Since he arrived at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art a year ago, director Michael Govan has been striving to create a distinctive identity for the museum, and he isn’t afraid to discard conventional ideas of what the backbone of an art collection should be. “Maybe our museum frames the encyclopedia, or the general museum, on one side by contemporary art, which is usually not a focus of an encyclopedic museum, and on the other end, the historical side, by pre-Columbian art. It doesn’t mean we’re not going to show Egypt, Greece and Rome. But the bookends — the frame, if you will for our museum — are different.”
Author: sbergman
The Popularity Problem
As museums (particularly those showcasing contemporary art) have grown in popularity, their mission has become more difficult to define, and their relationships with artists have grown complicated. “Art and its institutions have, we are told, grown increasingly democratic, more accessible to all. In fact, the more successful a museum grows, the more elitist it tends to become.”
All Eyes On The New
New York’s New Museum of Contemporary Art, which is in the midst of an ambitious $50 million building project, is a small institution by the city’s outsized standards. “But beyond the concrete and steel, the New Museum shows how a lesser-known institution can attract attention by taking chances. It hired an adventurous team of architects. It has diversified its board of trustees. It is doubling its staff, bolstering its exhibition schedule and greatly expanding its education activities. Combine that with the museum’s re-energized mission — to showcase the newest art — and the result is an institution that poses a bold challenge to established museums.”
Diablo Ballet On The Brink
Northern California’s Diablo Ballet is in danger of folding if $500,000 cannot be raised to cover debts and stabilize the organization. The company “was founded in 1994, and it has made its mark performing both ballet and contemporary dance, with experienced dancers often led by emerging choreographers.”
An Orchestra Of The New Turns 30
“In an ideal musical culture there would be no need for the American Composers Orchestra. Classical music programs in the United States would not be dominated, as they mostly are, by the works of dead European males.” But the ACO is turning 30 this week, and though new music is doing better in mainstream concert halls than it was when the orchestra was founded, Anthony Tommasini says that its mission remains critical.
It’s A Fine Line Between Godly Hero And Terrorist
A Canadian choir is updating Handel’s oratorio, Samson, in an effort to make it more relevant to modern audiences. But the new context may not be for everyone – the setting will be 1946 Jerusalem, and Samson, who pulled down the pillars of a Philistine temple, killing himself and everyone else inside, will be depicted as a suicide bomber.
France Gets Into Gaming
With a few strokes of the bureaucratic pen, France has officially raised video game design to an art form, placing it alongside literature and art on the list of professions deserving of national recognition and even subsidy. “For some French officials, games are beginning to serve as an outlet for France’s creative energies, but will need nurturing and state patronage to flourish.”
Did Corporate Cash Castrate New Katrina Doc?
A new Imax film about the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Katrina seems a bit incomplete, as it somehow manages not to say a word about the political and societal dysfunction that have made Katrina a lasting blot on the American landscape. So “why does a film that seems so insistent on decrying the loss of wetlands end with little more than an anodyne lament and some empty hope? Roll the credits: The film was made with money contributed by Chevron. And Dow Chemical. And Dominion Exploration and Production, a major power company.”
Cleveland’s Big Messy Film Scramble
When you’re running a film festival, it’s vitally important that you actually have films to show. And at this year’s Cleveland International Film Festival, that seemingly simple necessity was a lot harder to come by than you might imagine. “Half of the print had arrived. The other half… was on a sealed FedEx truck somewhere in Ohio or Indiana.” And then Canada got involved…
Dancing For Their Lives (And Others’)
Like most arts genres, the dance world was hit hard by the AIDS crisis, and fifteen years ago, the dancers of the Philadelphia-based Pennsylvania Ballet organized a benefit called “Shut Up And Dance” to raise money for an organization that cares for those suffering from the disease. The benefit, which has become an annual event, gives dancers a chance to choreograph their own work, and raises as much as $150,000 per year.