“It’s clearly a good time to go to galleries. Tate’s visitor numbers have dropped by up to 20% since July 7, and while that’s obviously not a good thing in itself, it does make for fantastic viewing conditions. Tate Britain at the weekend was similarly quiet, although the gorgeous new Chris Ofili installation, The Upper Room, was getting quite a lot of punters.”
Tag: 08.23.05
San Jose: Opera Takes A Step Up
Opera San Jose (California) took a risk in expanding its operations last year, and it’s proved a success. “It was a financial balancing act. The company moved from the 520-seat Montgomery to the 1,100-seat California, adding $1.6 million to its $2.8 million budget. It still produced four operas, but dropped the number of performances of each from 15 to eight or, for ‘Carmen,” nine. It also increased ticket prices by an average of $27 — and sold more tickets than expected.”
Denmark: Get Politics Out Of Theatre
What’s holding back Danish theatre? Politics. “Theatres will always be obligated to focus their work with politicians in mind. That makes it quite difficult to create interesting new ventures, because you have to negotiate with politicians who don’t necessarily know much about theatre. And that is a catastrophe for theatre in Denmark,”
Eagling To Lead English National Ballet
Wayne Eagling, a former star of the Royal Ballet, has been named artistic director of the English National Ballet. “His appointment follows the sudden resignation four months ago of Matz Skoog, who had been the ENB’s artistic director since 2001. Eagling, 54, will be the fifth person to occupy the post in 15 years.”
FCC Dithers On Payola
Last month New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer announced results of his radio payola investigation. “And what’s the Federal Communications Commission doing about all this? Dithering, mostly.”
Tax Breaks For Wealthy Hollywood Producers?
With hundreds of millions of dollars leaving California with movie shoots, the state is considering giveing tax breaks to producers (just like most other states). “Twice before, California legislators have failed to pass tax incentives. Opponents say it would line the pockets of already wealthy Hollywood producers at a time when California faces a budget crunch, and they question whether the state truly is hurt by runaway production.”
Asians And Americans See Things Differently?
According to a new study, Asians look at things differently from Americans or Europeans. “The researchers tracked the eye movement of the Chinese and Americans as they looked at pictures. The Americans looked at the object in the foreground sooner — a leopard in the jungle for example — and they looked at it longer. The Chinese had more eye movement, especially on the background and back and forth between the main object and the background.”
Plea: A Venturi Barnes
Who should design the Barnes’ new home in Philadelphia? It requires a special understanding of both the collection and the city. Fortunately there’s a homegrown solution. “The Venturis, principal architects of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, know and love Philadelphia as no outsider ever can. And they would create a building for the Barnes of incomparable quality that people would flock to from around the world.”
CBC Bleeds Users During Lockout
The CBC lockout is driving viewers and listeners to commercial competitors. Meanwhile, there are calls for the Canadian government to withhold public money from the broadcaster while the lockout continues.
Kurtz V. FBI, Round 487
Artist Steve Kurtz is still fighting off the FBI, which wanted to charge him with bioterrorism. “Kurtz used the analogy of a coffee grinder purchase to explain why the stakes in his case are so much weightier than artistic censorship. ‘Let’s say you go out and by a coffee grinder. And it says on it that you can’t grind spices in it, only coffee. And you say, to hell with that, I’m going to grind coffee and spices in it. If you do that and you send in your warranty — mail fraud. If they pull off that argument in court, it’ll make almost anyone vulnerable’.”