“Thoughtful social comedies and gentle farces are being upstaged by a blast of radical writing. Not since the socialist agit-prop shows staged in Russia early last century, or the satirical cabaret in Berlin during the Thirties, have audiences been challenged by so many overtly ideological plays. The renewed demand is all the more remarkable since at least six West End plays with more conventional appeal have closed this summer.”
Blog
Denver To Build Clyfford Still Museum
“After years of searching for a home for her husband’s estate and realizing that time was running out, Patricia A. Still, 84, agreed to give 750 paintings and more than 1,400 works on paper to Denver on the condition it build and maintain a $7 million museum for them.”
New Indian Museum Attempts To Get History Right
The Smithsonia’s 16th museum – the National Museum of the American Indian – is opening in September. “The biggest difference between the new Smithsonian museum and others housing native artifacts is that Indians were consulted every step of the way. Even the most progressive museums have committed egregious errors in American Indian interpretation.”
Chicago Daily News Mural Held Hostage – Day 4000
A historic mural from the ceiling of the old Chicago Daily News Building was removed in 1993 after one of its panels was damaged. Its owner promised the mural would be restored and put back in place. But 11 years later…
Rock The Vote (With Music)
Pop music (and musicians) are getting more politically active this year than they have in years. “Less than 34 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 bothered to vote in the last presidential election, but if activity in the world of music is any indication, those numbers could increase dramatically this year.”
Shakespeare & Company Regroups
The 27-year-old Massachusetts theatre Shakespeare & Company is trying to regroup. “In the wake of the shake-up, the company is undergoing major changes. The budget was reduced from $4.5 million to $4 million, the season shortened, and the staff trimmed. Shakespeare & Company is selling off a chunk of the 63-acre property, purchased just four years ago, that has largely caused the financial troubles.”
New Blood For Venice Biennale
“The Venice Biennale Foundation has announced that Maria de Corral and Rosa Martinez will co-direct the 2005 international art exhibition that opens next June, and that Robert Storr will organise the 2007 edition. The Biennale board seems to be concerned that the exhibition has become too sprawling and, in process, has lost its shape. They want to rejuvenate it and integrate it more fully into the overall Biennial programme (which includes architecture, cinema, and performing arts) and to achieve that they want the exhibition to have greater focus.”
Czeslaw Milosz, 92
“Polish Nobel laureate Czeslaw Milosz, a poet who documented the fight against communism, has died aged 93. His best known work was The Captive Mind, which looked at the treatment of intellectuals under communist rule.”
A Revolutionary Image Library Goes Online
“A vast digital library of world art has gone online with its first 300,000 images. The project — known as ARTstor and financed by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation — could eventually revolutionize the way art history is taught and studied. It is available for nonprofit institutions only.”
NY Phil Looks To A New Tour Model
The New York Philharmonic has canceled some recent tours. Philharmonic officials are determined to “fix” the tour business model so it works. “Like so much else in the orchestral world, tour financing began to sour in mid-2002, with the recession and fears of terrorism. That was about the same time that several midlevel North American orchestras began to threaten bankruptcy.”