Who’s going to win this year’s Tony awards? John Heilpern handicaps the field…
Blog
Missing Eos
Why did the adventurous orchestra Eos fold after 10 years? Conductor Jonathan Sheffer ponders the question: “Ironically, Eos’s decline during the past year happened against the backdrop of the rise of Red {an orchestra} in Cleveland, now entering its fourth season. The opposite trajectory of these two groups perfectly manifested all that was problematic with Eos, and all that is right with Red. With only my programming ideas in common, Red and Eos, each in its own way, embody all the challenges and rewards facing the smaller, more iconoclastic arts groups in America.”
Regan: LA’s Where The Action Is
Why is super editor Judith Regan bringing her publishing house from New York to LA? “Over the last 20 years, she explains, New York has turned into a city that’s better suited to bankers, Wall Street lawyers and the superrich than it is to publishers. Artists are fleeing, creativity is dying, and the rents keep going up.”
The Mozart Effect (But Why?)
What is it with our enduring fascination with Mozart? “As we near the 250th anniversary of his birth, Mozart still presides as the patron saint of modern child prodigies—and as a talismanic figure in the more mundane realm of bound-for-the-top organization kids, too.”
New Yorker Hits DVD
The New Yorker magazine is issuing its complete archive of issues on DVD. “The collection, titled “The Complete New Yorker,” will consist of eight DVD’s containing high-resolution digital images of every page of the 4,109 issues of the magazine from February 1925 through the 80th anniversary issue, published last February. Included on the discs will be “every cover, every piece of writing, every drawing, listing, newsbreak, poem and advertisement.”
Davidson: Hope For Ground Zero
Justin Davidson admits that conventional wisdom says the Ground Zero rebuilding process is a mess. But. “Yes, much of what is happening downtown is lamentable, secretive, unpredictable and slow. But nearly four years after the attacks we have a plan that, for all its flaws, represents a workable compromise. We should keep prodding it toward reality.”
Art Of The Fake
Faking contemporary art is more common, but “with Old Master paintings, it’s just about over. Forgery is much more difficult because we have so many tools to discover them. (See article page 106.) It’s impossible to imagine a Picasso painting coming out of the woodwork that nobody has ever seen. It’s inconceivable that someone would get away with it.”
The 10 Most-Faked Artists
What are the most -faked aartists? Here’s a list…
Flexibility May Be The Future
As the range of entertainment options available to Americans gets ever wider, it seems to be increasingly difficult for arts organizations to draw a crowd, and by extension, to raise money. “It’s not only the will and wherewithal to give that can erode arts funding. Social needs, priorities and sensibilities change. A museum or new theater that was exciting to build and open isn’t necessarily as thrilling to fund five years later, when it’s up and running… The culture is constantly evolving, under the pressures of changing demographics, audience behavior, seductive new technologies and the nature of making and consuming art. No organization, no artist can afford to assume that anything that’s working today will do so tomorrow.”
Cleveland’s Departing Director Getting Out Now
“Katharine Reid announced in February she would retire as director of the Cleveland Museum of Art as soon as a successor could be named. This week, she sped up her schedule… Effective Friday, July 1, Reid will become consulting director of the museum. Deputy directors Charles Venable, Susan Jaros and Janet Ashe will run the museum as a team until a new director is appointed.” Reid’s departure comes as the museum is gearing up for a massive six-year expansion project, and the search for her successor is likely months from being completed.