For 25 years, Cheek by Jowl has been one of Europe’s most innovative and challenging theatre troupes, and has become a mainstay at festivals across the continent. Now, as the company prepares to settle down for a three-year residency at London’s Barbican Centre, its founders are reflecting on what has kept the group’s work fresh over the years. “Togetherness is this company’s calling card, an intense yet informal rapport between actor and actor, actor and audience, and ultimately the symbiotic relationship between Declan Donnellan the director and Nick Ormerod the designer, British theatre’s savviest couple.”
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More Legal Headaches For DaVinci?
A Roman Catholic cardinal who was on the shortlist to become pope last year is hinting at potential legal action that could be taken by the church against DaVinci Code author Dan Brown and the producers of the movie version of the controversial book. (Exactly what action that might be, the cardinal did not say.) Meanwhile, the two authors who unsuccessfully sued Brown for copyright infringement are having trouble coming up with their court-ordered share of Brown’s legal bills.
On The Trail Of The Art Smugglers
“Greek detectives arrive in London today for talks with Scotland Yard as Athens steps up its efforts to combat the international trade in smuggled antiquities. After the recent discovery of priceless relics in an Aegean island home, they hope the meeting will not only shed light on the murky business but also illuminate London’s role as a hub for traffickers.”
The Explorer, The Museum, and Another Controversy Over Ownership
The Royal Alberta Museum is scrambling to raise $1 million to buy a historic collection of native Canadian artifacts gathered by explorer James Carnegie when they hit the auction block in New York this week. “The museum fears the pieces of Canadian history will be dispersed among private collectors and institutions as the items are sold individually. But the sale is also coming under fire from the Minneapolis, Minn.-based American Indian Movement, which for years has likened Sotheby’s sale of native artifacts to Nazi theft of property from Jewish families during the Holocaust.”
Did Publisher’s Business Plan Contribute To Plagiarism Debacle?
“Since the downfall of Kaavya Viswanathan, the Harvard sophomore whose novel was yanked from stores and whose two-book contract was canceled by her publisher last week, attention has focused on Alloy Entertainment, the little-known book packager that shared the copyright with her. What has received scant notice is that the parent company, Alloy Media + Marketing, is not really in the publishing business. It is an advertising and marketing firm that specializes in selling stuff — and helping others sell stuff — to teenagers and preteens.”
South Africa Gets Back A Piece Of Its Art History
In the dark days of South Africa’s apartheid regime, poor black artists living in the township ghettos surrounding Johannesburg spent their lives creating work that no one asked for, and that the white minority ruling the country would never exhibit. But a few foreign collectors made a point of buying up what they could of the township art. “Now, in an unusual and well-orchestrated burst of generosity, these collectors are giving the art back to South Africa, helping to restore an important part of the country’s historical record.”
The Great eBay Art Robbery
“It was the scandal that rocked the internet. A seemingly worthless painting sold on eBay in early 2000 for $135,805 — all because buyers believed it might be the work of the 20th-century abstract painter Richard Diebenkorn. It wasn’t. Nor was the story behind the painting true… Before long the tangle of deceits that led to the historic sale began to unravel on the front pages of newspapers around the country.” Now, one of the perpetrators of the hoax has written a book to lay out his side of the story.
Business Before Pleas… Oh, Heck, We Can Do Both
Getting music played on commercial radio is getting harder and harder, particularly if your work is in the hip-hop genre. Tiny playlists and PR-driven conglomerates make it almost impossible for emerging artists to get their music in the ears of consumers. So where should the snubbed masses of musicians turn? How about strip clubs? “The music industry increasingly has embraced the strip club out of necessity and convenience… Strip clubs are one of the fastest-rising segments among entertainment venues,” and DJs there can play complete tracks uninterrupted, and aren’t afraid to try out new material. Moreover, strip clubs have become an important place for hip-hop stars to be seen…
New King Of Organs To Debut In Philly
Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts will finally be complete this week, when the center unveils a massive $6.4 million, 32-ton, 6,938-pipe organ in its main concert hall, and inaugurates it with a 10-day festival featuring the Philadelphia Orchestra. “The specs alone make you want to hear what will be the largest functioning concert-hall organ in the United States. The Kimmel instrument – in contrast to the sensible but disappointing portable organ once used in the Academy of Music – is the magnum opus, eight years in the making, of the busy Dobson Pipe Organ Builders Ltd., of Lake City, Iowa.”
Getty Snags A New Rubens
“The J. Paul Getty Museum, aiming to deepen its collection of works by Peter Paul Rubens in his prime, has made its first major acquisition since the January arrival of Michael Brand as director. The work, ‘The Calydonian Boar Hunt,’ was painted on an oak panel, 23 1/4 by 35 5/8 inches, apparently in 1611 or 1612… Museum officials, who said they bought the work in late April from a London dealer, declined to disclose the price. But a smaller Rubens oil sketch of the same subject — roughly 10-by-20 inches, again on a wood panel — sold for $5.4 million at Christie’s London on Dec. 8.”