European thinkers are curious about American intellectual thought, and seem to seek it out to engage with it.The reverse is not so often true. “In failing to read our European contemporaries in their own languages (especially when they write about their own philosophical classics), don’t we deprive ourselves of important cognitive sources?” – Chronicle of Higher Education 08/07/00
Tag: 08.07.00
CITY TAX FOR ART
A proposed “cultural tax” in Detroit would pump $36 million annually to arts and culture. “It is being pushed by Detroit Renaissance, a group of business executives trying to enhance the area, and a coalition of cultural institutions. They contend that the money is needed to keep Metro Detroit’s cultural landmarks vibrant by stabilizing funding and providing support for the arts if the economy slows.” A poll shows 58 percent of those surveyed said they would approve it. – Detroit News 08/07/00
SIR ALEC GUINNESS —
— dies at age 86. – The Age (Melbourne)
SIR ALEC GUINNESS —
— dies at age 86. – The Age (Melbourne)
- TRIBUTES: “He was one of the last surviving members of a great generation of UK actors, which included Sir Laurence Olivier, Sir John Gielgud and Sir Ralph Richardson and Sir John Mills.” – BBC
IN YOUR FACE THEATRE
“Now approaching its 25th anniversary, Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre is mentioned by critics in the same breath as U.S. legends such as the Group Theatre from the 1930s and New York’s Circle Repertory. Variety magazine calls it the country’s foremost actors’ theatre. ‘A name synonymous with a visceral acting style full of raw passion,’ said Playbill magazine, ‘the uncompromising, in-your-face school of acting dubbed ‘rock’n’roll theatre.’ ” – The Globe and Mail (Canada) (Guardian)
WILDING
- An unfinished Oscar Wilde play is discovered in a California library. – BBC
STRIKING FOR ART
About half of the Museum of Modern Art’s 250 administrative employees have been on strike against the museum since April. But though some of the museum’s educational programs have had to be canceled, the strike seems to have had little impact on the museum’s operations. – New York Post
BANKING ON ART
An art sale in Mexico is attracting a lot of attention. The work for sale was stripped from the walls of Mexico’s failed banks. “The exhibition is the first time many of the works have been displayed publicly since being seized by the government following Mexico’s 1994-95 banking crisis. The auction – part of the government’s efforts to recoup some $100 billion paid to bail out the industry – has sparked a ‘morbid curiosity’.” – Financial Times
TO SEE AND BE SEEN
The New York art scene is hotter than ever. “Gone are the somnolent years of the early ‘90s, when ‘art party’ conjured up images of cramped gallery openings or struggling artists convening at someone’s loft to consume white wine from plastic cups and white powder from bathroom counters. With the economy revving like the ‘80s, the art market is also back to eighties-style extravagance, from the inflated price tags to the high-velocity socializing.” – New York Magazine
KNOWING YOUR PLACE
“When you add up the radio stations, the dingy used-record stores, the $1.3 billion market for rap and the $1.9 billion spent on revivified country and western, music ranks among the largest industries ever to exist. In the midst of this fantastic investment in an all-enveloping cloud of sound, hardly anyone seems to remember that music stands fairly low on the scale of devices by which we try to understand human experience. A people that takes music as its highest expression has cut itself off from narrative, epic, allegory – the explanatory arts that could put to use the emotions that their music represents.” – New Statesman