When a well-known political figure pens a book, the automatic assumption is that all profits must go to charity. “But why this need to give away writing income at all?” wonders Erica Jong, who suspects the belief has something to do with the way we view writers and writing. “Of all natural resources, it seems, only literary talent needs disinfection, when what it really needs is nourishing.”
Tag: 10.03.04
Rosetta Code Actually Cracked 800 Years Ago
“It is famed as a critical moment in code-breaking history. Using a piece of basalt carved with runes and words, scholars broke the secret of hieroglyphs, the written ‘language’ of the ancient Egyptians. A baffling, opaque language had been made comprehensible, and the secrets of one of the world’s greatest civilisations revealed – thanks to the Rosetta Stone and the analytic prowess of 18th and 19th century European scholars. But now the supremacy of Western thinking has been challenged by a London researcher who claims that hieroglyphs had been decoded hundreds of years earlier – by an Arabic alchemist.”
Arts Thrive, But The Coverage Sucks
A new study of arts journalism by Columbia University’s National Arts Journalism Program finds that the arts are thriving in cities and towns across North America. But arts journalism is going in exactly the opposite direction, throttled by an increasingly profit-driven business model and the ever-shrinking ‘news hole.’ “Many art sections have become viewer guides, devoting the bulk of their efforts to calendars, the daily TV grid and tiny thumbnail reviews. At some dailies, criticism is vanishing.”
We’ll Just Call It A History-Based Display Module, Then
As part of Toronto’s ongoing downtown redevelopment, a new $200 million cultural center is being planned for the waterfront, and organizers hope that it will become the go-to place for Toronto’s history and heritage. But don’t you dare call it a museum – those are for stuffy people.
Leading From Within
The news stories about the Pittsburgh Symphony’s new artistic leadership model made copious use of the term “triumvirate.” But, says Andrew Druckenbrod, the PSO’s plan is far from the idea of a three-headed boss, and that’s a good thing, given the clashes of ego that could be involved in such an arrangement. “In truth, no one is succeeding Mariss Jansons as music director — not [Sir Andrew] Davis, not all three of the conductors. That’s the heart of the revolution of the PSO’s announcement: The changed relationship between an artistic leader and the orchestra that gives the musicians and staff more power in deciding the future of the group.”
Are de Boers Famous Fakes Actually Legit?
In 1992, a group of investors paid a modest sum for the Jelle de Boer art collection, which consisted of works the Dutch collector had judged to be lost creations of van Gogh, Matisse, and Renoir. The sale didn’t exactly set the art world ablaze, since de Boer’s stack of paintings had long since been judged to be fakes. But now, the current owners are asking experts to reexamine the collection, saying that they believe there may be a few authentic diamonds amidst the mass of imitations.
Hard To Believe Anyone Would Use Sex To Sell Books
“An unusually bitter dispute has broken out betweenthe family of Graham Greene and Norman Sherry, the man he entrusted to write the definitive account of his life. Relatives have been angered that Professor Sherry, whose third and final volume of Greene’s official biography will be published this week, dwells extensively on the writer’s sexual conquests at the expense of his literary career.” The family is likening Sherry to the bumbling Inspector Clouseau, while the author fires back that the objections are “bloody nonsense.”
Dyson’s Crusade
The dispute between resigned Design Museum chairman James Dyson and the trustees bent on updating its mission had been running continuously for years, and contrary to the noise being made by both sides, it isn’t business: this argument is strictly personal. “The problem is not so much a question of whether the Design Museum exhibits engineering triumphs or Manolo Blahnik; it’s a battle between three exceptionally strong-minded people for the future of an institution that they all care about deeply: Dyson, Alice Rawsthorn, the director, and Terence Conran, who established the museum 20 years ago.”
The National Goes Outside Its Comfort Zone
“It’s easy to forget that it’s only 18 months since Nicholas Hytner took over the [UK’s] National Theatre. The territory he’s opened up has been extensive and the dividends tremendous, in financial as well as artistic terms: record ticket sales; a steady stream of first-time attenders (encouraged by the cheap seats policy); audience numbers which rose by 150,000 to 750,000… Now Hytner is taking one step further. For the first time, the National has set out to develop a relationship with one of the young independent companies which has been revolutionising the idea of what the theatre can be.”
The Death of the Impresario?
With the death of Joseph Papp in 1991, there was much hand-wringing over where the next great impresario would come from. But given the current climate of arts support in the U.S., individuals who can be artistic leader, political mastermind, and money magnet all at the same time are seeming like an outdated pipe dream to many theatres. “For whomever’s sake, art is expensive and (according to most artists) radically undersupported. This has only worsened in recent years. ‘The bedrock of municipal and civic responsibility’ on which Papp (sometimes just hopefully) based his enterprise has largely eroded… Given the difficult climate, search committees at some cultural institutions have begun to feel they may be better off with skilled managers instead of star impresarios.”