Archives for May 2007

(SEE READERS' COMMENTS, BELOW) Tom Sokolowski, director of the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, responds to Warhol Museum's Soda Pop Joins "World's Largest Collection of Coke Memorabilia": I read with some interest your comments about the loan of a number of the Warhol Museum's art and archival materials to a temporary exhibition to The World of Coke as part the opening … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Warhol Museum’s Director Defends Loans to Coca-Cola Museum

Promises, promises. The NY Times' new culture blog has remained dormant since Monday. I think they need to change their promotional slogan: "ArtsBeat is all culture, all the time." I suggest: "ArtsBeat is popular music, once in a while." But speaking of follow-through on promises, I'm glad the Times has decided to keep the gadfly position of public editor, which began in 2003. … [Read more...] about NY Times BlogWatch: The Beat Doesn’t Go On

We can only hope it's merely a Coke joke: Giovanna dell'Orto of Associated Press reports that some 30 Warhol Coca-Colas loaned by the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, will go on display later this month at the new World of Coca-Cola museum near the soft drink company's headquarters in Atlanta. We can only hope the Pittsburgh museum got lots of money for these branding … [Read more...] about Warhol Museum’s Soda Pop Joins “World’s Largest Collection of Coke Memorabilia”

John Walsh, former director of the J. Paul Getty Museum, was in Seattle last weekend to give a speech to assembled VIPs about how the expanded Seattle Art Museum compares with other recent museum architectural projects. He couldn't resist taking a dig at the Guggenheim, saying that Washington Mutual, the bank that now shares a building with SAM, "is certainly a more reliable … [Read more...] about Seattle Tattle—Part III: Wailing with Walsh

My brief post on a predicted looming crisis in future arts leadership seems to have struck a chord with young, arts-loving business types who have encountered obstacles to entering administrative positions in cultural organizations. I am posting two comments that you can access at the end of the above-linked post, and I have previously posted a particularly articulate and … [Read more...] about The Coming Arts Leadership Brain Drain, Continued

Having bestowed my Saturday NY Philharmonic tickets upon my semi-grateful son, I had to get my classical-music fix last weekend in Seattle. As it happened, the Seattle Symphony (with the obligatory Chihuly chandelier, above, in its lobby) was being fronted by Bobby McFerrin in a program of three classical warhorses plus his own vocal improvisations. Now I know McFerrin has had … [Read more...] about Seattle Tattle—Part II: Bobby McFerrin Makes Symphony-Goers Happy

NY Magazine's Show and Talk blog, chronicling Fashion Week, has won the 2007 National Magazine Award for Interactive Feature. Isn't it time for the Pulitzers to create a category for newspaper blogs? Speaking of which, the NY Times' new ArtsBeat blog went dead two days ago. (The blog itself is here.) Don't they know that one of the cardinal rules of blogging is keep … [Read more...] about Fashion Blog Wins National Magazine Award

Philip Johnson's iconic Glass House in New Canaan, CT, is now open to the public, but this month's tours appear to be sold out. (At this writing, a few openings remain in June.) The 90-minute guided tour is $25 per person; it's $40 for the 2-hour end-of-day tour. … [Read more...] about Philip Johnson’s Transparent Hideaway Receives Visitors

Kara Kane, a Chicago-based independent IT consultant and freelance musician, responds to The Coming Arts Leadership Brain Drain: While I do agree that the arts world will lose many of the best and brightest to corporate America, I feel that the arts world is itself part of the problem. Two issues that are more important than not having the money to lure the best and the … [Read more...] about BlogBack: Words of Wisdom on Future Arts Leaders, from Generation X

I find an encouraging bit of progress for blogs in the NY Times' recently launched ArtsBeat. It's not just that the blog-backward gray lady is belatedly struggling to get hip. It's that the Times was actually willing to let its reporters start blogging on the digital fringes before they boarded the newsprint mothership. Only today did Ben Ratliff and Jon Pareles publish … [Read more...] about ArtsBeat: One Small Step for the Times, One Giant Step for Blogkind

I can't blog about the expanded Seattle Art Museum (as I have previously mentioned), until I publish my upcoming piece about it in the Wall Street Journal. But what I can do is dish some tasty tidbits that I was fed by the artworld gadabouts who landed in Seattle last week for VIP events at collectors' homes and for Saturday night's gala celebrating the museum's expansion Since … [Read more...] about Seattle Tattle—Part I: Riffing with Rifkin