New scientific research has concluded that members of the Medici family, which is popularly cited as having funded much of the Italian renaissance, did not kill each other in a bloody slaughter, as had been rumored for centuries. In fact, researchers now say that the allegations that four members of the Medici clan ran each other through with swords and daggers are nothing more than fantasy stories spread by jealous rivals. “Malaria is the most likely cause of death for all four members of the family.”
Tag: 10.11.04
Training The Next Generation Of Museum Execs
A new graduate program at Russia’s University of St. Petersburg is offering high-level training to students interested in getting into museum administration. The curriculum is an effort to insure that the country’s rich museum legacy doesn’t fall victim to poor management just as museums are being forced to look to private funding sources for the first time.
If The Novelists Got To Choose The President
In a survey of 31 prominent American novelists, Kerry supporters, unsurprisingly, vastly outnumbered Bush supporters. Still, the writers’ choices differed. “Authors cited a range of reasons, from a vote for Kerry ‘because I have a brain and so does he’ (Amy Tan), to a vote for Bush because ‘we’re at war, and electing a president who is committed to losing it seems to be the most foolish thing we could do’ (Orson Scott Card).”
The High Art Of The Pre-Show Reprimand
“People recall that distant age when the theatre began with nothing more than a lowering of the lights and the raising of a curtain, when the whole notion of pre-emptive audience rebuke was unheard of, but those days have passed into misty legend.” By now the reminder to turn off your cell phones, beepers and chiming watches — and to unwrap your candy now — is ubiquitous. Fortunately, it has also evolved into an opportunity for creativity and humor.
Will Jelinek Get Her Due On UK Stages?
Nobel prizewinner Elfriede Jelinek’s work has always been confrontational and decidedly political. What it has not always been is commercially viable. But now that her name is everywhere, at least temporarily, English-language theaters may well decide to take another look at Jelinek’s work, especially in this season of ultra-political productions.
The New Generation of Protest Art
“Inspired by the war in Iraq and the upcoming presidential election, painters, sculptors, graffiti artists, guerrilla poster makers and aspiring artisans have been showing an unprecedented level of political outrage… Nothing to date has been created on the scale of Pablo Picasso’s 1937 apocalyptic mural Guernica, considered one of the most powerful anti-war statements in modern art. But the amount of political art being produced recently has been unprecedented, even exceeding the anti-administration views displayed during the Vietnam War.”
Boston’s ICA Breaks Ground, Defies Critics
Boston’s new home for the Institute of Contemporary Art is under construction on the city’s riverfront, defying the expectations of critics who doubted the organization’s ability to raise the necessary funds. “The new ICA is not just a museum, but a museum that aims to define a new district. Boston’s waterfront is slated for billions of dollars in construction over the next few years, as land that is now parking lots and lobster shacks is turned over to housing, hotels, restaurants and shops.” Still, the ICA must still overcome Boston’s notorious conservatism when it comes to the arts, and convince the local populace that new art is just as good as old.
So Why Won’t Anyone Admit To It?
Lip-synching is back in the news, thanks to a recent Elton John tirade against Madonna’s acceptance of an award for “best live act.” But as pop stars continue to protest that they would never think of miming their songs, a consensus is building that, for the most part, it doesn’t actually matter whether the biggest stars sing or not. After all, in today’s world of high-gloss glitter pop, no one is really buying a ticket because of the vocal talents of the performers. A Britney Spears (or Madonna, or Christina, or Ashlee, or whomever) show isn’t about music – it’s about selling an image, and the singing is well and truly secondary.
Liverpool Phil Tries Some Executive Control
A rescue effort is underway for the beleagured Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, led by veteran record producer Andrew Cornall, who has been named the orchestra’s executive director and given wide-ranging power to make changes in the organization. The appointment is seen as a move away from a structure which placed responsibility for programming largely in the hands of the music director. The Phil’s current MD, Gerard Schwarz, was recently informed that his contract would not be renewed.
New Paris Museum Set To Rival Bilbao, Tate
The French billionaire François Pinault would like to build a grand new contemporary art gallery in Paris, but true to form, he doesn’t see any need to do it the easy way. After all, this is a man who once bought a chapel in Brittany, dismantled it, and moved it to his home, all to house a sculpture he had just bought. The Pinault museum is slated to cost $270 million, and will be built on an island, on the site of an abandoned Renault car factory. “On the island’s western tip, six machines are scraping away at the factory’s concrete ruins; later this year, construction will begin to replace the derelict shell with what could become Europe’s most avant-garde contemporary art museum.”