Monday December 31
THINK
YOU KNOW ARTS? Think you know what happened in the arts this
year? Been following the papers and keeping up with your daily
dose of Arts Journal? Well, check out The Guardian's Arts Quiz
and see how well you score (AJ's editor took the test and...ahem...only
managed 11 right answers out of 20...) The
Guardian (UK) 12/31/01
HURTING
IN THE CAPITAL: In Washington DC "the fourth quarter
of 2001 has been among the saddest, most frustrating and apprehensive
for Washington's arts groups. First the terrorist attacks in New
York and Washington, then the disappearance of the tourists, then
the anthrax deaths, then the government's warnings more attacks
could be coming, all set against the tumbling economy. People
have stayed away in droves." Washington
Post 12/30/01
WHERE
ARE THE ARTISTS? The tragedy of Sept. 11 has made all of us
return to the human project of making sense of the world with
new vigor; but four months out from the bruising blow to the nation's
sense of security, there is little coherence to the sense being
made by our professional 'sense makers,' the nation's musicians,
playwrights, poets and visual artists."
Washington Post 12/30/01
YOU
JUST HATE TO GIVE THSE PEOPLE ANY ATTENTION, BUT... members
of a New Mexico church (probably looking for attention) rallied
against the Harry Potter books, claiming he was the devil. "JK
Rowling's novels were burnt alongside other items considered to
be the work of the devil, including horror books by Stephen King,
ouija boards and AC/DC records. Eminem CDs and copies of Disney's
Snow White film were thrown in a dustbin." BBC
12/31/01
Sunday December 30
THE
YEAR IN ARTS: Publications around the world choose the best
and worst in arts in 2001. Here's our compilation of "Best
of/Worst of" lists. ArtsJournal.com
Friday December 28
ARE
PACS ALL THEY'RE CRACKED UP TO BE? "PACs have become
the hot new urban fix, following the festival market, the convention
center, the baseball stadium, the sports arena, the aquarium,
and the museum... Yet it took Lincoln Center 25 years to become
a destination instead of merely a venue. That's one of its forgotten
lessons. Without the simultaneous development of shops, cafes,
housing, and hotels, performing arts centers quickly become marooned
by their own lofty intentions." Dallas
Morning News 12/28/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
LOOKING
BACK: The BBC traces the year in arts, month by month - from
Matthew Kneale's Whitbread win to Madonna's Turner Prize announcement.
BBC 12/27/01
FIGHTING
FOR CONTROL: Two San Francisco institutions are duking it
out for control of the theatre at the Palace of Fine Arts. "The
Exploratorium science museum and the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre,
which sit side by side in the dreamy, city-owned Palace of Fine
Arts complex in the Marina District, are trying to work out new
leases with the city," and the Exploratorium wants to take
over operation of the theatre. San
Francisco Chronicle 12/27/01
COMING
TO TERMS WITH ART'S RESPONSIBILITIES: It has become almost
cliched to point out the importance of art's survival in a culture
so shaken by the trauma of 9/11. But for artists themselves, who
are now expected to have something relevant to say on the subject,
the journey from horror to productive creation is not an easy
one, and the decision of how to address the grieving of a nation
without seeming trite or preachy is not an easy one. Christian
Science Monitor 12/28/01
Thursday December 27
LANGUAGE
VS. TECHNOLOGY? The education ministry of a prosperous Indian
state is under fire from self-styled guardians of culture, following
a proposal to allow high school students to study Information
Technology (IT) as a second language. Opponents fear that, since
students are only permitted to pick one language to study, IT
will quickly become the course of choice, replacing Marathi, the
local language which is in danger of dying out. Wired
12/25/01
POP
GOES THE EASEL: As museums around the U.S. struggle with attendance
figures and constantly evolving competition from new and exciting
pop culture offerings, many are turning to pop art exhibits to
draw in the younger set. From the Guggenheim's motorcycles, to
SFMOMA's Reeboks, to a widely criticized display of Jackie O's
clothing at no less a gallery than New York's Metropolitan Museum,
it cannot be denied that museums are dumbing down. But is this
a failure of the arts, or a success for marketing? The
Plain Dealer (Cleveland) (AP) 12/27/01
Wednesday December 26
ARTS
AFTER 9-11: "A massive infusion of irrationality is necessary
to stabilize self-belief during a crisis. And that means the arts
are going to be hit hard on two levels. The first is that the
very nearly illiterate George W. Bush will set the limits on the
public conversation about terrorism. The second level, far more
devastating, is the retreat of artists from the arena of public
issues. Conscious of their need to connect with an audience, why
would they write the plays and novels for which the times will
pillory them?" The
Globe & Mail (Canada) 12/26/01
Monday December 24
NEA
KEEPS KEEPIN' ON: President Bush's nominee for chairman of
the National Endowment for the Arts was confirmed by the Senate
last week. It's been a tumultuous few decades for the NEA, though
the political turmoil has calmed a bit in the past few years.
