Cleveland San Jose Ballet company dancers vote to form a new company and relocate to San Jose. The Cleveland San Jose company was shut down last week after failing to raise enough money to continue. The new company will be called Ballet San Jose of Silcon Valley and open its new season October 12. – San Francisco Examiner
Author: Douglas McLennan
WHITE MEN ONLY
Why are only 12 percent of the architects in the UK women? And why are there only about 100 architects from black and ethnic minority backgrounds in a profession of 27,000? That is an appalling statistic. Where, for example, are all the second-generation children of the Ugandan Asians who are making such strides in other professions such as the law, accountancy or medicine?” – The Telegraph (UK)
McCARTNEY’S PAINTINGS
Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney has been painting for 20 years. Magritte and de Kooning are his big influences (Magritte inspired the Beatles’ apple logo). McCartney’s first public show is about to open in London. – The Telegraph (UK)
THE MEANING OF ART
What is it about Tracey Emin, anyway? What makes what she does “art”? “If she decides that a tent with the names of 102 people she’s slept with is art, that’s her prerogative. That unmade bed, for instance, ‘illustrates the themes of loss, sickness, fertility, copulation, conception and death’.” – The Scotsman
SO YOU’RE GOING TO COMPOSE AN OPERA…
Composer John Williams was startled to read in the press earlier this week that he is going to write an opera for Placido Domingo and the Los Angeles Opera. Williams concedes he’s talked with Domingo about a project but that nothing has been agreed upon. “Better minds than mine have tried opera and not been successful – it is an art that has had difficulty renewing itself, especially in this country. – Boston Globe
MARRIED TO THE BAND
When you marry an orchestra musician, you’re marrying the whole orchestra. An orchestra wife writes about how she spent the summer. – The Guardian
FINALLY – A USE FOR THE ACCORDION
A new British study finds that the kind of music played in stores greatly influences what consumers buy. “When French music was played, French wine outsold German varieties by five bottles to one. When German music was played, it outsold French by two bottles to one.” – The Age (Melbourne)
DELAYED GRATIFICATION
They’re getting more money, so why are they griping? The Australian government decided in August to award an extra $70 million to arts groups. But the announcement that came yesterday also informed the groups they would have to wait nine months before they get it. – The Age (Melbourne) 09/15/00
NO MORE HIGH AND LOW?
“There is a rooted assumption that popular culture is easy, especially popular music. But millions who try and fail to create it find out the hard way that it is just that – hard. And that’s why the Spice Girls – so denigrated by the toffee-nosed culture snobs – have managed to notch up a remarkable 500 million sales worldwide, whereas a posh, pampered ‘hard-to-work-out-what-they’re-saying’ writer like Henry James has yet to make any mark on the pop charts.” – The Guardian 09/15/00
LEAVING SOMETHING TO THE IMAGINATION
Often arts education gives too much information at the expense of too little imagination. But “imagination is the fuel of art, the engine of growth and the frank pleasure of life. No less a brainiac than Einstein insisted that imagination is more important than knowledge, yet most folks – education bureaucrats or not – seem to shudder at the thought. In our modern Information Age, imagination regularly withers from neglect.” – Los Angeles Times 09/15/00