Category: issues

Time Magazine’s Robert Hughes happily proclaims himself an elitist. “What I’m going to talk about is the idea of quality in art, which is a concept which over the last 25 years has taken a hell of a beating. Really good art is much more interesting than really bad art, and there’s a lot of the latter and not a lot of the former. The idea of preferring high, articulate, demanding and beautiful experiences from the visual or aural or any other arts is seen as absolutely nuts. But is it damagingly elitist to prefer good baseball to bad baseball?” – Dallas Morning News 11/08/00

The quarterly magazine City Journal solicited plans from three architects to envision completely leveling and then rebuilding Lincoln Center from the ground up, instead of the performing arts center’s pending redesign. “The suggestion, however tongue-in-cheek, that the world’s biggest and busiest performing arts complex be razed like Ilium left Lincoln Center at least officially nearly speechless.” – New York Times 11/08/00 

“In the international arena, Korean culture, long overshadowed by those of China and Japan, has received only marginal attention, often becoming subject to the view that regards it as a branch of theirs.” Now an initiative to promote Korean culture in other parts of the world as a distinct entity.” – Korea Times 11/07/00

“Affluence, once the preserve of the entrepreneurial class and the corporate sector, has now come to academe. Six-figure salaries, which used to be restricted to college presidents and a few senior faculty members in business and engineering, are no longer uncommon. The stock-market boom of the past two decades, rising home values, two-earner households, and external sources of income from royalties, lecture fees, and other sources have all given the academic world a new taste of prosperity.” – Chronicle of Higher Education 11/06/00

San Jose has copied an idea used in the high-tech start-up world for arts funding. The plan goes like this: “Bring representatives of arts, neighborhood and social services groups together for a day; feed them good food and good ideas; let them listen, schmooze and think. At the end of the day, ask them for their ideas. Then pick the best and fund them – quickly.” – San Jose Mercury News 11/06/00

“What is the charter of the multi-artform Melbourne Festival? To offer choice and take the odd gamble? Or to project the ideas and tastes of the artistic director charged with pulling the event together?” – Sydney Morning Herald 11/06/00

“In a society which prides itself on being a melting pot, 17 per cent of Australia’s performing artists, and 14 per cent of artistic directors, claim a non-English speaking background, a new report says. The roles these performers are offered are largely ‘minor, tokenistic or stereotyped’.” – Sydney Morning Herald 11/06/00

Can a dealer sell the original artwork used for films, books, or comics? There’s been an established trade in such artwork for years. But now the copyright-holders for Thomas the Tank comic want to prohibit a dealer from selling art from the original comic. There could be larger implications. – The Telegraph (UK) 11/06/00

Last May Hartford’s Bushnell Theatre began selling tickets online and now sells 10 percent of its seats that way. Predictions are that that number will double in the next year. “Now – for a growing number of theaters and cultural organizations – arts consumers can call up a Web site and instantly get tickets, see where they are sitting and be done with it. Click, click, done. Smart arts organizations realize that to compete in the entertainment marketplace they must be more willing to accommodate the needs and desires of their customers.” – Hartford Courant 11/05/00