“In recent years, many cities have re-evaluated their approaches to public art and are incorporating new ideas, while other cities remain stuck on the original model. Milwaukee, more or less, falls into the latter category and is serving as a case study for hundreds of arts professionals in town for the Americans for the Arts national conference.”
Blog
How Many Books Did You Sell? (Shhhhhh!)
BookScanning has become popular for a few reasons having to do with the culture of journalism and publishing. In general, the publishing world treats money the way old-line WASPs once did—as a subject that genteel people simply don’t discuss. The only question considered to be more indelicate than how much one was paid to write a book is how many copies it has sold.
Digital Publishing Makes Industry Nervous
The business model of publishing is sure to change with digital publishing. But that has many in the business anxious…
Gender Imbalance – Museum Director Asks For Money To Buy Art By Women
The director of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Lars Nittve, has asked the Swedish government for 50m Swedish crowns ($6.8m) to buy work by female artists. The museum, which houses 250,000 20th-century works, has around nine times as many pieces by men as by women in its collection
JMW Turner Sells For Record £5.832 Million
“The Blue Rigi was sold to an anonymous telephone bidder after a 10-minute bidding battle at Christie’s in London. The work, which Christie’s described as “the most important watercolour to appear at auction for over 50 years”, had been expected to fetch about £2m.”
Bill T. Jones Confronts A Boo-Bird
At last week’s Spoleto Festival in Charleston, the Bill T. Jones company was walking off the stage when a man loudly booed from the audience. Suddenly Jones appeared and demanded the man show himself…
Popular Mural Painted Over In LA
Without apparent warning, an iconic mural by artist Kent Twitchell depicting fellow artist Ed Ruscha was painted over Friday in Los Angeles. “It’s always been such a popular piece in the art world and in Los Angeles. I had no idea it was in danger in any way. To not be notified, to have it be a fait accompli…. It will take a while for the shock to wear off. It was sort of my ‘Mona Lisa’; I worked on it for nine years.”
The Concert Ticket, R.I.P.
“The days of the rock concert ticket are numbered. Guns N’ Roses’ show at the Hammersmith Apollo on June 7 is being touted as the world’s first ticketless gig. Unless they specifically ask for a small piece of card, fans will be expected to arrive bearing barcodes sent to their mobile phones as text messages.”
HBO On The Decline?
“Does HBO’s signature show losing its way creatively signal bigger problems at the network? Frankly, the creative decline of “The Sopranos” (not to mention the quality nose dive of “Six Feet Under” before it died) is downright alarming, viewed in the context of other recent moves by HBO.”
Setting The Record Straight On Labour’s Arts Record
A week ago Polly Toynbee lauded the British Labour Party’s record on the arts. MP Hugo Swire begs to differ: “She cites Labour’s brief increase in central arts funding, but fails to mention the massive cut in lottery funding for the arts – a fifth of funding destined for the arts has been used to fund the government’s pet projects. The result was an unprecedented cut in arts funding, far outweighing any rise in the Arts Council’s grant-in-aid budget.