“An architectural partnership which has designed only one previous theatre was yesterday appointed to the £100m transformation of the art deco Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. Bennetts Associates, whose Hampstead theatre, north London, opened in 2003, will convert the 1,400-seat end-on auditorium into a 1,000-seater with an improved relationship between actors and audience.”
Tag: 03.20.05
The Great Big Art FAQ
There’s no need to be intimidated by the arts, no matter how off-putting some of the self-importance that surrounds them might be. But just in case you’re still a bit uncertain about how to act, dress, applaud, or appreciate the art event of your choice, the populist critics of the Chicago Tribune are here to help…
Urban Planning, University-Style
“Cities used to be planned by professional city planners. But the planning profession as we know it arose, to a large extent, as a response to the urban renewal legislation of the 1950s and ’60s, when federal funds poured into cities. Now federal money has dried up. Planning agencies in most cities are underfunded and weak. They react to proposals, rather than initiating anything themselves… So who’s doing serious planning? Look around. Harvard is planning a whole new neighborhood in Allston. Columbia, already the third-largest landowner in New York, has hired noted architect Renzo Piano to help mastermind its expansion into an area called Manhattanville. The University of Pennsylvania, the largest employer and largest landowner in Philadelphia, is reaching out to revitalize the city.”
Who Will Speak For Opera?
Finding someone with the skills to replace Beverly Sills as chair of the Metropolitan Opera will be a challenge, but a surmountable one. Finding someone to replace her as “the public face of opera and the performing arts” for a country increasingly saturated by pop culture and uninterested in more intellectual pursuits may well be impossible.
Independent At All Costs
When Minneapolis’s Walker Art Center opens its striking new addition to the public next month, it will likely be a big deal in the Twin Cities. But anyone looking for the locally popular Walker to capitalize on the attention by hosting huge touring shows shows and trying to draw massive crowds would be missing the point. “Welcome to the contrarian world of the Walker, a place that prefers artful provocation to blockbuster entertainment, privileges the obscure and experimental over the tried-and-true, and cultivates a willful insouciance about the forces that govern most big museum establishment… [The museum’s] insistence on creative independence has meant turning down a chance at tens of millions of dollars in state support, despite a financial crisis that has crippled the Walker’s endowment and led to painful staff cuts.”
That State Money Sure Would Have Helped, Though
Speaking of the Walker Art Center, its renovation is considerably over budget, even with $5 million in unforeseen costs deferred to future years…
Buren & Guggenheim, Together At Last
More than 30 years ago, New York’s Guggenheim Museum acquiesced to the complaints of a number of artists involved in the museum’s sixth International exhibition, and removed a massive piece of installation art, which was supposedly blocking views of other works, from its center well. “An acrimonious debate about the work’s removal continued long after the event had passed, leaving lasting antipathies between artists and leading to the departure of a curator, Douglas Crimp.” This week, Daniel Buren, the artist responsible for the offending work, returns to the Guggenheim with his own show, and the centerpiece is a massive tower of mirrors that dwarf the piece the museum once felt compelled to reject.
Um, What Kind Of Penalties, Exactly?
One of Scotland’s leading political parties is “calling for the effective abolition of the Scottish Arts Council and the creation of a Scottish Academy instead… They argue that companies such as Scottish Opera, Scottish Ballet, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, should be funded directly by the Scottish Executive… The direct funding method, as used for the National Galleries, National Museum and National Library of Scotland, would be contract-based. The bodies would agree on a programme, modes of delivery, and would incur ‘penalties for not delivering’.”
When The Money Doesn’t Match The Talent
From an artistic standpoint, most observers agree that Scottish Ballet has never been in better shape, and a return to the international festival circuit is in the offing. But fiscally, the company is in the same sinking boat as nearly every other Scottish performing arts organization, and ballet administrators are getting frustrated with the Scottish Executive’s seeming unwillingess to make the arts a priority.
Did Muti Dig His Own Grave In Milan?
Riccardo Muti is more than a larger-than-life character in the world of Italian opera. He is also a shrewd politician, and while he may have gotten himself into a world of trouble with his latest attempts to consolidate power around himself at La Scala, it would be a mistake to count him out just yet. Still, there is little question that Muti is losing this battle: “Talent or no talent, most people in the house have had enough of a regime where, as one described it, ‘Supplicants gather outside his door like the Marschallin’s levée.'”