UK museums are facing a funding crisis with no end in sight. “The reality is that a decade of expansion has left many British museums struggling to pay for running all those shiny new buildings they have only just opened. At the same time, the abolition of admission charges two years ago raised expectations about visitor numbers. The British Museum and the National Gallery both get close to five million a year; the Science Museum has more than two million. Even if these vast numbers remain static, they will be seen as a sign of failure… But to keep the audience coming back each year requires continuous investment.”
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Is It Time To Free Uncle Remus?
Disney movies are an American mainstay, and since the advent of VCRs, collectors and fans have snapped up countless copies of Disney classics like Cinderella and Snow White. But there is one Disney film that has never made it to video: Song of the South, the lighthearted but supremely controversial story of Uncle Remus, Brer Rabbit, and life in America’s Deep South in the slave days of the 19th century. There’s very little question that the movie’s tone, which seems to portray slave life as an easygoing partnership between blacks and whites, is inaccurate at best and intentionally racist at worst. But still, there’s an argument to be made that the movie deserves to be made available with all its warts.
Can A Playwright Save Musical Theatre?
“David Lindsay-Abaire is a much-admired young playwright whose credentials include two years at the Juilliard Playwrights Program and an early stint staging absurdist dramas in the East Village and SoHo. His big career break came five years ago when Ben Brantley, the chief theater critic for The New York Times, raved over the Manhattan Theater Club production of his quirky dark comedy ‘Fuddy Meers.” Now, Lindsay-Abaire has improbably emerged as Broadway’s best hope of reviving the musical with his acerbic wit, willingness to push an audience’s buttons, and aversion to predictable form.
Hey, Remember The ’80s? Um, Yeah. They Sucked.
Right on schedule, the 1980s are huge again, the way every decade seems to be once we’re 20 years removed from it. But even as the national gurus of the zeitgeist hype the greatness of overwrought bands like The Cure; cheesy, predictable sitcoms “with a twist” (see Diff’rent Strokes); and screeching hair bands with their guitar pedals set permanently on stun, a remarkable reaction has been establishing itself in the wider population: near-complete indifference. In fact, it isn’t going too far to suggest that consumers have realized that all the marketing in the world can’t make the 1980s seems like a culturally important decade, when it was so clearly an era of materialistic greed and shallow, self-serving ear candy.
Passion Begets Passion; Blandness Breeds Indifference
American orchestras seem to be making a very deliberate attempt to reel in concertgoers with non-threatening programs full of “standard repertoire” works which couldn’t possibly cause anyone to have a strong adverse reaction. But the danger of such a strategy is that such “safe” programs frequently don’t inspire any strong reaction, positive or negative. Alexander Coppock has had enough of this approach: “When you program idle, trite, and useless music for my education and protection, I feel condescended to, because I have a need for honesty. Would you be willing to program music that you love, so that I may love it?”
Courting The Obsessives
“The commercial theater increasingly relies on repeat visitors. Surveys conducted by the producers of ‘Les Misérables,’ ‘Miss Saigon’ and ‘Phantom of the Opera’ suggest that 40 percent of the audiences for those long-running musicals had seen the show before. For most, that probably meant returning one or two times, to take a friend or to see a new performer in a familiar role. But among repeat customers there is a repeat elite – ‘Rentheads’ at ‘Rent,’ ‘Q-Tips’ at ‘Avenue Q’- who demonstrate an extraordinary level of commitment to their favored entertainments.”
Plundering Iraq
“Tens of thousands of objects have just gone completely missing From Iraq in the past two years. It’s a cultural disaster of massive proportions. A senior counterterrorism official said the trade in illicit antiquities was increasingly run by organized rings of professional thieves, who use poor Iraqis in rural areas as diggers. Objects are funneled out of the country in concealed shipments along smuggling routes that have been plied for centuries, in a system in which artifacts are sold for cash or sometimes for weapons that wind up in the hands of insurgents in Iraq. Some archaeological experts estimate that the illegal antiquities trade may pump tens of millions of dollars into the underground economy in Iraq.”
Is Philly Ready For A Permanent Arts Fund?
While some American cities have created dedicated arts funds to insure a steady flow of capital to cash-starved cultural groups, Philadelphia’s arts scene has remained largely pay-as-you-go. Now, the mayor is making it clear that he supports the idea of a $50-$100 million fund dedicated to the arts, and the business and political communities may be ready to back the plan.
America’s Steadiest Architect
A new museum in the German resort town of Baden-Baden, built to house a private art collection in a setting open to the public, is a low-profile but important architectural triumph from American architect Richard Meier. “Modest in size and appealing in scale, it is quintessential Meier, a condensation of his complex architectural vocabulary into an intensely beautiful pavilion in a park. Visiting it makes one appreciate (again) how stubbornly consistent Meier has been over the past four decades about the means and ends of architecture — and how stupendously good he can be.”
Can Orchestras Reinvent Themselves With New Music?
The Minnesota Orchestra’s highly regarded new recording of Beethoven symphonies might be a short-term success, but does it really bode well for orchestral recordings in the longer view? “The Beethoven series does nothing to distinguish the orchestra — countless other recordings of this music exist — nor does it further new music. Orchestras can’t afford to ground their 21st-century futures on 19th-century music… By championing living composers as their own and entwining the recordings of their works with performances, orchestras can establish distinct identities regionally and internationally and ensure the vitality of new music.”