“According to one UNESCO estimate, Italy is the cultural repository of more than two-thirds of western civilisation. But the state spends little on culture—just 0.18% of GDP—and an absence of tax breaks for donations gives the private sector little incentive to help.” So the way Italy’s cultural assets are run is apalling. Could the private sector do a better job? The country’s Prime Minister says yes…
Tag: 11.28.02
Publishing As Corporate Stew in One Very Tall Building
: By early next year, “all 100-plus imprints and the more than 1,000 employees of Random House, the world’s largest trade publisher” will be moved out of the various office buildings and into a new 48-story skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan. “The new $300 million building will fulfill chief executive Peter Olson’s grand vision of a unified company under a single roof: one big happy family, with German parent Bertelsmann as patriarch.” But “for many publishing people, there’s a visceral resistance to the idea of lumping dozens of book-publishing cultures—from the fusty highbrow aura of Knopf to the mass-market commercialism of Bantam Dell—into one midtown conglomerate monstrosity.”
Bolshoi Controversy
The inauguration of a new auditorium in the Bolshoi theatre complex “marks the end of the first phase of a £300 million restoration of one of the best-known buildings in Russia. But the rest of the project is in jeopardy as traditionalists and theatre administrators fight over the fate of the Beauvais Portico – the 10 marble columns around which the theatre was built. “Theatre managers want to see it moved from its current position – inside the stageworks of the old auditorium – to make room for improved stage machinery.”
Director Quits Over Scottish Arts Policy
Hamish Glen, artistic director of Scotland’s award-winning Dundee Rep and one of Britain’s most highly-acclaimed theatre directors, has angrily quit the theatre and says he is joining “the drain of talent to the south”. He accused the government of not supporting the arts and predicted “a bleak few years of theatre-making in Scotland. ‘It becomes very dispiriting if somehow the culture doesn’t feel itself able to invest in its own success. It is a very energy sapping battle with no light at the end of the tunnel’.”
What About Scottish National Theatre?
There are increasing doubts about the Scottish executive’s commitment to a plan for a national Scottish theatre. There are “mutterings in the theatrical world that it is using the alleged commitment to a national theatre to hide its other shortcomings in arts policy.”
Alberta Orchestras Struggle To Overcome Debt
The financially-troubled Edmonton Symphony whacks down its deficit by a third with a gift from a longtime supporter. Meanwhile the Calgary Philharmonic, which suspended operations last month after failing under a $1.2 million debt, says it will announce next week its plans to reactivate.
Open Season
Art openings aren’t about the art. In the popular imagination, they are glamorous affairs, exclusive soirees where stylish sophisticates rub shoulders with artists from the fringe. In truth, they’re mundane occasions. Imagine a year-end office party held every month and you’ll get the idea.”
Dumas To Be Moved To Pantheon
Alexandre Dumas is one of the most popular French novelists of all time. But he’s not been officially honored. That changes this week when his remains are moved to the Pantheon in Paris. “He will then be laid to rest alongside other French literary greats such as Victor Hugo and Emile Zola.”
Dumas To Be Moved To Pantheon
Alexandre Dumas is one of the most popular French novelists of all time. But he’s not been officially honored. That changes this week when his remains are moved to the Pantheon in Paris. “He will then be laid to rest alongside other French literary greats such as Victor Hugo and Emile Zola.”
Art Of Words
An American designer has produced “an interactive program (found at Textarc.org) that reproduces the text of more than 2,000 books as works of art. The software converts the text into an interactive map that allows viewers to quickly see relationships between words and characters at a glance, even without having read the book.”