“This week sees the 600th anniversary of the death of Geoffrey Chaucer, spy, courtier, envoy and the father of English literature and the queues outside the Canterbury Tales, a converted church which contains an audio-assisted whistlestop tour round the great man’s work, themselves tell a remarkable tale. “Canterbury is more popular today than it was in Chaucer’s time.” – London Evening Standard
Tag: 10.26.00
WHAT IF SHE HAD SAID NO?
The Australian Ballet orchestra’s conductor strode onstage as the applause was dying down after Tuesday night’s performance in Perth, dropped to one knee and proposed to the dancer who had just danced the lead in “Merry Widow.” – The Age (Melbourne)
NO TIME TO SAVE
“There’s an interesting debate on the streets of Beijing. On one level it is about ripping down old neighbourhoods and replacing them with gleaming new developments. On another it is about Western ideas of what China is – or was – and what it ought to be. Beijing is changing so rapidly it is hard to keep track of the speed with which whole suburbs are transformed. Greed and speed are conspiring to obliterate the old before any evaluation of what might be worth preserving.” – Sydney Morning Herald 10/26/00
THE HOUSTON-MOSCOW CONNECTION
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow announce a long-term alliance to share and exchange artwork. “The first exchange will send 200 objects from the MFA’s Glassell Collection of African Gold to the Russian museum in 2001, the first time in its 100-year history that it will exhibit African art. In December 2002, a trove of French paintings by such masters as Paul Cézanne and Pablo Picasso will travel to Houston.” – Houston Chronicle
TATE TOPS WITH CROWDS
It only opened last May, but already this year the Tate Modern has topped 3 million visitors, averaging 18,000 people a day. How does it compare to other attractions in the capital? “The British Museum was top of last year’s list, recording 5.5 million visitors, and the National Gallery was in second place with five million.” – London Evening Standard
A SLIPPERY SLOPE
A set of big bronze Henry Moore sculptures is resting in a park in central Beijing. How did they get there, and why choose Moore to represent British art? Turns out they’re just the thing… – The Guardian
FINDING THE RIGHT MIX
Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art is back from the brink of oblivion. But it’s got to got to terms with balancing good art and pulling in the crowds. New director Elizabeth Ann Macgregor “is under great pressure to pull in the crowds. But she is yet to prove that elaborately marketed shows with a sometimes tenuous relation to art are the way to go. Asked about the exhibition of elephant paintings, she laughed loudly.” – Sydney Morning Herald
MOON-DANCE
Sun Myung Moon’s dance company comes to London. Not just a vanity effort, the company is well-financed and has earned good reviews. “The Universal Ballet was created after Moon’s 17-year-old son was killed in a car crash in 1984. The youth had been engaged to a gifted young ballet dancer called Julia Pak, the daughter of Moon’s right-hand man. In a bizarre ceremony, she was married to her dead fiance’s ghost, thus becoming Rev Moon’s daughter-in-law, and the Universal Ballet was set up as a memorial to the dead man.” – The Telegraph (London)
JOFFREY TO GET NEW HOME
Time was a headline like that meant the company was changing cities – like when Joffrey abandoned New York five years ago and turned up in Chicago. This time, it means the reborn Joffrey is getting a new $24 million building – surely a sign of its flourishing fortunes in the Windy City. – Chicago Sun-Times
MONEY OWING IN CLEVELAND
Cleveland San Jose Ballet left a lot of unpaid bills when it went out of business last month. It’s difficult to shut down a dance company “in an orderly fashion.” – The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)