The director-general of Dresden’s 12 museums says he won’t return Old Master paintings from the reserve collection to the refurbished store of the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister. The storage area was flooded last year when the River Elbe and its tributaries broke their banks and a new storage facility is not likely to be built soon.
Tag: 03.17.03
In Colorado – Arts Supporters Fail To Educate Legislators
In Colorado, where the state arts budget has been slashed 55 percent, “the arts community has spent much time and oxygen organizing a proactive response to the systematic dismantling of the state’s arts council, which has annoyed members of the joint budget committee less than if a fly were to land in their soup. Artists yell indignantly about the shame of Colorado falling into 50th place in state arts funding without having the slightest notion that those who think of the arts as an entitlement wear that stat – not to mention that ubiquitous button – like a badge of honor. What we have here is a failure not only to communicate, but to educate.”
Missouri Considers A State Of No Arts Funding
Missouri weighs the consequences of zeroing out state arts funding. “The possibility of a future without a Missouri state arts agency raises basic questions: Is there symbolic value in a state arts council beyond the money it distributes? And at a time when both the federal and state governments face mounting deficits, should tax money be spent on the arts, which some lawmakers view as a luxury?”
New Jersey May Restore Some Arts Funding
New Jersey Governor James McGreevey is reconsidering abolishing state arts funding. A spokesman for the governor’s office says that “a decision has been made to find the means to provide funding for arts communities across the state,” and that “it would not be unreasonable for the New Jersey State Council on the Arts to get back about half of the $18 million it lost.”
Anti-War Words
“The Iraq crisis, following on from 11 September, has set off an unprecedented explosion of anti-war poetry. A bad time for the world has turned into a boom time for people with an itch to express themselves in lines which don’t quite reach the edge of the page. The internet is much to blame, of course.”
Musicians Looking To Reverse Decline Of Industry Fortunes
As musicians gathered last week in Austin Texas for the South By Southwest Festival, there was a common theme running through the proceedings. “In panels and seminars, in casual conversation and passionate addresses, many insiders at SXSW seemed to be looking to the past for the values and integrity – in both making music and doing business – that will lead to a brighter future for an industry in decline.”
Orange Prize Nominees
Nominees for this year’s Orange Prize – which goes to the best work of fiction by a woman writer – have been announced. “Carol Shields, who won the prize in 1998 with Larry’s Party, is chosen for Unless. The other frontrunners are Zadie Smith’s The Autograph Man, an examination of our modern obsession with celebrity and individualism which received mixed reviews; an Donna Tartt’s The Little Friend, about the aftermath of a murder in the deep south as seen through a child’s eyes. Also chosen are Alice Sebold’s US bestseller The Lovely Bones, narrated from heaven by a murdered girl; Siri Hustvedt’s complex saga of art and love, What I Loved; and Shena Mackay’s unshowy study of ageing Bohemians, Heligoland.”
Book Magazine Cuts Circulation To Survive
When Book magazine made a deal with Barnes & Noble three years ago, its fortunes soared. “Over the next 18 months, circulation of Book rose to 1.2 million from 100,000.” Its ad rates tripled. But the cost of putting out the magazine outstripped its success, and B&N reconsidered the venture. Now the magazine will be relaunched as Barnes & Noble Presents Book and its circulation will be drastically cut to 150,000.
Political Cartoons That Move
“While many editorial cartoonists use the Internet to exhibit their printed drawings to a broader audience, the Internet’s audio and video capabilities have also inspired a few cartoonists to create animated political cartoons for the Web. During the dot-com boom, cartoonists of all kinds, lured by the promise of Internet riches, tried producing online work, both static and animated. When the money stopped flowing, most abandoned the medium. But it may be time for renewed interest in the genre.”
A New Home For British Dance
The new $40 million Laban Center for dance opens in London. “It was nonetheless a daring gamble for a small, relatively unknown institution to embark on building what it claims is the world’s largest purpose-built dance center. In the design competition Herzog & de Meuron was apparently chosen because it heeded the demands of the school. “We told them that the heart of our work is theater so the theater should be at the center. Of the six short-listed firms, Herzog & de Meuron was the only one to place the theater in the center of the building.”