As he prepares to take the reins of the Montreal Symphony in 2006, conductor Kent Nagano is giving indications of the direction he plans to take the orchestra, with the announcement of an annual composers’ competition which will distribute cash prizes to three winning works of new music. “The arrival of the mystery maestro, along with his pianist wife, Mari Kodama, who lives in Paris, is likely to have a tonic effect on the MSO, which has been mired this season in protracted contract negotiations.”
Tag: 03.30.05
Public Art: Owning The Image As Well As The Art
The City of Chicago is preventing artists from taking photos of the Anish Kapoor “Bean” sculpture in the middle of the park, saying that as public art, it owns rights to images of the work as well as the work itself. “According to attorney Henry Kleeman, who negotiated with park artists on the city’s behalf, Chicago bought a ‘perpetual paid-up license to reproduce the artwork for commercial purposes.’ So only the city or its concessionaires may legally sell pictures of the Bean.”
Cleveland Museum Scraps Big Show Over Insurance Costs
“The Cleveland Museum of Art has postponed indefinitely a major international exhibition scheduled for 2006 because other museums sharing the show couldn’t afford terrorism insurance for artworks valued at more than $1 billion. The decision highlights an open secret in the art world: With art prices skyrocketing and insurance premiums rising to meet them, it’s becoming harder for art museums to sustain the flow of blockbusters that have been a fixture of American cultural life for decades.”
Prolific Freelancers Could Get $100,000 From Settlement
The class action award to freelancers this week for violating electronic copyright could result in big payouts. “Besides Lexis Nexis, database companies involved include Proquest, Dow Jones and West Group—as well as The Times, whose online archives include more than 100,000 articles written by some 27,000 freelance writers. The Times and The San Diego Union-Tribune are also liable on the print-publishing side, joining publishers including Time Inc., the Washington Post Company and the Hearst Corporation.”
In The UK: A Bold New Arts Participation Plan
The UK government has promised that “within 10 years every school-leaver will have had access to live arts and culture, including taking part in public performances. But it gave no indication of how this will be paid for. The new proposal has been dubbed Creative Sparks, and Culture.”
O’Toole Attacks Theatre
Peter O’Toole has blasted the state of today’s theatre. “Reserving his most corrosive words for the Royal Shakespeare Company and The Royal Court, O’Toole said things have got so bad that up-and-coming young actors are no longer interested in treading the boards.”
Future Of Technology At The Supreme Court
Attorneys argued before the US Supreme Court Tuesday over whether file-sharing networks should be legal. The court’s decision will have a major impact on future technology development. The main question taken up by the court seemed to be how to protect copyrights without restraining future tech.
Sweet Charity To Go On After All
Just days after canceling a planned Broadway run of a revival of “Sweet Charity”, producers say they’ll open the show anyway. “I spent the whole weekend on the telephone with Christina Applegate, who made a passionate and compelling case for moving forward with the Broadway plans. Her doctors also confirmed this morning that she will be ready and able to resume performances on April 18.”
Pianist Grant Johannesen, 83
Mr. Johannesen was a sensitive player who was more interested in exploring musical byways that fascinated him than in repeating the warhorses of the repertory, and as a teacher, he advised his students to follow a similar path.
Why All The Boring Memoirs?
“Some blame reality TV for our social woes (MTV’s “Real World” encourages alcoholism, “The Apprentice” is a guide to corporate backstabbing, blah, blah, blah). Allow me to chime in and add my voice to the chorus: Reality television, in part, intensifies our voyeuristic appetite for the tawdry details of the lives of others. On television, we call those details trash (although suit-wearing executives at TV stations call them “rating boosters”). But in book form, it’s more likely to be deemed literature.”