For the first time in 20 years, the UK has published more books that the US has. “U.S. output dropped for the first time since 1999 while the number of British titles surged 28 percent, according to new data from research firm Bowker. Britain, with one-fifth the population of the United States, has long been the world’s largest publisher of new books per capita in any language, but a steep decline in U.S. publication of general adult fiction and children’s books helped boost the UK’s total volume to the top English-language spot. UK publishers issued 206,000 new books in 2005 compared with 172,000 in the United States, which saw an 18 percent drop in production.”
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Winnipeg Symphony Music Director Departs
Andrey Boreyko concludes his short tenure as music director of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. “Soon after taking the reins from former maestro Bramwell Tovey in 2002, he discovered WSO was in a “tragic” budget bind that threatened its existence. He and the musicians made financial sacrifices, the WSO rallied and Boreyko later extended his contract for an extra year to see the orchestra through its current season. But he bemoans the lack of public support for classical music in Canada.”
Classical Award To Alsop
The Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards have been presented. “BBC Radio 3 listeners voted Marin Alsop, conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, their favourite figure in classical music.”
Art Students Find New Venue For Show Closed By City
“A group of graduate art students whose thesis exhibition was shut down last week after a city official found it offensive have accepted an offer by their college to relocate the show to the Dumbo neighborhood in Brooklyn.”
What Happened To Classical Music’s Political Fire?
“The retreat to the purely aesthetic in the past 30 years has led to a depressing lowering of the emotional and intellectual temperature of new music. We hear so many safe, high-gloss pieces that seem to have no urgent reason for existing. However, the good news is that the radical spirit hasn’t gone. It’s just that, as in pop music, you find it in people who might be old in years, but are marvellously young in spirit.”
Canadians Go To Court Over Rodins
“The dispute is the latest in a nearly six-year battle over the authenticity of a group of plasters attributed to the French master Auguste Rodin and destined for the MacLaren Art Centre in Barrie, Ont. The Rodins, 52 plasters and several dozen bronzes in total, were to have served as leverage for the creation of an ambitious “international sculpture park dedicated to 20th- and 21st-century sculpture” in the small city 90 kilometres north of Toronto. That plan is now in ruins and the MacLaren is more than $4-million in debt.”
China Asks US To Ban Art Imports
“In a request pending at the U. S. State Department, the Chinese government has asked the U.S. to ban imports of any Chinese artifact made before 1912. The proposed prohibition, which has come under fire from American art dealers and museum directors, would cover metal objects, ceramics, stoneware, paintings and calligraphy, textiles, ivory, and wooden or bamboo objects. The Chinese government says the sweeping ban is necessary because pillaging of archeological sites and smuggling of artifacts have become rampant in recent years, despite government efforts to stop them.”
Civic Pride Saves Art Chicago
Why did Chicago’s Merchandise Mart step in at the last minute to rescue the ailing Art Chicago? “Art Chicago helped establish Chicago as a cultural mecca. We produce over 25 shows a year in Chicago. Anyone who produces a show here gets a black eye if that show goes down.”
Irish Art Sales Surge
Sales of Irish art have gone up along with the country’s booming economy. “The rapid rise in prices has triggered demands for the government in Dublin to make more funds available to buy works for public galleries and prevent them being exported.”
Why We Won’t Stop Using Paper Books
“Our current students are unused to paper and attribute the frustration they feel when they use it as a mere lack of usability when in fact they simply haven’t figured out how it works. Older scholars, meanwhile, tend to forget about paper’s unique utility because using it has simply become second nature to them.”