A gift of 800 contemporary artworks valued at $215 million by three couples to the Dallas Museum of Art earlier this year, vaults the museum to a new level. But the gift was only part of a remarkable pattern of support by patrons trying to build a civic collection.
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Your Name Here (As Long As You Pay)
“Next month, Stephen King, Amy Tan, Lemony Snicket, Nora Roberts, Michael Chabon and 11 other best-selling writers will sell the right to name characters in their new novels. Profits from the auction (at www.ebay.com/fap) will go to the First Amendment Project, whose lawyers go to court to protect the free speech rights of activists, writers and artists.”
Colin Wilson: Optimistically Yours
“In books on sex, crime, psychology and the occult, and in more than a dozen novels, Colin Wilson has explored how pessimism can rob ordinary people of their powers. ‘If you asked me what is the basis of all my work, it’s the feeling there’s something basically wrong with human beings. Human beings are like grandfather clocks driven by watch springs. Our powers appear to be taken away from us by something.’ The critics, particularly in Britain, have alternately called him a genius and a fool.”
Making Room For Something New (And Good!)
So a hot new symphony comes out, wins a big prize, and… nothing. It doesn’t get performed. And why? “The issue is whether orchestras can find the will and the flexibility to tap into hot works when they turn up, or whether their idea of exciting programming is simply to group repertory favorites under facile thematic banners, with the occasional premiere thrown in dutifully and the word “exciting” splashed across the brochure.”
Hadid – The Inventor Of 89 Degrees
Architect Zaha Hadid is finally getting her buildings built around the world. It took many years. “There is a certain uncompromising otherworldliness to Hadid. And this, combined with the wackiness of her designs, may account for why, for many years, she remained Britain’s great unbuilt architect. Many architects take a long time to come to the fore, but Hadid’s incubation period stretched for nearly 25 years.”
And Just Who Is Michael Brand?
“Brand, 47, a native of Australia, is considered to be a rising star in the museum world and has been on short lists for several other museum directorships. He became the assistant director of the Queensland Art Gallery in Australia at 38, and took the director’s job four years later in Richmond, where he embarked on an aggressive mission to build the museum’s holdings, shepherd donations of major collections and raise $100 million for an expansion.” Brand: “One of the reasons why I’ve come to the Getty is that it’s already a great museum. I’m not coming here saying that it needs to be saved or anything like that.”
Hip Hop Nation (In Its Many Forms)
Think you know all about hip-hop? Think again. Different styles have evolved since hip-hop’s ’70s origins in the African American neighborhoods of the Bronx and later the Latino enclaves of Queens, and they get lumped together, says Rennie Harris. What makes the Illadelph festival unique is that many of his 15 teaching colleagues are originators of the form; these “Legends” provide the specifics of hip-hop history, theory and technique. “That’s why we stay on the foundation,” Harris says, so students can “take it, build on that, and do their thing.”
Magazines – What’s Hot/Not
What’s hot in the magazine world? Celebrity magazines. The star-obsessed glossies are seeing huge circulation gains. What’s not? News magazines, which are seeing readers peel away to the internet…
What To Make Of “Britain’s Best Paintings”?
The list, to be voted on by the public, is a familiar one. “These are the paintings in Britain’s galleries most often written about, most regularly reproduced. People love them precisely because they are as familiar as old friends. Pablo Picasso is out while Sir Henry Raeburn is in. In a sense, this list – chosen by a panel but based on public nominations – is a tribute to art education. It may be predictable, but it is wide-ranging.”
Fo: Think 20 Years
Playwright Dario Fo makes a rare public appearance. “Asked what his advice would be for writers who had not yet reached his level of achievement and recognition, an amiable Fo said: ‘It is not just a question of experience, nor is it a question of age … There are some people who live only 20 years, but many, many people remember them because they knew how to live the time that was given to them. I’m not suggesting that you should live only 20 years. Live as long as you can, but from time to time, think ’20 years, 20 years, 20 years’, and put them together’.”