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LACMA Gives New Music The Boot

The LA County Museum of Art is dropping the residencies of two of LA’s most important contemporary music groups. The California EAR Unit and Xtet — as well the annual Rosalinde Gilbert Concerts, which cover a broader repertory, are being cut loose. “We’re going to concentrate on programs that enhance the core mission of an art museum, which is to present the visual arts to the public.”

Greek Curator On Trial For Offending Church

A Greek curator is on truial for offending the Eastern Orthodox church last year when he “organised a major modern art exhibition in Greece as part of a series of cultural events leading up to the Olympics. The case against him stems from a painting by Belgian artist Thierry de Cordier, which shows a penis next to a Christian cross.” If found guilty he could go to jail for five years.

Art – Entertainment Or Investment

A New York curator says art is facing a crisis. “It’s a dismal time. Young artists in my city are very upset about being suborned by commerce, on an international scale now. Art has just been lassooed to serve the purposes of the larger society, which are totally commercial. It must be said some artists are glad enough to collaborate.”

Smithsonian Pulls Out Of Sponsoring Film

“The Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History has withdrawn its co-sponsorship of a showing later this month of a film that supports the theory of “intelligent design.The museum said it would not cancel the screening of the film, “The Privileged Planet,” but would return the $16,000 that the Discovery Institute, an organization that promotes a skeptical view of the Darwinian theory of evolution, had paid it.”

A Season For Tonys

This year’s Broadway season featured “a bevy of big men on campus, a dearth of decent old musicals, and $768 million in sales. A big chunk of that figure came from shows that opened in the spring, and the Tonys should follow suit, with productions like “Monty Python’s Spamalot,” “Doubt, A Parable” and “The Light in the Piazza” all favored to win multiple awards. Indeed, most on Broadway predict a remarkably democratic distribution of Tonys, though a few old-timers sense the possibility of a big “Spamalot” sweep.”

Sylvie Guillem At 40

Ballet star Sylvie Guillem finds her career changing as she rounds the corner of 40. “The “Mademoiselle Non” of the 1990s (the nickname ruefully given to her by Sir Anthony Dowell) is still turning down roles, but now it’s because she has a whole new game plan in view – a new language of movement, a new challenge, a new direction. And later, perhaps, a film, or directing a company, or founding a school. This is no longer a woman willing to be hired to display her accomplishments. She is making the world dance to her tune.”

Royal Ballet Catches An Updraft

“No major company has had a more confusing time than London’s Royal Ballet, which has not only suffered from the usual crisis of uncertain repertory and underpowered stars but floundered badly during the disastrous, short-lived reign of Ross Stretton. Today, under the leadership of Monica Mason, one of the strongest and most intelligent of its dancers from the 60’s into the 80’s, it seems to be making a comeback—not through flashy innovations, spurious novelties and concocted celebrations but through careful husbanding of the company’s resources; through nurturing and developing dancers and respecting the past while trying to find a sensible road to the future.