A Seattle-area publisher of sailing books has pulled his stock from Amazon.com in protest of the online retailer’s refusal to stop selling a book which directly makes the case for sexual relationships between men and prepubescent boys. Amazon says that while the book is clearly reprehensible (and the site’s in-house reviewer says as much,) it is not a pornographic work, and the retailer insists that it will not get into the censorship business.
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Justice Costs A Lot Of Money
As the Barnes Collection continues the long, slow legal process required to allow it to move to Center City Philadelphia from the suburban plot it has called home for decades, the case being brought by three Barnes art students in an attempt to block the move seems increasingly quixotic. But the students don’t necessarily lack legal standing, merely the financial wherewithal to pursue their agenda as aggressively as the pro-move forces have done. “To keep up their fight, the students want to raise at least $100,000 to hire expert witnesses for the second weeklong hearing in the case, slated for September in Montgomery County Orphans’ Court.”
Staying Relevant Without Going Dumb
The phrase “dumbing down” has long been a catch-all term used by arts aficionados to take potshots at any organization daring to try to update their programming for modern audiences. More often than not, the changes aren’t dumbing anything down, merely acknowledging that the line between high culture and pop has blurred significantly in the last century, and that the average American’s frame of reference is defined not by symphonies and plays, but by rock albums and TV shows. At the National Performing Arts Convention in Pittsburgh, arts groups have been sharing ideas for embracing 21st-century culture without alienating their base or losing their souls.
Arts + Office Space = Civic Rebirth
Times are tough for corporate real estate brokers operating in Center City Philadelphia. But one area of the city’s urban core which had been considered dead and worthless fifteen years ago has been reborn in the eyes of private companies looking for an attractive place to locate their headquarters. South Broad Street, which was rechristened the Avenue of the Arts under former mayor (now PA governor) Ed Rendell, has flourished since becoming home to the Kimmel Center (home of the Philadelphia Orchestra) and multiple theaters. In fact, at the end of 2003, the Avenue of the Arts had an office vacancy rate of only 5%, compared to nearly 13% citywide.
Arts Council Plotted To Kill Off Scottish Opera
In a stunning development in the ongoing melodrama enveloping Scottish Opera, a secret document obtained by a newspaper shows that the Scottish Arts Council had a plan in place to eliminate the company completely “and replace it with a new organisation run by a skeleton staff.” Under the terms of the plan, which was concocted last summer, even as the company was preparing to stage its wildly successful Ring Cycle, the entire orchestra and chorus of Scottish Opera would have been dismissed, and a new group of administrators would have commissioned future productions on an ad hoc basis. The public release of the plan may well cost some Scottish government overseers their jobs, and the fallout is already beginning in Glasgow.
How Did It Come To This?
It is now clear that the Scottish Opera mess was created not by simple indifference, but by a deadly combination of bureaucratic bungling, shortsighted cost-cutting, and a stubborn unwillingness from individuals on all sides even to look for a compromise. “The impression now emerging is that powerful figures in the arts council were more than willing to let the Opera die – and that the Executive, confronted by sweeping redundancies, opted for a political fudge.”
Does Anyone Actually Support This Plan?
“Scotland’s arts world suffered another setback yesterday when Craig Armstrong, one of the country’s leading composers, resigned from the country’s flagship arts body just days after its membership was announced… In what will be regarded as a serious problem for James Boyle, the head of the commission, the composer resigned after discovering he was the only working artist on the board. He also condemned the Scottish Executive’s treatment of Scottish Opera, and called for artists to get together to save the company from the extensive job losses announced last week.”
McSweeney’s Goes Seriously Comic
The latest issue of Dave Eggers’s McSweeney’s has been given over to comic art legend Chris Ware, who uses the occasion to take readers who ordinarily might not give comic art a second thought on a tour of the modern scene. “Ware’s curatorial tastes are generally quite broad… Even so, you can see his particular selectivity in the McSweeney’s picks. Ware prefers minimal, iconic, impressionistic drawing to the more deliberate rendering of the European school (“Blacksad” artist Juanjo Guarnido, say), and his introduction is quick to dismiss the comics aesthetic that’s grounded in old superhero comic books.”
Maybe It Would Be More Shocking If He Stole Art That People Like
“The thief who ‘kidnapped’ a fibreglass sculpture by the graffiti artist Banksy has struck again. AK47, as he calls himself, has removed a Tracy Emin pink neon sign called Just Love Me from outside the Hackney Empire theatre in east London… He also claimed that AK47 was a rapidly growing international ‘arto-political movement’, but was vague about the membership, saying only that it had ‘a lot’.” He plans to return the work by week’s end.
Maazel Gets An Extension, New York Gets A Horse Race
The New York Philharmonic has extended the contract of music director Lorin Maazel through the 2008-09 season, but also hired three prominent conductors to lead the orchestra regularly over the next three seasons, presumably placing them at the front of the race to be the next music director. The guest conductors are Riccardo Muti, David Robertson, and Alan Gilbert. Maazel has been a frequent target of critics since his appointment, but the musicians of the orchestra have publicly supported him, going so far as to issue an open request to the Phil’s board for the extension.