With the Pew and Rockefeller Foundations withdrawing funding for the annual American artist representation at the Benice Biennale, the selection process is in flux. “The State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (BECA) has indicated that it is unprepared to take over. Consequently, it appears the Guggenheim Foundation may gain control of the selection process for the American Pavilion in 2005 by default.”
Tag: 09.06.04
Another Who-Was-Shakespeare Book
“The life and works of a man whose life is so plain and whose works are so fancy produces the kind of book that belongs less to a scholarly genre than to a performing genre, a hoop for a scholar to jump through when he no longer has anything to prove, as Lear is a role for an actor to jump through when he has done all the others. To the long run of such life-and-works books, the Harvard professor Stephen Greenblatt now offers his own reading.”
Ballet Problem – Where Are The Women Choreoghraphers?
Where are the women choreographers? “Is it possible that in an art form driven by feminine ideals, women haven’t made nearly the gains of their sisters in business and politics? If Cinderella wants to be a choreographer, is she more likely to encounter a glass ceiling than a glass slipper?”
A Record Movie Summer
North American movie box office hit a record this summer. The industry took in an “all-time summer haul of just under $4-billion from the first weekend in May through Labour Day. That’s up 3 per cent from the previous record of $3.9-billion set last summer. But like the summer of 2003, higher admission prices meant fewer tickets were sold. Exhibitor Relations estimates moviegoers bought 637.8 million tickets domestically this past summer, down 0.76 per cent from 2003.”
Venice Protests Over American Films
Protests are being staged at the Venice Film Festival to protest the domination of American movies this year. “Anti-capitalist protesters have set up a Global Beach camp nearby to denounce the prevalence of Hollywood stars and the cost of screenings.”
Doyle: “New” Ireland’s A Joke
Writer Roddy Doyle is amused at the Irish obsession with writing about being Irish: “Being Irish has changed ‘about 17 times’ in the last hundred years. He finds the image put out by the tourist board of Ireland these days hilarious in its cheek, particularly since all around the world people have swallowed it. ‘It’s a big con job,’ he says. ‘We have sold the myth of Dublin as a sexy place incredibly well; because it’s a dreary little dump most of the time. Try getting a pint at one in the morning and you’ll find just how raving it actually is’.”
In Hartford: A Museum Solution Across The Street
Hartford’s Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art had ambitious plans to shut down for two years and “create a spectacular new $100 million building.” But when that plan was abandoned, it opened new possibilities and a bit of reinvention of the museum’s operation…
Munch Museum Beefs Up Security After Scream Theft
After heavy criticism after “The Scream” was stolen, the Munch Museum in Oslo is installing new security measures to protect its art. “We are closed and will be closed for three weeks to install alarms, among other things.”
A Violent New “Alice In Wonderland”
A new version of Alice in Wonderland, by Frank Beddor, has inflamed critics for its violent and bizarre retelling. “Mr Beddor, who produced gross-out movie There’s Something About Mary, and is a former world champion skier, has transplanted Alice into a modern and violent fantasy world that could have come straight out of a computer game.” But he defends the story: “Kids are used to a more violent and real world now – video games and movies are dominating, and hopefully they will love this book.”
Ono To “Recreate” 60s Naked “Happening”
Yoko Ono plans to recreate one of her most famous pieces of art at the Tate Modern, 40 years after first performing it. “The original 1964 ‘happening’ involved Ono having clothing cut from her body by the audience until she was naked. The 71-year-old recreated the work in Paris last year in an effort to promote world peace, but left the stage in her underwear.”