“Let’s talk intellectual capital. I keep hearing that phrase from Carl Kurlander, the native son screen writer returned from the Wrong Coast to teach at Pitt and evangelize on the depth and potential of Pittsburgh’s entertainment talent. Our generally downbeat view of local abilities to the contrary, Pittsburghers have a huge role in the national entertainment industry. Rather than continuing to export that creative and entrepreneurial talent, why not put it to work right here? … (W)hat’s mainly needed is a heightened sense of our own capabilities, a more developed culture of can-do.”
Blog
In Alsop Controversy, All Orchestras May Lose
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra broke a gender barrier when it appointed Marin Alsop to be its next music director. “But management made another bit of history, this one unfortunate, because it hired Alsop over the unusually public objections of its own musicians. By brushing aside the opinion of its artists on the most important artistic decision an orchestra can make, management runs the risk of setting her up for failure. The move has likely stunted the growth of Alsop’s nascent rapport with the musicians, and has alerted listeners to a possibly troubled relationship – two things no orchestra ever wants to do, unless it is acting out of desperation.”
Topical Musicals Reach Critical Mass At Edinburgh Fringe
“Alzheimer’s, 9/11, Asbos, the Yorkshire Ripper, the ‘war on terror’, the apocalypse – there’s no shortage of provocative topics on the Edinburgh Fringe this year. The extraordinary thing is they are all being tackled in musicals. It’s striking that song-and-dance extravaganzas can be staged out of such sensitive subjects. How did a ‘low’ artform get so grown-up?”
Jesus Got A New Halo. Who’s The Guilty Party?
“Over the course of nearly 150 years, two enigmatic paintings at St. Ignatius Roman Catholic Church have been treated as anything but masterpieces. They’ve been stashed away in closets, ripped, faded and – perhaps worst of all – touched up at the hands of a well-meaning, but ill-advised, artist. That apparent artistic license has been particularly puzzling to current church officials and a German conservator as they worked to restore the paintings, ignored for years but now believed to be the work of 19th-century Italian master Constantino Brumidi. Who would have painted a completely different halo over Jesus’ head, or given him a full new beard?”
Gallery Director Fired After ‘Daily Show’ Chat
“An art gallery director says she was fired for talking on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart last week about a sexually explicit caricature of President Bush, a sheik and a barrel of oil.” The Florida gallery says the two events were unrelated.
How Much Is That Plane Ticket To New York?
Broadway junkies just can’t seem to get a proper fix in the Twin Cities. “There’s much to brag about in local theater, from the reported number of seats sold to the fact that we have three Tony-winning regional playhouses in Minneapolis: the Guthrie, which is completing its $125 million, three-stage complex on the Mississippi River; the Children’s Theatre, which will soon unveil its own $24 million expansion, and Theatre de la Jeune Lune, whose inventive creations have drawn a growing international following. But the upcoming seasons in Minneapolis and St. Paul, each without a pre-Broadway show or buzz-heavy blockbuster, make us look as if we are in the sticks.”
No Stopover In Twin Cities For Broadway-Bound Shows
Minneapolis is an arts mecca, no doubt about it. But there’s one category in which it consistently loses out to Chicago and San Francisco: premieres of Broadway-bound plays and musicals.
Chicago Can Learn From Baltimore’s Missteps
“The botched process by which Marin Alsop was hired earlier this week to be the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s next music director poses a cautionary tale for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which for more than a year has been conducting a search of its own to find a successor to Daniel Barenboim.”
Native Americans In Venice: Progress Or Tokenism?
“The Venice Biennale is the world’s oldest and most important survey of contemporary art. When artists have been chosen for the Biennale, you know they’ve truly arrived. This year, two native North Americans had prominent spots in the exhibition. Does this mean that native art in general has reached a new level of art-world recognition? Or is it a fluke, or even the kind of tokenism that could disappear again?”
Beneath The Radar, Collecting Inexpensively
At San Francisco’s Lost Art, the experience of buying art is deliberately “anti-gallery”: unintimidating and — gasp — affordable. “There are no pristine white walls or fancy track lighting. Instead, framed paintings by unknown artists and others on the cusp of stardom occupy nearly every inch of available wall space in the cozy salon, which is dolled up with midcentury furnishings to feel more like some cool bohemian aunt’s living room than a place of business.”