“Parts of the White House became an elaborate rehearsal room, where students from 8 to 18 absorbed the feeling of jazz and the blues from those who know it best. The entire Marsalis family — father Ellis and sons Branford, Wynton, Delfeayo and Jason — participated…. The Obama administration plans to continue its hands-on program in arts education in the future, but it was jazz, America’s indigenous art form, that got the first turn in the spotlight.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Open Film Market To Foreigners, MPAA Chair Urges China
“China needs to open up its market to foreign movies to match the country’s increasingly sophisticated film market, Dan Glickman, chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, told an audience of biz leaders at the Shanghai Film Festival on Sunday. China needed to ‘make the most of the collective economic opportunity by nurturing the health and growth of the legitimate marketplace,’ Glickman said.”
A Book By Any Other Name Wouldn’t Sell As Sweet
The title of the new book “Womenomics” rather blatantly plays on the best-selling “Freakonomics,” but it’s an old trick. “Capitalizing on popular titles has a long pedigree in the publishing industry. A well-turned phrase can give birth to dozens of offspring. Edward Gibbon’s monumental ‘History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,’ first published in 1776, has inspired variants for more than two centuries.”
Journos’ ‘Humility Lesson’: News Written By Authors, Poets
“What a truly excellent idea. Last week, a group of 31 Israeli authors and poets took over writing the Hebrew daily paper Haaretz, producing sonnets summing up the weather forecast and a reassuring take on the stock market summary. (Weirdly, they weren’t given the chance to tackle the sports pages.)”
The Show Sounds Terrific, But How’s The Parking?
“[F]or local cultural institutions, the parking issue goes beyond simple matters of increased rates and hours. Getting folks to come out to your entertainment venue involves convincing them that they’re going to enjoy themselves, but no one enjoys stressing out about parking, and that stress has become increasingly difficult to escape.”
Fired Architect Calls For Probe Of Prince’s Involvement
“Richard Rogers, the architect who was sacked last week from a multibillion pound development in London after Prince Charles complained about his designs, has accused the prince of ‘an abuse of power’ and ‘unconstitutional’ behaviour.” The architect “called for a national inquiry into whether the prince has a constitutional right to become involved in matters such as planning applications which have economic, political and social ramifications.”
In Recession, Will Cultural Sector Be An Economic Leader?
“Could the creative industries provide innovative models which will make this sector not just resilient in the current economic climate, but allow it to flourish? There are economists who think this is happening already. Recent research from the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (Nesta) suggests that the cultural sector will grow by 4% between 2009 and 2013 – double the estimate for the rest of the economy.”
Attention, Orange Co. Museum: You’re Not A Private Gallery
“Today’s news that the Orange County Museum of Art surreptitiously sold 18 of its 20 early California plein-air paintings for a relatively modest price to an undisclosed private collector in Laguna Beach is remarkable on many levels. Not least is the private sale’s clear deviance from professional standards for deaccessioning that guide the Assn. of Art Museum Directors.”
CalArts’ Erik Ehn Will Head Brown’s Playwriting Program
“Erik Ehn, the dean of the School of Theater at California Institute of the Arts, is leaving his position to head the graduate playwriting program at Brown University. ‘He did a good job, but the position went against his nature. He truly is a writer at heart,’ CalArts President Steven Lavine told Culture Monster today. ‘I asked him if we could do anything to make him stay. In the end, he just received the perfect job offer from Brown.'”
China’s Revolutionary Opera, Once Required, Is Recreation
“Once upon a time, revolutionary opera was forced down the Chinese people’s throats.” One such work, “Jiang Jie,” is on the program of the opera festival at Beijing’s National Center for the Performing Arts. It would be easy to assume that its presence “is an obligation imposed by the government. Except that this festival sells tickets on the free market. Those tickets aren’t cheap. And the audience for ‘Jiang Jie’ on Friday night is large, and notably involved.”