Sydney, Australia, is a world-class city in every sense of the word, but now comes evidence that one of those senses may be hurting another. “With the cost of living soaring like some interminable aria, Sydney risks losing its artistic core. Is Sydney becoming a town that discards culture in favour of superficiality and materialism?” The answer is, of course, far more complicated than the question, but there does seem to be a measurable danger to the city’s cultural life.
Blog
An American Tragedy, Live & All Too Local
Nick Spitzer’s popular public radio program, American Routes, has always been heavily flavored by New Orleans, the city from whence it originates. Now the program, like everyone else in the Big Easy, is in exile, and Spitzer is using the program as an unofficial catalog of the cultural loss of one of America’s great musical centers. According to Spitzer, Katrina “[may be] America’s biggest cultural disaster – in the sense of the loss of New Orleans’s cultural stuff, the loss of the communities there that interact and the lack of will to move as quickly as if these houses being flooded were on the coast of Kennebunkport. And even for those of us who got out, there’s this grinding uncertainty of whether we’ll ever get back and ever live the same again.”
Which Works Of Art Would You Want To Survive A War?
The UK is signing on to a half-century old provision from the Hague convention’s rules of war which allows for the protection of cultural treasures from marauding armies. British politicians had always dismissed the guidelines, which call for labeling specific works of great cultural or artistic significance with a blue shield, but reconsidered after the 2003 looting of Baghdad’s museum in the wake of the American invasion. Now the government is launching a consultation process to determine the works of art that should be selected for the special treatment.
Waxing Nostalgic
Long before CDs – before cassettes, 8-tracks, and even those old 78 records, for that matter – there was Thomas Edison and his wax cylinders. “From John Philip Sousa’s patriotic band to the Fred Van Epps Banjo Orchestra to obscure Hawaiian hula medleys, Edison’s cylinders brought recorded music to the masses and set the stage for the entire industry to develop. Along with performers, he recorded the important and interesting people of his era talking about their work, including Andrew Carnegie, the industrialist, and Thomas A. Watson, the assistant to Alexander Graham Bell.” Hundreds of these earliest examples of recorded sound are still strewn about Edison’s New Jersey lab, and historians are working to catalog and digitize their contents.
Folk Rock’s Closet Opera Fan
Singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright has become a darling of the indie-rock scene over the past few years, renowned for his poetic lyrics and the “plaintive vibrato” of his voice. But Wainwright’s musical tastes might surprise most of his fans: he’s a major opera buff, a serious fanatic “who can trace the seamless structure of the banquet scene from Verdi’s Macbeth and discuss the subtleties of Gluck’s lesser-known Armide.” And don’t think Rufus’s obsession with the music of Europe’s cultural elite sat well with his ’60s-era folksinger parents, either…
No Help Coming In Effort To Keep Titian In UK
A major painting by Titian is being put up for sale, and the National Gallery, which last year prevented Raphael’s Madonna of the Pinks from being purchased by a foreign bidder with an emergency infusion of cash from the government, hoped to do the same with the Titian. But the Heritage Lottery Fund, which grudgingly ponied up for the Raphael, calls the acquisition of art a “low priority.” Adding to the intrigue is the consenseus opinion of art experts that the Titian is a more significant work than the Raphael.
Bristol’s Arnolfini Reopens
“The burgeoning reputation of Bristol as a buzzing centre for cutting-edge contemporary culture took another leap forward when the doors of Arnolfini, its modern arts centre reopened yesterday. After a two-year refurbishment, the warren of corridors and rather cramped galleries at the converted 19th-century tea warehouse have gone, replaced by wide open, inviting white spaces. The re-birth of Arnolfini is also a further boost for the city’s waterside area, which has undergone a transformation in recent years into a major tourist destination.”
Why The LPO May Be Doomed
All members of the now-homeless Louisiana Philharmonic survived the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, but many have lost everything they had, and the future of the orchestra itself hangs in the balance. Adding to the uncertainty surrounding the LPO’s future is the fact that the ensemble is run by its musicians, who will have to seek employment in other cities while New Orleans is being rebuilt. Those who land jobs elsewhere may not be available to return to the LPO even if it does survive. One of the orchestra’s violists tells Violinist.com that “I would love to go back to a properly rebuilt city and the orchestra the way it was, but I just can’t see how that will happen.”
d’Offay In Talks To Sell His Collection
“Scotland’s gallery bosses are in talks to buy one of the world’s most spectacular collections of modern art. Art chiefs are hoping to clinch famous works by leading figures such as Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst in a deal with London-based collector Anthony d’Offay. His £100m collection features more than 700 works that he has gathered during a 40-year career. Officials at the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh and Glasgow City Council have been in joint talks with the art dealer in a bid to agree a deal. And a new gallery to rival London’s Tate Modern could be built in Edinburgh to house the collection.”
Officials Warn Against Press Scrutiny
Scotland’s First Minister is personally involved in the d’Offay negotiations, but Scottish officials have warned that the media attention is jeopardizing a potential deal. The collector has made it known that he would like his art holdings to be housed in Scotland, but there are numerous logistical hurdles to be overcome, not the least of which is a lack of appropriate space in either Glasgow or Edinburgh to house the massive collection.