AN IPO FOR ART

Britain’s Year of the Artist – aiming to raise the profile of living artists throughout the UK – kicked off on Tuesday. More than 1,000 artists have been invited to being their art out of the studio and into public venues. – BBC

NEVER THE TWAIN SHALL MEET

Sam Clemens (Mark Twain) spent some time in Carson City, Nevada developing his writing. And the city wants to advertise the fact in its tourist promotions. Trouble is, Clemens’ estate still holds control of the famous name and the Mark Twain Foundation Trust has warned the city to stop or its lawyers will come a’ callin’. – Washington Post

POST-INDUSTRIAL CHIC

After a two-year closure, Glasgow’s revitalized Tramway (a vast old tram shed and site of some of the UK’s most ground-breaking multidisciplinary performances of the ‘90s) reopens this week. New York’s Wooster Group will reopen the “post-industrial, dressed-down chic” space with its first UK performances in eight years. – The Guardian

REPORTS OF OUR DEATH ARE…

The Royal Canadian Academy of Art decided to do a millennial show and made an open call to artists. The idea might have worked 120 years ago when the Academy was formed. “Maybe it even worked 30 years ago, when the RCA’s annual exhibition finally died off. For better or worse, however, at the beginning of the 21st century it’s simply not how things work – as any truly vigorous arts organization would have understood right off. – The Globe and Mail (Canada)

THE REAL DICK

That maybe-Richard Diebenkorn-that wasn’t in that E-Bay auction that got everybody so excited a few weeks ago and forced a winning bid of $135,000? Well maybe it is real after all. Though the auction was nullified, experts are now looking at the painting to determine its patrimony. – San Francisco Chronicle