A burglar breaks into a man’s house and steals his electronic equipment. But he flees in terror when he discovers what he thinks is a human head floating in a jar. When later speaking to the police, the thief tells of his gruesome discovery. When police go to the scene of the crime they discover… an art project.
Month: August 2003
Recording Industry: We Won’t Pursue Little Guys
The recording industry tells a US Congressional committee that it isn’t pursuing small-time music downloaders to prosecute them. “RIAA is gathering evidence and preparing lawsuits only against individual computer users who are illegally distributing a substantial amount of copyrighted music.”
Arab-Israeli Orchestra To Perform In Morocco
Daniel Barenboim is bringing his orchestra made up of Jewish and Arab musicians to Morocco – the orchestra’s first performance in an Arab country. “Barenboim will conduct the 80-strong group in the city’s Mohamed V Theatre as they perform Beethoven’s Third Symphony and Mozart’s Concerto for Three Pianos.”
New Without Experiment
Opera Australia’s new director in Melbourne is comitted to new opera. But the commissions he’s interested in won’t be “experimental”… “We can’t afford trial and error. It is very expensive and often nothing comes of it.”
Dancing On The Fringe
The fringe Festival of Independent Dance Artists (fFIDA)is the largest dance gathering in Canada. “Throughout fFIDA’s history, one can track the climate of the times. In the early years, Canadian choreographers had a much more feminist and/or political and/or humorous bent. In today’s ‘retreat into yourself’ mentality, the home crowd seems to be angst-driven or navel-gazing or obliquely abstract, with a considerable number of the solos depicting women in distress.”
Taiwan Putting Together Funding For A Guggenheim
Taiwan’s premier has pledged to cover half the cost of a proposed new Guggenheim Museum in Taichung City, and is considering whether to fund another third of the cost.
Scottish Opera’s Ringing Money Woes
Scottish Opera is getting admiring reviews for its new production of Wagner’s “Ring” cycle this summer. But the company is in financial difficulty again. “The company is understood to have already spent its public funds for 2003-2004, despite an additional grant of £750,000 from the Scottish Arts Council Lottery Fund (SACLF) which made its Ring Cycle possible. Twice in the last four years, Scottish Opera has gone to government and left with extraordinary grants of £2.1 million in 1999 and £1.9 million in 2001 to bail it out. However, if the company faces a difficult future, its fate also presents a defining issue for the Scottish Executive’s cultural policy.”
Art Of The Pitch
The rest of us could learn a lot about selling ourselves from the way ideas for new shows are pitched in Hollywood. “People believe if they have a good idea it will sell itself. It won’t. The person on the receiving end tends to gauge the pitcher’s creativity as well as the proposal itself.”
Why Nothing’s Wright In Baghdad
Why were Frank Lloyd Wright’s plans for Baghdad not accepted in the 1950s when he drew them up for the King of Iraq? “Wright’s plans were deemed ‘rather grandiose’ by the revolutionary government and were not built. The simpler and cheaper university plan conceived by Gropius was built, as was Gio Ponti’s design for a Ministry of Development building. In 1981, a portion of Le Corbusier’s design for a sports complex was completed. The building was dedicated as Saddam Hussein Gymnasium.”
The Decline Of The Corporate Collection
These are not good times for the corporate art collection. “Many companies – including Reader’s Digest, CBS, IBM and Time Warner – sold off expensive collections in the late 1990s when the economy was good and they could turn a profit on the art. Others, such as Chicago-based accounting firm Andersen, have liquidated collections during economic crises. The commitment to corporate art has been shrinking since the boom years of collecting in the 1980s.”