The blistering audit of New York’s Saratoga Performing Arts Center that was released this week offered stunning revelations of mismanagement and near-criminal conduct by those in charge of the popular summer venue. Still, SPAC cannot be allowed to wither further on the vine, says its hometown newspaper: “The public trust has been understandably shaken. But to turn away from SPAC would be a grave mistake. SPAC is too wonderful a venue and too valuable to the community.”
Tag: 11.28.04
Lean & Mean, Or Just Watered Down?
AJ Blogger Drew McManus, an alumnus of Interlochen, has a number of questions about this week’s cuts, and is curious about the creation of 18 new positions for “teaching assistants,” who will presumably be paid considerably less than the more experienced full-time faculty. “These assistants report directly to the newly created area coordinators, the same people responsible for evaluating and recommending the faculty members who were on the current ‘massacre’ list… I don’t know how enthusiastic I would be to send my son or daughter off to camp if part of their instruction is not going to come directly from resident faculty members.”
The Chelsea Backlash?
There are now twice as many galleries in New York’s Chelsea as there were in Soho at its peak. “As a result of this explosion, the inevitable anti-Chelsea backlash has been on the rise, too. The rap against Chelsea is that it is too big, too commercial, too slick, too conservative and too homogenous, a monolith of art commerce tricked out in look-alike white boxes and shot through with kitsch. This litany is recited by visitors from Los Angeles and Europe, by dealers with galleries in other parts of Manhattan or in Brooklyn and often by Chelsea dealers themselves.”
Where’s The Outrage? No, Seriously, Where Is It?
To hear some “pro-family” groups and government regulators tell it, you would think that America’s television screens had recently been hijacked by a marauding band of pornographers, and that the future of the republic depended on their being beaten back. Frank Rich has had it with the so-called “moral values” crowd and their false piety, especially since even a cursory investigation reveals that no one seems to get exercised about TV smut until they’re instructed to do so by well-funded professional outrage groups. Even worse, the supposed stacks of complaints received by the FCC regarding certain televised “incidents” have been grossly exaggerated, and usually consist of dozens of carbon copies of the same professionally generated complaint letter.