“Advocates for the arts have long made a strong case that the local economy benefits from museums, theaters, orchestras, galleries, and similar institutions. Yet looking at the art establishment and its events misses much of the positive economic impact from the arts,” says a new study. “The larger business community benefits from the presence of a vibrant arts community, not only because it helps firms recruit skilled workers to the region but also because it provides a pool of talent for them to draw upon for special design, organizational, and marketing efforts.”
Month: August 2003
What’s Next For Twyla?
Twyla Tharp planned a New York season on short notice. She’s a loner — relieved, she’s been saying in interviews, not to be saddled with a large institution, with “real estate.” Over the years, she’s proved that she can do just about anything she sets out to do, so what does she want to do now? Can she stay small while getting bigger and bigger? Will she seriously commit herself to revivifying her important work from the past, either under own banner or elsewhere?”
Ukraine – The Land Fads Forgot
“It often seems to me that Ukrainians have a distinctive immunity that protects them from the gaudy attractions of fashionable trends. Having said this, there is a thoroughly prosaic reason for such immunity. In a country of 48 million people the middle class is too small, and the poorer classes, preoccupied with problems of day-to-day living, too numerous, for them to have the time and energy to give which fads need to take root. No all-encompassing means of communication has been established; it is impossible for everyone to learn about the same phenomena simultaneously. So everyone, so to speak, sings his own favourite song.”
Opera Returns To The Baths
“After a hiatus of exactly 10 years, full-scale opera returned late last month to the Baths of Caracalla. The cream of Roman society put on their best suits and gowns for the occasion on July 24, reveling in the soft orange light that bathes the third-century baths after dusk, making the ruins one of opera’s most striking theaters.”
NY Times Names A New ‘Culture Czar’
The new executive editor of The New York Times, Bill Keller, has promoted Adam Moss from the paper’s Sunday magazine to “assistant managing editor for features.” The position amounts to an appointment as the Times’ new ‘culture czar,’ and will give Moss control over the “Book Review, Culture and Style sections, Travel, Circuits, Real Estate, Escapes and special sections of the magazine.” Moss was previously offered a similar position by former Times editor Howell Raines, but declined.
The DNA Song
A Thai geneticist, a computer programmer and a composer have “written” a piece of music based on DNA genetic sequencing. “When I first heard my hepatitis song, all my hairs stood up. The song was amazingly beautiful and it perfectly fit with my (play about DNA).”
Minnesota Fringe Reflects Changing Times
The Minnesota Fringe Festival, the largest in the U.S., is halfway through its 10-day run, and Dylan Hicks detects some subtle shifts in the focus of many participants. “With more shows than ever, the Fringe serves as a broader – if still skewed – zeitgeist-o-meter. In keeping with the tenor of the times, frivolity is somewhat on the wane. In terms of percentages, there appears to be a decline in shows trumpeting nudity, and while comedy remains strong, it’s not quite the hegemony it once was. Either that or it’s just lurking in odd places.”
Classical Music Recordings Share Dips
A new study of recording sales in the UK indicates that sales of classical music are falling as a percentage of total music sales. “More than a decade after the heyday of the Three Tenors, the new survey, compiled by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), appears to prove that the public’s brief 1990s flirtation with orchestral music is over. It found that classical CDs accounted for barely one in 20 of all the albums sold in the UK last year – compared to a high of one in 10 in 1990.”
How To Jumpstart Your Broadway Blockbuster
The original stars of Mel Brooks’s Broadway smash The Producers, Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane, are rejoining the show for a three-month run next January, according to sources. “Yesterday, Broadway oddsmakers were predicting that Lane and Broderick’s limited return engagement would be sold out before noon today.”
Antiquities Game – Is It All Stolen?
Oscar Muscarella believes that most of the antiquities in museums like the Metropolitan Museum are plundered. “Whether this should all be returned or not is another story. Put simply, his view is that the practice of acquiring antiquities, outside of scholarly excavation, is inevitably immoral. It promotes a trade that Muscarella, during his more animated outbursts, likens to ‘white slavery’.” he believes that “the important thing now is to stop the looting.”