“Day after day the crowds flock to the National Gallery’s ‘Caravaggio: The Final Years’ exhibition, fascinated in equal measures by the artist’s debauched lifestyle and the power of his paintings… But what the crowds are unlikely to appreciate is that the acclaimed exhibition was made possible thanks to the generous donation of a reclusive US millionaire who bankrolled a fundamentalist religious movement founded by a man who endorsed the execution of homosexuals and adulterers.”
Blog
Crafting An International Art Movement
The Arts & Crafts movement began as a flat-out rebellion against an increasingly commercial world, and grew into one of the 20th century’s most successful arts philosophies. But even as the movement became an international phenomenon, it didn’t always work out the way its founders intended. “The sheer goodness of the movement, bound as it is to folk art and the quest for national authenticity, made it vulnerable to nationalistic exploitation.”
Has Arts & Crafts Lost Its Charm?
“Although there are some very good things being made, the craft world at the moment is set up to preserve something that can’t look after itself… Craft has lost its way and become precious; self-consciousness is one of its great cankers. Sometimes there are peevish voices in the craft world demanding respect from the contemporary art world. It is a bit like an Englishman in France shouting in English. If you want to be accepted in the contemporary art world, you have to accept its culture and speak its language.”
In A New York State Of Mind
There is no easier way for a dance troupe to achieve validation than to score a hit in New York City. And this week, both of Colorado’s high-profile dance companies are paying the Big Apple a visit. “But if the potential payoff for these trips to New York is big, so are the risks. Instead of the endorsement they crave, some companies get spanked.” What’s the solution? Well, it never hurts to hire a publicist with extensive knowledge of New York’s strange and powerful arts world.
Art On The Defensive
Is the world of art becoming cowed by a culture that is increasingly hostile to anything that smacks of intellectualism? “Faced with pre-emptive, Internet-driven attacks on what they might do or say at any given moment — and self-fulfilling prophesizing as to whom they surely will offend — movie stars, comedians, even news anchors, increasingly spend their time in reactive mode. Good art — and lively entertainment — sets agendas. Defensive art typically is unwatchable.”
Does New Have To Mean Noise?
When the Boston Symphony hired James Levine as music director, it knew that its audiences would be in for a healthy dose of modern music amid the Sibelius and Beethoven. But less than a year into Levine’s tenure, some are beginning to ask why the maestro seems to go out of his way to select the most tiresome, unlistenable examples of 20th and 21st-century music. “Most of those contemporary composers favored by Levine, such as Elliott Carter and Milton Babbitt, have little patience with anything that smacks of tonality or emotional catharsis. These sons of Schoenberg… also could not care less about music that could rebuild an audience for classical music.”
Small Groups At Risk In Buffalo
Buffalo’s arts scene took a big hit last week when the state legislature scrapped $1 million in county-based arts funding. The city’s largest arts groups will still get their money, but 42 smaller organizations are scrambling to find alternate funds, having already absorbed several rounds of cuts. “The county rollback will disproportionately affect grass-roots organizations whose educational programs serve primarily urban families… By halving the $5.5 million originally budgeted for the arts and radically altering distribution of the remaining $2.7 million, lawmakers called into question the future of the volunteer Erie County Cultural Resources Advisory Board, which was formed 20 years ago to correct inequities in cultural aid.”
Scottish Writers Revolt
Scotland’s authors are proposing to break away from the Scottish Arts Council and are asking the Scottish Executive to start a special funding board just for literature. The move follows a dismal year for the Arts Council, and a similar breakaway request from Scotland’s four largest performing arts groups.
Max Fisher, 96
Detroit’s most famous classical music benefactor wasn’t a big fan of music, and rarely attended concerts at the glittering performing arts complex that bears his name. Max Fisher’s generosity was a gift not so much to an orchestra as to a city he loved, and desperately wanted to see brought back. Fisher died this past week, leaving behind a rich legacy of philanthropy born of an abiding sense of duty.
The Money Behind The Curtain
They don’t play instruments, paint landscapes, or take bows, but those wealthy men and women who sped their evenings in formalwear, going from cocktail party to reception to gala, are an integral part of any city’s cultural scene. In tony Boston, the glitterati have traditionally formed a very exclusive club, but things are changing. “Gone are the closed ranks of the Boston Brahmin, when your place in the Social Register was a question of pedigree. Today, membership in the club is more dependent on how much you can do — and give — for worthy causes. And, with the pool of local corporate benefactors shrinking through mergers and out-of-town ownership, the donations from this club are becoming more critical to a wide array of the city’s social services and the arts.”