Tuesday July 31
WE REAP
WHAT WE SOW: Artists in China can have a hard
time pushing the envelope, what with the political
repression, the torture, and all. So many have turned
to a completely apolitical form of "shock art"
based on visually disturbing images. "They reflect
the bizarre direction in which Chinese art has moved
under a government that tolerates what some would
argue are meaningless 'shock' creations but not social
criticism." Washington Post 07/31/01
PAYING TO PLAY: A mysterious amateur philosopher hires prominent philosophers
to review a paper. The pay's good, the paper's not
bad, but the exercise says something about the state
of academic inquiry... Lingua Franca 07/01
$300 FOR "THE LION KING" SUDDENLY SEEMS A BIT
HIGH: As
the U.S. economy continues to tank, the effects are
being felt in all corners of the entertainment industry.
For most folks, the arts are considered a luxury,
and when money gets tight, no one much feels like
ponying up for overpriced concert tickets, inexplicably
skyrocketing movie passes, or even expensive hardcover
books. The New York Times 07/31/01 (one-time registration required for access)
Monday July 30
ARTS
FUNDING IS ELECTION ISSUE: Australia's Labour Party has promised
to make increased arts funding part of its electionj pitch. The
party promises to "repair the damage" done to the arts community
by the current Howard Government's funding priorities.
The Age (Melbourne) 07/30/01
WORLD
LEADERS: Are the world leaders of the 21st century creative
artists, not politicians? Toronto's Harbourfront Centre has created
a festival on that premise and invited 14 artists from around
the world to come together. The "project is designed to explore
the nature of the creative process, the nature of the creative
spirit, the idea of innovation and the idea of risk-taking, and
also the fact that one creative mind can actually change aspects
of the world." McLean's 07/30/01
POSTAL
BUTTS: The Brooklyn Academy of Music wanted to promote a low-budget
film it is showing, with a postcard that shows a photo of a line
of men from the movie with their naked butts showing (an admittedly
not pretty sight). But the US postal service has refused to let
the cards go through the mail. "With bulk mail we try to
think about the few people who will have objections." BBC
07/30/01
HELP
FOR IRISH ARTISTS: With Ireland's recent prosperity have come
rising rents. "An exodus of artistic types in recent years
has led to concern that the country's main cities will become
the preserve of go-getting Celtic Tiger sorts." Now a request
to city officials for cheap housing for artists."
Sunday Times (UK) 07/29/01
BENEFACTOR
OVERBOARD: London's Royal Opera House is ditching its greatest
benefactor. Vivien Duffield "has raised more than £100 million
for it and personally donated millions more - perhaps as much
as £25 million." Sunday Times
(UK) 07/29/01
Sunday July 29
MULTICULT
FALLOUT: In many ways, multiculturalism defined American arts
of the 1990s. "Most important, it reversed old patterns of
exclusion and brought voices into the mainstream that had rarely,
if ever, been there before. But limitations became apparent. The
ideal of diversity — of mixing things up, spreading the wealth,
creating a new Us — never quite happened." And, it came with
some unexpected problems. The New
York Times 07/29/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
CENTER
OF SUMMER CULTURE: It may be rural, but Massachusetts' Berkshires
is home to America's biggest cultural resort: Tanglewood, the
Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer home; the Jacob's Pillow Dance
Festival in Becket; the Williamstown Theatre Festival; the Clark
Art Institute in Williamstown; Mass. MoCA, the Berkshire Opera
Company, and Shakespeare & Company. "The arts generate more
than half of Berkshire County's annual $250 million tourist trade.
Tanglewood alone brings between $60 and $70 million to the area."