But the government is not likely to pay the arts much heed until
they get new champions. "The arts are a strange part of American
life. Almost everybody loves them on some level, but they haven't
been educated to think about it as part of government."
New York Times 12/24/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
THE
START OF... Fifty years ago, Canadian Governor General Vincent
Massey produced a report on culture whose "recommendations
led eventually to the creation of the Canada Council and the National
Library. But the report exerted other influences that were less
obvious and less beneficial. What seems clear now is its political
bias. It framed support of the arts in essentially political terms,
and we have been burdened by those terms ever since." National
Post (Canada) 12/24/01
SMART
AS A MACHINE: Machines don't have the intelligence "imagined
by Stanley Kubrick in 1968, when he released the movie 2001:
A Space Odyssey. This year, we can now say at the safety of
its end, did not bring us a Hal, or anything like it. Computers
can play a pretty good game of chess, transliterate speech and
recognise handwriting and faces. But their intelligence does not
touch our own, and the prevailing scientific wisdom seems to be
that it never will." The Economist
12/22/01
PERFORMANCE
AFTER 9-11: "I have seen great performances this fall,
and I have seen imperfect performances, but I have seen no indifferent
performances. Artists' work seemed more focused, more intense
during these harrowing weeks. The less gifted among us can learn
much from them." San Francisco
Chronicle 12/23/01
OLD
PROBLEM: "As any regular patron can tell you, the people
who turn out for music, dance and theater are more likely to be
concerned with Medicare than with student loans. It's a tricky
population twist for arts managers to navigate as they try to
accommodate their reliable, though aging, subscription base while
also pulling in new blood for the future. It's not a particularly
new problem - the core audience has always been those who have
no babies and some disposable income - but modern demographics
and economics have given a new urgency to the issue." Washington
Post 12/23/01
A
HOME OF THEIR OWN: For a decade, a dozen Chicago arts groups
have been working on building a new mid-size theatre, a joint
home they can grow into. The delays have been frustrating though,
and several of the groups are just barely hanging on as construction
is about to begin. Chicago Tribune
12/23/01
WHEN
ART IS ISOLATED: Eyes glaze over for most people encountering
issues of aesthetics. But maybe it's not their fault. "I
would say that western philosophy and western fine art are designed
to be irrelevant to the lives of most folks. They are supposed
to be incomprehensible to people like most of the students I have
taught. We’re working with a conception of art in which most art
is isolated in little cultural zones like the museum, the concert
hall, the poetry reading, where art is supposed to function by
sweeping us from our grubby little world and into the exalted
realm of the aesthetic." Aesthetics-online
12/01
WHAT
IF ARTS AND SPORTS TRADED PLACES? "There are sports people
and arts people, the two alien civilizations whose populations
are greater than all others combined. Throughout history, sports
people have had little tolerance for the artsy-fartsy types, just
as arts people have looked down their noses at the beer-swilling
lunkheads." But "how would things be different if the
arts were sports, and if sports were the arts?"
