Tag: 09.30.06

Historic Performances, Online

YouTube isn’t just for home video and TV shows. There’s lots of arts footage, too. “Seeing these artists, most of whom are now known to us only through their recordings, is an awe-inspiring experience. To watch Art Tatum rippling through a bristlingly virtuosic version of Jerome Kern’s “Yesterdays,” or Richard Strauss conducting his tone poem “Till Eulenspiegel” with a cool detachment that borders on the blasé, is to learn something about the essence of their art that no verbal description, however insightful or evocative, can supply.”

Canada’s Arts Mayor Gets Rave Reviews

Running for mayor of Toronto three years ago, David Miller painted himself as the arts candidate, a politician who recognized the inherent value of culture in a diverse city. More incredibly, he delivered on his promises. “In the midst of an era of city budget shortfalls and money crunches, the Miller regime has increased cultural grants for both the Toronto Arts Council and major institutions like the National Ballet and the AGO by $2 million, up to $15.2 million a year. This year, culture was one of only three major departments to have its funding increased, alongside the [transit system] and the police service.”

Hypersensitivity Knows No Religious Boundaries

While Germany’s cultural establishment argues over the cancellation of an opera production deemed insensitive to Islamic fundamentalists, a Frankfurt theatre is quietly going ahead with a satirical play about Jews and Muslims in the Mideast that might prove far more provocative. “Members of the German-Israeli Society, which works to further relations between the countries, wrote to the theater condemning the play as anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli.”

Libeskind Builds His Brand In Denver

Daniel Libeskind is such a prominent presence in the architecture world that it’s easy to forget that he hasn’t completed a single building in the US. Until now: “The architect’s new wing for the Denver Art Museum… appears at first to be primarily an example of aggressive form-making — a branding exercise for designer and client alike… For all its iconic power — and for all the evidence it presents that Libeskind is still fully in thrall to the colliding, fragmented forms of deconstructivist architecture — this is a project that a New Urbanist could happily endorse.”

CBC Seeks “Mandate Review”

In the wake of ongoing controversy over what a public broadcaster’s role should be, Canada’s CBC is seeking a regular “mandate review” in order to better connect it with what Canadians want from them. The review, which would occur every ten years, would spell out exactly what the CBC would be expected to deliver, and more importantly, would assure adequate funding through the next review.