Tag: 07.31.05

What Becomes A (Canadian) Classic?

Penguin is embarking on a new series of classics featuring Canadian writers. Choosing great Canadian literature is problematic. Who gets in? What is a classic? “The irony is that while Penguin Classics attempts to show that some of our authors, torn and bleeding, have indeed climbed up the rocks where excellence dwells, academic critics have been in a lather over the very notion of “classics.” How is it, they ask for one thing, that almost all the writers who, up to this time, have climbed up on the rocks have been Dead White European Males?”

Smiley: Left, Right And Center? Public Broadcasting Debate Misses The Point

The current debate about the political balance of public broadcasting is the wrong debate to be having, writes Tavis Smiley. “Why isn’t the debate over how public broadcasting can become more inclusive of folk of different ages and national origins, of various ethnic groups, faiths and cultures — over how it can be used to introduce Americans to new ideas, and to each other? I know that’s an incendiary question these days. But if the core of our discussion on the future of public broadcasting is about shifting content in one direction or the other on the political spectrum, the medium is doomed to fiscal and intellectual bankruptcy.”

World’s Largest Chamber Music Fest Expands To World Music

The annual Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival is the largest in the world. This year the festival has decided to expand its definition of chamber music to include world music. “While the festival is well-attended by music fans – about 60,000 yearly – organizers have decided to broaden the definition of chamber music to attract new audiences. This year, the two-week celebration will include music from India, Persia and Indonesia.”

UK Considers Law To make Returning Nazi-Looted Art Easier

The British parliament is considering a bill that would make the return of Nazi-looted art easier. “The country’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport has begun consultations on the proposed bill, which would be limited to items taken between 1933 and 1945. The legislation was inspired by a situation at the British Museum, which had wanted to return four Old Master drawings to the family of Czech lawyer Arthur Feldman. The museum is stopped from doing so by the British Museum Act, which prevents it from dispersing anything in its collection.”

Forging A New Frick

New York’s “Frick Collection has had difficulty breaking even in recent years – for the coming fiscal year, it projects a deficit of $400,000 – and Anne Poulet has been given the task of shaking up the place. Since her arrival in 2003, the museum has adopted the status of public charity; commissioned a major architectural study for an expansion and refurbishment; acquired three new board members; and reorganized its approach to fund-raising. She wants to make more acquisitions in sculpture and the decorative arts, areas in which she believes the museum has unheralded strengths and the market still offers good value. And she would like to set up a major study center for the history of private collecting in the United States at the Frick Art Reference Library. The library, also in the mansion, is considered one of the best, and most underexploited, resources of its kind.”

Susan Marshall – On Paying Rent And Making Dance

Susan Marshall is one of America’s best choreographers. But she can’t pay the rent to produce her work. So she asks for money and works leaner. “The plea for funds essential to her company’s projected 20th-anniversary season at Dance Theater Workshop next spring tells prospective supporters exactly what their contribution will buy, while it reveals the high cost of making dances: $100 pays for a single day’s use of a studio; $1,000 puts a half-dozen dancers into the studio for a day; $10,000 commissions a new (short) dance. Poetic richness coupled with economic poverty – this is the state of dance in America. ‘I look at it as a challenge to be embraced.’ The financial straits, which clearly dictate working ‘smaller, tighter, faster,’ as Ms. Marshall puts it, support her present artistic impulses.”

The Met: Feeding An Opera Addiction

The Metropolitan Opera has put its archives online, and you can now search the records of every production ever performed at the Met. “For countless opera buffs, the database, which includes entries on all performances since the Met’s opening in 1883, has already become more than a repository of information,” it’s an addiction…

Calatrava’s Chicago Spire – Evolution Of The Tall Building

“Last Wednesday’s unveiling of the dazzling, but still-evolving 115-story hotel and condo tower marked a major milestone in an ongoing revolution: The skyscraper and the tall office building no longer are synonymous. For more than a century, they were. But as Calatrava’s design reveals, life and cities have changed and the skyscraper is free to adapt to those changes in stunning new ways. Though far from faultless, it is one of the freshest and most captivating skyscraper designs Chicago has seen in decades, fully taking advantage of the possibilities offered by the fact that it would be a place to live rather than work.”

New Life For The Music Video

“The video and MTV have gone their separate ways. Even MTV2, the little-sister channel once devoted solely to videos, has begun a switch to original programming. But rather than shrivel away, videos have taken on an exciting if uncertain life of their own, far away from the mother ship that launched them. They thrive at online music sites, they’re sold in record stores, they connect strangers across the Internet. And just this month, speculation was rampant that they might soon be coming to iPods, the hand-held devices that are obsessing an increasingly large segment of the population. For a music industry that has gone through lurching crises in the past few years, as well as for viewers and fans, the proliferation of videos on all kinds of new screens may be one of the quietest changes, but also one of the most profound.”