Something For Nothing

“More than £100,000 worth of art is being given away at the Free Art Fair, in London. Some people have queued overnight to get their hands on work by artists like Gavin Turk and Stella Vine for nothing… The idea was to provide an antidote to the hype that surrounded Damien Hirst’s recent record-breaking sale at Sotheby’s, which raised £111m.”

Is The World Aging Along With Classical Audiences?

The debate over the supposed aging of the core audience for orchestral performances is raging again, and composer Matthew Guerreri has an interesting take. Acknowledging that audiences seem to have aged over the past several decades, he points out that both overall life expectancy and the age at which people settle into adulthood have gone up at almost the same rate. “The problem–if it even is a problem–would seem to be more a function of demographic evolution than a lack of cultural wherewithal on the part of classical music specifically.”

Of Art and Presidential Politics

Americans for the Arts, a lobbying group, has released its assessment of where the two presidential candidates stand on arts issues. Barack Obama “is lauded (along with the Democratic Party platform), for being a consistent arts backer.” John McCain, while not seen as specifically hostile to the arts, is dinged for not taking positions at all on many arts-related issues.

Southern Illinois To Get Major Art Gift

“New Yorkers Herbert and Dorothy Vogel… working with the National Gallery of Art in Washington and federal arts agencies, chose the University Museum at Southern Illinois University to receive 50 pieces [of the Vogel collection.] The gift is part of a plan announced in April to donate 50 works from the Vogels to one art institution in each state. Ten recipients were named then, and announcements about the remaining 40 are expected this week.”

Kundera Accused Of Helping Communists

“Life appears to be imitating art in a drama convulsing the Czech Republic: an accusation that Milan Kundera, one of Eastern Europe’s most celebrated writers, denounced a Western intelligence agent to Czechoslovakia’s Communist police when he was a 21-year-old student. The agent, Miroslav Dvoracek, served 14 years in jail, including hard labor in a uranium mine.”

Trove of Ancient Manuscripts To Go Digital

“For centuries scholars from around the world have flocked to the Stiftsbibliothek — literally, the abbey library — in [St. Gallen, Switzerland,] to pore over its vast collection of manuscripts, many written and illustrated before the year 1000.” Now, a grant from the Mellon Foundation will allow the library’s holdings to be scanned and made available online.