“The opportunity to rethink government’s role comes at a time when it is readily acknowledged among arts professionals that cultural support in America is outdated in its assumptions, sclerotic in its methods, biased in its outcomes, and inefficient in its use of philanthropic and taxpayer dollars. It’s time to move on. But where?”
Tag: 01.30.09
Moscow Fine Art Fair Canceled
“We believe that the financial and political climate in Russia is such that many potential buyers could have cold feet next May, and hence it is unfair… to hold an event when all indicators tend to say that there will not be much business going on.”
Art Bailout – Barter For Art?
A group of artists set up a barter system for their art. “The exact service or good that these artists require — for example, dental work, other medical services or studio space — will be on a label next to their art. ‘Given the economic climate and with all the artists that we know suddenly without viable work, it became clear one evening as we sat around the dinner table, that art could be treated as a currency. We want to make art more accessible for those who don’t have it in their environment’.”
Will Recession Kill Contemporary British Art?
If the economic catastrophe is going to destroy “young British art” and its still-younger successors, how come artists are so pleased about it? The mood among artists appears to be one of frenzied revolutionary excitement, gloating at the “end of capitalism” and excited about the opportunities it offers. Most new British art now is roughshod, and sees itself as oppositional. A generation of lo-fi subversives may finally have found something to be lo-fi and subversive about.
The Star Factor – What Hollywood Stars Mean To The West End
“Just this week, Richard Pulford, chief executive of the Society of London Theatre, credited big stars with bringing bigger business to the West End last year. So, what do we actors think? Truth be told, stars are almost essential nowadays in Theatreland, be they home-grown or imported. Stick a movie star or a modish comedian on the poster and you can quadruple your advance receipts in a trice.”
Israel’s Sephardic-Moroccan Orchestra Fires Its Musicians And Closes
The Andalusian Orchestra, a 2006 Israel Prize winner, preserves and renews the art music of the Sephardim of Morocco. Well, it did: After months of fruitless negotiations for an increase in their very low pay, the musicians went on strike a few days ago. Then they found out – from the media – that management had disbanded the orchestra in response.
Mothballed Mendelssohn Scores, Rediscovered And Revived
Nearly a third of Mendelssohn’s music has lain in storage for 150 years, unpublished and unheard. Stephen Somary has been leading a project to track down, edit and revive these lost works, and he unveiled 13 of them, all chamber works, in a concert this week. “Most were delightful if not ground shaking,” writes Allan Kozinn.
Smithsonian Chooses Six Finalists For African-American History Museum
Among the familiar names competing to design the new National Museum of African American History and Culture on the Mall: Diller Scofidio + Renfro, (Norman) Foster + Partners, Pei Cobb Freed, and Moshe Safdie. The two who aren’t (yet) widely famous: Freelon Adjaye Bond and Moody Nolan with Antoine Predock.
Newsflash: IQ Tests Do Not Measure Common Sense
Researcher Keith Stanovich finds that “intelligence [as conventionally measured can] coexist with foolishness because IQ tests do not measure the rationality required to abstain from dumb decisions.”