08.08.00 – ArtsJournal Wayback

FESTIVAL POWER

“Think of Edinburgh today: boomtown, glittering northern capital, as beautiful a city centre as any in Europe; full of history, packed year round with visitors, draped with pavement cafés, bright with flags. Then glance back at Edinburgh as it was 53 years ago, when the Festival was founded: a lost capital almost crushed by the pressure of two world wars – the austerity, the rationing, the sheer exhaustion – into a kind of dour British provincialism from which it seemed unlikely ever to recover.” – The Scotsman 08/08/00

EDINBURGH OPENS FOR BUSINESS: “Everything from theatres to circuses, orchestras to book-readings, stand-up comedy to experimental dance is featured on the programme, making the festival the largest celebration of the arts anywhere in the world – it is listed as such in The Guinness Book of Records.” – CNN 08/08/00

CONSCIENCE OF THE NATION?

Hollywood is pondering the possibility of Joe Lieberman becoming vice-president of the US. “Lieberman is widely regarded as ‘the moral conscience’ of the Senate and has continually blasted TV, movies and the recording industry for featuring too much sex and violence.” – New York Post 08/08/00

A NEED TO ACT

Scotland hasn’t had great luck in recent years with its major performing arts companies – the national ballet and opera companies are deeply in debt. Nonetheless, the Scots want a national theatre of their own. “Arts institutions are like Pokémon cards: every country wants the complete set.” – The Guardian

MISSING BOOKS

The Japanese embassy in London has been hit by art thieves. “For the past two years, it is thought, a British voluntary librarian allegedly stole about 150 books, selling them via the auction house and to private dealers. The collection had been stored at the embassy by the Japan Society, which promotes relations between Britain and Japan, because it had run out of space and wanted greater security.” – The Telegraph (UK)

ANTIQUES CLICKSHOW

Internet auctions have transformed the antique business. But “while the online market has helped to boost antique prices as demand grows, some dealers say online auctions are stripping antiquing of its romance, reducing the thrill of the hunt to a bland point and click. – CNN

BESIDES, WRITING’S MORE FUN

When Australia’s National Gallery hired a critic as its curator of Australian art last year, there were plenty of complaints that John McDonald “had no curatorial experience and was hostile to contemporary art.” Now, less than a year into the job McDonald is considering quitting, complaining that 90 per cent of the job is administrative, “whereas he had originally thought paperwork would take only half his time.” – The Australian

ART IN GRIM PLACES

Life expectancy for a Russian orphan is 26 years. A Russian artist went into an orphanage bringing art and invited the orphans to draw their dreams. “They painted brilliant rainbows, pink buses and staircases to cotton-candy skies. They were joyous images that belied their grim surroundings. The purpose of this project is not to turn children into artists. The purpose is to help them to overcome the various obstacles that they face because they’re orphans.” – The Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

CLUTTERED ATTIC?

America has finally gotten better at protecting its cultural past, trying to preserve important pieces of its history. But are we going to far, now? “Here, for instance, we find millions of dollars allocated for tenement and prison renovation, the repair of fetid laundry rooms and leaky school roofs. Yes, there is funding for traditional cultural activity such as repair of classic houses designed by H.H. Richardson and Frank Lloyd Wright. But there is also money for sprucing up tourist traps and old scrapbooks.” – Philadelphia Inquirer

ANOTHER REASON THEY COST TOO MUCH

Twenty-eight US states have filed a price-fixing suit against five big manufacturers of compact disks. The suit contends that because of the manufacturers collusion, consumers have paid $480 million more than they should have for recordings over the past five years. – Variety

SHOWDOWN IN BERLIN

Since he took it over eight years ago, Daniel Barenboim has turned the former East Berlin Staatsoper company into Berlin’s leading opera house. But Berlin is broke, and Barenboim is demanding another 10 million marks for his budget as a condition of his staying. Last week drastic plans by the Berlin Senate were revealed to amalgamate the city’s three major opera houses with Barenboim to be offered the job of general manager, or “intendant,” of the new super-company. – Chicago Tribune