“Jack Kyle has almost single-handedly put the city of Jackson, Mississippi on the cultural map. Neither an art historian nor a museum curator, he is instead a marketing man blessed with Southern charm and remarkable powers of persuasion who has coaxed the directors of some of Europe’s grandest museums and State collections into sending outstanding works of art to a city best known for jazz and fried catfish.”
Blog
Vancouver Museum’s Limited Space
The Vancouver Art Gallery wants to expand, but that is a complicated proposition. The museum’s current site has little additional room, and there is no obvious alternative location. “The gallery, the fifth largest in the country, has a permanent collection of more than 8,000 works worth $100-million. But right now there isn’t enough space to show the permanent collection, which includes extensive holdings of Emily Carr and of conceptual photography.”
A Better Mousetrap – 30 Years And Still Going Strong
Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap celebrates its 30th years in the sme London theatre. “It has to be the defining production in British theatre history.”
Stage Fright – Iraq Theatre Up And Running
Iraq’s National Theate is up and runnig again, and a week-long festival of plays, dance and music is being produced. There’s still not much of an audience yest, in a city once renowned for its cultural life. “The situation is still very complicated. It is difficult to start living culturally again.”
Penguin Canada’s Literary Rebirth
When Penguin Books Canada went to India to find a new publisher, some wondered if David Davidar would understand the sensibilities of Canadian publishing. Turns out he does. “You have scintillating writers from all over the world, people with origins in Asia, Africa, Europe, which makes for diverse and interesting narratives. And the whole country seems to celebrate that. It seemed a great idea to be in the midst of that creative ferment. The big similarity between India and Canada is that for a long time it was difficult for writers to be published well at home. You had to go to London, and Canadians also went to New York to be published.”
The Art Gallery Of Ontario’s Civil War
“The Art Gallery of Ontario’s “plans for a spectacular transformation, designed by the great architect Frank Gehry, have been put into limbo. The angry defection of long-time benefactor and board member Joey Tanenbaum has set off a chain reaction — resulting in waves of emotional and angry debate about what the AGO should do. At the moment, there is a long lineup of unhappy people.”
Welser-Most Turns Down Vienna State Opera Job
Franz Welser-MÖst was offered the top job at the Vienna State Opera Friday, and turned it down, citing his contract commitment to the Cleveland Orchestra through 2012. “I’m not somebody who breaches a contract. I believe both institutions deserve 100 percent focus. I cannot divide my focus and give each institution 50 percent, which would mean in the end both institutions would suffer.”
Summing Up Cezanne
Was Cezanne misunderstood? “Given his reservations about modernity, the grouchy old man might not be pleased to hear that he has since been generally accepted as the first modern painter. Would the iconoclast have preferred Mary Cassatt’s judgement that public taste had been perverted by him?”
Opera: Of Stage And Sound
David Patrick Stearns has no problem reconciling the physical size of a singer with the role he or she’s supposed to assume. “The opera world is splintering in ways that make big-blast singers – most often those with weight problems – not always necessary. Directors are the new stars of the opera houses, which for some operagoers is a sign of defeat. If there are so few great singers out there, voice connoisseurs think, at least opera can tell interesting stories. There’s an even wilder card with opera’s changing venues: What used to be a medium of standardized grandeur now comes in all shapes and forms, some demanding physical appropriateness, some not.”
Ellerbee: Breaking NPR’s Morning Edition
Linda Ellerbee writes that NPR has succumbed to ageism. “This week, National Public Radio, apparently acting on the theory that if it’s not broke, break it, announced that Bob Edwards was no longer its choice to host “Morning Edition,” the program he began, shaped and — for the last 25 years — informed with his intelligence, wit and grace. Although nobody came right out and said so, it’s clear that the new honchos at NPR believe the man whose voice has soothed millions of us into day after day of too much reality is, at 56, too old for the task. Were the ratings sinking, perhaps? They were not. “Morning Edition’s” audience grew by 41% in the last five years; Edwards’ is the most-listened-to morning radio program in the U.S.”