“What, exactly, is the Cultural Olympiad? Mention it to senior arts figures and the reaction varies from wary diplomacy to hollow laughter. ‘It makes me ashamed of my profession,’ the head of one major institution told me. Some see the spectre of the Millennium Dome looming. Many worry about the money being spent on Olympics projects, when arts organisations are bracing themselves for cuts.”
Tag: 03.25.09
To Regulators, Art Troupe’s Wrestling Looks Real Enough
“Among the enduring questions of modern times is whether professional wrestling is real or pretend. Washington-state bureaucrats have opened a new chapter in the debate by ruling that wrestling is a real form of sport even when it consists of a man in a banana suit performing fake kung-fu moves in a tavern.” As a result, a Seattle group that calls what it does “fight cabaret” must meet safety regulations whose costs threaten its existence.
Porn As Art, Or At Least As Worthy Of A Museum Exhibition
The Kunsthalle in Vienna’s Museum Quarter is showing “one of the most talked-about art exhibits in recent memory: ‘The Porn Identity,’ an over-the-top exploration of sexual imagination. In the city where Sigmund Freud explored the dark recesses of consciousness that no one ever talked about, the exhibit aims to shatter the taboo about smut, which is somehow everywhere and nowhere.”
Bad Word On Impressionism Was Dead-On, Turns Out
Ben Brantley on Michael Jacobs’ Broadway play “Impressionism,” starring Jeremy Irons and Joan Allen: “[E]ven if I were to back up all the way to the Hudson River, with half-open eyes fixed on the stage where Mr. Irons and Ms. Allen labor so valiantly, ‘Impressionism’ still wouldn’t look credible. I mean this both in terms of its plot and as a proposition that would entice some very talented people and a vast army of producers.”
Arts Advocates Regard Obama With Cautious Optimisim
“Washington continues to be consumed by economic turmoil, but cultural professionals say they are cautiously optimistic about the future of the arts under President Obama. Among the positive signs: The $50 million in stimulus money going to the National Endowment for the Arts, the additional $10 million for the Endowment in the recent omnibus spending bill and the decision to give a White House official responsibility for arts and culture, though this has yet to be announced.”
Cleveland Orchestra Cuts Salaries, Concerts
“So serious is the orchestra’s position, in fact, that music director Franz Welser-Möst and executive director Gary Hanson volunteered to take pay cuts of 20 percent and 15 percent, respectively, reductions amounting to over $300,000.” In addition, some subscription and touring programs will be dropped: “The orchestra will cancel any concerts projected to be unprofitable.”