Only a year after it reopened, La Scala is facing a huge cut in its funding from the Italian government. “The cash-strapped Italian government has threatened to slash by a third from next year the heavy subsidy which keeps the theatre in business. Across the board cuts in next year’s budget for the arts are also likely to affect the Venice Film Festival and the newly opened Music Auditorium in Rome. Other Italian cultural icons which may be touched are 12 other major opera houses, including the Fenice in Venice, plus theatres in Florence, Rome, Naples and Palermo.”
Tag: 11.13.05
Doing The Big Read
The NEA is launching ‘The Big Read, its plan to ‘revitalize the role of literature in American popular culture.’ Set to launch early next year, its pilot effort will fund book projects in six cities. Chairman Dana Gioia said it will be ‘the biggest federally run literature program in American history,’ a stunning comment from an administration that has pledged to shrink government. Shades of the Federal Writers Project! The inspiration behind ‘The Big Read’ is community-wide efforts in cities from Seattle to Pittsburgh that use novels to encourage public discussions on social issues.”
Italian Claim On Minneapolis Vase
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts is on the list of museums Italian authorities say have stolen art in their collections. “The Italians support their claim on the Minneapolis piece with a photo of a pottery fragment that appears to match the vase. ‘We’ve not received any notification from the Italians and have no proof that the object was looted,’ said William Griswold, the museum’s director. ‘If we have reason to believe an object has been stolen, we would absolutely want to respond in an ethical and legally responsible fashion’.”
Italian Divas On Hunger Strike Over Proposed Funding Cuts
Italian opera singers have gone on a hunger strike over proposed government cuts in arts funding. “Culture minister Rocco Buttiglione has threatened to resign over the matter, while opera singers and others in Italy’s theatrical world came up with the idea of hunger strikes. Some people have gone on rotational one-day strikes, while others such as Vignudelli starved themselves for two weeks. She is also angry that Berlusconi claims La Scala employs too many people. Barbara Vignudelli has lost 13lb. ‘I am a person who is healthy and takes care of herself, so to do this is difficult,’ she said. ‘But it shows how strongly I feel’.”
What Bloggers Are Doing To Pop Music
“In many ways, the writers at Pitchfork and the Village Voice bloggers are picking up where the late rock critic Lester Bangs – who wrote for Rolling Stone and, later, a pre-blog Village Voice – left off, adding a dose of irony lifted from satirical magazine the Onion to his self-referential, often impenetrable reams of excited babble. Thanks to the bloggers’ often highly subjective rants, bands become much talked about on the internet long before they enter the charts. It’s all about being in the know, or at least pretending you’re in the know.”
A New Chicago Skyline?
Chicago is famous for its skyscrapers. But a whole new generation of soaring edifaces is being proposed that would transform the skyline. “Every week, it seems, a rendering of a new tower is splashed across the front page or the business page in the hopes of generating positive “buzz” and attracting potential buyers and investors. Some of this may be pure hucksterism. Nothing like a sexy architect’s rendering to drum up a prospective tenant or two. Still, every proposal bears watching. It’s the ugly one we ignore that — surprise! — will get built.”