Cultural observers are wondering how the arts will fare in a Dubya administration. Yesterday at the National Press Club in Washington, Bill Ivey, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, unveiled a working paper for a “Cultural Bill of Rights”, a moral manifesto intended “to deepen our national conversation about the value of art and cultural heritage to our democracy.” – Washington Post 12/19/2000
Tag: 12.19.00
THE CULT OF BRUCE LEE
Twenty-seven years after his sudden death at the age of 32, Bruce Lee continues to attract a cult following. If you think this has only to do with his film career, look again. There are a shocking 55 websites dedicated to his martial art stylings, and the seven books of his writings that have been published posthumously have sold over 500,000 copies. – Boston Globe
NAZI LOOT ONLINE
America’s museums have entered into an agreement to list all works of art that may have been stolen by the Nazis in World War II. “Under guidelines, expected to be announced next month, museums must disclose on Web sites the provenance for all works acquired after 1933 and created before 1945.” Some critics say the deal doesn’t go far enough. – Boston Herald
WHAT’S WRONG WITH MODERN MUSEUMS
A big new installation of Asian art at Toronto’s Art Gallery of Ontario is a mess. “Intended as a way of displaying the cultures of South Asia, the Ondaatje Gallery instead delivers 2,500 square feet of incoherence. As a work of design, it is almost bad enough to be in the Museum of Civilization in Ottawa. It’s one of those exhibits that somehow manage to detract from the sum of human knowledge; at the end you may feel you know less than you did when you entered.” – National Post (Canada)
FAITH IN DESIGN
Melbourne’s new $290 million museum (the largest museum in the southern hemisphere) has created a landmark building for Australia and has won international acclaim for its design, but its acceptance has come after critics fervently fought the project every step of the way. “The lesson to be learnt here is that you should not allow early criticism to halt the creation of well-planned civic assets.” – The Age (Melbourne)