A Canadian man has come up with software that allows teachers to teach music in real time over the internet. Keyboards plugged into computers allow immediate interaction between teacher and student, even if they’re thousands of miles away. – CBC 10/04/00
Author: Douglas McLennan
MOMA’S POST-MODERNIST AGENDA?
The final installment of the Museum of Modern Art’s reimagining art of the 20th Century has opened. “It brings to completion a project very dear to the hearts and minds of the museum’s current curatorial cadre: the de-aestheticization of the museum’s policies and programs. Aesthetic judgments have now been abandoned in favor of sociological classification at MoMA, and to assist in this transformation the museum has established a department of Writing Services, which may or may not account for the unfortunate Open Ends title itself, already a subject of much ribald humor.” – New York Observer
OPEN SECRETS
The U.S. and Russia reached a breakthrough agreement Wednesday at an international conference on the restitution of Holocaust-era art to open their archives to help recover Nazi-looted treasures. Access to Russian archives has been of crucial concern to Jewish groups pressing for restitution. – Yahoo! News (Reuters)
KID’S PLAY
Children’s museums are on the increase. “The Association of Youth Museums (AYM) reports that 100 new children’s museums are in the planning phase, eager to join the approximately 200 that attracted more than 32 million visitors last year.” – Christian Science Monitor
SIZE MATTERS
The opening of Tate Modern has coincided with a sudden fever in the art world for colossal work. Damien Hirst, Mona Hatoum, Jeff Koons, and now Spanish sculptor Juan Muñoz all work in a size and distorted scale that dwarfs everything around them. “One day this museum will have to face the implications of its own architecture. Bigness is an aesthetic value, and as the popularity of Tate Modern demonstrates, we all like to feel small sometimes.” – The Guardian
A MIXED YEAR IN CANBERRA
Canberra’s National Gallery has had a mixed year. First, it canceled the tour stop of the controversial “Sensation” show when it got too hot in Brooklyn. Then the museum’s controversial curator of Australian art resigned after less than a year on the job. On the other hand, attendance is up 50 percent, and the museum’s director is upbeat. – The Age (Melbourne)
BOLSHOI LEADERSHIP CHALLENGED
The Bolshoi continues in turmoil after the company’s leadership was replaced by the Russian president. New Artistic Director Gennady Rozdestvensky has clashed with ballerina Nina Ananiashvili, who “questioned some statements of his first speech as the leader of Bolshoi”. – Russia Today
TRADEMARK TREPIDATION
Independent electronic publishers are watching with concern the fate of a recently filed application by Gemstar-TV Guide International to trademark the word “EBOOK.” “I think we independents are not nearly cut-throat enough. We should have copyrighted every doggone e-book term we came up with back in the mid ’90s.” – Wired
THE ALLURE/DANGER OF PARIS
The French capital, for a poet, is seductive. But for an American, is there danger in losing one’s voice in that seductive quality? C. K. Williams, the New Jersey native who won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for poetry is quite hip to the dangers. – New York Times
CANADA TO SUBSIDIZE MAGAZINES
The Canadian government announces a $150 million fund to help Canadian magazines compete against American media selling their wares in Canada. The money will go to subsidize Canadian publications because “American magazines can sell ads more cheaply than Canadian competitors because the magazine’s costs have already been covered by advertising and sales in the United States.” – The Globe and Mail (Canada)