A huge archive documenting Austria’s involvement in the Holocaust has gone on display at Vienna’s Jewish Museum. “The Vienna cache makes up one of the largest Holocaust archives of any Jewish community, some two million pages. With it historians will be better able to understand how the Holocaust unfolded and provide a window into the daily life of Vienna’s Jews.”
Author: sbergman
Dancing Around Fear
When your dance troupe markets itself as a purveyor of extreme action and occasionally dangerous stunts, injuries probably have to be considered an occupational hazard. But that doesn’t make it any easier for your dancers to recover their confidence when a colleague suffers a serious injury.
Halbreich: Beware The Status Quo
As Kathy Halbreich prepares to depart Minneapolis’s Walker Art Center after a 16-year tenure as director, she warns that despite its recent run of success, the Walker cannot afford to ever rest on its laurels. “Walker can never be a vanilla organization because other people know how to make vanilla better than we do. That goes for our city, too. Vanilla isn’t good enough. We need to make sure there is spice and adventure in all of our civic institutions.”
Latin American Art Museum Finally In The Spotlight
“The Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach has been like the downtrodden stepchild of Southern California’s glamorous museum family — often ignored by critics, overlooked by art elites and forced to work overtime for every scrap of credibility it can muster… This month, though, MOLAA has put on its glass slipper and is finally ready for the ball. Expanded and remodeled with a dramatic, traffic-stopping facade, the museum is celebrating a grand reopening with a monthlong series of cultural events.”
Buried Treasure
Not every museum looking for a new addition has the budget or the desire for a massive and eye-catching architectural design. But that doesn’t mean that a great space isn’t possible – it just requires a different kind of thinking. For instance, if you can’t afford a great museum rising from the ground, why not put it underground?
Omaha Sym Contract Talks Break Off
“Contract talks between the Omaha Symphony and its musicians have broken down. According to a release from the Omaha Symphony Musicians Organization, negotiations ended May 31 without an agreement and no further talks were scheduled… The musicians rejected the Symphony Association’s proposed 2.5 percent salary increase for the 2007 contract. [Another complaint is that] musicians are not provided benefits on par with those provided to the Omaha Symphony administrative staff.”
The Great Elgar Debate
British newspapers have been full of polemics about the composer Edward Elgar recently, and much of the debate has been over who gets to claim Elgar, and for what purpose. “Great art has a dimension beyond the local, and it is true that Elgar could do with more foreign champions, because his music isn’t as well-known beyond these shores as it should be. But that doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate it for what it says to and about us.”
Aiming For A More Intimate Opera
Dallas’s new opera house is beginning to take shape, more than two years before it will officially open, and already, the promise of the new facility is having an impact on the city’s cultural scene. “What’s already striking is how compact the audience chamber will be… Greater intimacy is a big part of the new building’s raison d’être, [and] the success of Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, which opened last fall, reinforces that promise.”
Eschenbach’s Fall
Christoph Eschenbach is now a lame duck in both Paris and Philadelphia, and come 2010, “for the first time in decades, [he] will be without a formal orchestral appointment.” Usually, the orchestra world keeps its internal workings close to the vest, but Eschenbach has been speaking out, blaming poor orchestra management. But in referring to executives in both Paris and Philly as “amateurish,” he may have created an even more uncomfortable situation for himself and his musicians in Philadelphia.
High-Def Opera Comes To SF
San Francisco Opera has unveiled a highly sophisticated new multimedia setup that will allow it to vastly expand the menu of technological accoutrements it offers with its staged productions. “The company has put together the first high-definition video production facility built into an opera house in the United States. [The setup] provides the Opera with the latest tools to produce simulcasts, radio programs, DVDs, podcasts and other emerging electronic forms. Streaming pay-per-view opera broadcasts may be in the cards.”