Thames Views At Risk From Tate Expansion "Adventurous plans to build a new huge extension - described as a cut-glass ziggurat - at the Tate Modern gallery in London will be unveiled this week to warm applause from large parts of the architectural world and some criticism from design experts. The Twentieth Century Society, which was consulted on the plans, said the stepped pyramid extension - to be shown for the first time on Tuesday - detracts from the architectural importance of the existing gallery and warns that it has 'serious issues' with the plan." The Observer (UK) 07/23/06
Posted: 07/23/2006 10:44 am
Denver Museum Losing Director, Top Curator "The Denver Art Museum's collections and exhibitions are not the only thing in transition as the institution prepares for one of the monumental events in its history - the Oct. 7 opening of its $90.5 million addition. At least two major staff changes are expected to coincide with the Hamilton Building's inauguration, none more significant than the recently delayed retirement of director Lewis Sharp, one of Denver's most prominent arts leaders... Dianne Vanderlip, curator of modern and contemporary art, [also] revealed she is leaving her position in January." Denver Post 07/23/06
Posted: 07/23/2006 10:39 am
The Lasting Legacy Of Rembrandt "Museum attendance continues to set records in America and Europe, yet probably fewer people now than 50 years ago could give an informed response to a Rembrandt painting... But enter into a Rembrandt drawing, almost irrespective of its subject, and for an instant its very fluency makes it feel doable: a soothing sensation of deliverance from incapacity comes forward." San Francisco Chronicle 07/22/06
Posted: 07/23/2006 9:22 am
New DecArt Curator For Carnegie Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Art has hired decorative arts curator Jason Busch away from the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "He was formerly assistant curator of American decorative arts at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut... The [Carnegie's] assistant curator of decorative arts, Elizabeth Agro, will be leaving soon for a position at the Philadelphia Museum of Art." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 07/22/06
Posted: 07/23/2006 9:19 am
What's In A Ticket Price? The admission hikes at various New York museums have sparked a great deal of debate over what, if anything, museums should charge the public to see their treasures. "A museum’s admission policy is charged with meaning. It encodes the institution’s core values — its sense of itself, its mission and its public — and broadcasts them to that public. It’s like a thumbprint, a tiny yet accurate key to a whole identity." The New York Times 07/22/06
Posted: 07/23/2006 9:05 am
Impermanent Art When Tate Modern decided to rearrange its collection around a series of vaguely defined "hubs," many in the art world were skeptical. But the rehanging has been a major hit with visitors, and other contemporary art museums around the world are beginning to experiment with ways to make their permanent collections seem less, well, permanent. "With contemporary art, where history is still fluid and museums have yet to become pantheons of unchallenged masters, flexibility seems advisable." The New York Times 07/22/06
Posted: 07/23/2006 8:46 am
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The Field Guide To Classical Music (Yes, You Need One) Classical music, like any art form that demands effort and intellectual engagement from its fans, can be an intimidating experience for the uninitiated. But today, there are any number of ways for classical neophytes to take the plunge, and thanks to the internet, you can listen to almost any piece without ever leaving your desk. One new guide to exploring the classical world even combines the printed word with an astonishingly large online database of music, enough to keep any fan of the genre listening for years. Baltimore Sun 07/23/06
Posted: 07/23/2006 10:23 am
A Ring To Forget? Simon Rattle's new Ring Cycle at the Aix-en-Provence Festival hasn't been much of a hit with the critics. "Rattle's Wagner as yet lacks that veteran conductor's inexorable sense of drama. The momentum started and stopped and frequently dragged... The overall effect was soporific. Perhaps Rattle was as bored as the rest of us by what he saw on stage." The Australian 07/23/06
Posted: 07/23/2006 9:34 am
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Art By Committee? It Happens More Often Than You Think "In the romance of the Western imagination, art is proverbially fashioned in solitude, the writer scribbling away, forlorn in his garret, the painter at work in his atelier. But the exceptions touch some of our most beloved arts: movies, TV, rock music and theater. They're all concocted by that notoriously ill-fated process: the committee." Chicago Tribune 07/23/06
Posted: 07/23/2006 10:32 am
Privatization May Help PA's Floundering PAC Pennsylvania's Mountain Laurel Performing Arts Center was supposed to become the state's next big cultural destination, nestled in the beautiful Pocono mountains and featuring a full slate of summer concerts by the Pittsburgh Symphony. But the center ran out of money almost before it opened, and was a colossal bust in its first season. Still, there are signs that things could be turning around for the center. "In its third season this year, Mountain Laurel, which started with millions in public money, finally opened without debt because the foundering center was bought by a well-heeled residential developer." Pocono Record (PA) 07/23/06
Posted: 07/23/2006 9:58 am
New Arts Fund Debuts In Texas San Antonio's new arts fund mailed out its first checks this week, providing 24 cultural organizations with a new source of public funding that civic leaders hope will stabilize what has sometimes been a precarious arts scene. "Applications for additional funding recipients are not being accepted. Whether the application process opens up again will depend on how theFund grows." San Antonio Express-News 07/23/06
