Last month teaching assistant graduate students at New York University voted to unionize. “The vote was immediately translated into an attack on the very framework of academic collegiality, and the board’s decision to allow the vote was denounced by other universities facing similar union threats. Loudest in their condemnation were Yale University officials, who have succeeded for almost a decade in thwarting a graduate organizing effort on their own campus.” – Village Voice 12/28/00
Author: Douglas McLennan
PROSPECTS FOR PEACE
Hollywood weighs a new Bush administration. Sen. John Ashcroft, Bush’s nominee for attorney general, gets mixed reviews. – Variety 12/28/00
MAKING IT BIG
Which artists are we likely to hear from in the next year. The BBC takes a look. – BBC 12/28/00
NEW YEAR SHOWCASE
Boston’s New Year’s Eve celebrations – First Night – is an artist showcase. A thousand artists in 250 performances at 50 venues for an expected audience of 1.6 million. – Boston Herald 12/28/00
THE COMPUTERS UNITED
All those millions of home computers out there laying idle much of the time could be put to good use while their owners aren’t working on them, say researchers. “With about 300 million PCs connected to the Internet but idle 90 percent of the time, there’s huge potential for scientific projects utilizing distributed computing power, researchers argue in a report.” – The Star Tribune (Minneapolis) (Scripps Howard) 12/28/00
INVISIBLE ARTISTS
“In a literate society, perhaps no form occupies this zone of invisible visibility more completely than typography, which makes type designers among the most influential, if anonymous, artists in history.” – New York Times
CAN ONE BUILDING BE ALL THIS?
“The Tate Modern is literally and figuratively the biggest thing to happen in the world of contemporary art, anywhere, for the last 25 years. The mutant offspring of such questionable immensities as the Pompidou Center and the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the Bilbao Guggenheim, and the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, the new Tate represents either the beginning of the end of the British art scene, or the end of the beginning. It makes you wonder if success will spoil the English art world.” – Village Voice
WHAT PRICE SUCCESS?
John Walsh has been checking out other museums since he stepped down as director of the Getty in September. “I keep thinking, what price success? Museums are drawing huge audiences, but to what? To dazzling new buildings or renovated ones, very often, or to ballyhooed exhibitions of overexposed art (even things with a dubious place in art museums like motorcycles and guitars). In settings like that, looking at works of art is becoming a point-and-click sort of thing. There’s a crowd flowing around you, noise . . . glance, move on.” – Los Angeles Times
PROFITABLE POST
A drawing on a Post-it note by the artist Kitaj was sold for £640. “Guinness World Records has now declared the price has made it the world’s most valuable Post-it note. The manufacturer, 3M, held the sale to mark the 20th anniversary of its notes.” – The Independent (UK)
THE ART OF CHANGE
“Theatre is rapidly changing, and audiences shun routine and crave something special. It may take the form of a day-long event – the shared experience of watching together from morning to night forges a sense of community. But the profusion of short plays also implies that audiences are happy to have a short, sharp theatrical shock, an intense experience as a prelude to dinner. To reverse Brecht’s dictum, first come the morals, then the bread.” – The Guardian