Was Brian Kennedy forced out as director of the National Gallery of Australia? At the least, he was politically isolated. So now who will succeed Kennedy? “John McDonald, the gallery’s former head of Australian art, will not apply. He resigned after a falling out with Kennedy, and says the new director needs to reverse the steady decline in visitor numbers and morale that happened under Kennedy. ‘Kennedy should have gone in disgrace several years ago. It will take a while to repair the damage’.”
Tag: 01.11.04
Poetry Popularity – It’s A More “Personal” Art
Poetry seems to be getting more and more popular around America. “An incredible immediacy takes place between the poet and the audience, or even in reading a book of poetry, that doesn’t exist in other parts of our culture. In other places, we’re numbers, not individuals. This group of people will like this movie. They’re aiming this radio station at that demographic. I think there’s a great hunger in this country for a more personal art.”
Secrets Of The Dashing Danes
“Denmark is a very small country compared to Russia, France, England, and America, yet, like those dance superpowers, it boasts a world-class ballet company with a venerable academy attached to it.” What, wonders Tobi Tobias, “could be the secret of a ballet academy that has consistently produced dancers of this caliber with such a modest number of candidates to choose from?”
The RSC – Homeless On The Brink
The Royal Shakespeare Company still doesn’t have a London home. “The Arts Council has been too polite to issue any precise threats. Nicola Thorold, director of theatre, defers steadily to Michael Boyd and reports that the Arts Council is ‘extremely encouraged’ by the company’s success in cutting its deficit by a million pounds this year. But the implication is understood by all: the RSC’s annual grant from the Arts Council of £13m must, this year, extend to include the capital. For from London’s point of view, a whole year – described as ‘transitional’ and ‘cost-saving’ – has been written off with the Arts Council’s blessing. A period of grace on the brink of disgrace.”
The Man Who Chooses Architects
“Reed Kroloff is one of a small coterie of competition advisers who organize and administer the bake-offs so often used to determine which architecture firms will design which coveted projects. These advisers are both catalysts for — and beneficiaries of — an upsurge in interest in how architects are chosen. Competitions that only five years ago would have been local affairs now draw thousands of entries from around the world, partly because the Internet makes the rules available to any architect with a computer and modem.”
A Revised WTC Memorial Plan
“Michael Arad, the designer who proposed the winning memorial with reflecting pools in the tower footprints, has been refining drawings for a final design expected to be unveiled on Wednesday. He is working with Peter Walker, a landscape architect who joined him during the jury selection process. ‘It is impossible to please everyone. Everybody can’t weigh in on this.’ But since the designs were announced last month and Arad’s was chosen last Tuesday, it seems that nearly everyone has.”
The Art Of Bilingual Writing
“The tradition of literati who live and work in more than one language dates back to antiquity, but today we tend to think of 20th-century examples as most prominent: Joseph Conrad emigrating from Polish to English, Samuel Beckett morphing from English to French, Vladimir Nabokov ardently abandoning Russian for “Ada” (and “Lolita”) in English. More recently, Russian-born Andrei Makine, winner of many laurels for his fiction in French, and Ha Jin, the Chinese-born author who won the National Book Award for “Waiting”…
Piano – MIA In Orange County
Orange County, California has a rich musical life – orchestras, chamber music, recitals. But there’s one big thing missing – the piano. Why, wonders Tim Mangan, is there no ongoing series committed to the piano?
Movies Of The Future – Living For The Niche
“While 2003 was a year marked by the further consolidation of power by a handful of mega-media companies, the audience is not without some power to fight against them. The more we reject embarrassing big-ticket stunts like “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle” and “Coupling,” the riskier it becomes to produce bloated would-be crowd-pleasers chasing after a theoretically homogeneous crowd. Vanity — and perhaps the possibility of found money — might even drive the media giants to bolster their output of more diversified, less costly and perhaps better products that speak to our various niches.”
Orchestras – Harmful To Your Hearing?
Symphony orchestras are loud (and they ought to be). But they can also be harmful to the hearing of musicians. The issue “has bubbled to the surface recently with press accounts of a new regulation imposed by the European Union that reduces the allowable sound exposure in the European orchestral workplace from the present 90 decibels to 85. The problem is, a symphony orchestra playing full-out can easily reach 96 to 98 decibels, and certain brass and percussion instruments have registered 130 to 140 at close range.”