Metropolitan Museum of Art director Phillipe De Montebello wonders why American museums and collectors have been targeted for return of looted artifacts, but not those in other countries. “I must say I am puzzled at one thing, which is the absence of claims against collectors and museums in Germany, Spain, the U.K., Switzerland, Denmark and Japan, among others. They were buying from dealers at least as much as the dealers now under indictment in the United States. I think we should reflect on why only the U.S. is being the target of claims.”
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Chicago Music Fans Angry At Pub Radio Decision To Drop Music
“Chicago Public Radio’s recently announced decision to gut music programs from all three frequencies it controls — most notably WBEZ-FM 91.5 — has unleashed a torrent of criticism. Listeners who for decades have tuned in to WBEZ’s jazz, blues and world-music programming are incensed at the plans, which will go into effect in early 2007.”
Chicago Art Institute To Start Charging Admission
For years, admission to the Chicago Art Institute has been by “suggested donation.” “Patrons had to pay something, though one could pay as little as $1. Most visitors paid the full, posted price.” No more. “Museum officials are now asking the Chicago Park District Board for permission to make the listed admission fee mandatory.”
Mozart Tops UK Favorite Composer Poll
Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto has topped Classic FM’s poll of Britain’s most popular composer. “It is the first time the Austrian-born composer has come first in the radio station’s annual Hall of Fame survey. Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto had previously topped the survey for five years in a row. Mozart has 24 entries in the Top 300, three more than his nearest rival Beethoven – three of whose works feature in the Top 10.”
“Graduate” Author To Be Evicted
The author of the book of used for “The Graduate” is about to be evicted from his home. “Novelist Charles Webb, 66, and his partner have only days to pay two months’ overdue rent, totalling nearly £1,600, on their flat in Hove. Mr Webb wrote the book on which the 1967 movie starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft was based. The Californian author accepted a one-off payment of £14,000 for the novel, while the film made £60m.”
The Barcelona Solution
It was not very long ago that the enormity of the 9/11 tragedy united New York City in ways that surprised even the idealists. But hard-bitten observers of the development scene predicted from the beginning that hope, crystallized in architects’ renderings of soaring towers and austere landscapes of grief, would need to be tempered by ‘reality.’ They’ve gotten their way. At Ground Zero, design is distrusted and shunted aside at every turn in favor of the same enervating commercial product that can be erected and rented for a fraction of the cost elsewhere.” But maybe Barcelona offers a better way?
Where Are The Jukebox Musicals Taking Us?
“Jukebox musicals have always been controversial, inspiring hate and devotion in equal measure. Some have defended them on the grounds that they are harmless entertainment; others have dismissed them as not like ‘proper’ musicals (Chicago, Evita, The Producers), just the cynical repackaging of dusty back catalogues and fading reputations.
What no one could deny is that these hybrids of pop nostalgia and theatrical sawdust are here to stay.”
Filmmakers Protest Smithsonian TV Deal
Last month the network Showtime and the Smithsonian “announced the creation of Smithsonian Networks, a joint venture for original television programming on scientific, cultural and historical subjects whose first service would be an on-demand cable channel beginning this December. As part of the deal, Smithsonian Networks was to get the right of first refusal on commercial documentaries that relied significantly on the museum’s archives, curators or scientists.” Now, “more than 215 filmmakers, television executives and academics have signed a letter demanding that the Smithsonian, a publicly financed museum, not only reveal financial details of the joint venture but also abandon it.”
The Dancing Faces
For two years, artist and choreographer Jonathan Stone has been filming people dancing with just their faces. “They’re like little character portraits,” he says. “Everyone chooses their own music, so I have absolutely no control over that. As I film lots of people, it builds up a portrait of a population and the varieties of musical taste. It can be anything from classical music to bits of jazz and thrash metal.”
Pulitzer Passes On 2006 Theatre Award
There is no Pulitzer for drama this year. Adam Rapp’s Red Light Winter, Rolin Jones’ The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow, and Christopher Durang’s Miss Witherspoon were expected to be frontrunners the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.