Tag: 02.16.07

The Problem With Foundations

Foundations have done many great things. But Joel Fleishman “acknowledges that the arrogance of the foundation world has led it to miss good ideas developed by others. Its insulation has allowed it to proceed without being challenged by external forces, and without understanding much about the success or failure of its programs. Its invisibility has left it isolated, risk averse, and without much public support.”

Seattle Sculpture Park Has Babies

Seattle’s new sculpture park has been a hit with visitors. It also seems to have inspired local artists. Several of the park’s sculptures have spawned miniature offspring. “They’re not part of the museum’s collection, but we’re going to leave them where they are. This kind of engagement is positive and respectful to the art. We welcome it.”

Holocaust-Denying Publisher Sentenced To Jail

A German neo-Nazi publisher has been sentenced to five years in prison in Germany for inciting racial hatred and denying that the Nazis murdered six million Jews. “Ernst Zündel, who was extradited from Canada to face trial in Germany in 2005, received the maximum sentence available for the crime of Holocaust denial after being found guilty on 14 counts.”

New Art Reality: Buy, Buy, No Matter What

“An unprecedented urge to buy, regardless of style, medium or period drove bidders” at last week’s London contemporary art sales. “On Feb. 7 at Sotheby’s, the first 32 lots, mostly priced in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, sold straight off. This had never happened before. By the time the seventh lot, ‘White Canoe’ by Peter Doig, came up, a tense businesslike atmosphere prevailed.”

Atheneum Director To Leave

Willard Holmes steps down as director of Connecticut’s Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. He’s been there since 2003 and is credited with bringing stability back to the institution. “When you are director, your job is to be the person with the overview. You live your life vicariously through the people working for you – the curators, the directors. I want to go back to being closer to the art.”

The Strange Tale Of The Fake Pianist

“By the time she died in June 2006, Joyce Hatto was not only a sudden widespread success, she was a cause célèbre. To love Hatto recordings was to be in the know, a true piano aficionado who didn’t need the hype of a major label’s marketing spend to recognise a good, a great, thing when they heard it. But at the same time as the cult of Hatto was burgeoning, there were persistent rumours on the internet as to the true origins of the recordings.”

Window Closing On New Orleans As People Leave

Many of the best and brightest who returned to the city after Katrina are giving up. “Their reasons include high crime, high rents, soaring insurance premiums and what many call a lack of leadership, competence, money and progress. In other words: yes, it is still bad down here. But more damning is what many of them describe as a dissipating sense of possibility, a dwindling chance at redemption for a great city that, even before the storm, cried out for great improvement.”

Hyperlinks, A Theory

“Hyperlink theory may seem like inside baseball, but the stakes are high. The ad revenues of many Web sites depend on how many times they can get you to put your mouse on a link and click it, thus spending more time within the site, racking up more page views, seeing more ads. More than that, links are the very fabric of the Web. The easy connectivity they provide is what defined the Web and made it so popular.”