Boston Globe 07/29/01
CRACKING
DOWN ON COPYRIGHT: The US government is taking copyright infringement
more seriously. "The Senate has earmarked $10 million for
copyright prosecutions, enough money for 155 agents and attorneys
in the fiscal year starting in October. That's up from a current
$4 million allocated for 75 positions." Wired
07/29/01
Friday July 27
SMITHSONIAN
NEEDS MAJOR OVERHAUL: "An independent review of the Smithsonian
Institution said yesterday that the museum complex is even shabbier
and more dilapidated than previously reported. Smithsonian Secretary
Lawrence M. Small has been telling Congress for a year and a half
that the situation was grim and last month estimated the cost
of vital repairs at $1 billion. The independent team of experts
put the figure higher: $1.5 billion." Washington
Post 07/27/01
-
BAD
DAY IN D.C., PART 2: "City health officials have ordered
the Kennedy Center to remove asbestos from ceilings near
exclusive seating areas in the Opera House, including the
presidential box. D.C. Health Department officials said
yesterday that there was no risk to any theatergoers who
have been in that area. The Eisenhower Theater, next to
the Opera House, will be closed for the rest of the summer
while workers remove asbestos from ceilings." Washington
Post 07/27/01
AUSSIE
ARTS BILL: How much do Australian governments spend on culture?
"Funding for radio and television broadcasting, film, music,
visual arts, museums, art galleries, multi-media, venues, zoos,
civic centres, publishing, archives and other activities"
added up to almost $4 billion in 1999-2000. This was equivalent
to $209 per person. Sydney Morning
Herald 07/27/01
CORPORATE
SPONSORS: FEEL ME, TOUCH ME: One side says, "The company
is taking an active role with children. I don't see any harm in
that." The other side says, "The corporation has an
obligation to give back to the community. Do it, shut up, and
don't expect anything in return." At immediate issue is McDonald's
20-year, $5 million sponsorship of Philadelphia's Please Touch
Museum for children. Philadelphia
Inquirer 07/26/01
REALNETWORKS
CUTS BACK: RealNetworks, whose Real Player is probably the
most widely-used streaming audio software on the Internet, is
laying off 15 percent of its work force. For the second quarter
of this year, the company reported a loss of just over $19 million.
During the Internet boom of a couple years ago, a loss that small
would have looked like a profit. Nando
Times 07/26/01
Thursday July 26
INVESTMENT
UP/ATTENDANCE DOWN: A new study of arts support in the UK
says "the percentage of adults attending arts events was
either static or falling across plays, opera, ballet, contemporary
dance, jazz, classical music and art galleries." This despite
massive public funding of cultural activities. "The report
estimated public funding of the cultural sector in 1998-99 at
£5.2 billion, a 10% rise on the last study in 1993-94.
The Guardian (UK) 07/26/01
PUT
A METER ON THAT JUKEBOX: "The US is set to compensate
European songwriters and composers for millions of pounds worth
of lost revenue. The musicians have won their fight against a
US law which let bars and grills avoid paying royalties for playing
their music on TV or radio. Music groups have estimated royalty
losses at $27m a year. " BBC
07/26/01
ARTS-PLATED:
Several American states are raising money for the arts by selling
arts-themed car license plates. California has sold 79,000 arts
licenses since 1994, raising $4.2 million. Indiana, Texas and
Florida have also been successful. "The Texas arts plate
is the best-selling specialty plate in Texas in a field of more
than 100." St. Louis Post-Dispatch
07/25/01
CRASHING
THE SENATE: The U.S. Senate was all set for another of their
famous hearings on the way that popular music and, specifically,
hip-hop are destroying the moral fabric of the nation, staining
the minds of our children, and just generally leading the entire
country down the road to ruin. (And it's not even an election
year!) But the sanctimony took a distinct dive once an actual,
uninvited purveyor of rap music showed up to speak.
Nando Times (AP) 07/25/01
Wednesday July 25
ART
IN FASHION: "Can fashion — by nature both ephemeral and
functional — be on a par with fine art? Can an ad campaign be
counted as culture?" London dealer Jay Jopling has recycled
photographs seen in ads in magazines and made a show of them in
his gallery. The Times (UK) 07/25/01
TAKING
THE TEMPERATURE OF AMERICA'S PERFORMING ARTS: What is the
state of the performing arts in America at the turn of the century?