St. Louis Post-Dispatch 12/23/01
Friday December 21
GOOD
YEAR FOR AUSSIE ARTS: Despite an economic slowdown and a drop
in tourism after September 11, 2001 was a terrific year for Australian
arts groups. Ticket sales and subscriptions were up, box office
was good, and most of the country's arts institutions are optimistic."The
best result of all was achieved by the Melbourne Festival. The
largest spring event staged reported record boxoffice returns
of $3.5 million last month." The
Age (Melbourne) 12/21/01
MELLON DONATES
TO NYC ARTS GROUPS: "The Andrew Mellon Foundation
announced yesterday the first in a series of grants totaling $50
million to aid cultural institutions directly affected by the
World Trade Center attack on Sept. 11. The first awards, $2.65
million each, will go to three New York groups that are grant-making
organizations themselves: the Alliance of Resident Theaters/New
York, the American Music Center and the New York Foundation for
the Arts." The
New York Times 12/21/01 (one-time registration required
for access)
Thursday December 20
CALIFORNIA
LOVES THE ARTS: A survey on interest in the arts in California
shows that 78 percent would be willing to tax themselves an extra
$5 a year to support the arts (the state currently spends $1 a
year on arts). Among the other findings: "83 percent of those
surveyed attended a performing or visual arts event at least once
in the past year, and 31 percent attended four or more performances
a year." Sacramento Bee 12/19/01
Wednesday December 19
NEA
RELEASES SOME HELD-UP GRANT MONEY: "After holding back
its initial approval, the National Endowment for the Arts has
decided to give the Berkeley Repertory Theater a $60,000 grant
for a production of Tony Kushner's new play on Afghanistan. The
endowment's acting chairman held up two grants last month at the
very last step in the approval process, a move that generated
discussion about the NEA's procedures and the artists' work...
Officials at the NEA have steadfastly refused to discuss the rationale
behind the scrutiny since the acting chairman's action became
public almost three weeks ago." Washington
Post 12/19/01
NYT
CHANGING ARTS COVERAGE? New York Times Arts & Leisure
editor John Rockwell has announced he's stepping down from the
job. Rockwell says Howell Raines, the Times new editor, wants
to change the paper's cultural coverage. "I found out Howell Raines
wanted to take this section in a new direction – which, I might
add, is perfectly within his rights as executive editor. Howell
wants to take it more in a populist direction, more popular culture'."
New York Observer (second
item) 12/19/01
Tuesday December 18
ENRON
COLLAPSE A BLOW TO HOUSTON CULTURE: The collapse of Houston-based
Enron has some major cultural implications for the city's arts
organizations. The company was a big investor in art - both for
its walls as well as support for the arts. "Many cultural
institutions here, including the Museum of Fine Arts, the Houston
Ballet, the Alley Theater and the Houston Symphony, will feel
the repercussions as well, because the company contributed to
all of them." The New York Times
12/18/01 (one-time registration
required for access)
NEWSFLASH
- CALIFORNIANS WANT CULTURE: "The California Arts Council
will release today the results of a statewide public opinion survey
that indicates that California residents endorse government support
for the arts and are willing to pay for it. The survey, the first
of its kind for the state arts agency, indicates that 78% of Californians
are willing to pay $5 more in state taxes if the money goes to
the arts." Los Angeles Times
12/18/01
Monday December 17
THE
GIRLS' EDGE: A new study has established that "girls
have higher reading skills than boys, have more confidence in
their ability to learn and, when taught together with other girls,
even catch up in math where males still appear to have an advantage.
Nevertheless, the political activists and their organizations,
which spend most of their time concocting calls for action, are
not satisfied with the girls: No matter how well educated they
are, girls still tend to choose 'typical female careers or fields
of study in disproportionate numbers,' according to the study."
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 12/16/01
WOMEN
FOR PEACE: Why have there been so few women Nobel Peace Prize
winners? "One group of individuals the Nobel Peace Prize
has consistently under-rewarded is women, and, strangely, this
has never been a controversial element of the prize. The discrepancy
is jarring. During the 100-year history of the Nobel Peace Prize,
109 prizes have been awarded. Ten have been to women. Women -
under-represented in the democratic or anti-democratic regimes
that choose to wage wars - are also under-represented in the garnering
of plaudits for peace." The Guardian
(UK) 12/16/01
Sunday December 16
GETTING
INVOLVED: "In recent years, the term 'activist' has tentatively
resurfaced at art panels. Participants have voiced a mix of renewed
interest in addressing social and cultural problems, frustration
that so many of those issues remain little changed after decades
of awareness, and reluctance to adopt the last generation's model
because, in retrospect, it was too absolutist."
