Art For Free Baltimore's two largest art museums are scrapping their admission fees, an initiative made possible by a major grant from city and county governments. "The new policy, modeled on that of several other museums nationwide, including the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the Cincinnati Art Museum, is aimed at boosting attendance, increasing visitor diversity and raising the city's profile as a tourist destination." Baltimore Sun 05/31/06
Posted: 06/01/2006 6:42 am
Sort Of A $3 Million Cherry On Top Of A $50 Million Sundae Just in time for the unveiling of its new $50 million expansion, the Minneapolis Insitute of Arts has acquired a pricey new piece for its collection. "The Louis XV-era painting Comtesse d'Egmont Pignatelli in Spanish Costume by Alexander Roslin was bought from the New York gallery Wildenstein & Co." for $3 million, making it the most expensive work acquired by the MIA in nearly a decade. Star Tribune (Minneapolis/St.Paul) 06/01/06
Posted: 06/01/2006 6:32 am
Well, It's About Time You knew it had to happen eventually. Now that "American Idol," "America's Next Top Model," "Project Runway" and "Top Chef" have all wrapped up for the season, it's finally time for serious art to take its turn on the Reality TV Tilt-A-Whirl of Fame. "'Artstar' is an eight-week reality-TV series in which eight artists, age 22 to 67, vie for an exhibition at a popular New York gallery. All involved should be ashamed of themselves, but, hey, dude, it's, like, a new age and, basically, here's something amazing that will resonate, totally and absolutely." Chicago Tribune 06/01/06
Posted: 06/01/2006 6:15 am
Damning Photographic Evidence At True Trial "Prosecutors at the conspiracy trial of [Marion True,] a former curator at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, presented on Wednesday photographs of a pair of ancient marble griffins — one of the glories of the Getty's collection — lying in a car trunk, encrusted with grime and loosely wrapped in newspaper... Prosecutors said that the photographs, seized in a raid on a Swiss warehouse in 1995, show that the griffins were illegally dug up and removed from Italy." The New York Times 06/01/06
Posted: 06/01/2006 5:49 am
Chihuly Fights For Originality Glass artist Dale Chihuly is "in the midst of a hard-edged legal fight in federal court here over the distinctiveness of his creations and, more fundamentally, who owns artistic expression in the glass art world." The New York Times 06/01/06
Posted: 06/01/2006 12:22 am
What Mona Lisa Sounded Like A Japanese acoustics expert says he's been able to recreate Mona Lisa's voice. "Dr Matsumi Suzuki, who generally uses his skills to help with criminal investigations, measured the face and hands of Leonardo da Vinci's famous 16th century portrait to estimate her height at 168cm and create a model of her skull. Once we have that, we can create a voice very similar to that of the person concerned." The Age (Melbourne) 06/01/06
Posted: 05/31/2006 11:29 pm
Major Egyptian Tomb Revealed "Buried under 13 feet of rubble and stones just 16 feet away from King Tutankhamun's resting place, the chamber is believed to be the 63rd tomb found since the valley was first mapped in the 18th century. It is the first chamber discovered since the boy pharaoh was uncovered in 1922." Discovery 05/31/06
Posted: 05/31/2006 11:24 pm
Thieves Stealing Statues For Scrap Two bronze statues worth £45,000 in total have become the latest artworks to be stolen by thieves believed to be taking sculptures for their scrap value in the UK. The Independent (UK) 05/31/06
Posted: 05/31/2006 11:18 pm
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Music's Chinese Connection "While British music educationalists agonise over the merits (or otherwise) of 'leading' our children to orchestral music via urban grime projects in Hackney, the Chinese - as in so many Far Eastern countries - have stolen a march on us simply by introducing their children to classical music as a matter of course with no patronising sweeteners attached. As a result, there's a buzz around the genre which is wholly absent in the West." The Telegraph (UK) 05/31/06
Posted: 06/01/2006 12:17 am
Orchestras - The Best Or Worst Of Times? Allan Kozinn wrote a piece in last Sunday's New York Times contending that rumors of the demise of classical music are greatly exaggerated. But Greg Sandow doesn't believe it, and a vigorous debate has broken out... Sandow (AJBlogs) 05/31/06
Posted: 05/31/2006 10:31 pm
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Labour's Arts Support Legacy Britain's Labour Party has one unequivocal success - its support of the arts. "Labour has a good enough story to tell on the arts - up 64% in cash and more in impact. Chris Smith is one of the few politicians to retire knowing he has done something brilliant - restoring free entry to museums and galleries, swelling attendances by 50%. But politics and art rub along like a fingernail on a blackboard: ministers too rarely sing its praises." The Guardian (UK) 05/31/06
