“Ernest Hemingway the hunter, Hemingway the fisherman, Hemingway the drinker – they’re all part of the legend. … But Hemingway the art lover?” Yup. “When in New York he was as likely to visit the Metropolitan Museum as Toots Shor’s.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Vancouver’s Scotiabank Dance Centre Is Busy, Prosperous, And Paid-For
The rehearsal and office complex, which opened in 2001, operates at 80% capacity, holds showcases for presenters, commissions new work, and – no small thing in the dance world – is solvent, with the mortgage having been paid off four years ago.
Move Over, Sydney And Melbourne: Brisbane Aims To Be Oz’s Next Arts Capital
“Queensland Premier Anna Bligh is determined to break the Sydney-Melbourne arts corridor as the state invests millions of dollars into driving cultural tourism. Queenslanders are not seeing enough of taxpayer-funded national companies such as the Australian Ballet and Opera Australia, she says.”
Why Splurge On A Blockbuster Exhibition When A Single Monet Or Vermeer Will Draw Crowds?
“There might be less money to organise exhibitions in many US museums, but by borrowing one masterpiece, putting it on display, and so turning a single work into a star attraction, several are stretching their budgets a long way.”
NEA Chief Launches Partnership To Use Arts As Economic Engine
Rocco Landesman “has helped to enlist an unusual consortium of foundations, corporations and federal agencies that will use cultural enterprises to anchor and enliven 34 projects around the country, from a struggling city block in Detroit to a vacant school in East Harlem.”
Utah Playwrights Group Opposes New Performing Arts Center
“The recently formed Utah chapter of the Dramatists Guild of America calls the prospective [2,500-seat] theater ‘an echoing and unrealistic, airplane-terminal of a building.’ The group … contend[s] the project will be dependent on a small number of touring Broadway shows, even as it ignores the needs of smaller theater companies.”
Is Singapore’s Art Scene Finally Taking Off? (Can It?)
There has been a flurry of successful art events in recent months, and a big new national museum in being built. “But certain exhibits, particularly when they touch on [politics or] sex, have been shut down prematurely. … [Is the island] progressive enough to develop a thriving arts scene?”
Gothenburg Art Center Reported Focus Of 9/11 Anniversary Plot
A late-night opening and reception at the Röda Sten Art Center in Sweden’s second-largest city was evacuated after police discovered a terror plot planned for the 10th anniversary of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. Four Swedisn residents of Somali and Iraqi origin have been arrested in connection with the plan.
Why National Ballet Of Canada Can’t Bring Classics On 60th Anniversary Tour
Most onlookers has assumed that the company would bring its beloved large-scale story ballets – Swan Lake, Giselle and the like – on its big birthday tour of Canada. Alas, says director Karen Kain, “We are coming with no orchestra, for the first time in the history of the company.”
In Praise Of Character Actors
“They’re the performers nibbling in the corners of the screen … Their faces, bodies and performances linger in your memory even if you can’t quite recall their names. … Give that actor a few good lines, and suddenly the character in question can become a tragic figure within the confines of a single, haunting scene.”