Royal Ballet star Sylvie Guillem had a special connection to Rudoph Nureyev. “Guillem was one of the dancers who benefited most dramatically from Nureyev’s mission to galvanise the Paris Opera. Her talent was let off the leash by the radical new repertory he commissioned and her ambition could barely keep pace with the speed at which he promoted her. Sometimes, however, she found Nureyev’s style disorienting. She thought he was pushing her too fast into some roles while withholding others from her.”
Tag: 04.04.03
Decline In Lottery Funding = Decline In Architecture?
As lottery funding for the arts declines in the UK, “architects and planners are anxious that the fall in this source of funding could reimpose conformity and ‘cheapest option’ building which marked many big public projects in pre-lottery days.”
Is It Okay To Be Entertained While There’s A War Going On?
“Anecdotal evidence and a slumping box office indicate many Americans are feeling conflicted about the luxury of leisure. After two weeks of war, many are torn between an obligation to be informed and the need to take a break from it. Observers say that, people’s short-term reactions will probably center on a desire to be entertained, rather than creating high art. They add that it will take years – even decades – before the fine arts respond either to the war or to cultural shifts brought on by it and, even more profoundly, by Sept. 11.”
Fistful Of Bohemes
In the past ten years, American opera companies have staged 189 productions of Puccini’s “La Boheme”. This weekend, New Yorkers have their choice of three Bohemes – at the Met, at New York City Opera, and on Broadway… Anthony Tommasini checks off the goods and bads…
SaatchiWorld
Who is Charles Saatchi? The most important figure in British art in the 1990s. The Guardian has packaged a portrait of Saatchi – the artists he’s discovered and helped, the art he’s championed…
Only In LA – Underground Parking Lot Art
Three Los Angeles artists are “using military GPS technology to create a new kind of art form – the urban story space.” They’ve staked out a patch of land in the city and “visitors to the site are given headphones, a handheld global positioning system (GPS) device, and a tablet PC with special software to help guide them around the industrial landscape, which was a vital area during the early to mid-20th century.The equipment works much like the headphones with wands that museums supply visitors for tours, but here, the GPS shows people the ‘hot spots’ of information on a digital map. When visitors stand near a hot spot, the software triggers a story about that site.”
Lessons From L’affaire Quincy Troupe
Quincy Troupe’s fall from his position at the University of California, San Diego after he lied on his resume “raises questions about whether academic credentials really matter in certain fields, like poetry and art. Should one lie ruin someone’s credibility and career? Some say there’s no question that it should. Plagiarism, faking academic credentials, stealing research – all deal a serious blow to academic integrity, and a high price must be exacted. Mr. Troupe is hardly the first professor or college administrator to be caught fabricating his résumé.”
Are Our Universities Being Bought?
“Just how far have industrial sponsors actually gone in seeking to use higher-education institutions and professors for their own commercial ends? How willing have universities been to accept money at the cost of compromising values central to the academic enterprise? Now more than ever, they [universities] have become the principal source of the three most important ingredients of progress in a modern, industrial society: expert knowledge, highly educated people, and scientific discoveries. At the same time – in a depressed economy, with the federal budget heavily in deficit and state governments cutting investments in higher education – campus officials are confronting a chronic shortage of money to satisfy the demands of students, faculty members, and other constituencies.”