A new Rand study takes a look. "After decades of expansion,
how are performing arts organizations faring? Has demand for live
performances been increasing or decreasing? Are more Americans
choosing the performing arts as a profession? And what is the
likely effect of the Internet on the arts?" [The
complete report is online] Rand 07/01
LOW
AUDIENCE & LOW ACCOUNTABILITY: "New research suggests
that arts audiences are declining, despite record levels of public
funding. A report, compiled by a team of 25 experts over two years,
looked at film, libraries, heritage buildings, literature, the
arts and public broadcasting. . . The 600-page report, by the
think-tank The Policy Studies Institute (PSI), also said that
publicly funded bodies in the arts are failing to account for
how their grants are spent." BBC
07/25/01
RISK
AVERSE: After unexpectedly losing $1.2 million on last year's
Adelaide Festival, organizers seriously considered abandoning
director Peter Sellars' controversial plans for next years festival.
But "it was judged to be too damaging to the festival's image
to walk away at this late stage." Sydney
Morning Herald 07/25/01
DO
VIRTUAL ACTORS HAVE TO PAY UNION DUES? The furor that has
erupted over the computer-generated "Final Fantasy"
film has been almost comical in its hysteria. No less venerable
a personage than Tom Hanks has voiced his concern that virtual
actors might someday replace flesh-and-bone thespians, and the
Screen Actors Guild has been shrilling its objections ever since
the mediocre film's release. But the man behind the computer magic
laughs at the notion that his creations could ever do what human
actors can. The Globe & Mail (Toronto)
07/25/01
AOL
COULD BUY AMAZON: "AOL Time Warner would be allowed to
propose a takeover bid for Amazon.com -- as long as it did so
quietly -- under the terms of a $100 million investment AOL made
in Amazon Monday. According to records filed with the Securities
and Exchange Commission, and reported by Dow Jones Newswires,
AOL could propose a buyout, but not publicly and not without the
approval of Amazon.com." The
New York Times (AP) 07/25/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
Tuesday July 24
OF
ARTS FUNDING AND MEDICAL RESEARCH: "Dear friends, you
made a deal with the devil. You knew they were narrow-minded
and stupid when you took their money. You made a deal with the
devil. You probably wrote a play about how evil the devil was
in Vietnam or Nicaragua or Waco. Now the devil acts like the
devil. There is a solution: Don't take the money. Alas, the
government has made cash junkies of too many people and institutions,
and there's nothing more hypocritical than the whining of a
junkie." San Francisco Chronicle
07/24/01
FUNDING
VISUAL ARTISTS: Last year Australia's performing arts got
a $43 million boost in funding by the government after a study
documented need. Now the country's visual artists are hoping
a newly announced study will give the same bump in funding for
the visual arts. Sydney Morning
Herald 07/24/01
-
WHY
DISPARITY? Federal inquiry will try to find out "why
visual artists and craftspeople are among the lowest income
earners in the country and among the lowest paid of all artists."
The Age (Melbourne) 07/24/01
THE
VICTORIAN COPYRIGHT SOLUTION: So you think our battles over
copyright are something new? Some 160 years ago Charles Dickens
was crusading over the value of copyright. In the days before
copyright was universal, publishers in America were ripping off
Dickens and other authors with impunity. Industry
Standard 07/23/01
Monday July 23
CAUGHT
IN THE MIDDLE: A major new study of 30-year trends among American
arts organizations says that while small and large arts organizations
are doing well, mid-size groups are in peril. The
New York Times 07/23/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
HANDICAPPING
THE NEA: Speculation in the press about who George Bush might
appoint as the next chair of the National Endowment for the Arts
has intensified. Does this mean a decision is near? The Idler
handicaps the field. The Idler 07/23/01
THE
RATINGS GAME: Music producers haven't done enough to keep
violent material out of the hands of children, a US House subcommittee
reported Friday. But movie and video game makers have made some
progress. "A final FTC report on the effectiveness of the
entertainment industry's restrictions on explicit material is
due this fall." Dallas Morning
News 07/22/01
THE
MAGIC OF SCIENCE: "Have we entered an era in which mind-sizzling
technological leaps - virtual reality, genetically altered rabbits
that glow in the dark, digital actors, laboratory animals bred
to grow human organs, stock-trading in your back yard, clones
- are now so common that even respected members of the scientific
world are finding it increasingly difficult to separate miracles,
magic, myths and madness?" Washington
Post 07/23/01
HOW
WE SPEAK: "Language is not living, not growing, and not
a thing; it is a vast system of social habits and conventions,
inherited from our forebears, and showing every sign of being
an artifact rather than an organic growth." Vocabula.com
07/01
Friday July 20
SECOND
SALES: European governments have agreed to give artists a
share of subsequent sales of their work.
