Tag: 02.16.03

Colorado’s Theatre Boom

Colorado’s arts funding is down, but the state is in the middle of a theatre boom, with new projects sprouting everywhere. “The 20 projects range in cost from the city of Denver’s taxpayer-authorized, $75 million renovation of the Auditorium Theatre to the $75,000 it is costing John Ashton to turn a fur-storage shop into a new, 99-seat home for his 16-year-old Avenue Theater.”

Bollywood Conquers The World

India’s Bollywood is home to the world’s largest film industry and it has billions of fans. Recently its unique style has taken London by storm. But until now, America has failed to succumb to its charms. But that may change with some new projects. “Some see this
combination of the world’s two largest film industries as a welcome merger. But others worry about what may get lost in the translation.”

Important Mies Home For Sale

The state of Illinois has declined to purchase a house designed by Mies van der Rohe that changed the way people looked at architecture a half-century ago. Now the house is up for sale. “Designed by Mies as a weekend retreat for the late Dr. Edith Farnsworth, a Chicago
nephrologist, the house is one of the finest realizations of Mies’ philosophy that less is more – a one-story structure, raised on white piers that frame a single room sheathed almost entirely in glass. The proportions are exquisite and, as Mies’ biographer Franz Schulze has written, the house recalls a Greek temple, standing in perfect, manmade counterpoint to its wooded natural setting.”

Artistry For Sale? And The Grammys (Should) Go To…

The Grammys are about artistic excellence, right? But some of this year’s nominations are inexplicable. Greg Kot is discouraged. “So many worthy artists got the shaft this year that I now offer not only predictions on the winners in some key categories, but also the biggest oversights. One of these years, the Grammys really may be about “artistic excellence.” Until then, let the griping continue . . .

Christo Hits Another NYC Roadblock

Cities are governed not only by mayors and councils, but by community groups and boards large and small, each determined to preserve their own little piece of political turf. This can make speedy decision-making quite a headache, which the artist Christo is finding out as he attempts to secure permission to mount a major installation in New York’s Central Park. While most of the legal hurdles facing the project have been cleared, there is mounting opposition in upper-class neighborhoods adjoining the park. The objection doesn’t seem to be to the art itself, but to the way in which the proposal was presented. In other words, no one asked the Upper East Side if it was okay.

Jesus Christ, Superstar

Say you belong to a church that just isn’t packing ’em in the pews these days. And say you feel the need to do something about this, and that you’re not averse to a little modernization of services. What do you do? Well, if you’re a New Yorker, you apparently import some Broadway people to sing a few show tunes, and watch the attendance soar! No, seriously, a church actually did this. And a Methodist church, to boot! Not everyone is a fan (particularly those who note that the practice seems to draw a large number of gay men to the services,) but the pastor in charge calls it a miracle.

From The People Who Brought You Crappy Radio

The explosion of ‘blockbuster’ museum exhibits designed to draw in thousands upon thousands of art lovers has been well-documented. But what you may not know is that, more often than ever, the museum experience is little more than a bought-and-paid-for package distributed to your local gallery by giant for-profit corporations like the omnipresent Clear Channel. “Just as it changed Broadway theater roadshows and the concert business, so Clear Channel is changing the economics — some would say the soul — of a museum culture that traditionally has built its own shows or borrowed them from peers. It’s making some institutions look too much like theaters for hire. And it’s a trend that has many old-line museum people worried.”

The 21st Century Comes To The BSO

The Boston Symphony Orchestra has launched what it is calling an online conservatory on its web site, with features designed to draw in tech-savvy younger audiences, and make the old music the BSO plays relevant to a modern audience. So how did they do? Three tech experts give the orchestra high marks for the effort, but say the content and style have a long way to go. Still, the project may be the beginning of a new movement designed to drag symphony orchestras into the Internet era.

Blurring Lines And Making Enemies

Tan Dun is one of the most successful composers of his generation, and recently, he has become one of the most controversial as well. “Some hear the sound of the future in the mingling of East and West and high art and popular culture in his work. Others hear pretentiousness, vulgarity, and cultural opportunism.” The reaction may be somewhat akin to the backlash that greeted singer Paul Simon when he began appropriating African melodies for use in his own American-style folk-rock tunes. The debate is over where the line is drawn between sampling of artistic influences and outright theft of culture.