“The architecture and furnishings of this country’s early years are so closely identified with its founding ideals that they have acquired an overlay of shared heritage and patriotic sentimentality far beyond their undeniable aesthetic appeal.”
Tag: 09.20.11
Lucrative Grand Rapids ArtPrize Expands to Music
“ArtPrize leaders always wanted other kinds of artists in the game. So this year’s competition, which runs today through Oct. 9, inaugurates a new exhibition center focused on music. Composers and performers working in rock, country, jazz, classical and other idioms will take their place as competitors alongside painters, sculptors, photographers, conceptual artists and the rest.”
A MacArthur-Style ‘Genius Grant’ For Playwrights
This initiative by New York’s Signature Theater Company “guarantees three full productions of new plays by five early to mid-career playwrights, who will also receive ‘a significant cash award, full health benefits, a stipend to attend theater’ and full access to the theater’s staff and resources.”
Australian Arts Policy Should Forget The High Art-Popular Art Dichotomy
Composer Matthew Hindson: “An opera company in a metropolitan city is not in itself more important to Australian culture than a rock band in Wadeye. … Just because something makes money should not imply it is artistically inferior. If something is not commercially successful it may still have immense cultural value.”
When A Banking Group Wanted A Symbol Of Canada, Whom Did They Choose?
Not Wayne Gretzky. “[When] the Paris-based Euro Banking Association was looking for a Canadian symbol for its booth at a major international banking conference in Toronto this week, … [the group] turned to Glenn Gould, the Canadian pianist known as much for his eccentricities as his musical genius.”
Diner, The Musical! (Songs By Sheryl Crow)
“Eddie, Shrevie and Boogie are heading to Broadway: Production company Base Entertainment announced Tuesday that it will mount a musical version of Barry Levinson’s 1982 seriocomic hit Diner – and has enlisted Levinson to write the book and Sheryl Crow to write the lyrics and music.”
Salman Rushdie Becomes @SalmanRushdie1
Salman Rushdie has revealed that he is “locked in a Scrabble deathmatch series” with Kylie Minogue on his new Twitter account.
Why Have Our Great Writers Gotten So Slow At Writing?
“Suddenly our important writers seem less like color commentators, sifting through the emotional, sexual and intellectual detritus of how we live today, and more like a mountaintop Moses, handing down the granite tablets every decade or so to a bemused and stooped populace.”
Video Games Look More And More Like Movies. Except…
“There’s one element of interactive storytelling that designers just can’t seem to get right: the cut-scene. Some exceptions exist, but these control-free cinematic sequences often prove uncomfortable if not downright embarrassing to watch.”
Respected Curator Of Aboriginal Art Quits Museum, Calls For New Approach
The “mainstreaming of Aboriginal art and culture has largely failed us”, she said.