06 pm
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Read The Book, See The Movie (Together) Publishers are experimenting with pairing classic books with DVD copies of the movies. So far sales have been mixed (and for various reasons). Still, putting books and movie together seems like a smart idea. "Academics used to heap disdain on movie versions of great literature, but no longer. In contrast to their predecessors, many college literature professors today routinely bring films into the classroom to complement the reading of the classics." Chicago Tribune 02/07/06
Posted: 02/07/2006 6:45 am
The Case Of The Mysterious JT Leroy "A central figure in the case of the mysterious writer JT Leroy has come forward to say that no one named JT Leroy exists, and that the books published under that name were actually written by a San Francisco woman named Laura Albert." The New York Times 02/07/06
Posted: 02/06/2006 11:05 pm
Harper Collins Online Harper Collins has announced plans to offer excerpts of books it publishes for free on the internet. "We hope this pilot will demonstrate a win-win for publishers, authors and search engines. The new era does not need to be a zero sum game." Yahoo! (AP) 02/06/06
Posted: 02/06/2006 9:43 pm
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Toronto Radio Station Refuses Theatre Ad Because Of The "V" Word "Toronto radio station CHFI has refused to run a series of promotional spots for Eve Ensler's play The Good Body, which opens next month at the newly refurbished Music Hall on the Danforth. The reason? The commercials use the word 'vagina'." Toronto Star 02/07/06
Posted: 02/07/2006 7:53 am
Producers Pedal Fast As Two Networks Become One "The future is always precarious in the ruthless world of television. But this fall, when CBS and Warner Bros. launch the CW, a new youth-oriented network, and shut down the WB and UPN, there will be one less network renewing shows and buying new ones." That has producers scrambling. Los Angeles Times 02/07/06
Posted: 02/07/2006 7:20 am
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Hip-hop - Taking It Inside Hip-hop is mainstream, so why shouldn't it be in theatres? "Hip-hop culture and hip-hop forms are massive now, all around the world. So it should be in the theatre, just like any culture can exist in the theatre. It's just movement in a black box. It's lighting in a black box. It's sound in a black box. And once we have those components, then you do what you do." The Independent (UK) 02/07/06
Posted: 02/06/2006 11:49 pm
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