The Washington Shakespeare Company is “scheduled to lose its longtime home in the unglamorous but spacious Clark Street Playhouse. The company was supposed to move into a kind of time-share in Signature Theatre’s old Shirlington space (along with Classika Theatre and perhaps others), but construction delays on Signature’s new theater mean the company will need its old venue next fall.”
Blog
Remembering Katherine Dunham
“In her unparalleled career in dance, where she educated the world about the power of African dance as found throughout the diaspora, Dunham mixed academic research and showbiz flair. An anthropologist as well as a choreographer, she studied dance in the Caribbean islands, blending movements she found there with Western dance. Her style was not scholarly; she reveled in eroticism. She sought not to re-create specific rites but to transport the audience the way a spiritual experience might.”
A Way To Sell Canadian Art Globally
A Vancouver gallery has found a way to tap into a global market for art. This Thursday the gallery hosts “an estimated $6-million, biannual, on-line live auction of traditional and contemporary Canadian art, ranging in estimated price from $1,000 to $350,000. The auction that includes works by Emily Carr, Lawren Harris, Maurice Cullen, Jean-Paul Riopelle and E.J. Hughes will be held with gala glitz in a downtown Vancouver hotel ballroom. But it will also be broadcast simultaneously over the Internet, capturing a global audience with an increasing taste for Canadian art.”
The New Forgers
“In a sobering development, forgers have been purchasing the works of minor European artists, altering them in a process known as “Russification,” painting on the signature of major Russian artists, and selling them for many times their worth. Perhaps even more alarming is that they’re fooling the most reputable auction houses in the world.”
A Baryshnikov Plan
The new Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York aims to correct some balance in American cultural life. “Misha feels America has let the arts down. There’s no money for arts in education, artists aren’t subsidized – in fact, they’re looked at as liberal freaks. It’s a very sad state of affairs. Everything we’re doing is to make it better.”
Has Rattle Lost His Charm In Berlin?
“After four years, the Simon Rattle System is quite familiar. The British conductor and the 120 members of the Berliner Philharmoniker are no longer madly in love, but instead preoccupied with delivering top-notch musicianship, maintaining their reputations. In the meantime, we have learned that the fellow with the sunny disposition is human just like the rest of us.”
Indigo’s Fat Sales Gains
Canadian book giant Indigo had a terrific year, with big gains in sales. “Revenue growth was led by its superstores, where comparable store sales increased 10.2% and at its online arm, chapters.indigo.ca, which had a 22.8% sales increase to C$79.5 million. Same store sales even rose at Indigo’s smaller store, rising 4.3%.”
Big Changes In The Antiques Trade
“A profound change has taken place in the antiques market. In the past only one or two openly acknowledged sales of dealers’ stock would be held each year, often with dire results. Dealers were reluctant to pay premiums at auction when they could buy from their colleagues in the trade.” Now big auction sales are big successes.
Hirst’s Giant Virgin Mary Goes Up In London
A new 35-foot high statue by Damien Hirst was erected in London Tuesday. “The Virgin Mother has layers removed on one side to reveal the foetus and the woman’s skull, muscles and tissue. The bronze statue, recalling Edgar Degas’s Little Dancer, dominates the courtyard in front of the gallery, and is visible from Piccadilly where passers by stopped to look as a crane hoisted it into place on Monday.”
It Ain’t Art Unless It’s Making People Angry
Architecture may be the only artistic pursuit left that we really argue about. That isn’t to say that people don’t have musical, artistic, and theatrical preferences, but architecture remains “a subject that is fraught with genuine conflict, and it seems to have acquired an extraordinary capacity to make all kinds of people extremely angry about issues that range from the most intensely personal to the most diffusely political.”