“Judi Dench and Leonardo DiCaprio are in, David Tennant and Peggy Ashcroft are provoking furious argument, and Helen Mirren didn’t even make the shortlist for the Shakespeare champions of all time – 13 names to fill a new hall of fame in the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust’s visitor centre at Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire.” The Guardian is taking an online poll to choose the 13th name from the shortlist.
Tag: 02.05.09
National Mall Restoration Gets Shut Out Of Stimulus Aid
“Two weeks ago, columnists across the land were rhapsodizing about the glories of the National Mall, where about a million people had just witnessed Barack Obama’s inauguration. … But that was then. Last Wednesday, when the House of Representatives passed the $819 billion economic stimulus bill, Democrats caved in to Republican critics and stripped $200 million for restoring the Mall out of the measure.”
Anti-Shushing Manifesto: Let Kids In Museums Make Noise
“Museum attendants should be stopped from ‘shushing’ children and displays should be hung low enough for youngsters to see properly, according to a manifesto to make museums more family-friendly published today.”
Brandeis President: We’ll Sell ‘Minute Number’ Of Artworks
Brandeis University President Jehuda Reinharz on selling off pieces of the Rose Art Museum collection: “We’re going to take our time. We’re not unaware of the fact that the art market is depressed. It’s not like we were born yesterday. Everything is depressed. Housing is depressed. The arts is depressed. Everybody is depressed.”
Sustenance, Sanctuary, And Why Art (Still) Matters
“You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing when it comes to the arts in America. The good news is that President Obama wants to include the arts in his bailout package. Conservatives, however, are up in arms. The one constant in all this is that art in America has come to be seen as a frill, by everyone from right-wing talk-show hosts to the trustees of Brandeis.” Why, then, should we care about art?
The Anxiety Radar: Will $50M NEA Stimulus Fuel Backlash?
“While the NEA money is a minuscule portion of the $819 billion House [stimulus] bill, it has become a lightning rod for some critics, who question whether the dollars for the arts will create many jobs – and who see the money as a symbol of House Democrats trying to lard up the plan with spending wish lists that have been pent up for years.”
AP Seeks Credit, Compensation For Obama’s ‘Hope’ Poster
“On buttons, posters and websites, the image was everywhere during last year’s presidential campaign: A pensive Barack Obama looking upward, as if to the future, splashed in a Warholesque red, white and blue and captioned ‘HOPE.'” Artist Shepard Fairey based the image on an Associated Press photo. “The AP says it owns the copyright, and wants credit and compensation.”
Kindness Of Strangers Has LImits: School Threatens Artist
“The University of the South, which owns the intellectual property rights for [Tennessee] Williams’s ‘Streetcar Named Desire,’ has threatened legal action to stop performances of the one-man show ‘Blanche Survives Katrina in a FEMA Trailer Named Desire,’ which is scheduled to run through March 15 at SoHo Playhouse.” The play is about “a modern-day Blanche weathering Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans Superdome and a subsequent job placement as a cashier at Popeye’s.”
Darci Kistler To Retire After 30-Year Career
“Darci Kistler, the last remaining ballerina at New York City Ballet to have been molded and hired by its co-founder George Balanchine, plans to retire in the 2010 season, she said on Wednesday… ‘I don’t want to walk around in pain,’ Ms. Kistler said. ‘I didn’t want to see myself with a plastic hip in 10 years.'”
Starving Artists In Canada (Yes, Really)
“Earnings by most Canadian artists are hovering at poverty levels and the situation is likely to worsen as the worldwide recession deepens, according to a statistical profile of the country’s artists released yesterday… In fact, of the 140,000 artists analyzed, 43 per cent earned less than $10,000.”