In Australia, “the future of the $85 million Parliament House art collection has been cast into doubt, with MPs considering proposals to curb purchases of emerging artists, stop temporary exhibitions, cut staff and hire a part-time corporate art curator.” The government undertook a review of the collection last year after Government backbenchers’ complaints that there were not enough “traditional” landscapes on offer to decorate their offices.”
Tag: 03.09.04
Board Member Quits To Protest AGO Gehry Makeover
One of the Art Gallery of Ontario’s most prominent board members has resigned and withdrawn his financial support for the museum. He’s protesting the gallery’s plans for a $194 million transformation by architect Frank Gehry. Joey Tanenbaum describes the Gehry project as “needless destruction” and “a blatant attempt to eradicate the recent history of the gallery.”
UK MUseums: We Need Cash
UK museums warn that they need an extra £115 million a year to keep up their services. “A Manifesto for Museums, launched on Tuesday, contained a warning that large London attractions may not be able to keep going at their present levels.
Why UK Museums Want More Funding
Some 2000 British museums say that funding of museums hasn’t kept up with costs in recent years. Museums generate £3bn for the economy and employ 40,000 people. And members of the public make 100 million museum visits per year – more than the total crowds at all the UK’s live sporting events put together.”
Gray: My Wrecked Life
Spalding Gray had been depressed for some time before he disappeared a few months ago: “It’s another rocky time. I’m still limping from the car accident. My skull was fractured in the car accident, my hip was broken and my sciatic nerve was almost severed. The hospital they sent me to was not very good. There was no medicine they could find that was very helpful. It’s depressing. I can’t swim. I’m not cross-country skiing. I’m not hiking the way I used to. It’s ragged time. I’m just not whole.”
Gray – It Was All About Me
Spalding Gray was an artist all about self-absorbtion. “He called himself a poetic journalist, and the rhyme scheme went something like: Me-Me-Me-Me-Me.”
Dance Masters
“Dance Masters of America, a national organization for dance educators formed in 1884, is one of the largest promoters of dance competitions in the country. Last year more than 5,000 dancers age 7 to 25 competed in Dance Master competitions nationwide.”
Musical Max – Master Of Music
Composer Peter Maxwell Davies is the ideal choice as the new master of the Queen’s music. “He and Harrison Birtwistle are unquestionably the pre-eminent composers of their generation. Both have wide international recognition and both feel passionately about musical education. Max, in particular, is a wonderful animateur who loves working with children and non-professional musicians – a man of the community and one who galvanises people into action. It is brave of the Palace to go for that kind of distinction even if it risks having to deal with some outspoken comment.”
The Bigger Soprano
Covent Garden’s sacking of Deborah Voigt once again brings up the issue of ample girth in opera. “It has become a cliche to say that we live in an era of ‘director’s opera’, and that it is the producer rather than the singer who now reigns supreme. This is only partly true. Although there is a growing demand for theatrical veracity in opera, any operatic performance that is poorly sung is simply a non-starter. But there was a time when none of this even mattered. Jokes about the disparity between voice and appearance have always abounded, even among opera’s most ardent admirers and practitioners.”