Posted: 07/23/2006 9:51 am
Payola Spells Relief For NY Arts Groups New York state's two-year-old probe into illegal payola practices by record companies has yielded over $13 million in legal settlements thus far, and the money has become an unexpected windfall for the state's arts organizations. "In all, 153 nonprofit groups statewide were chosen to receive from $15,000 to $750,000 in last week's first round of payouts from the New York State Music Fund, established as a repository for the payola settlement money." Rochester Democrat & Chronicle 07/23/06
Posted: 07/23/2006 9:43 am
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Actor Jack Warden, 85 "Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning actor Jack Warden has died, aged 85... Warden was nominated for Oscars for Shampoo and Heaven Can Wait, and won an Emmy for the 1971 TV film Brian's Song.He was twice Emmy-nominated for the 1980s television series Crazy Like a Fox. His other films included 12 Angry Men and All The President's Men." BBC 07/23/06
Posted: 07/23/2006 10:15 am
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Could Shakespeare Use A Few Body Slams? What is it about professional wrestling that draws so many people to become fans? More importantly, could the arts, which so often struggle to attract new audiences, learn anything from the ultraviolent soap opera that is the WWE? "No, I don't want Martha Henry to show up in a leather halter-top to tell us how she's going to smackdown Ibsen in the upcoming Stratford production of Ghosts. But I'd like our theatres to have one-tenth of the bravura, imagination and downright nerve of the WWE when it comes to promoting and presenting their own." Toronto Star 07/22/06
Posted: 07/23/2006 9:29 am
The Grass Isn't Always Greener For Americans tired of Broadway's seemingly endless appetite for commercialism and tired revivals of decades-old shows, London's theatre scene has always seemed like a mystical promised land. But a closer look shows that London's West End is suffering from many of the same problems that plague Broadway: notably, the lack of almost anything new on the stage. "The fragile health of the drama became a subject of national publicity in Britain recently with a televised competition, vaguely in the spirit of 'American Idol,' among untried playwrights." The New York Times 07/22/06
Posted: 07/23/2006 8:52 am
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Looking For A Piece Of The Hollywood Pie When a book becomes a hit movie, you'd figure that the publisher who got the whole thing started would come in for a healthy slice of the profits. You'd be wrong - they generally don't see a dime. "Galled by decades of this kind of equation, New York publishing houses have launched ventures intended to get a bigger piece of the Hollywood action. And who could blame them? Publishers hardly ever control the film rights to the books they put on the market." Toronto Star 07/22/06
Posted: 07/23/2006 9:26 am
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Coming Soon: Better TV Shows (Really!) For years, TV critics have carped and moaned about the lack of "intelligent" drama on American TV, and fans of supposedly smart shows have mounted petition drives just to keep their favorite low-rated show on the air for a few more episodes. Apparently, Hollywood has been listening all this time. "Can it be? Programmers have heard the clamor for smarter, more literate television, and they have responded." Of course, whether anyone will be watching is another matter. Denver Post 07/23/06
Posted: 07/23/2006 10:35 am
Microsoft On The Verge Of Launching iPod Rival The iPod is king of the digital music world at the moment, and its share of the downloading market is so huge as to make any challenge seem Quixotic. But Microsoft is in the process of testing a portable player that it believes will seriously cut into Apple's market share. "Microsoft has long coveted the market for handheld entertainment devices as the market for its core desktop software products becomes saturated." BBC 07/23/06
Posted: 07/23/2006 10:17 am
Whatever Happened To Televised Arts? How is it possible that among the hundreds of television channels available to the average American, there still isn't a place for the arts? "While networks devoted to everything from cartoons to car culture have thrived, channels aimed at the fine-arts consumer have either collapsed (the seminal arts channel CBS Cable) or survived as changelings, serving up increasing amounts of reality TV while still sporting their original stately monikers (Bravo, A&E). Symbolically at least, the poetic voice of Paul Robeson has fallen silent to the raspy ravings of Kathy Griffin, and the groundbreaking works of Picasso have been masked in favor of the tattoo-shop shenanigans of Inked." Fort Worth Star-Telegram 07/23/06
Posted: 07/23/2006 9:46 am
Because There's Just Nothing Glamorous About A Mall Theatre In the age of the multiplex, many of America's classic movie houses have fallen to the wrecking ball, or at least become dilapidated antiques with no prospects for revival. Enter the League of Historic American Theatres, "a nonprofit that advocates preserving old movie palaces, vaudeville theaters and performing arts stages." Los Angeles Times 07/22/06
Posted: 07/23/2006 9:16 am
No Cursing, Please. The Feds Are Watching. The FCC's crackdown on televised profanity has broadcasters of all stripes running scared, even staid old PBS, which usually has more to fear from conservative activists than it does from the threat of indecency fines. Specifically, PBS has changed the rules for the award-winning documentaries that have long been a staple of its programming, excising profanity wherever it occurs, even in the mouths of soldiers caught up in World War II. Documentarian Ken Burns, for one, can't believe the new prudishness. The New York Times 07/22/06
Posted: 07/23/2006 8:57 am
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