When the cable networks Bravo and A&E (Arts & Entertainment) launched, many saw it as the final death knell for PBS – after all, if not one, but two profit-driven cable networks could air highbrow arts programming and script-driven Victorian dramas and make money doing it, what reason was there for the existence of a subsidized network airing the same stuff? These days, however, Bravo and A&E have remade themselves in the reality-TV model, and neither seems even remotely interested in airing any arts-related programming at all. A&E, in particular, now disdains the idea of highbrow TV, and points out that its viewer demographics are much improved since changing formats.
Tag: 04.03.05
The Movies About The Movies
As DVD sales have become an increasingly indispensable part of Hollywood’s ever-evolving revenue stream, a new generation of specialized DVD producers and consultants has sprung up to plan, create, and manage all those hours of “extras” that make a DVD marketable. “Where feature films are mostly put together by producers pitching scripts to studios, which then attach a director and stars, the DVD business only has one star: the original film’s director. A director’s involvement – which means access to the set, extra footage and even ideas for special features – can mean the difference between a passable DVD and a great one.” As a result, directors are beginning to attach themselves at the hip to the top DVD creators available.
What’s Happening To Hirst?
Damien Hirst has moved on from the days when he exhibited dead sharks and giant ashtrays, but has he really advanced his thinking at all? A new exhibit of Hirst’s photorealist paintings seem like just so much rehashed rebellion, says Michael Kimmelman, “blithely lacking finesse, [ignoring] photorealism’s first goals and [aspiring] only to be passingly ghoulish. And absent invention, they hang there like corpses… The era of the giant strutting ego as the amusing subject of art at this moment seems wincingly passé, supplanted by all those insouciant 20-somethings proffering their monkish, shuffling sort of virtuosity.”
The Booming Business of Art Prizes
“Over the last few years, museums large and small have started awarding their own prizes, usually named after the institution and sponsored by a corporate donor, to capitalize on the glamour associated with contemporary art. To burnish their appeal, many of the new awards are modeled on the Tate Modern’s venerable Turner Prize, which has evolved into a nationally televised event that attracts celebrity presenters like Madonna and habitually polarizes the British press… Indeed, the new art prize circuit has a circular quality, with many of the same artists nominated again and again, and many of the same jurors serving on multiple committees.”
A Year of Change In Boston
In his first year with the Boston Symphony, there is no question that James Levine has made a distinct mark on the city’s musical life, garnering praise but also creating controversy with his devotion to complex and dissonant music. “Whether he can carry the audience along with him is still an open question, although one is tempted to say that if he can’t, nobody can. If he is driving some people out of the hall, there is a gratifying new component of young faces and prominent members of Boston’s musical community who didn’t make a habit of attending [former BSO director Seiji Ozawa’s] concerts.”
Taking The Road Less Traveled
When it was announced last week that Philadelphia Orchestra principal violist Roberto Diaz would be leaving his position to head the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music, the near-universal reaction from the rest of the orchestra world could best be described as, “Huh?!” The fact is, musicians holding plum positions in the world’s top orchestras almost never quit mid-career, and many have to be pried from their chairs when they can no longer do the job. Diaz, a legitimate star in the (admittedly obscure) world of the viola, now holds the distinction of having walked away from not one, but two highly regarded orchestras, and he couldn’t be happier.
Tax Law Threatening Oregon Music Groups
Confusion surrounding unemployment tax law in Oregon has forced the cancellation of at least one summer music festival, and is putting many other nonprofit music organizations at risk. “The issue revolves around whether musicians hired for concerts are independent contractors, responsible for paying their own unemployment taxes, or regular salaried employees, with their employers responsible for such taxes.” The nonprofits have always paid their musicians as independent contractors hired for a limited period of time, and relied on them to cover their own tax burden, but the state is now claiming that the musicians are salaried. For many groups, there simply isn’t any extra money in the budget for unemployment tax, making the dispute a potential life-and-death matter for a few organizations.
Exodus From Portland
The arts scene in Portland, Maine, is experiencing an almost complete turnover, the likes of which have never been seen before. The creative heads of the city’s leading theatre company and symphony orchestra are departing, the curators of two prominent museums are leaving as well, and the city’s college of art and public library will shortly be headless, too. “Collectively, these changes constitute the most significant loss in arts leadership in decades and are cause for concern. The arts community is vulnerable in the best of circumstances. Take away a significant number of leaders, and the institutional knowledge that goes with it, and those vulnerabilities become more acute.”
A New Generation Of 9/11 Books
Bookstores are heavy currently with books having to do with 9/11 in some way. “These books are at the forefront of a second wave of creative works related to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The first wave included predictable spasms of simple-minded jingoism and commercial calculation, from bullying country music ballads to cloying hagiographies of political figures eager to make hay out of the nation’s grief. But now we’re getting the good stuff.”
Domingo’s Opera Harvest
Placido Domingo has made his mark not only as a singer but as a developer of opera companies. In Washington and Los Angeles he has taken companies to new heights. “While other American opera companies, such as San Francisco and the Met, have struggled through financial or political turmoil recently, Domingo’s houses have sailed along relatively unscathed. “I am very happy and proud of my companies,” he said. “We are just behind the Met and Chicago in terms of artistic quality and importance. That’s not to say that we don’t have problems. One of the biggest challenges is raising money. It’s not easy; especially since Sept. 11, things have become more difficult. But we have been working miracles in comparison [with other U.S. houses], and we are in good shape.”