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 12/16/01
Friday December 14
ART OUT OF CHAOS: A
novelist - a non-Jew, non-musician - is stymied in trying to write
about a musician in the Holocaust. She works her way through after
a visit to the concentration camp where many artists were sent.
"Theresienstadt had four working orchestras; in addition
to symphonies and original operas, hundreds of chamber and lieder
concerts were performed, and there were two cabarets. According
to one historian, for most of the war Theresienstadt had the freest
cultural life in the occupied Europe." Boston
Review December 2001
Thursday December 13
CONCERT
HALL OR CIVIC REVITALIZATION? Philadelphia's new Kimmel Center
was built with the help of nearly $100 million of public money,
leading some to ask whether the expense of creating such cultural
monuments is balanced by the benefits it returns to the community.
"Officials say the Kimmel will create 3,000 jobs and generate
$153 million in annual spending on tickets, parking, restaurants,
hotels and the like. The building itself isn't expected to be
profitable for several years." San
Jose Mercury News 12/13/01
KEEPIN'
IT REAL IN DC: The nation's capital does not have a stunning
track record when it comes to supporting the arts nationally,
and the current administration has had a few other things on its
mind lately. Nevertheless, "this year's recently concluded
Kennedy Center Honors gala... proved to be what it is every year
-- the most convivial and least pompous party in Washington, if
you can imagine such a thing." Chicago
Tribune 12/13/01
Wednesday December 12
DIGITAL
DIVIDE: "Artists have been exploring digital art since
the 1960s, but only in the past few years has it become widely
practical because of better technology and prices." Cell
phone symphonies, digital graphics, interactive art..."it's evolved
to the point where artists are getting better at taking advantage
of the tools and making better art. We've reached the level of
seeing more museum-quality work." Chicago
Tribune 12/11/01
Tuesday December 11
RUSTY
HINGE: England's "Arts Council is no more than the
hinge on the door that should lead the public to the arts,
and artists to their public. But has there been a creakier,
dodgier hinge in the history of metaphorical carpentry? Has
there been a single year out of the past 20 when the Arts
Council has not been going through some 'upheaval' or 'crisis'
— usually entirely of its own making?" Another "reorganization"
isn't helping. The Times (UK)
12/11/01
ART
IN ECONOMIC TERMS: "No doubt about it, the arts today
are a hard sell. This is a problem because, despite all protestations
against commercialism and 'selling out,' art has always had
a tendency to follow the money. To an extent still far greater
than many critics are willing to concede, all of the arts
are economically determined, and their failure can be described
in simple economic terms. There has been no problem with the
supply of art (leaving aside arguments over its quality),
what has been lacking is the demand." GoodReports
12/11/01
ISRAELI
ARTISTS OBJECT TO FUNDING CRITERIA: The Israeli government
tries to come up with a uniform set of funding criteria for
cultural organizations - a kind of one-size-fits-all approach
to cultural funding. "The question is how the money ought
then to be distributed, and if it is at all possible to come
up with uniform criteria where art is concerned." But
a set of rules drafted to set criteria has been strenuously
attacked by the country's arts institutions. Ha'aretz
(Israel) 12/10/01
ALL
IN ALL - A GOOD YEAR: The Australia Council released figures
measuring last year's artistic output in Australia. All, in
all, it was a pretty good year - "new Australian works
increased by 41 per cent compared with 1999, with new dance
and chamber music works accounting for the increase. Audience
numbers reached record levels in 2000. Audiences increased
4.5 per cent between 2000 and 1999. The
Age (Melbourne) 12/11/01
-
THE
PROFITABLE NON-PROFITS: "For the first time in
almost a decade, the 21 dance, opera, theatre and chamber
music companies made a significant profit. An aggregate
profit of $4.6 million was reported last year, although
this was reduced to $185,000 when the symphony orchestras
were included." Sydney
Morning Herald 12/11/01
Thursday December 6
AN
OFFICIAL POSITION ON FOLK MUSIC? A British government culture
minister has taken a swipe at folk music, and folk fans are demanding
an apology. In a debate in parliament on music licenses, Kim Howells
observed: "For a simple urban boy such as me, the idea of listening
to three Somerset folk singers sounds like hell." BBC
12/06/01
COME
BACK PETE: The Adelaide Festival might have forced Peter Sellars
to resign as artistic director, but the Festival still wants him
to produce his expensive multimedia opera at next year's festival.