"Authors of works of art will receive a royalty of
up to 4% every time their original paintings, sculptures, or other
artistic treasures are sold on by agents or at auction in Britain
or anywhere else in the EU." But the provision won't kick
in until 2012. BBC 07/20/01
Thursday July 19
LEGALLY
BINDING: "Artists' rights in the U.S. are still pretty
shoddy today. Artists have many more legal recourses and protections
now, but mostly America's laws regarding artists continue to reflect
our national attitude toward artists: These are weird, potentially
dangerous people who often care less about money than is acceptable.
That's true whether you're a painter, writer, cartoonist, songwriter,
director, dancer, or anyone else who's trying to create something
you want other people to see or hear. Business is our national
art form, and business is deeply suspicious of art. So is our
court system." LAWeekly 07/18/01
A
REASON TO GIVE: "Many corporations confuse philanthropy
with advertising. Until the federal government put a stop to their
contributions, the most generous corporate arts patrons in Canada
were the tobacco companies - because they could not advertise
and regarded sponsorships as the next-best thing. It is because
of that corporate confusion that we need government funding of
the arts, funding that is awarded to artists on the merits of
their past achievements and future proposals by knowledgeable
juries set up by arms-length arts councils. No system is perfect,
but that formula tends to build the arts - rather than corporate
profits or political egos." The
Globe & Mail (Canada) 07/19/01
THE
GM SMITHSONIAN? The Smithsonian, criticized recently for giving
large donors major influence over projects they have funded, is
in negotiations with General Motors for a $10 million contribution
to "expedite a major exhibition called America on the
Move and allow the museum to redo its sprawling transportation
hall, which hasn't been refurbished since the museum opened in
1964." Washington Post 07/19/01
Wednesday July 18
GREAT
HANDEL'S GHOST! Workers preparing to turn a house where Handel
once lived into a museum say they have seen ghosts in the house.
So they've ordered up an exorcism. "We weren't sure whether having
a ghost would attract or deter customers, but with all the valuable
objects we have coming into the house we felt it might be safer
to get rid of it." Sydney Morning
Herald 07/18/01
WHY
LIBERAL ARTS MATTER: "The liberal arts have been ravaged
by managers, government officials, and taxpayers looking for 'measurable'
results. But all such measures in our era are inextricably linked
to corporate bottom lines. And few things could be more inimical
to the spirit of liberal arts than to turn education in philosophy,
sociology, and history into a seamless fit for corporate career
climbing." Christian Science
Monitor 07/17/01
OWNING
HISTORY: "As the years lengthen and survivors die off,
the memory of the Holocaust is increasingly embodied in written
accounts and artifacts. But who owns this physical evidence?"
The New York Times 07/18/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
Tuesday July 17
MORE
CENTRALIZED ARTS: The British government is restructuring
the Arts Council of England. "The new body will combine the
Arts Council and the ten Regional Arts Boards, saving up to £10
million a year from the £36 million operating costs." The
savings will be distributed directly to artists, but some critics
worry that a centralized organization will diminish regional flavor.
