Nevad’s official Poet Laureate hasn’t performed an official function for years. So the Nevada Arts Council wants to appoint a new poet to the job. Some disagree with the idea. “Norman Kaye may be an 82-year-old real estate agent who gave up the showbiz life more than 40 years ago. He may be completely ignorant of poetic sensibility and device. He may be unable to travel, to communicate with the kiddies about the importance or even the structure of poetry. But Norman Kaye is rightfully a legendary Nevadan who, in desperately clinging to some modicum of past glory by fighting for his right to stay poet laureate, embodies the poetry of this place.”
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The Myths Of Demise of The Women’s Review Of Books
So the Women’s Review of Books is fading into history. Was it inevitable, given the times? That’s too pat an explanation, writes former WRB senior editor Lynn Walterick. “In the post–November 2 United States—and certainly earlier––dialogue, reasonable disagreement, and discovery appear to have joined the ranks of endangered species. Difference is under siege; choice—on all fronts—has disappeared, is declining, or is shadowed by threat. This is no time to leave the line of battle for the bottom line.”
Cincinnati Gets A Renoir
The Cincinnati Museum of Art has acquired its first Renoir -Brouillard a Guernsey” (“Fog at Guernsey”) – the most expensive art the museum has ever bought. “The painting fills a gap in the museum’s Impressionist collection. ‘We have a lovely collection of Impressionists — Pissarro, Monet, Sisley — but Renoir was conspicuous in his absence’.”
The American Indian Story In Its Own Way
If you’re looking for a traditional art museum experience, the new National Museum of the American Indian is probably not the place for you. But “visitors not conditioned by art-museum preconceptions begin to feel the stirrings of Indian spirit as soon as they enter the museum’s majestic 120-foot-high rotunda.”
Attention Thieves: Art Is Where The Money Is
If you’re a thief, maybe banks aren’t the place you want to hit these days. Art is where the money is. “The worldwide market in stolen art and collectibles is worth an estimated $4 billion, according to Scotland Yard.”
Study: Music Education’s Startling Decline In California
Music education is down by one third in four years in San Diego, says a new study. “Music’s mortality rate is even greater statewide. Enrollment in music classes is down 50 percent from 1999-2000 to last school year. There are two major causes. One is money. Some local school boards have eliminated music teachers as part of millions of dollars in budget cuts. The second is pressure to raise test scores, which has prompted educators to add extra reading and math classes that crowd electives out of school schedules.”
Opera Class Between Basketball And Football
Every week teens from all over the Bay Area head to opera class after school. “The Bay Area’s only teen opera training program to put on full-scale productions during the school year attracts dozens of 13- to 19-year-old participants from San Jose to San Leandro. These budding baritones and sopranos aren’t your stereotypical glee club or drama class devotees. One-fourth of the cast dashes between school sporting events and stage rehearsals.”
A Culture Of Culture
What does it take to have a thriving arts community? Well, money of course, but there’s a whole culture of support that distinguishes a city that works culturally. Take Cleveland, for example…
Canada’s New Poet Laureate
Pauline Marcil has been appointed Canada’s new poet laureate. “Marcil, 60, wants to use her new job to bring “artists in contact with the political world.” She also wants to revisit the idea of having events such as poetry and literature readings at the Parliament building.”
MoMA Opens To Long Lines And Cheers
The new Museum of Modern Art reopened Saturday with a line of thousands that stretched around the block. “Many arrived hours before the 10 a.m. opening to be among the first to see the museum’s collection of world-class modern and contemporary art. At 10 a.m. sharp, the doors swung open to cheers.”