“In Philadelphia, she made a very big difference. Twinning partnership skills with the aristocratic Robert Montgomery Scott, the pair took a slouching institution with aged facilities and questionable relevance and parlayed it into one of the most vital comprehensive art museums in the country.”
Month: June 2008
A Campaign To Save American Languages
“More than 300 American Indian languages flourished in North America at the time of Columbus, each carrying a unique way of understanding the world. And despite an often-brutal campaign to stamp them out, more than half of those languages have survived, though the pool of speakers has dwindled. Can they be saved?
Universities Ponder A Digital Future
“Microsoft’s announcement last Friday that it would discontinue its book- and journal-scanning initiatives left its partners at university research libraries pondering the future of efforts to digitize materials in their archives.”
Singapore Invests In The Arts
“The population of 4.5 million has an arts budget of about $50 million, of which the government provides some $30 million. The rest comes from sponsorship, ticket sales and other revenue streams. Having built the infrastructure – the Esplanade, the recent renovation of old Parliament House into the Arts House performing and exhibition venue, a massive new wing to the Singapore Museum which opened in 2006 – the Government through its National Arts Council is now creating programs and events that will encourage more Singaporeans to take part in the arts.”
Tax Incentives Bring Movies To NY
“A dramatically expanded state tax credit for film and television productions has made New York a more appealing shooting locale than ever, bringing a wave of projects into the city this summer. Barring an actors strike, local soundstages expect to have more demand than they can fill in the coming months.”
Mimi Gates To Step Down As Director Of Seattle Art Museum
“Gates’ stint at SAM has brought the most dramatic changes in the institution’s history and its largest capital campaign. To open the expansion and the sculpture park last year, the museum raised some $200 million. It also recently announced 1,000 promised gifts of art valued at $1 billion, a landmark in museum philanthropy. Under Gates’ watch, SAM also established a new art-conservation department and broadened the museum’s audience and attendance.”
Frontrunner For Poet Laureate Job Talks Trash About It
Wendy Cope is one of Britain’s “most widely read and best-loved poets”, and is seen as a frontrunner for the position British Poet Laureate after the expected retirement of Andrew Motion next year. If appointed, Cope would be the first woman laureate. But maybe not. Infront of an audience this weekend she called the post “ridiculous” and “archaic”
What’s Wrong With Architecture Awards
“The problem with the Royal Institute of British Architects Awards is that they’re decided at a regional level. Which means that if you’re building in London, where a lot of big and interesting stuff is built (just look at T5), you’re significantly less likely to get an award than in Northern Ireland, where less stuff is built. And obviously, it looks bad if there’s a region with no awards at all. Then again, how many big buildings do you think get built in the UK each year?”
The Stonehenge We Deserve
“The wonderful thing about Stonehenge: there are more theories about its meaning and purpose than there are stones inside it, a trend that goes right back to the idea, popular in the Middle Ages, that its monoliths had been assembled on Salisbury Plain by Merlin, though exactly why he bothered to do so remains a mystery. The crucial point is that every age gets the Stonehenge it deserves.”
Looking At Those Can’t-Quite-Remember Moments
“It’s estimated that, on average, people have a tip-of-the-tongue moment at least once a week. Perhaps it occurs when you run into an old acquaintance whose name you can’t remember, although you know that it begins with the letter ‘T.’ Or perhaps you struggle to recall the title of a recent movie, even though you can describe the plot in perfect detail. Researchers have located the specific brain areas that are activated during such moments.”