Awards season is in full swing in Hollywood, with the Producers’ Guild and the Writers’ Guild being the latest groups to announce their nominations for best pictures of 2005. Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain, the ensemble drama Crash, and biopic Capote are on both shortlists, with nods being given as well to Syriana, Walk The Line, Cinderella Man, and Good Night and Good Luck.
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Mostly Mozart, Mildly Modern
In case you hadn’t heard, 2006 is the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth, and classical music organizations the world over are falling all over themselves to pay tribute. So you might expect New York’s newly rejuvenated Mostly Mozart festival to be throwing the biggest party of them all, and you’d be right, but organizers are taking the unusual path of viewing Mozart through the lens of contemporary society. As part of its tribute, Mostly Mozart has commissioned four new works, “three of them ‘inspired’ by Mozart.” Throw in a Peter Sellars staging of a Mozart opera, a dance interpretation of the master’s piano works, and “a digital art installation tied to the Jupiter Symphony,” and it should be anything but a dull summer in New York.
Canada’s National Arts Centre Hangs Onto Its Leader
Peter Herrndorf, who is credited with bringing the Ottawa-based National Arts Centre back to national prominence in Canada, has had his contract as NAC president extended by two years, his second such extension. In Herrndorf’s six years on the job, the NAC has not run a deficit, and has nicely balanced the Centre’s double mission – to serve both a local and national audience – even while continuing to live in and commute from Toronto, some 430km from the NAC.
New Art Center Planned In Boston
“In 1988, with just $1,800, volunteers founded the Zullo Gallery in [Medfield, Massachusetts, outside of Boston.] The nonprofit space has remained on a shoestring budget ever since. But nearly 18 years and over 75 exhibitions later, Zullo is ready to take its biggest step yet. Plans are underway to create the Zullo Gallery Center for the Arts. In the works are expanded hours, year-round art classes for adults and children, more live music, special events ranging from film screenings to artist demonstrations, and an in-gallery cafe that will spill out onto a rooftop deck.”
The Art Of Celebrity Self-Interest
“Art magazines are indulging in the celebritization of artists, but they’re bringing something stinky to the mix. Take ArtReview’s annual “Power 100 List” and Art + Auction’s “Power Issue,” both considered art world jokes since they first appeared in 2001 and 1996, respectively. Recently each came out with a list; both were based on money and as self-interested as ever. In addition to museum directors, mega- collectors, auction house bigwigs, art fair pashas, art advisers, and the below-average overhyped painter Marlene Dumas, both lists are stocked with the magazine’s advertisers and the artists they represent. It would be a hoot if it weren’t so craven.”
A World Of Dangerous Ideas
Each year John Brockman asks 100+ very smart people a question. This year “what you will find emerging out of the 119 original essays in the 75,000 word document written in response to the 2006 Edge Question — ‘What is your dangerous idea?’ — are indications of a new natural philosophy, founded on the realization of the import of complexity, of evolution.”
Ian Tops Most-Powerful Theatre List
David Ian, chairman of Live Nation’s global theatrical division has topped the annual Stage 100 list of most influential theatre people. He replaces Andrew Lloyd Webber who led the list the past 5 years. “Theatre impresario Cameron Mackintosh is listed in second place this year, with Lloyd Webber slipping down to third equal with Howard Panter and Rosemary Squire, founders of the Ambassador Theatre Group.”
Seattle Museum Closes For Construction
This week the Seattle Art Museum closes its main building for 16 months to construct an expansion. “Downtown, the museum will have 300,000 square feet, tripling the exhibition space and providing a free-admission, wrap-around public corridor full of art and art events. Besides that, there’s plenty of room for further expansion. The building is 16 stories high, and initially the museum will occupy only the bottom four floors and rent out the rest to Washington Mutual. When SAM needs more room, it can hand the bank its walking papers for eight more floors. (The top four belong to the bank.)”
Seattle Art Museum Fires Guards
Two Seattle Art Museum guards were fired Wednesday for threatening to walk out, which the museum perceived as a security breach.
Postcard From A Soviet Life
“Until his downfall, Anatoly Sukhanov, at 56, was one of the officially privileged and powerful. He had a spacious apartment, a chauffeured limousine and two children with assured futures in diplomacy and journalism, respectively. In charge of Moscow’s principal art magazine, he has enforced the shining-face uplift of Socialist Realism, and dealt out turgidly reasoned warnings about the decadence of Western modernism and postmodernism.”