Arts Council England has a new chairman. So what next? Artists make some suggestions…
Tag: 01.25.09
Canadian Tenor Raises Small Fortune, Rents Carnegie Hall
Ken Lavigne “invested $200,000 — money raised over months at concerts and fundraisers throughout the Lower Mainland — to get to Carnegie Hall. And the morning after, he’s sure it was worth it.”
Balanchine The Dance (Not The Person)
“If a dancer was touched by Balanchine they were obviously incredibly lucky, but there was also this adulation that went along with it. There’s hope in a way that these Balanchine ballets will take on a new, almost uncomplicated freshness because they’re being approached really just as works of art in their own without the mystique or aura of the choreographer.”
Peter Maxwell Davies, Defender Against Mediocrity
The English composer, soon to turn 75, “is now a highly visible spokesman for the British music establishment and more: a national scourge of mediocrity and compromise, firing broadsides at the art world for its commercialism and at the government for everything from cultural vacuity to the war in Iraq.”
UK Movies – Highly Desired But Economically Imperiled
“In 2008, 111 feature films were made in Britain, down from 126 the previous year. Their overall cost, £578.2m, represented a drop of 23 per cent from the previous year. Overseas investment in the UK industry fell by more than a third – from £523m to £338m. Britain faces a situation where, even as its actors, directors and screenwriters are among the most sought-after in Hollywood, the lion’s share of the revenue, jobs and taxes they generate stay in the US.”
The Intersection Of Art And Music
Artists whose work is inspired by music; musicians inspired to make art: What draws one to the other?
Has Wildly Successful Book Festival Helped Kill British Book Town?
“The booksellers who put the town [Hay-on-Wye] on the map 30 years ago are angry and fearful at collapsing sales, and are pinning the blame on the festival, which began 25 years ago, on the internet, and now on each other.”
Will Downturn Kill Market For Second-Rate Art?
“In the past decade, there has been no art too sorry to be sold at auction, no art too brainless, slapdash, repetitive, obnoxious or devoid of originality. Whatever you had, some dealer or auctioneer could probably sell it; the ravening maws were always eager to be stuffed.”
War Plays – Goodbye To All That?
“Will theatergoers continue to be interested in issues raised by war? Given Americans’ exhaustion with the war in Iraq, and the departure of President Bush, not to mention the nation’s dire economic landscape, will there be a demand for war plays?”
Ballet Support – It Takes A School
Boston Ballet Center for Dance Education is the largest ballet school in North America. The school’s “shiny new studio will be a breeding ground for Boston Ballet patrons, inspiring the sort of devotion that turns parents of budding ballerinas – and a remarkable number of women and men working to perfect their own wobbly jetés – into subscribers, volunteers, board members, and donors.”