Tag: 11.23.04

Owning Digital Art, Collecting A Problem

There’s a basic problem with collecting and selling digital art. “As Napster and KaZaA have taught us, once creative works have been digitized, controlling their distribution becomes problematic. In video art, for instance, there is a trading site with everything from Matthew Barney to Nam June Paik available for bartering. Once files start floating around in cyberspace, the certificate of authenticity becomes paramount. And what if that certificate gets lost?”

Defecting From Havana

Forty-three members of the Cuban dance troupe Havana Night Club defected last week in Las Vegas. “The decision to defect didn’t come easily or suddenly, but it was almost unanimous – with just three of the dancers saying they may want to go back to Cuba. The reasons involve freedom and opportunity, but this mass defection also hinged on their close kinship as a troupe and a rebuff from the Cuban government.”

The Culture Wars – Back To The 80s

The culture wars are heating up again, and it’s depressing to think we’ll be refighting battles of the 80s (shouldn’t that be 50’s? or 1850s…?) “The danger of the return of the culture war is not only the damage that the right will inflict, but also artists’ responses. I dread a new round of right-wing-baiting art and its cycle of abuse. Art lobs a spit ball and the firestorm of outrage arrives right on schedule, followed by lame dodges.”

Public Cheers For Eustis

Oskar Eustis is being cheered as new director of New York’s Public Theatre. “Though he has a long and impressive résumé of staging both classic and contemporary drama, Eustis has built his career away from the New York spotlight, which explains why he’s best known here as the genius who fostered Tony Kushner’s epic Angels in America. A chorus of praise has risen from playwriting quarters at the news of his appointment.”

Indecent Indecency Debate

“Since Nov. 2, the battle over indecency on the airwaves has been elevated to a level that suggests the issue was more than election-year pandering. The emphasis on values that helped re-elect President Bush is, to some, endorsement for a crusade that may eclipse the one against terrorism in Iraq. But so far, what’s most immoral is the spectacle of politicians and special-interest groups trying to hide all the contradictions inherent in deciding what’s too dirty for America and using it as a distraction to cover the bigger threat of media consolidation.”

Indian Museum Off To Good Start

In its first month of operation the new National Museum of the American Indian attracted 275,400 visitors. “If that pace continues, the museum is likely to attract about 4.2 million people in its first year. That is in line with the low end of its curators’ original estimates. At the time of its opening in September, they projected that the museum would attract 4 million to 6 million people and instituted a system of timed passes to spread out the crowds.”

Saratoga Center Dinged For Poor Management

The Saratoga Performing Arts Center, which last summer tried to end a longstanding summer residency by New York City Ballet, has been cited for bad management by an audit of the organization. “Over the last few years, the Saratoga arts center has struggled with an annual deficit of $400,000 to $500,000 on an operating budget of $13 million and been forced to dip into its $7 million endowment to cover operating expenses.”

TV Land – America Is LA, NY

A new study counts the settings for American TV shows and – no surprise – finds most fictional settings are in New York or Los Angeles. “Those two cities account for just under half of the fictional settings for prime-time television shows going back to 1948, according to a new study by a media agency. California and New York state are settings nearly 60 percent of the time — even though those states make up less than 19 percent of the nation’s population.”