The Times (UK) 07/17/01
RAVING
MAD: A number of cities are moving to shut down all-night
rave parties, citing them as "one-night-only parties...often held
in warehouses or secret locations where people pay to dance, do
drugs, play loud music, and engage in random sex acts." Chicago's
Mayor Richard Daly: "They are after all our children. Parents
should be outraged." Reason 07/16/01
Monday July 16
PROMOTING
GERMAN CULTURE: Germany's Goethe Institute is 50 years old.
"With some 3,000 staff members, 2,350 of whom work abroad,
the 126 affiliates scattered throughout 76 different countries
not only teach German, but also endeavor to export at least some
sense of what intellectual and cultural life in Germany is all
about." Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung 07/16/01
Sunday July 15
DON'T
JUST MAKE NICE: About the only public words George Bush has
spoken about the arts was last month at Ford's Theatre, when he
quoted Lincoln: "Some think I do wrong to go to the opera and
the theater. But it rests me. A hearty laugh relieves me and I
seem better after it to bear my cross." So there it is - fun,
amusing, a diversion. Certainly that's the conservative vision
of art, and one that attracts public funding in the US these days.
But isn't it possible that "going to the theater, despite
Bush's quotation of Lincoln, might be something more than a way
to get some rest?" Los Angeles
Times 07/15/01
HOW
TO EXPLAIN? "We talk about art - and write about art
- so poorly. If you eliminated all the easy, lazy superlatives
- beautiful, wonderful, powerful, amazing, incredible - from use
in any context relating to art, the silence would be deafening.
People would stare at each other and stammer and gesticulate,
and feel utterly at a loss to describe what they just experienced.
This is all the more a problem when the art form, such as music
or dance, has no verbal element." Washington
Post 07/15/01
Friday July 13
THE
NEXT NEA CHIEF? Who will President Bush appoint as the next
chair of the National Endowment for the Arts? There is lots of
speculation, but some arts advocates are urging Bush to appoint
a businessperson with an interest in the arts rather than an artist
or arts administrator. Washington
Post 07/13/01
- THE
NEW YORK LOBBY: New York Republican state senator Roy Goodman
is said to be lobbying hard for the job. He has many advocates
in the New York cultural world, but conservative Republicans
are fighting against his nomination. The
New York Times 07/13/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
STOLEN
LIABILITY? A man sends a note to the Museum Security Network
alleging that a California woman has a stockpile of art looted
by the Nazis. The MSN, published in the Netherlands, publishes
the allegations in its newsletter. The charges were false, and
now the target of the allegations is suing. How much responsibility
does the small internet site bear? Salon
07/13/01
Thursday July 12
THE
SMITHSONIAN TRIES TO BALANCE AUTONOMY AND FUND-RAISING: "At
issue is money and influence, and whether the Smithsonian, in
securing the largesse of multimillionaires, has ceded intellectual
control to donors. Cash-strapped museum directors around the country,
striving to meet the demands of a growing public, are closely
watching how the institution reconciles its needs and traditions
with donors' desires." Minneapolis
Star-Tribune 07/12/01
Wednesday July 11
WHAT
HAPPENED TO "FOR THE GOOD OF MANKIND?" The author
who was first responsible for shining the international spotlight
on the issue of looted Nazi artworks now in the hands of private
collectors is suing the family of a French art dealer whom he
assisted in recovering several paintings. Hector Feliciano claims
he was "deprived of a finder's fee." The
New York Times 07/11/01 (one-time registration
required for access)
ORGANIZED
LEARNING: This is the year of the T.A. (teaching assistant).
