Last week in Edmonton, the Grant MacEwan Author’s Award was handed out as part of the grand arts festival known as Alberta Scene. But those in attendance could be forgiven for having missed the awards ceremony, competing as it was with an orchestra, a blues show, a cowboy music performance, and several other distractions. It does seem to be a truism that writing is the branch of the arts least likely to draw a crowd, and “every serious writer knows what it’s like to read her words to an organizer, her smiling husband, that lost hobo with a crinkly Safeway bag and the other bestselling author on the bill.”
Tag: 05.01.05
If You Build It, They Might Come, For A While
Orange County, California (just outside of Los Angeles) has a beautiful new concert hall, and big plans to make use of it. But will the public care enough to keep coming to the hall once the novelty has worn off? “Behind the scenes and off the record, the classical powers that be are worrying and wondering about the outcome… There is a great deal of casual interest in classical music here, but connoisseurship doesn’t seem to run deep.”
The Other New York
When most people think of New York, they’re really thinking of Manhattan, and that’s fine, since Manhattan is all exciting and trendy and stuff, but the fact is that there’s another borough of America’s largest metropolis that deserves equal attention, especially from those interested in the arts and culture. Yeah, it’s Brooklyn. Yous gadda problem wid dat?