“Ninety-five per cent of music available online is downloaded illegally, according to a report by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. Despite a record growth in digital music sales last year, and an industry that has ‘transformed its business models’, the report says the majority of music was downloaded for free with no payments made to artists.”
Tag: 01.16.09
Obama’s Proposed Artists Corps Sows Hope In Arts Circles
“Barack Obama enters office with the first-ever presidential arts platform drafted during the campaign. … Perhaps nothing [in the platform] has attracted as much interest as the proposed Artists Corps, a national service concept that, much like the Peace Corps, would draft legions of young talent into service across the nation’s schools and arts organizations.”
Old Vic Opening Delayed; Is Richard Dreyfuss Off Book Yet?
“The premiere of a West End play directed by Kevin Spacey has been delayed for nine days. Complicit at the Old Vic, starring US actor Richard Dreyfuss, will now open its run on 28 January. A spokesman said ‘more development time’ was needed, but declined to comment on reports that Dreyfuss has been prompted during preview runs.”
Pivotal Huntington Library Director James Thorpe Dies At 93
“James Thorpe, former director of the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens who helped raise the public profile of the institution, turning it into one of Southern California’s leading educational and cultural centers, has died.”
Reactions To Cerny’s Joke More Entertaining Than The Art
“Whether ‘Entropa,’ Czech artist David Cerny’s hoax representation of the 27 European states, was a good work of art, it certainly was a good joke. It also caused a certain amount of embarrassment to Czech Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra when it was switched on.”
Uh, Czechs? Maybe Cerny Wasn’t The Artist For The Job.
“The poor Czechs. Their turn at leading the EU already had provoked deep skepticism, and Cerny’s 9-ton diss — hanging at the entrance to the European Council building in Brussels — doesn’t help. But what did they expect?”
Endowment Diminished, Income Off, Met Is Cutting Costs
“[T]he Metropolitan Opera has been bludgeoned by the recession and now faces a ‘disaster scenario’ unless the company finds major cost cuts, including concessions from its powerful unions, the Met’s general manager, Peter Gelb, said on Thursday. Its once-mighty endowment of more than $300 million has dropped by a third, to a point where it cannot be drawn from; donations are down by $10 million this season; and ticket sales are expected to be off by several million dollars….”
Kimbell Museum Names A Director: Cincinnati’s Eric Lee
“Eric Lee, who distinguished himself for two years as director of the Taft Museum of Art in Cincinnati, is the new director of the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth. Kay Fortson, president of the Kimbell Art Foundation, said the board voted unanimously to pick Lee, 42, after spending 18 months interviewing ‘many, many, many candidates from all over the world.'”
Debating A Department Of The Arts
Should the arts’ current “fragmented representation throughout the U.S. government” be centralized under a secretary of the arts? Artists such as Quincy Jones, who argues that the arts are “just as important as military defense,” are all in favor. Others see the need for someone who’s versed in issues like cultural diplomacy and has the president’s ear. But there’s plenty of opposition.
Could ‘American Exceptionalism’ Become Respectable Again?
“[T]he topic has been notably out of fashion in the scholarly world. Now, from the well-known historian Simon Schama, we have a new, contrarian view that looks at what’s unique in the American character, putting our past in the context of the election of the new president we are just inaugurating.”