Boston’s Citi Performing Arts Center (formerly the Wang,) struggling with financial losses and an anemic slate of performances, is looking to partner with other arts groups in the city in an effort to get back on its feet. “Under the plan, the Center will become what it calls a ‘virtual performing arts center.’ The idea is to reduce financial risk by relying less on revenue from the Center’s hard-to-fill theaters while spreading the Center’s brand across a swath of revenue-generating programming elsewhere in Boston and Massachusetts.”
Author: sbergman
Sketching A New Angle On Monet
“It is difficult to imagine that anything remains unknown about Claude Monet, whose life and career have been picked over by scholars and bright-eyed doctoral candidates. But a revelatory exhibition [in Massachusetts] unfurls a new look at the role of drawing in the creative process of an artist whom we have always thought of as a painter, not a draftsman.”
A Corporate Brand Of Art
As government subsidies for the arts plummet around the world, private companies are frequently stepping in to fill the funding void. But companies need to be able to show some return on every investment, and are looking to promote themselves through their philanthropy, as European arts groups used to public funding are discovering.
The Acoustician With His Ear To The Ground
Russell Johnson was one of those rare people who didn’t just advance the thinking of those in his industry; he changed it forever. Before Johnson’s triumphant successes designing the acoustics of concert halls in Lucerne, Birmingham (UK), and Dallas, concert halls had become largely stale, dry affairs. “Johnson was an indefatigable self-promoter, sending positive reviews to newspaper critics with hand-scribbled notes, and could be quite charming.” And his work largely speaks for itself.
The Year Of The Rock ‘n Roll Violin?
When it comes to pop music, guitars rock, basses thump, drums smash, and violins… um, sweeten? “For years, the strings have been marginalised in the world of pop – sidelined to the slushy world of ballads, lazily used to suggest drama or sophistication. To all intents and purposes, strings had become the sonic equivalent of the highlighter pen. Until now.”
Giving Online Voice To A Dangerous Trend
The primary attraction of video-sharing sites like YouTube and social networking sites like MySpace has been their near-complete openness to all points of view, and their accessibility to anyone with a camera and a computer. But should YouTube allow anorexic teens to post videos encouraging other teens to adopt an increasingly cult-like and toxic lifestyle? Where is the line when it comes to “harmful content”?
Nice Play. Write Another One For Tomorrow.
“Where most writers would be content to get one play up and running in August, Mark Ravenhill’s Herculean undertaking involves presenting a new 20-minute piece on 17 mornings of the [Edinburgh Festival]; around five and a half hours of theatre in total.” Not bad for a guy only a few months removed from an epileptic seizure and a botched anaesthetic that cost him two months of memories…
Picasso, Monet, Renoir… Dylan?
An exhibition of paintings by folksinger Bob Dylan will go on display this fall at a German museum. “Dylan has produced more than 200 sketches and watercolours over the years… The collection, entitled The Drawn Blank Series, will hang in an exhibition alongside works by various European masters, including Picasso.”
Move Over, Romeo; Heathcliff Has Your Number
A new poll asking Britons to name the greatest love story ever set down on paper has seen The Bard of Avon knocked off by Emily Brontë. “Wuthering Heights, recounting the doomed affair between sweet Cathy Earnshaw and the brutal outsider Heathcliff, has seen off Shakespeare, Gone With the Wind and everything by Barbara Cartland in a survey which shows the lasting power of classic works.”
Biting The Hand That Feeds, Olympic Edition
“The Chinese artist behind Beijing’s spectacular new Olympic stadium has said he wants nothing to do with the propaganda for which it will be used during next year’s games. In an attack on the ‘disgusting’ political conditions in the one-party state, Ai Weiwei told the Guardian he would not attend the opening ceremony a year from now, or allow himself to be associated with either the government or the games.”