“Some economists argue that hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions, ice storms, and the like, despite the widespread destruction they leave behind – indeed, largely because of it – can spur economic growth. Rebuilding efforts serve as a short-term boost by attracting resources to a country, and the disasters themselves, by destroying old factories and old roads, airports, and bridges, allow new and more efficient public and private infrastructure to be built, forcing the transition to a sleeker, more productive economy in the long term.”
Tag: 07.06.08
Beijing’s Astonishing Architectural Makeover
“Despite everything, there is a sense that building here is one of those rare chances architects get to make history, so how can they say no? This is a capital that has rebuilt itself faster than any other in the history of the world. In two decades it has moved from the middle ages, with an overlay of bicycles and Stalinism, to a shimmering surreal vision, two parts Las Vegas, two parts Dubai, and five parts the most brutally unequal capitalist society on earth.”
Of Art, Women, And Unexplainable Discrimination
“Sales in London last week generated a fresh round of head-spinning prices: a Freud for £11.8m and a Jeff Koons sculpture for £13m. By comparison, the South African-born artist Marlene Dumas became the most expensive living woman artist at auction on Tuesday when her work The Visitor sold for £3.2m at Sotheby’s. It’s a constant source of disappointment to see the discrepancy in prices between outstanding female artists and their male counterparts.”
A Chinese Choreographer Goes Home
“Thirteen years ago Shen Wei was a dancer, a choreographer and the founder of the Guangdong Modern Dance Company, the first of its kind in China. He was a rising star in his nation but craved to know more about Western dance than he could learn there. His movements combine Eastern and Western ideas, drawing from Chinese opera, martial arts, Abstract Expressionism and Western Modernism.”
The Instant Book-Maker (Ready?)
“Whether or not we are ready to see the process by which books are made laid so bare – a sort of reversal of the demystification that well-intentioned parents visit on their children when they explain exactly where chicken nuggets come from – is another matter. We should be perfectly happy to accept that books are just elaborately and prettily presented photocopies – but we object when we feel that they are being sold like so many cans of beans.”
The Best Art (According To Its Viewers)
“If you could capture it in a manageable form, would the collective judgment of all visitors to a major art museum be better than that of the people with Ph.D.’s, the curators or, heaven forbid, the professional critics? That is what “Click! A Crowd-Curated Exhibition” at the Brooklyn Museum invites us to ponder. The results are inconclusive, at best, and the exhibition itself is not very interesting to look at, but the issues it raises are fascinating.”
A New Florida Home To Showcase Tiffany
“The museum, home to the world’s most extensive collection of Tiffany works, plans to build the 10,000-foot addition to showcase some of his most spectacular pieces.For decades, the Morse kept in storage most of the Daffodil Terrace and many other pieces from Tiffany’s Laurelton Hall, destroyed by fire in 1957.”
Traveling Jewish Theatre Fighting Back To Solvency
“Traveling Jewish Theatre has surmounted the first of three financial hurdles it had set for itself this summer – raising $100,000 from its supporters by June 30 – and appears to be on track to meet the rest. A small company with a large national reputation, TJT has never been on firm financial footing.”
The Arts – It’s All About The Relationships
“It is not acceptable to have merely transactional relationships with patrons, to create artistic experiences and sell or give them away without regard for the capacity of people to receive them and find meaning in them. Audience development is not about derrieres in chairs but about brokering a relationship between people and art. To do that job well, organisations must be open to the ways that art and artists are changing and the ways that society is changing.”
Denver’s Venerable Arts Funder Makes A Big Change
“The Scientific and Cultural Facilities District has awarded $1.4 billion to metro-area arts organizations since 1989, but the recent severing of one of its longest and smallest beneficiaries marks a sea change in the way tax dollars will now be doled out to all Denver County arts organizations. Now, what you do for your community counts more than what you do for your audience’s souls.”