“In a new directive – which, it’s feared, might soon be applied in England, too – the Welsh assembly states that kissing in school productions should be replaced by ‘a peck on the cheek or an embrace’, and that characters should ‘hug each other in friendship’.”
Tag: 02.20.06
An Oath For Better Building
Too many buildings get built where they don’t belong or where they aren’t wanted. So how about a Hippocratic Oath for architects…
American Arts – Reliable (But Where’s The Risk?)
American viewpoints are still scarred by the 1990s National Endowment for the Arts grant debacle, when radical art exhibitions and abrasive performance artists came under fire for using government money. That’s one reason American arts organizations would rather do with less than depend on the government. Still, it’s hard to argue with the stimulating, government-subsidized stuff that greeted me at every turn earlier this month in Paris. Is what we’re missing important? Is America stunting its own artistic growth?
Inside Building The Oscars
“The Academy Awards show is consistently the largest entertainment-driven live broadcast in the world, and it takes roughly 1,000 people to make it happen. At this year’s production meeting, there were more than 200 in the room, representing the disparate areas of expertise the show requires, from the medical staff to the stage manager, from the set designer to the telephone technician, the limousine coordinator to the director.”
Germany Returns Parthenon Fragment To Greece
Last month, a German University returned a piece of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece. “On the front, it is simply cut, with the outline of part of a male foot, and on the back is a modern incised inscription, in Greek, with the word “Parthenon”. It was not until 1948 that archaeologist German Hafner recognised that it was the heel of figure number 28 in block viii of the north frieze.”
Italy Accepts Met’s Offer To Return Art
Italy has accepted the Metropolitan Museum’s offer to return 20 artifacts. “The agreement reached in Rome between Italian officials and the director of the Western Hemisphere’s biggest art museum, Philippe de Montebello, may pave the way for other such accords between U.S. museums and countries with rich archaeological resources.”
Inside The Met’s Italian Decision
The Metropolitan Museum’s decision to return artifacts to Italy was Not a decision arrived at recently. “Documents in the case show that much of that evidence had circulated for years — and that while the Met until recently cast skepticism on the Italian claims, it had concluded as early as 2003 that the silver should be returned.”
The Death Of Britsh Art Cinema?
“For any director with no interest in following in Billy Elliot’s ballet shoes, funding is scarce, and the climate so hostile that there is little chance to experiment and develop. Some, such as Pawel Pawlikowski and the prolific Michael Winterbottom, have been lucky. But most of the great hopes for the future who have emerged in the past decade have yet to put much distance between themselves and the starting blocks.”