“Michael Rush will be the next director of Brandeis University’s Rose Art Museum, the university has announced… Rush, 55, will take over from Joseph Ketner, who left the Rose last summer to become chief curator at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Rush will assume his new position about a year after resigning from the Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art, which he had run since 1999. He said he disagreed with the institute’s foundation over the organization’s direction.” The Rose Museum is in the midst of trying to raise $12 million for a major expansion.
Blog
Could Cultural Diplomacy Help America’s Image Abroad?
“Almost out of earshot, questions are being asked about whether it is wise for the United States’s cultural image to be shaped exclusively by the marketplace. More specifically, with Washington now dusting off public diplomacy as a strategy to combat rampant anti-Americanism, is it time to revive cultural diplomacy? The purpose would not be to mute American popular culture. Instead, rather than trying to compete for the attention of the masses, cultural diplomacy would aim to persuade political and intellectual elites of the virtues of American civilization. This approach is now being quietly promoted by several arts lobbies in the United States.”
Books For People Who Don’t Read Books By People Who Don’t Write Books
Simon & Schuster would like to sell more books to the 20-something crowd, and its new imprint, SSE, is taking an unconventional route towards that end. SSE’s publishers don’t spend their time at international book fairs, scouring the booths for the next hot author. They’re more likely to seek out creative and interesting individuals who’ve never written a book in their lives, and cajole them into giving it a shot. Call it Pop Culture Lit, call it amateurish dreck, but one thing is sure: SSE is making money.
Christie’s Hits The Fall Auction Jackpot
“Rarely do three well-known art collections come to the auction block in the same season. Even more rarely does one auction house get to sell them all. Starting Tuesday, Christie’s will offer several exceptional works, including a Toulouse-Lautrec painting of a red-haired model, one of the centerpieces of the recent exhibition ‘Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre’ at the Art Institute of Chicago; a 1954 Rothko inspired by Matisse’s 1911 ‘Red Studio’; and an abstract de Kooning from 1977 that has had only one owner: the artist’s lawyer, Lee V. Eastman. Experts at the auction house are trying not to gloat.”
Getting The Lowdown
In LA, museum spaces have begun programming Lowbrow in earnest. “Some of Lowbrow’s newfound respectability comes from being associated with hip art-world trends.”
Attention, Electronic Gadgets: Shut Up!
The modern world is too damn noisy. Car alarms, beeping microwaves, chirping beepers, cell phones that play that hideous 50 Cent hook… it’s all just a bit much, isn’t it? “The people who make all these things obviously think we’re idiots. That without their constant, irritating reminders, we’d go wandering off, our minds blank, to drool down our shirts or spend 30 minutes tying our shoes. The world is noisy enough without adding completely useless aural pollution to the mix.”
Paganini’s Violin To Hit The Block
An 18th century Cremonese violin once owned by Nicolo Paganini will go on sale at Sotheby’s next week with an asking price of £500,000 ($894,600). “Not only is it the first time one of Paganini‘s cherished instruments has come up for auction, it is one of only 50 surviving violins by master craftsman Carlo Bergonzi of Cremona.”
Philly’s Summer Shed To Get Major Upgrades
“Philadelphia’s Mann Center for the Performing Arts broke ground Wednesday on a $14.2 million upgrade. … The Mann Center, which is in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park, was opened in 1976 as the summer home of the Philadelphia Orchestra. … In July 2004, [the center’s CEO] outlined a $30 million plan to modernize the center. Wednesday’s ground breaking signals the first phase of that work. Among the improvements will be an education center to provide dedicated facilities for the 25,000 school children the center receives each year.”
LA: Center Of The New Media Universe?
“Southern California has become the unrivaled international hub of new-media art, design and theory. About 100 Southern California artists, theorists and curators, are at the forefront of a media-art movement destined to help it all make sense.”
SAS Execs To Get Kennedy Training
The recently resurrected San Antonio Symphony will be one of the orchestras to send its executives to Washington, D.C. next month for the Kennedy Center’s new program aimed at training better orchestra managers. The arts management program “will allow symphonies to share information and learn new ways to diversify funding sources. They will also consider ways to make the symphonies relevant in the communities they serve.”