"Sellars, who resigned last month over programming difficulties,
has been persuaded to return to Adelaide to direct the El Nino
singers and will be present for the festival, as will its creator,
John Adams." The
Age (Melbourne) 12/06/01
Wednesday December 5
THE
ART OF SCIENCE? Art has long been influenced by science. But
science has rarely taken inspiration from art. "When an artist
walks into a lab and sees equations written on the board, his
usual response is to say, 'I don't understand any of this - it
must be brilliant,' But when an engineer wanders into an art gallery
and sees stuffed animals, he's very likely to say, 'I don't understand
any of this - it must be garbage.'" Wire
12/04/01
Tuesday December 4
NEA
CHAIRMAN HOLDS UP GRANTS: The acting chairman of the National
Endowment for the Arts has delayed awarding two grants recommended
by Endowment panels and the National Council on the Arts. One
grant was for $100,000 to Berkley Repertory Theatre for production
of a new Tony Kushner play. The
New York Times 12/04/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
THE
LINCOLN CENTER MESS: "Lincoln Center's constituents are
bound together by architecture, and that architecture is in need
of repair. They are not bound together artistically and never
have been. The redevelopment proposal, now projected at $1.2 billion,
seems focused on initiatives that have little direct relation
to their artistic mission. Making the public space more attractive
and accessible is a worthy goal but not the most important. The
project should be a visionary effort, a chance for each organization
to address longstanding issues that have affected its artistic
growth. The problem is that each organization has its own agenda."
The New York Times 12/04/01
(one-time registration
required for access)
Monday December 3
THE
IMPOSSIBLE FUNDING GAME: The Ontario government has made $300
million available for arts projects in the province. But $1.2
billion in requests has come in. And, in order to navigate the
politics and rules for getting the money, you have to turn yourself
in knots. Is this any way to run a lottery? Toronto
Star 12/02/01
STEPPING
UP: Arts organizations around the country have reported at
least slight declines in ticket sales since 9/11. But New York's
arts community was decimated by the attacks, as tourism, the backbone
of the city's cultural scene, took a hit. Now, the Andrew W. Mellon
foundation has set up a special $50 million fund to help those
organizations worst hit by the fallout. Andante
12/03/01
KENNEDY
CENTER HANDS OUT THE HARDWARE: "President Bush hosted
a Hollywood who's-who on Sunday as actors Jack Nicholson and Julie
Andrews, composer-producer Quincy Jones, pianist Van Cliburn and
tenor Luciano Pavarotti were honored for their contributions to
the performing arts at the Kennedy Center Honors." Nando
Times (AP) 12/03/01
Sunday December 2
BIG
GIFT FOR KENNEDY CENTER: Catherine Reynolds has given the
Kennedy Center $10 million to underwrite performances over the
next decade. The money, she says, is unrestricted. That's important
to say, because she is the donor who was criticized earlier this
year when she gave $38 million to the Smithsonian for a "Spirit
of America" exhibit and suggested who might be featured in
it. Washington Post 11/30/01
THE
LINCOLN CENTER PROBLEM: The restoration of New York's Lincoln
Centre is an exciting project. So why has it gathered up so little
public enthusiasm? "Of the $1.2 billion budget of the redevelopment
plan for Lincoln Center that will soon be made public, only 15
percent is devoted to public space. It is, however, a crucial
15 percent. For in one respect the critics are right: the center's
public spaces are miserably flawed. To make them perform on the
same level as the artists who tread its stages is one of the plan's
stated goals." The
New York Times 12/02/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
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