Along with proposing to increase the budget for the National Endowment for the Arts, George Bush proposes increasing the Smithsonian’s budget by five percent. “The administration proposed giving the museum complex $628 million for fiscal year 2005, an increase of $32 million from the current year.”
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Barenboim: Of Politics And Music
“The question of when an artist must engage in politics remains a painful, personal dilemma. It is an issue that preoccupies conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim, Israel’s most-celebrated musician, and one of its most vociferous critics.”
Times Flap – What’s Up For Book Review?
There’s been a big uproar about what might be instore for the New York Times Book Review, after an online column last week quoted top editors contemplating fundamental changes in the way the section reviews books. “If people in publishing see the New York Times doing something that is changing the way they handle books, the industry will respond — because they need to get the coverage.”
When Pixar Left Disney
So the wildly successful animation studio Pixar is leaving its distribution deal with Disney. But why announce it now, when there’s still two years left to go in the deal? Perhaps it has something to do with the power struggles going on around Disney chairman Michael Eisner?
Malevich Heirs Sue Amsterdam
“Heirs of Kasimir Malevich, the Russian avant-garde artist, are suing the city of Amsterdam in an attempt to recover 14 artworks that they say are rightfully theirs.”
Broadway Gypsy To Close
Running only since last May on Broadway, the musical Gypsy is closing, losing much of its investment. “The production, starring Bernadette Peters as the legendary stage mother Momma Rose, will have lost a little less than half of its $8 million capitalization.”
Study: Singing Is Healthy For You
A new study by researchers at the University of Frankfurt reports that singing is good for you – that it boosts your immune system.
At The ENO – Plenty Of Questions
As the English National Opera gets set to move into its renovated home, some big questions have yet to be answered, writes Norman Lebrecht: “The critical public issue for ENO is, as it has been for a decade, the question of identity. The company is not English, except inasmuch as its singers mangle the vernacular. It is not National, lacking the resources to tour. And it is desperately keen to shed the corsets of Opera in the quest for new audiences and fresh relevance. It is, in sum, a product in need of rebranding, a relic of a very different society that has failed to adjust to post-industrial demand.”
Israel Demands Removal Of Art Exhibit
“Israel has demanded the removal of a ‘horrifying’ exhibit at the Anne Frank museum in Amsterdam that includes caricatures comparing Ariel Sharon to Adolf Hitler.”
Hitler Painting To Be Displayed In Tokyo
A painting by Adolf Hitler is to be exhibited at a theatre in Tokyo in conjunction with a film about the dictator’s life. “The showing of the watercolour is meant to back up the message of the film – to show that Hitler had a human side to him and that is all the more reason why he is terrifying because a despot could be born again.”