As Art Basel Miami has grown, the Chicago Art Fair has waned. “In recent years, Art Chicago, our own international art fair, has dwindled to near-irrelevance as Art Basel Miami has assiduously wooed away art dealers and artists from around the world. How did they do it? The hallmark of the success of the fair is a combination of institutional and private collaboration.”
Tag: 12.06.04
99 Percent Of FCC Complaints Made By One Group
In 2001 and 2002, the FCC received only a few hundred “indecency” complaints. Then last year the number soared to 240,000. Growing concern by the public? Hardly. “According to a new FCC estimate obtained by Mediaweek, nearly all indecency complaints in 2003—99.8 percent—were filed by the Parents Television Council, an activist group.”
Do Computers Stunt Education?
A new study reports that students who were heavy users of computers did worse in school than those who were not. “From a sample of 175,000 15-year-old students in 31 countries, researchers at the University of Munich announced in November that performance in math and reading had suffered significantly among students who have more than one computer at home. And while students seemed to benefit from limited use of computers at school, those who used them several times per week at school saw their academic performance decline significantly as well.”
The Perils Of Electronic Libraries
With tight budgets for college libraries, does it make sense any more for schools to buy expensive books? Why not outsource and subscribe to electronic libraries? “Having a fully outsourced, electronic library would mean giving up control of the information available on your campus, and allowing lawyers, accountants, and vendors’ content specialists to make decisions about access to published research — much like HMO clerks deciding what medical care your doctor can provide. Can innovation and excellence flourish in that kind of environment? That is one of the questions that keep librarians awake at night, but it is a large question.”
BBC To Cut Thousands Of Jobs
The BBC is cutting jobs and reorganizing administratively. “Almost 3,000 jobs are expected to go, mainly from administration departments.” Some “departments at the BBC will move from London to Manchester, as part of the BBC’s aim to be more reflective of UK audiences. The BBC believes it can save hundreds of millions of pounds as a result of the cuts, which will be effective over a three-year period.”
Royal Academy Secretary Resigns
Lawton Fitt has resigned as secretary of the Royal Academy. “Ms Fitt, who joined the academy only two years ago, was the first woman and the first American to be appointed as the RA’s secretary, one of the two most powerful positions at the organisation. But earlier this year reports spread of her feuding with Norman Rosenthal, the long-serving exhibitions secretary, a man who is admired as much for his inspired curatorial talent as he is loathed by many people for his abrasive style.”
La Scala – Europe’s Cultural Event Of The Year
La Scala makes its traditional opening Tuesday. “The opening performance – always on December 7, the feast day of Milan’s patron saint, St Ambrose – is an opportunity for the rich and powerful to network, and an excuse for others to protest. It is customarily too the pretext for a shock and awe display of furs, jewels and cleavage. But not since 1946, when Toscanini lifted his baton to reopen the theatre after it was damaged by allied bombs in the second world war, has there been quite such a sense of occasion as this year. Almost everyone who is anyone in Italy will be there.”
Is Opera Running Out Of Gas?
So La Scala is reopening. Many will talk about the restored building and the state of its acoustics. But there is one topic they don’t bring up: “There is no getting away from the fact that, like every other aspect of the Italian operatic pyramid which it commands, La Scala is in decline. No Italian opera of importance has been written since the death of Puccini 80 years ago. There is no obvious successor to Muti. And the standards of Italian singing are declining by the year.”
Musicians: What We Think About File-Sharing
A first-ever study of attitudes towards file-sharing records what musicians think about the issue: “Among the findings: artists are divided but on the whole not deeply concerned about online file-sharing. Only about half thought that sharing unauthorized copies of music and movies online should be illegal, for instance. And makers of file-sharing software like Kazaa and Grokster may be unnerved to learn that nearly two-thirds said such services should be held responsible for illegal file-swapping; only 15 percent held individual users responsible.”
Kennedy Center Honors, Celebrity Style
“It’s the magic, though, of the annual Kennedy Center Honors that a two-hour tribute to a handful of spectacularly gifted performing artists always draws a marvelous cross-section of talent from all walks of (super-famous) life. And so it was that the opera diva and he of the explicit lyrics and self-created bad-boy persona both took their turns onstage at the Kennedy Center Opera House last night.”