A hundred classical music critics gathered in October to talk about their chosen profession. “Conductor James Conlon sounded a recurring theme when he said U.S. classical music institutions were in crisis and needed the help of critics “not just to admonish and correct our bad tempi or poor choice of repertoire . . . but to raise the consciousness of the entire nation” about the value of the arts.”
Tag: 11.17.04
Five Years Later – A Royal Opera House That Matters
Five years after London’s Royal Opera House reopened after an expensive makeover, it’s a very different institution, writes Norman Lebrecht. And that’s a very good thing…
A Hockney For £35. Or Not
The Royal College of Art is holding a secret art sale. “Most of the 2,000-odd works in the show are by RCA students, present or past. Some, however, are by extremely well-known artists – including David Hockney, Bill Viola, Perry and Damien Hirst. All are on sale for £35 – but the catch is that as a buyer you won’t be told whom your work is by until you have handed over the cash. You could be walking away with the most fantastic bargain. Or not.”
The Censorship Logic Problem
Censorship rears its head in the UK. But what a crazy policy. “The insoluble problem for censors in free societies today is the impossibility of establishing codes of the harmful and offensive that will obtain across every race, minority and interest group. There are so many clashing boundaries. Caught between the rock of freedom of expression and the hard place of our respect for the sensibilities of minorities, every cut or ban he makes ends up looking illogical and faintly ridiculous.”
Norman Foster’s Fabulous Bridge
Norman Foster has designed “one of the world’s most breathtaking” bridges. “A sublime marriage of British and French architecture and engineering, the Grand Viaduc du Millau outdoes even the stirring 10-year-old Pont du Normandie that spans the mouth of the Seine between Honfleur and Le Havre. With a 2.5km span, the Millau bridge is far from the longest in the world, yet it is surely one of the most beautiful. In terms of artistry, it challenges the Garabit viaduct, which Gustave Eiffel built across the River Truyère in 1884.”
Analysis: Arts Maintain Position After US Election
An analysis of the recent American election from an arts advocacy position suggests that the arts will neither gain or lose in the next Congress. “At the federal level, arts policy will likely remain on its current course, with no major policy shifts anticipated that would negatively impact the arts within the administration or the new 109th Congress,” states an analysis — called ‘2004 Election Impact on the Arts’ — from the advocacy group’s Arts Action Fund.”
Revisiting Childhood Through The Arts
“Childhood has become a boundless new frontier in the arts, a terrain of seemingly infinite magnitude, emotional density and thematic complexity. Audiences may find themselves disoriented and unnerved, as the conventional views of innocence, precociousness and predatory corruption give way to deeper vistas of childhood experience and meaning. In complicated, challenging and sometimes confounding ways, children occupy an increasingly large share of our collective imagination.”
Tivo Adds Ads (No More Skipping)
By March, one of Tivo’s top features – the ability to skip ads – will be circumvented. Viewers will see ads if they try to skip commercials. “For viewers, TiVo’s new strategy means the technology famously christened “God’s machine” by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael K. Powell is rapidly becoming a marketer’s best friend, proving that try as they might, consumers cannot hide from marketing.”
When Inmates Run The Encyclopedia
The Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia written and edited by its readers. As of November 2004, according to the project’s own counts, nearly 30,000 contributors had written about 1.1 million articles in 109 different languages.” While the stats are impressive, and the concept of “distributed editing” is Utopian, it’s user beware, according to a former chief editor at Britannica.
New MoMA – The Best New Place To See Art?
In many ways, the new Museum of Modern Art is the “anti-Bilbao. Notched with neat precision into the urban fabric of midtown Manhattan, it is a secret garden of the mind, setting out with dazzling clarity one of the great art collections of the world. The results can be as stupendous as they are because of the benefactors, donors and museum professionals who focused on the acquisitions along the way.”