At universities all over the US, TA's are forming unions and demanding
better conditions. But "while the movement is gaining strength
- nearly 40,000 graduate students are now union members - administrations
are hardly rolling over." Chronicle
of Higher Education 07/09/01
PHILLY
HALL ALMOST PAID FOR: "With a $2 million conditional
pledge from the Kresge Foundation, the campaign to build [Philadelphia's]
Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts has reached $254 million
- or almost 96 percent of a $265 million goal." Philadelphia
Inquirer 07/11/01
Tuesday July 10
ONE GREENBERG =
A THOUSAND TASINIS: A US Court of Appeals has ruled that "the
National Geographic Society violated the copyrights of freelance
photographer Jerry Greenberg by republishing his photos on a CD-ROM
set without his permission." The Society plans to appeal
to the Supreme Court, arguing that their CD is a digital replica,
not a republication; therefore, this case is unlike the recent
Tasini suit, in which the Supreme Court ruled in favor of free-lance
writers. Wired 07/09/01
FINDER'S
FEE: Author Hector Feliciano, who wrote a book about art thefts
by the Nazis, is suing the estate of dealer Paul Rosenberg for
$6.8 million, a "17.5% fee based on 'the standards of the
art industry for the recovery of works of art,' and is applied
to a value of $39 million worth of paintings which Mr Feliciano
says he helped recover through extensive work 'under the promise
to be paid'." The Art Newspaper 07/08/01
Monday July 9
CENSORING
STUDENT ART: A Texas art teacher has filed a lawsuit against
the administration of the school that fired him last year after
he defended the work of some of his pupils. The controversy arose
from a mural painted by students which depicted, among many other
images, two men kissing. Despite a unanimous vote of support for
the mural from the school's faculty, the school's administrator
had the wall with the mural whitewashed, and fired the art teacher
after he publicly stood up for his students. Dallas
Morning News 07/09/01
Sunday July 8
WATCH
OUT FOR SERGEANT EBERT: It's known as boot camp for critics.
But the O'Neill Critics Institute is much more than a drill session
for the folks who review the nation's performers. "The mission
of the OCI is to raise the level of American film and theater
reviewing - and cultivate the skills of individual critics - by
plunging arts-minded journalists into an intensive summer of viewing,
thinking, discussing, and writing, writing, writing." Nando
Times (Christian Science Monitor Service) 07/07/01
CANADIAN
CHARISMA: Sotheby's, it can safely be said, has had a truly
bad year. Price-fixing scandals, disappointing auctions, and general
chaos have plagued the auction house in recent months. But in
Canada, the local Sotheby's has new leadership in the form of
a couple of aging art enthusiasts with limited auction experience,
but an undeniable passion for art collection. The
Globe & Mail (Toronto) 07/07/01
BARENBOIM
DEFIES WAGNER TABOO: Richard Wagner was a celebrated composer,
a brilliant musician, and a vicious anti-Semite whose writings
excoriating Jews were often invoked after his death by the leaders
of Germany's Third Reich. Understandably, the nation of Israel
has never been particularly interested in having Wagner's music
performed there, although the unofficial ban has faced intense
opposition in recent years. But this weekend, conductor Daniel
Barenboim shocked concertgoers by leading the Berlin Staatskapelle
in a surprise encore from "Tristan and Isolde." BBC
07/08/01
- MAYOR
THREATENS BARENBOIM BAN: "[Jerusalem] Mayor Ehud Olmert
said the city will have to re-examine its relations with world-renowned
conductor Daniel Barenboim after he performed the music of Richard
Wagner, Adolf Hitler's favorite composer, at the Israel Festival
on Saturday night. 'What Barenboim did was brazen, arrogant,
uncivilized and insensitive,' Olmert told Israel's army radio."
Nando Times (AP) 07/08/01
Friday July 6
STATE
OF INDIANA V. GAY CHRIST: "A group hoping to block performances
of a college play featuring a gay Christ-like character filed
a lawsuit in federal court Thursday. The play features a character
named Joshua who is growing up gay in modern-day Texas. The story
parallels parts of the Gospels, and some of the 12 other male
characters bear the names of Christ's disciples." Nando
Times (AP) 07/05/01
ALL
ABOUT THE TOOLS: "Will new media art be limited and shaped
by the commercial software usually used to created it? Or by the
conventional Web site and interface formats that predominate among
artworks online?" MediaChannel
07/01
Thursday July 5
ENGAGING
THE INTELLECT: "When was the last time a political party
produced an unashamedly intellectual document which dared to use
big words and invited debate and critique before decisions on
priorities and how to pay for them were made?" Australia's
Barry Jones has put up such a platform. So how come the media
are sniggering? Sydney Morning Herald
07/05/01
POINTING
OUT THE PROBLEM: For more than two decades, Boston's Fort
Point neighborhood has been home to the largest concentration
of artists in New England. But rising rents and real estate costs
are forcing artists and galleries out at an alarming rate. Tired
of waiting for the city to do something, a handful of artists
have put their message where their art is, and taken the cause
public. Boston Herald 07/05/01
Wednesday July 4
AMERICA'S
BEST ARTISTS: No kidding. These are the best, certified by
Time magazine. The best young classical musician, Hilary Hahn;
best playwright, August Wilson;
best novelist, Philip Roth;
best movie director, Ang Lee;
best artist, Martin
Puryear; best architect, Steven Holl;
best actor, Sean Penn;
best Broadway director, Susan Stroman.
