This week, a judge will finally rule on whether or not the Barnes Foundation may break the rules laid down by its founder, and move the famed collection to Philadelphia in an attempt to stabilize its financial situation. But isn’t a key voice missing from the discussion? “[T]he move has generated a good deal of commentary. Except from the one corner of the art world that, given the issues at stake, you would have most expected to hear from: the Association of Art Museum Directors… By sitting on the sidelines in the Barnes debate, AAMD is gravely damaging its moral authority.”
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Just Another Inter-Museum Loan, Minus The Drama
In 2006, the British Museum will lend a priceless clay drum known as the Cyrus Cylinder to Iran for several months. It will be the second time the artifact has been lent to Iran, and hopefully, it won’t be as eventful as the first: back in 1971, the British Museum found itself in the middle of some serious international intrigue when it “decided to lend the antiquity without consulting the Foreign Office, and the UK government later feared that the Iranians would refuse to return it.” The real story of what occurred in the ’70s has only just been declassified in Britain, and UK museum officials have been stunned by the extent to which international politics played a role.
Why Not Cheat?
Two recent cases of scholarly plagiarism at major American universities have been mostly focused on the role of graduate assistants in manuscript preparation. But is the larger issue being missed? According to at least one scholar, “the costs imposed upon those who are caught cheating are often insufficient to outweigh the objective benefits of cheating,” and so plagiarism can often be a risk well worth taking for many writers.
Bringing The Fruited Plain To D.C.
The National Museum of the American Indian doesn’t look like your average Washington museum. In fact, had it not been so well-executed, it could have easily looked out of place in the nation’s capital. “Bringing rude nature to the hallowed ground of the Mall takes guts, of course. But this is not rude nature. No wilderness actually looked like this. It is as calculated a built artifact in its own way as is Tomorrowland. It is nature to which human intelligence and imagination have been applied. It is an Indian’s image of Eden.”
Too Much Hedging, Not Enough Scholarship
“The Museum of the American Indian has much to boast of… But the ambition of creating a ‘museum different’ – the goal of making that museum answer to the needs, tastes and traditions of perhaps 600 diverse tribes, ranging from the Tapirape of the Brazilian jungles to the Yupik of Alaska – results in so many constituencies that the museum often ends up filtering away detail rather than displaying it, and minimizing difference even while it claims to be discovering it.”
eMusic To Focus On Indies
eMusic, one of the oldest legal music download sites (it was founded in 1999,) is launching a redesign this week, and with it, a revised definition of its mission. Lagging well behind the subscriber numbers of downloading juggernauts RealNetworks, AOL, and MusicMatch, eMusic has decided to focus on the grossly underserved independent music market. The new eMusic catalog will offer 500,000 tracks from 3,700 indie labels, and will give the small-timers front page treatment. “The aim is to help fans locate the small, the obscure and the eccentric; help musicians find their fans; and grab a chunk of the more than $2 billion in revenues generated annually by independent music labels.”
Gray Lady Gets Her Avant-Garde On
The New York Times has finally assigned an arts columnist to write about the avant-garde. But is it too late? “Many say that no real avant-garde – which I’ll define as a combative group of free-thinking artists – can exist anymore. The media’s reach is too vast. New artists and movements get snatched up too quickly. If they are popular they get overexposed and stale. If they are not popular they disappear, and the marketeers decide they had better play it safe next time.” Still, the digital world has brought so many different types of art and free thinking together that the fusion of styles could be considered the new cutting edge.
The Bessies Celebrate NY Dance
“New York dance had its annual gathering of the clan on Friday night at the Joyce Theater with the New York Dance and Performance Awards ceremony, dance’s equivalent to the Oscars and Tonys. Better known as the Bessies, named after Bessie Schonberg, a choreography teacher who was a mentor to many, the awards carry prizes of $500 to $1,000.” The madcap nature of the event was downplayed a bit this year, with more political musing than usual making its way into acceptance speeches.
Pay Us Anything! Just Come Watch The Show!
All across the UK, opera companies, theaters, and orchestras are testing cut-price ticketing schemes designed to lure first-timers to performances they ordinarily wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. “So it is £10 at the National Theatre, £5 for students at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s new Albery season, a third off for two operas or more at English National Opera, £5 at Welsh National Opera, and ‘pay what you can’ nights at the Bristol Old Vic.” Slashing ticket prices may smell a bit of desperation, but the strategy is working: the National Theatre had 50,000 new patrons last season, and a third of those have returned this year.
Philanthropists To Fly Coach
“The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, one of several major philanthropies to take heat this year over high-end travel by board members, said it will no longer pay for first-class flights by its directors or most trips by their spouses.” Directors will now fly business class or coach, depending on the length of the flight. Recent media reports had questioned the use of foundation funds to pay for first-class travel.