So Philadelphia schools have found a trove of artworks in their possession. Where else might there be public-owned art? Perhaps at the Pentagon? A Department of Defense employee “is/was resposible for maintaining accountability for this art collection, and in the mid 90s she was apparently fired/quit in part because a military Inspector General’s team discovered that the works were generally unaccounted for and in many cases improperly stored (leaky buildings, rain, moisture, etc.).”
Tag: 07.26.04
Call To Culture – UK’s £20 million Culture Initiative
The British government has awarded £20 million of National Lottery money to be spent on cultural events throughout the country. “The European City of Culture competition stimulated the creation of a wonderful range of creative and ambitious plans in cities across the UK. The Lottery-funded Urban Cultural Programme will mean that many of those aspirations can become reality.”
Loaned Aboriginal Art Seized In Australia
Two pieces of Aboriginal art on loan from the British Museum have been seized in Australia. “Members of the Dja Dja Wurrung tribe secured an emergency order preventing the items being returned to the British Museum and the Royal Botanic Gardens. The two bark etchings and a Aboriginal ceremonial headdress were on loan to Museum Victoria in Melbourne. Gary Murray, of the Dja Dja, accused the museums of ‘colonial arrogance’.”
Australian Publishers Withdraw Khouri Book
The Australian publishers of Norma Khouri’s controversial book, Forbidden Love, have withdrawn the book from sale and advised booksellers to do the same after doubts surfaced about whether the bestseller’s tale is true as claimed…
Is Khouri’s Story A Fake?
Norma Khouri’s frightening story of fleeing her Middle Eastern homeland in fear for her life became a worldwide bestseller. But now she is being attacked and her story branded a fake. “Far from being a Jordanian who fled her home in the late 1990s after the “honour” killing of her best friend, Khouri is accused of being an American passport-holder who lived in Chicago from the age of three.”
Lebrecht: Regretting The Walkman
The Walkman is 25 years old. Norman Lebrecht says it transformed (and cheapened) music. “Its advantages were many, mostly unforseen. Actors learned their lines by Walkman on the bus into rehearsal. Splenetic executives used it for lunchtime meditation. I once heard Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony on a vertical Alpine train as a thunderstorm crashed all around. In unforgettable settings, music acquired unsuspected dimensions. But these benefits were soon outweighed by its corrosive effects.”
Goldberger: Eyes On Shanghai-On-The-Hudson
“To just about everyone except the tax authorities, the Jersey City waterfront is a part of New York,” writes Paul Goldberger. “Cesar Pelli’s tower is the anchor of a new city, a kind of Shanghai on the Hudson, that has sprung u over the past decade on what was once industrial land. It is an enormous complex—by far the largest cluster of skyscrapers in the region outside Manhattan.”
Those Overweight Medieval Monks
“A recent study of skeletal remains from monks that lived during the Middle Ages (476-1450 A.D.) that revealed most monks were overweight, but perhaps not entirely jolly because they suffered from conditions associated with obesity, such as arthritis.”
A Real Look At Realism – Where Is It?
Considering their importance in literary history, there’s relatively little scholarship being done on realist authors. Postmodern suspicion of any claim to be able to represent reality is only part of the problem. “Realist works tend to be forthright and explicit, so there’s less of an overt challenge for scholars to ‘crack’ them. Nor is it that easy to get students to crack the novels.”
Vandals Destroy/Steal Art In Venice And Rome
“Italy’s rich heritage is under attack as never before from vandals and professional thieves. In a series of incidents in the past four weeks in Venice and Rome, hammers have been used to smash statues and fountains. In some cases, the heads of Roman statues more than 2,000 years old have been cleanly cut away using powerful circular saws, more than likely by professional thieves working to order.”