“You could argue that the massive growth in arts and cultural activity in the United States over the past 50 years has been about innovation and diffusion, rather than true invention. Building and blending creative forms invented centuries ago (theater, opera, orchestral performance, and such), creative people have found new innovations in how to bundle and present these forms to wider and more diverse audiences, while funders, nonprofits, universities, and others have built a new infrastructure to distribute them across the country.” But how do we get to be more “inventive” with the arts?
Tag: 05.10.04
America – Culture To the World?
Samuel Huntington’s now infamous new book argues that America is losing its sense of itself. This is an idea full of flaws, as Huntington articulates it. “Why isn’t internationalism, as a number of writers have recently argued, a powerful resource for Americans? The United States doesn’t have an exclusive interest in opposing and containing the forces of intolerance, superstition, and fanaticism; the whole world has an interest in opposing and containing those things. On September 12, 2001, the world was with us. Because of our government’s mad conviction that it was our way of life that was under attack, not the way of life of civilized human beings everywhere, and that only we knew what was best to do about it, we squandered our chance to be with the world. The observation is now so obvious as to be banal. That does not make it less painful.”
$104 Million – One Painting, OR…
James Russell is having difficulty getting his head around paying $104 million for a painting. “Here’s how the Picasso auction sale fits in terms I understand: 2.6 “Boy With a Pipe” paintings will buy you one Disney Concert Hall. 1.2 will get you the Santiago Calatrava addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum. About 8 “Boys” will buy you the Museum of Modern Art’s addition/renovation by the renowned architect Yoshio Taniguchi that will open later this year. MoMA would probably only have to deaccession the Picasso once to complete their fundraising.”
The Beaverbrook Art – Gift Or Loan?
The former premier of New Brunswick weighs in on the claim by descendents of Lord Beaverbrook that paintings in possession of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery were loans and should be returned. “I knew the man very well, and when he gave something he didn’t lend it, he gave it. Lord Beaverbrook gave the building and its contents in perpetuity to the province and its people. It’s not a loan that he made.”
Student Composers – Looking For Heroes
“Composers grow up with the idea that music is a game of heroes. In history books, they read that their forebears dazzled kings, electrified crowds, forged nations. Sooner or later, they come up against the disappointing realization that modern American culture has no space for a composer hero. That disappointment easily metastasizes into profound resentment, which no amount of success can dislodge. Indeed, the most famous composers are often the unhappiest.”
Petrarch Was A Woman (Or At Least His Bones Were)
The remains of what was supposed to be the poet Petrarch are instead someone else. “Analysis of a tooth and one of the ribs exhumed from Petrarch’s tomb in Arquá Petrarca, the village near Padua where the poet died in 1374, showed that they belonged to a man and a woman.”
The Indecency Watchdog And Its Agenda
The Parents Television Council spind out statistics about content on TV, and the FCC is listening. “Since the Super Bowl, the organization has taken to calling itself the nation’s most influential advocacy organization protecting children against sex, violence and profanity in entertainment.” But some say the PTC is ideologically tainted and that its data aren’t gathered scientifically. So why’s the FCC listening?
Wicked Gets 10 Tony Noms
“Wicked,” a quirky and fantasy-filled musical about those folks who live along the Yellow Brick Road, picked up 10 Tony Award nominations Monday. “Assassins,” the controversial Stephen Sondheim musical, followed with seven and four shows tied with six nominations apiece: “Caroline, or Change,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Avenue Q” and the Lincoln Center revival of “Henry IV.”
Natural History Museum: Where Are The Students?
The director of Britain’s Museum of Natural History says his institutions is threatened by the lack of students studying natural history. “Few university syllabuses cover systematics, the naming and classification of plants and organisms in which the museum excels. Potential recruits were further deterred by comparatively low salaries.”
Rowling Turns Down Charity Dance School
A kids’ ballet school in London hoping to stage a ten-minute performance based on Harry Potter characters was surprised to be turned down by the author. “We are delighted to hear of your pupils’ enthusiasm for the series but we should tell you that the rights in respect to a live theatrical or musical production are reserved to the author and are subject to a contractual hold-back with Warner Bros until 2007. It would therefore not be possible for you to continue with your plans at this time I am afraid. I am very sorry for this disappointing response.”