Time also lists the best rapper, best clown, best talk
show host, etc. Your milege may vary. Void where prohibited by
law. CNN 07/04/01
I'D
RATHER BE IN PHILADELPHIA (FINALLY): Even cities with well-established
arts activity can be dazzled by the potential a new performing
arts center promises. Philadelphia may have prominent home-grown
talent and a busy art community, but for many years hasn't had
a place to bring out-of-town performers. The new Kimmel Center
promises to change all that. Philadelphia
Inquirer 07/03/01
Tuesday July 3
BOUGHT
AND PAID FOR: "How much corporate sponsorship is too
much? As the Government stages a tactical retreat on the arts
funding front, the business dollar has flown in to fill the void,
funding everything from the purchase of a rare $650,000 Guadagnini
violin for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra to the sponsorship of
instruments, chairs, artists, performances, costumes and soloists.
Sydney Morning Herald 07/03/01
ENGLAND'S
NEW CULTURE MINISTER: "Tessa Jowell moves quickly to
dispel any notion that she will be the sort of culture minister
who can’t quite remember whether Jackson Pollock is a merchant
bank or a heavyweight boxer. 'I believe passionately in our artistic
heritage, in investment in the arts, in opening access to great
art for the widest range of people,' she trills, as if reciting
the Creed in St Tony’s Parish Church." The
Times (UK) 07/03/01
Monday July 2
STRUGGLING
FOR THE SOUL OF A TOWN: "A proposal for a huge new cement
plant, in a town where cement-making roots run deep — but where
art galleries and antiques shops drive the new economy — has deeply
divided Hudson along lines of class, culture and, to no small
degree, aesthetics. Would the plant destroy the town's charm,
and so too its emerging tourist economy, or would the return of
big cement be a restoration, a sign that old heavy-industry Hudson
is on its way back?" The New
York Times 06/30/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
THE
DEVIL AND THE MILLIONAIRE: Who Wants to be a Millionaire
is popular in Egypt, as it is everywhere. But now the Supreme
Mufti's office in Cairo has issued a fatwa, or religious edict,
calling the game show sinful and a form of gambling. The fatwa
quotes from a verse in the Holy Koran which calls on all Muslims
to avoid gambling as an abomination and Satan's handiwork. BBC
07/02/01
Sunday July 1
"THIS
WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE WAR": When Patti Hartigan began
covering the arts for New England's leading newspaper in 1990,
she didn't expect the firestorm that was about to descend on the
heads of artists and their supporters. But ten years after the
Congressional dust-ups over Robert Mapplethorpe, Andres Serrano,
and federal arts funding in general, the echoes of what became
a full-fledged culture war still resound. The American arts world
has changed immeasurably in the last decade, and countless artists
and organizations have long since given up trying to get public
support for their work. The next ten years will tell much about
what remains of America's commitment to art, but they could never
be as telling as the last ten. Boston
Globe 07/01/01
STRIKE
HAS AN IMPACT: "Two exhibitions scheduled for this summer
at the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography have been postponed
indefinitely because of the continuing strike by workers at that
museum and its parent organization, the National Gallery of Canada."
Ottawa Citizen 07/01/01
HOME
|