So American Airlines supported the arts by giving New York’s Roundabout Theater $850,000 a year for 10 years. In return the airline gets its name on the theater. But “American Airlines isn’t supporting the arts, bless them. They are paying a tax-deductible fee in order to advertise and sell their corporate logo on Broadway. Philanthropy has sweet zilch to do with it.” – New York Observer
Tag: 03.07.00
VANDALISM IN THE THEATER
Cell phones and pagers going off in concerts and theater performances have become a crisis of sorts. “To receive a cell phone call during a performance is an act of violence, not terribly different from aiming a spray gun at a Botticelli. It’s worse, in fact, since a damaged painting can be restored.” – Los Angeles Times
NOW A WOMAN CAN SING ONSTAGE!
For the first time in two decades a woman is allowed to sing onstage in Iran. “We cried when she was singing, with a feeling of happiness and sorrow, thinking of all those years that we had been deprived of the art of a woman’s voice,” one Iranian man said. Under their strict interpretation of the Koran, women were prohibited from singing in public, except to a carefully segregated female-only audience. The ayatollahs were afraid the voice of a woman soloist might arouse impure thoughts in men’s minds. – The Globe and Mail (Canada)
KANT BUY ME LOVE
It’s fashionable these days to lament the dumbing-down of our culture. But there are some 2,500 “Great Books” societies across North America, and the growing number of such study groups suggests that many thirst for learning more. “In these tiny cells of unofficial civilization, intellectual discourse moves outside the universities and becomes a question of personal initiative, energy, insight and need.” – National Post (Canada)
CALL IN THE FBI
The discovery, eleven years ago of 28 watercolors, supposedly by Georgia O’Keeffe, brought cheers, and a $5 million sales price, largely on the word of O’Keeffe experts. Now the paintings have been declared fakes, and the lawsuits are beginning to fly. Who knew what when? – New York Times
AFTER SHOCK AND SENSATION, THEN WHAT?
Rich new prize for “unknown” contemporary British artists takes some getting used to the definitions of what’s new and what’s unknown. – The Telegraph (UK)
CURATOR NO. 7, JUNIOR GRADE, REPORTING FOR DUTY
If you want to be a curator in Korea, you’ll soon have to pass a state-administered test and get a license. – Korea Times
YES, BUT WHAT DO YOU CALL IT?
Yolande Snaith “is a choreographer, and because she works without stories or hit music or (often) words, she is still not widely known, and she is lucky if her work is performed in fringe venues. But she has always been more than a choreographer. She is a theatre poet, who uses scenery, costumes, props, music and dance to create her peculiar wonderlands.” – Financial Times
LLOYD WEBBER –
– to make Bollywood musical called “Bombay Dreams.” – BBC
YOU ARE WHAT YOU LISTEN TO?
Today’s theory is that you can tell a lot about your future president by what music he listens to. George W is partial to Van Morrison and the Everly Brothers, John McCain likes the Platters, Al Gore goes for Bob Dylan, and Bill Bradley is rumored to have a thing for Bruce Hornsby. And what should that tell you? Oh well, there goes another theory. – Washington Post