The Florida Orchestra is hoping that audiences in Tampa enjoy the music enough to attend concerts regardless of what night they’re held. “In a risky move, the orchestra has switched all 12 of its masterworks programs during the upcoming season in Tampa from Friday to Monday night. It is an attempt to bring some consistency to the orchestra’s schedule at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, where the preferred, 2,500-seat Morsani Hall isn’t always available to the orchestra because the center gives priority to lucrative Broadway tours and other presentations.”
Tag: 09.25.04
Rembrandt Reclining, With Handguns
The theft of Edvard Munch’s The Scream from an Oslo gallery last month has caused museums across Scandinavia to rethink their security measures. This weekend, a Rembrandt up for auction will go on display in Stockholm flanked by armed guards, a marked departure from the usual low-key security one sees in most galleries. The asking price on the Rembrandt is upwards of $46 million.
But No Lap Dances From Margaret Atwood!
“The organizers of the first-ever Descant Book Ball, to be held Thursday, have concocted a truly unusual fundraising scheme to support [Canadian Literature]. For a nominal fee, guests will be escorted to a private peep-show salon, where the ball’s organizers promise they’ll get ‘up-close and personal’ with their favourite artist or literary figure… For $20, fans will get five to 10 minutes of one-on-one time with their CanLit idol of choice, say, a private reading from novelist Russell Smith, a personal sketch from illustrator Laurie McGaw, or take part in a sexually liberating video and poetry experiment with Louise Bak.”
No, It’s Not Just A Big Pastry
It’s rare that a national government will get directly involved with a major art exhibition, but Denmark’s leaders have apparently decided that the country’s artistic riches offer the best way to promote tourism and knowledge of Danish culture. Thus, Canada’s largest city is now playing host to “SuperDanish: Newfangled Danish Culture, a mammoth showcase that features 13 artistic disciplines, 143 individual events, over 200 artists, and 85 education programs that will reach 3,000 students.” It’s partly about exporting culture, of course, but SuperDanish is also an exercise in extroverted self-discovery for a country that is just beginning to diversify.
Inuit Art: The Final Frontier?
“Instant communication and easier international travel have made the art world more homogeneous than ever, but isolated, overlooked pockets of offbeat creativity still exist. One of the most surprising can be found on or near Hudson Bay in northeastern Canada, where dozens if not hundreds of indigenous artists in government settlements have produced an extraordinarily original body of work.” But it’s only recently has Inuit art begun to garner attention outside of Canada, despite a centuries-old tradition of carved objects and a burgeoning body of work from the modern era.
Tony-Nominated Playwright Caught Plagiarizing
“A prominent criminal psychiatrist and a writer for The New Yorker have accused the English playwright Bryony Lavery of lifting parts of dialogue, structure and characters from their work and using them in her drama Frozen, which closed on Broadway last month and was nominated for a Tony Award. [The accusers] say that they have found at least a dozen instances of word-for-word plagiarism in the play, as well as thematic and biographical similarities to a 1997 New Yorker profile… and a 1998 book.” Independent comparisons clearly bear out the claims, and Lavery isn’t commenting.
Glitter Sneaks In, And Substance Takes A Back Seat
The San Sebastián International Film Festival made its name with a willingness to push the envelope and present works at which more prominent fests turn up their nose. But with reputation comes commercial viability, and Hollywood has begun to “discover” San Sebastián. The result, say observers, is a decided uptick in the festival’s glitter factor, and a noticable downplaying of the feistiness for which it is known. Still, San Sebastián continues to fill a unique role in the development of new and innovative film artists, and no amount of Hollywood involvement seems likely to change that overarching mission.
Barnes Debate: Long On Passion, Short On Evidence
The battle over the Barnes Foundation’s proposed move to Philadelphia has become so fraught with emotion that it almost resembles a religious war. Both sides are asking the judge in the case to allow a deviation from Albert Barnes’s stated intentions for his collection, but “ironclad facts were hard to come by in four days of hearings” this week, despite the judge’s order several months ago that ironclad facts were exactly what he expected both sides to provide more of.
A Critical Darling, But For How Long?
Most critics agree that HBO has raised the bar for quality television in recent years, and a slew of awards back up the theory. But how did a pay-TV network created to show commercial-free movies become the official breeding ground for groundbreaking original shows? And more importantly, how long can its place at the top of the heap last, given the industry’s notorious habit of copycatting?
Artists Rallying Where Governments Fear To Tread
The ongoing genocide in Sudan has gotten precious little attention from some Western governments, and even less from North American media outlets. In response to what they see as an outrageous abdication of national responsibility, a group of musicians and actors is mounting simultaneous live shows in six Canadian cities, featuring “live music and a mock debate of the UN Security Council using the actual minutes from recent UN meetings on Darfur.”