In recent years it’s been hard to find the “arts” in the A&E cable channel. Not so, says A&E’s chief programmer: “I would completely refute that. I think they’re absolutely about the arts and culture and pop culture. You look at this country and 50%, [a] huge chunk of the population belongs to gyms even if they don’t go to them. It’s a huge focus on bodies and exercise and getting fit, and I think absolutely this is representative of our culture. We’re getting at it from a sort of particular angle and following, you know, personalities here, but that’s absolutely about representing the arts and culture. So, yes, it’s — you know, we’re not focusing on the traditional arts, but I think both these series are going inside the creative process.”
Tag: 07.16.06
Massachusetts Overrides Governor, Approves Arts Infrastructure Aid
Last week the Massachusetts legislature approved millions in funding for improving and repairing arts infrastructure. “The groups surveyed said they needed about $1.1 billion to repair, expand, or construct buildings in the next five years. Governor Romney vetoed the $13 million for the fund this summer, but this week the House and Senate decisively overrode his veto. ‘This is not the Legislature saying, ‘Hey, we want better ballet on stage. It’s saying, ‘We want these cultural resources improved as the infrastructure for tourism.’ “
At The Met – Pay What You Want To Enter (Really?)
So the Metropolitan Museum’s admission is going up to $20. But it’s just a “suggested” donation, and in truth, you can pay whatever you want. But is social pressure at the ticket window to pay the full fare enough to preclude paying less? A Times reporter goes to ticket windows with a roll of quarters to find out…
Boston’s WBUR Kills Arts Criticism
Boston public radio station WBUR is dropping its arts reviews. The station is “eliminating its online arts magazine, Arts Scene, and with it the position held by editor and arts critic Bill Marx. The station has, however, added a full-time arts reporter, Andrea Shea. Arts criticism will be phased out by the end of the summer. ‘It was a good service for people who really like in-depth criticism and commentary in the arts. There’s a role for that, it just isn’t completely tied into what our main mission is’.”
The CD Audience Gets Grayer
“The neighborhood record store was once a clubhouse for teenagers, a place to escape parents, burn allowances and absorb the latest trends in fashion as well as music. But these days it is fast becoming a temple of nostalgia for shoppers old enough to remember ‘Frampton Comes Alive!’ In the era of iTunes and MySpace, the customer base that still thinks of recorded music as a physical commodity (that is, a CD), as opposed to a digital file to be downloaded, is shrinking and aging, further imperiling record stores already under pressure from mass-market discounters like Best Buy and Wal-Mart.”
UK Museums Closing For Lack Of Local Funding Support
Britain’s museums are in crisis, according to one of the country’s leading arts charities, which has released research showing that historic institutions are being neglected by cash-strapped local authorities.
The Small Town With The Big Music
Little out-of-the-way Salida, Colorado doesn’t have much music. But every summer, the toen hosts a major league chamber muic series. “The historic Arkansas River town of 5,000, best known for kayaking and art galleries, is hardly a classical-music mecca, yet folks there have managed to keep a summer chamber series going for 30 years.”
Opera’s American Champion
“In the first decade of the 21st century, Mark Scorca may be the most passionate activist for opera in America, a role for which he appears to be typecast. As president and chief executive officer of the New York- based national service organization Opera America, he knows virtually every plot twist in the challenging music dramas that big and small opera companies face on a daily basis.”
The Forger Goes Legit
“John Myatt is an artist. He is not, he is the first to admit, the world’s finest artist. He is, however, quite possibly the world’s finest forger. What he is doing, now, for up to £5,000 a painting, is forging to order, entirely legitimately: his ‘genuine fakes’ are stamped as such on the obverse, and his perfect (if Dulux) versions of, say, Giacometti’s Seated Nude, or Matisse’s The Pink Room, now grace ski lodges in Aspen and villas in Tuscany. It’s all great fun, and above board: it wasn’t always so.”
Not Enough Good Fiction In Toronto?
Toronto Life’s last annual fiction issue has gone to press. Why no more? Not enough good writing to be found? “Spurred by the realization that Toronto had become one of the world’s literary hot spots, the annual fiction issue was launched in 1997, and has received as many as 200 submissions annually. The magazine canvassed publishers, agents, members of the Writers’ Union and others to gather a range of material. The idea was to find stories consistent with the mandate of the magazine, and for the first three years this proved feasible. But by the fourth year, the magazine was inviting submissions from across the country.” And not finding them.