The arts have had a tough time getting a foot in the door of the reconstruction effort at New York’s Ground Zero. Two cultural organizations have already been driven out of the official plans by relatives of 9/11 victims, and plans for the official memorial museum are under constant scrutiny by countless interested parties. So why would anyone want the job of designing and launching such a museum? Alice Greenwald, who took the job, says it’s all about bringing people together, and knowing that not all of them will be pleased.
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The New Yorkers, The Italians, And The Severed Head
Officials in New York have returned the disembodied head of Dionysus, god of wine and revelry, to Italy, 23 years after the deity was rudely dismembered by thieves. (Okay, it was actually a statue of Dionysus.) Following its severing, the head “was acquired sometime before 1990 by a Japanese museum that went out of business several years afterward…
The head then appeared in the Christie’s catalog,” and was withdrawn when the auction house received information that it might be stolen goods. The NYPD got involved, and eventually linked the head to a list of missing Roman antiquities.
Salivating Over The Next Big Van Gogh Sale
“In the auction business, Vincent van Gogh is the magical name. With fewer than a dozen of his portraits in private hands, the two significant ones to have sold in the last 16 years achieved spectacular prices: $71.5 million for Self-Portrait Without Beard in 1998 and $82.5 million for Portrait of Dr. Gachet in 1990, the record for van Gogh at auction. So there is great anticipation about what L’Arlésienne, Madame Ginoux will bring on May 2, in the Impressionist and Modern Art sale at Christie’s New York.”
Plane Crash Claims Five IU Musicians
Five students at the prestigious Indiana University School of Music were killed Thursday night when the single-engine Cessna plane on which they were traveling to the school crashed just short of the Bloomington airport. Officials believe foggy conditions may have been a factor.
We Wouldn’t Want Anyone Hijacking The Plane With An Endpin
Any professional musician can tell you horror stories of trying to get his instrument onto a commercial airline in defiance of overzealous TSA screeners, overworked desk agents, and harried flight attendants. But Northwest Airlines appears to have hit a new low in musician relations: students from a Minnesota high school orchestra were shocked last week when Northwest refused to allow their insruments in the cabin, and charged $1600 to place them in the cargo hold, from whence several cellos and basses emerged broken and unplayable. The airline says it probably isn’t liable.
Code Sculptor: Oops, I Made A Mistake?
For years cryptographers have been trying to solve the code in a sculpture that sits at CIA headquarters. “But now Jim Sanborn, the artist who created the Kryptos sculpture, says he made a mistake. A previously solved part of the puzzle that sleuths assumed was correct for years isn’t. The new information, including what the mistaken text really says, is creating a buzz among enthusiasts who’ve been obsessed over the sculpture for years.”
Hiphop Comes Inside
A Colorado groups is bringing hiphop into the concert hall. “We’re presenting hip-hop dance in a prestigious format, like people have done with jazz or ballet for centuries on big stages. Hip-hop is not just some gangster-type facade. Even when the dance side of it becomes aggressive, or battling, it always ends up positively.”
Magazine: Go To Buffalo For Arts
American Style magazine conducted a reader poll of top US arts cities. “Among big American cities, the winners were New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C. In the small city category, the winners were Santa Fe, N.M.; Asheville, N.C.; and Corning, N.Y.”
Death Camp “Superstar” Cancelled
Plans for a performance of “Jesus Christ Superstar” at a former Nazi death camp have been cancelled. “It was not a good idea. It did not take into consideration the relations between Christianity and Judaism. I decided that there will be no performance because we must stick to the message of the museum, which is truth, memory, reconciliation.”
Actor: A Design Competition For New Orleans
Actor Brad Pitt is frustrated by the slowness in rebuilding New Orleans, so he’s sponsoring an “environmentally-friendly” design competition. “Our goal is to kick off the rebuilding effort. It’s certainly long overdue and I can only go from the reports that we get … that it’s behind, absolutely. People are frustrated. We could possibly build something that was better and took into account the historical traditions of the city and the voices of the people and turn this into some kind of good.”