At New York’s Columbus Circle a unique new music center is about to start construction. “Never before has a concert hall been conceived from the ground up for the distinctly American sound and style of jazz. During the entire century of its existence, it has been played in nightclubs, saloons and worse; it has been acoustically distorted in symphony halls designed for Ludwig van Beethoven and Johannes Brahms rather than Charlie Parker and John Coltrane.” – Chicago Tribune
Tag: 06.18.00
BEHIND THE TIMES
In Dallas, an arts fundraising organization that once raised $750,000 a year for the arts, and has given out $12 million in 35 years, comes up dry. Why? The biggest clue comes in the third paragraph of this story: “We went into this year with the same fund-raising plan that we had in 1986,” says board president Bill Semper. “This year the events stopped working.” – Dallas Morning News
GETTY DIRECTOR RESIGNS
John Walsh announced he will step down this fall after heading the J. Paul Getty Museum for 17 years, during which he broadened the Getty’s collections and oversaw the museum’s transition to its lavish new Brentwood home two years ago. Getty chief curator Deborah Gribbon will step into Walsh’s position in September. – New Jersey Online (AP)
FRENCH WAR MUSEUM OPENS
On Sunday, French President Jacques Chirac inaugurated France’s first museum dedicated to France’s role in World War II. The inauguration was held on the 60th anniversary of de Gaulle’s famous call to resist the occupying Nazis. – CNN (AP)
TAKING BACK THE WALL
The land where the Berlin Wall once stood has held out both a promise and caution for the future. Now an important new building opens. “Here, on a chunk of land where just 10 years ago there was nothing but empty space and buildings pockmarked with shrapnel, a city is being reborn -one that is a real place, not just a tourist quarter.” – Chicago Tribune
THE MORALITY OF PAINTINGS
You’re an art dealer or curator and you’re invited to someone’s house and discover an art treasure that the owner doesn’t know he has. Do you tell? The answer is a lot more complicated than simple yes or no, concludes author Michael Frayn. – The Telegraph (UK)
FOSTER’S WOBBLE
Norman Foster is Britain’s most famous working architect, with a string of successes. But when his Millennium Bridge across the Thames opened last Saturday, it swayed and wobbled and terrified the crowds pounding across it. “What an embarrassment,” he tells Hugh Pearlman. – The Sunday Times (UK)
NO MORE PLOP ART
In the past seven years, Britain has erected some 7,000 pieces of public art sculptures. The kinds of art being put up is changing though: “Younger artists, in particular, prefer to make works that involve people and real life. They are not interested in parachuting in a big bit of sculpture.” – The Telegraph (UK)