China is said to be near to signing a pact with the US on reducing the flow of smuggled art. “This would include obligations on the US to prevent museums and similar institutions from acquiring illegally exported cultural property from China; a prohibition of the import into the US of Chinese cultural property stolen from a museum, public monument, or institution; and the mandatory return of such items once found in the US.” – The Art Newspaper
Author: Douglas McLennan
MUSEUMS MOST TRUSTWORTHY
“A recently released study shows that 43-percent of Americans consider museums to be ‘more trustworthy’ than any other information source.” In second place, cited by 18 percent of the respondents, were books. – Write News
DEFINING “HISPANIC”?
The newly-opened National Hispanic Cultural Center of New Mexico in Albuquerque was “designed to show off the multiplicity of cultures gathered under the umbrella term ‘Hispanic.’ The design of the complex makes that clear with a melange of Aztec, Mayan, Pueblo, modernist and Spanish idioms.” – Dallas Morning News
MAKING OUR BUILDINGS WORK
“You can choose not to watch a television show. But bad architecture, whether it is a hulking condominium tower or a gargantuan “McMansion” home that looms over its neighbors, is much harder to avoid. And it doesn’t go away for decades. That’s why, in today’s building boom, the fight to preserve the past is taking on urgent meaning. Instead of watching passively from the sidelines, more and more people are becoming involved in an attempt to control the character of their communities.” – Chicago Tribune
THE VALUE OF ART ON YOUR WALL
Two French boys who used pins to tack a “poster” to their bedroom wall, discover that the picture may be a previously unknown Delacroix and worth £3 million. – The Mirror (UK)
THE ARTS ONLINE
Last May Hartford’s Bushnell Theatre began selling tickets online and now sells 10 percent of its seats that way. Predictions are that that number will double in the next year. “Now – for a growing number of theaters and cultural organizations – arts consumers can call up a Web site and instantly get tickets, see where they are sitting and be done with it. Click, click, done. Smart arts organizations realize that to compete in the entertainment marketplace they must be more willing to accommodate the needs and desires of their customers.” – Hartford Courant 11/05/00
REGIONALS TAKE ON THE GLITZ
The $8 million production of “Tantalus” at the Denver Center is the most ambitious production ever mounted by an American regional theatre. Tantalus, a co-production with London’s Royal Shakespeare Company, got mixed reviews nationally, and is only the latest in a line of glitzy high-profile cooperative projects by American regional theatres. Why are non-profit theatres taking on these productions? – Dallas Morning News
WAS SHAKESPEARE A POT-HEAD?
“Two South African scientists are about to embark on a series of forensic tests to prove a case that will blow smoke in the eyes of traditional Shakespearean scholarship. They believe that the man who bestrides the classical canon was not just a genius, but a very early pot head.” – The Independent (UK)
BALLET FOLKLORICO FOUNDER DIES
“Amalia Hernandez, the founder of Mexico’s Ballet Folklórico and a pioneer in the revival of traditional Mexican dance styles over the last 50 years, died Saturday at the age of 83.” – Dallas Morning News (AP)
DISTANCE LEARNING
“In the past, masterclasses were held behind closed doors, which meant that embarrassments were mercifully limited to a small audience, composed mostly of peers. These days, however, things are different. Pinchas Zukerman’s three most recent masterclasses, held in cooperation with Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, were webcast free to the public in an interactive distance-learning effort. With Zukerman on one continent, his students on another, and the audience potentially everywhere, the experiment became something more consequential than an open conservatory lesson. Something slightly scarier, as well.” – The New Republic