UNESCO TO THE RESCUE

  • UNESCO, the UN’s cultural and educational agency, is coordinating a $250 million international effort to rebuild Moscow’s 19th-century Bolshoi Theatre, which is crumbling and close to collapse due to years of neglect. Theatres from around the world have already rallied around the cause by sending in contributions equal to one night’s earnings. – NPR  [Real audio file]

WE DON’T DO BODY PARTS

Singapore’s arts scene is tightly controlled by the government. Last month a production of “The Vagina Monologues” was banned by the censors. “The actors submitted the script, including stage directions. Part of the performance involved briefly projecting a picture of a vagina as a backdrop. Choo says the performance could have proceeded without the image but the theatre group refused a change. They were denied a license and will probably lose any government funding.” – New Zealand Herald

NAKED ART

“Performance artists” Yuan Cai and Jian Ji Xi walked naked across London’s Westminster Bridge with slogans written all over their bodies. The pair last “performed at the Tate earlier this year when they jumped onto Tracey Emin’s bed. – BBC

I LEFT MY ART IN SAN FRANCISCO (AT GATE B-2)

Thanks to San Francisco’s percent-for-art ordinance, $11.1 million of the $840 million main terminal expansion project will go to commissioning original artwork in the airport. Sponsored by the San Francisco Public Art Commission, many of the works deal with “the romance of travel, with themes such as meeting and greeting loved ones, saying goodbye, facing the unknown and the technology of flight.” – San Jose Mercury News

VIRTUAL ART FLEA MARKET

What kind of art can you buy online these days? “Curious about the growing and radical phenomenon by which people are buying art they can’t see from sellers they can’t see, I decided to shop for art online and assemble my own art collection. My budget: an even $1,000.” – New York Times

PAINTING THE ROYALS

For only the second time ever, the British Royal Family has its portrait painted as a group (in honor of the Queen Mum’s 100th birthday). “It soon became clear it would be impossible for six people with engagement diaries as full as those of his sitters to pose together. Therefore, he was obliged to draw them separately.” – The Telegraph (UK)

ALWAYS SIGN THAT CONTRACT

A competition to design Sydney’s new Museum of Contemporary Art prompted confusion from the Japanese architect who thought she had been the job three years ago. Instead she got this reply: “I am concerned that Sejima does not know. If she is not being proceeded with, I think she should be encouraged not to abandon Australia altogether and perhaps consider the invitation to continue with a different employer.” – Sydney Morning Herald

NAKED ART

“Performance artists” Yuan Cai and Jian Ji Xi walked naked across London’s Westminster Bridge with slogans written all over their bodies. The pair last “performed” at the Tate earlier this year when they jumped onto Tracey Emin’s bed. – BBC

ODE TO COPLAND

“Deeper than George Gershwin, more disciplined than Charles Ives, more accessible than Elliott Carter, more prolific than Leonard Bernstein, more varied than Samuel Barber,” Aaron Copland was the giant of 20th Century American music. He would have been 100 this year, yet no one seems to be paying attention. Why is that? – Chicago Tribune