Sociologist Michael Mann has spent a career writing an acclaimed series of books on the history of power. Things were going fine, but then he got to the 20th Century, and it all got so complicated…
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The Compleat Shakespeare (First Time)
For the first time, the complete works of William Shakespeare are to be perfomed in a single season. “As well as his well-known plays, the Complete Works of Shakespeare Festival will feature his entire collection of sonnets, poems and other works. The seven-month festival will begin in April 2006, with performances at Royal Shakespeare Company theatres and other venues in Stratford-upon-Avon. Visiting theatre companies from across the globe will also take part.”
The Met’s New President
“For the first time, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has chosen a woman as president: Emily Kernan Rafferty, the Met’s current senior vice president for external affairs. Ms. Rafferty will succeed David E. McKinney when he retires in January.”
High-Level Churn At The Baltimore Symphony
Yuri Temirkanov’s departure from the Baltimore Symphony is only the latest leaving by senior leadership. “When some of the most seasoned and effective employees left, the blithe word from on high was, ‘No one is irreplaceable.’ Management expressed no concern for the drain in institutional memory or community and patron connections that those resignations signified. Losing Temirkanov, whose guidance has generated a higher technical level and remarkably communicative spirit within the orchestra, may likewise be shrugged off as an inevitable, not-to-worry development. But only those who have never truly recognized what this conductor had to offer could be feeling blase today.”
The Endangered Instruments
UK youth orchestras have a record number of auditionees. But there’s a big shortage of players for some instruments – the bassoon, oboe, double bass, viola, harp, trombone and tuba. Youth Music have recently called these instruments “endangered species”
Venice: Taking Architecture’s Temperature
The Venice Architecture Biennale take the temperature olf contemporary architecture. “Where the Victorians tried to cope with the unnerving urban explosion of the Industrial Revolution with architecture that appeared four-square, authoritative and inevitable, modern architects, or at least those highlighted at the biennale, seem to think that the way to respond to the equally unstable post-industrialised world is to create buildings that appear as if they too are in a state of constant change. This, of course, is a fallacy.”
Picasso’s “Secret” Painting
“A ‘secret’ painting by the young Pablo Picasso was unveiled at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao yesterday after experts found it hidden beneath layers of paint on another of his canvasses. The 104-year-old painting was yesterday hailed as Picasso’s first Paris picture, painted during a visit in 1900 when he was 19.”
A Closer Look At Denver’s Still Deal
Denver is trying to raise money to build a museum to house 2000 works from the estate of Clyfford Still. But the terms of the deal are very restrictive. “None of that art can be sold, and some question whether Still’s name will attract a wide audience. Few would question the viability of a Pollock, de Kooning, or Rothko museum, but those artists are much better known. If marketing abstraction to the masses weren’t challenge enough, the artist’s will forbids the display of work by other artists in the museum, so the institution cannot create a varied schedule of temporary exhibitions to lure return visitors.”
A Whitney Audit
“The Whitney Museum’s new chief financial officer is conducting “a vigorous review of all financial controls to ensure that the highest standards of accountability are met”. Bridget Elias was appointed in June, and her audit follows the arrest of two Whitney employees in late July, charged with embezzling nearly $1 million since January 2002.”
Natural Watercolors
“A study of the vibrant red, pink, orange, purple and yellow bands in the rocks of the Valley of Fire State Park in southern Nevada has revealed that the hues in the rocks were probably put there by a complex ebb and flow of groundwaters, faulting and raising of mountains and even the presence of now absent hydrocarbons over the last 150 to 200 million years.”