Posted: 05/31/2006 11:41 pm
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Philip Roth, Misogynist? Philip Roth is one of America's greatest living writers - some would say the greatest. But Julia Keller says that despite the undeniable genius of his words, there is a discomfort in reading Roth, and it stems from the fact that "his women have no souls. [They] are mere mirrors to men. Echoes and shadows. Pale parallels... the fact that Roth gives short shrift to half the human race is crushingly sad. Were Roth a lesser writer, it wouldn't matter; his greatness, however, transforms that lack from a simple failing into a reverberating anguish." Chicago Tribune 06/01/06
Posted: 06/01/2006 6:11 am
Harrison Birtwistle Places Himself "Yes, people attack for me being this shocking radical who writes this incomprehensible music, but really I think I'm doing the same sort of thing as Beethoven. When the Queen asked me what sort of music I write, I said, 'Like Beethoven's', which sounds like a joke, or arrogant, but actually it's true. Now I suppose everyone will say I'm a terrible reactionary." The Telegraph (UK) 05/31/06
Posted: 05/31/2006 11:48 pm
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Chicago Theatre Cancels Season, But Keeps The Money Just a few weeks after delaying its opening performance of the 2006-07 season, Chicago Jewish Theatre has canceled the entire season, and may be closing its doors permanently in the near future. The company is not offering refunds on season subscriptions (but says it will honor them if it can raise the funds for a 2007-08 season,) a decision which has the theatre's few supporters up in arms. Chicago Sun-Times 06/01/06
Posted: 06/01/2006 6:04 am
Tony's No-Campaign Rule "This year the Tony Awards Administration Committee adopted a new rule about campaigning for the awards that forbids producers of nominated shows to send any campaign or promotional materials to voters, other than a souvenir book, a script or an audio cast recording." The New York Times 06/01/06
Posted: 06/01/2006 12:26 am
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Say Hello To BatLesbian DC Comics is resurrecting an old character in a very public way. Batwoman, who had her own regular comic book from 1956 to 1979, is coming back, and coming out of the closet as well. It's part of a wave of new comic book heroes with something more than the average super-being's pedigree. Chicago Sun-Times 06/01/06
Posted: 06/01/2006 6:01 am
HMV Buys Ottakar's HMV has agreed to buy Uk book retailer Ottakar's. Why was Ottakar's for sale? "Over the past year the book market has undergone a significant change, with new levels of competition from the supermarkets and online retailers impacting all specialist booksellers and in particular those with insufficient scale to compete on equal terms." BBC 05/31/06
Posted: 05/31/2006 11:00 pm
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Moore Accused Of Manipulating Sound Bites "A veteran who lost both arms in the war in Iraq is suing filmmaker Michael Moore for $85-million, alleging that Moore used snippets of a television interview without his permission to falsely portray him as anti-war in Fahrenheit 9/11... He claims in his lawsuit that the way Moore used the film clip makes him appear to 'voice a complaint about the war effort' when he was actually complaining about 'the excruciating type of pain' that comes with the injury he suffered." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/01/06
Posted: 06/01/2006 6:29 am
How To Rile Up Quebeckers The chairman of the CBC has sparked a furor among Francophone Canadians by suggesting that Radio-Canada, the French-language version of CBC (both radio and television), has become too centered on Quebec and its insular world. Guy Fournier's desire to make the French networks more nationally relevant might have slipped in under the radar, but for his use of a word fraught with controversy in French Canada - "unification." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/01/06
Posted: 06/01/2006 6:23 am
The Greening Of Hollywood Lately, it seems like Hollywood and the environmental movement can't get enough of each other. The wave of eco-friendly films seems to have been sparked by the success of last year's March of the Penguins. "Whether this trend speaks to mere copycatting or a shared morality isn't clear. Either way, Hollywood has sensed an opportunity to capitalize on high-profile debates about mounting planetary issues: oil, land-hogging McMansions, oil, frequent natural disasters, oil, melting glaciers, oil." Chicago Sun-Times 06/01/06
Posted: 06/01/2006 5:57 am
Yahoo Remakes Its Video Strategy Yahoo is reprogramming its online video service so it's more like YouTube, an internet upstart that has amassed a large audience during the past year with a free web service that encourages people to post and share homemade clips. Wired (AP) 05/31/06
Posted: 06/01/2006 12:32 am
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