The number of visitors has nearly doubled, to nearly 3 million annually from around 1.5 million, in the eight years since MoMA reopened after its expansion and renovation in 2004. “Our galleries are pretty close to being maxed out.”
Tag: 09.25.12
Is Architecture Rotten From The Inside?
“In order to maintain the health of the profession, a fundamental change in how young interns are integrated into the design environment, and in how they apply their education, needs to occur.”
More Film Depictions Of Muhammad Are On The Way
“Undaunted by the outcry over a YouTube trailer for Innocence of Muslims, two ex-Muslim filmmakers are trying to develop separate feature-length biopics that would offer critical takes on Muhammad’s life. Experts predict that those projects will trigger further anger and violence, as has accompanied nearly every attempt to portray the prophet in any media in recent decades. But some believe that the faith will inevitably embrace showing Muhammad on film as the best and most effective way to get his message to the masses.”
Van Gogh Museum In Amsterdam Closes For Renovations; Collection Heads To Hermitage
Just as the city’s Stedelijk Museum reopens, the Van Gogh is shutting down for a seven-month refurbishment. Meanwhile, 75 paintings, the cream of the collection, are headed to St. Petersburg, where they will be displayed at the Hermitage until their return to the Dutch capital next spring.
Are Spain’s Futuristic New Arts Centers Turning Into White Elephants?
“Chief among these is Santiago Calatrava and Felix Candela’s City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, completed in 2005 to widespread praise. Costing €1.1 billion, it nonetheless failed to provide a massive compensatory visitor influx for its price, even while beaches nearby heave with pasty North European bodies. … Meanwhile, in Galicia, Santiago de Compostela’s City of Culture, which opened last year, has also signaled an end to the era of look-at-me public projects.”
Why Is British TV Producing So Many Period Dramas?
“With a period piece, the only likely controversies are anachronism of language or possibly an objection that there was too much nudity or sex … In present-day fiction, however, the plot is likely to throw up issues of sexuality, prejudice, violence, addiction, swearing and political balance of the sort that risk dividing audiences and shortening [producers’] careers.”
Fast-Rising Young British Curator Found Dead In Apparent Suicide
“Michael Stanley, director of the gallery Modern Art Oxford and a 2012 Turner prize judge who was seen as a rising star in his field, has died aged 37. Stanley, married with three young children, was found dead in a garden on Friday. Police have said they are not treating his death as suspicious.”
Truth Decay: The Half-Life Of Facts
“Science has always been about getting closer to the truth, and anybody who understands it knows that a continual transformation of accepted knowledge along the way is how it works. However, sometimes it can feel random and unsettling. Smoking has gone from doctor-recommended to deadly. Eating meat used to be good for you, then bad, then good again.”
Helpmann Awards 2012: Cate Blanchett, DV8, Moby Dick, Outdoor Traviata
Among the top winners of Australia’s annual performing arts prizes were the Australian premiere of Jake Heggie’s opera based on Melville’s novel, DV8 Physical Theatre’s Can We Talk About This?, Syndey Theatre Company’s Gross und Klein (starring Blanchett), and Opera Australia’s staging of La traviata on Sydney Harbour.
Iran, Angry Over Anti-Muhammad Video, Will Boycott Oscars
“Although writer-director Asghar Farhadi’s acclaimed family drama A Separation was named best foreign-language film at February’s Academy Awards ceremony, Iranian officials have opted out of the upcoming Oscar contest … [and has] called on other Muslim countries to boycott the Oscars as well.”