Martin Knelman sees a great deal of Frank Gehry’s own past, as well as Toronto’s cultural progression, in the AGO design. “Rather than showing off, it makes connections, weaving together threads of its own past, its roots in an eccentric neighbourhood, and the ambitions symbolized by its increasingly impressive art collection. Like Toronto itself, Gehry’s AGO refuses to call attention to itself. Rather it whispers and entices, draws you in, and reveals its secrets only to those willing to explore hidden pathways. It’s the perfect articulation for a city whose essence is not skyscrapers but almost invisible ravines that tourists often fail to notice.”
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$195 Million May Not Be Enough To Let Gehry Be Gehry
To Lisa Rochon, the new AGO design looks as if someone told Frank Gehry that he needed to tone down his act a bit. The 600-foot canopy lacks the swoop and sense of motion we’ve come to associate with Gehry, and “his deft meshing of volumes is nowhere to be found in the big, hulking box that rises 140 feet… at the southern back of the gallery.” Many of the design’s limitations seem to have been budget-driven, but Rochon is buoyed by Gehry’s declaration that the design is still, at some level, a work in progress.
Is Oscar Getting Hip?
“Tuesday’s Academy Award nominations were filled with surprises, featuring more ethnic minorities in top categories than ever before, nods to comic performances as well as dramatic, the first best director nomination for an American woman and a plethora of nominations for small films. Oscar is apparently loosening up.”
Some Youth Amongst The Blue Hair
“The two most frequently repeated bits of common wisdom about the theater are (1) Broadway is dead (or at least in a state of serious decay), and (2) there is simply no audience for live theater among the current ‘younger generation’ of twentysomethings… Regarding the youthful audiences, it’s time to take a closer look at the reality.” Hedy Weiss believes that many of the theaters she attends in Chicago do a fine job of luring 20- and 30-somethings to performances, and points out that some theaters consider it a core part of their mission to create theater for the younger demographic.
Attendance Down In Chicago
“Blaming ‘the economy and the Xbox,’ officials said Wednesday that more than half of Chicago’s biggest museums suffered attendance drops last year, with the Field Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry down by double digits.” Some museums which saw increases in attendance could trace the surge to one or more ‘blockbuster’ exhibitions it put on in the last year. Most museum officials seem to agree that the central problem for arts organizations is that people are given so many entertainment choices today that no one organization can count on luring in huge numbers of patrons.
From Enemy Of The State To Official Symbol
Nearly every musician knows Paul Robeson’s story – the son of a former slave, educated at the best schools America had to offer, grew up to become one of the most admired singers in the world, until he began to speak out on behalf of civil rights for African-Americans, at which point he was very nearly run out of the business. The U.S. Postal Service will issue a stamp honoring Robeson’s contributions to American culture and society in February, possibly the first time that a branch of the U.S. government has cast him in a positive light.
A Story To Make Every Violinist Wince
You would think that, the more valuable your musical instrument, the tighter you would make your death grip on its case whenever you had occasion to transport the thing. But even great musicians can be distracted, and this week, world-renowned violinist Gidon Kremer, preoccupied with a colleague’s cancellation of an upcoming tour, stood up and walked off a train in Baltimore, leaving behind his nearly 300-year-old Guarneri del Gesu, valued at $3 million. The violin was recovered in Washington by Amtrak officials, and transported north to Baltimore in time for Kremer’s next performance.
Looking For Respect (And Some Cash, Please) In Louisville
It hasn’t been a good year for the arts in Louisville, what with the local orchestra making cuts, and countless other arts groups struggling mightily in the new, and frequently donation-less, economy. The city already has a Fund For The Arts, but larger groups in the area complain that they don’t get their fair share of the fund’s allocated dollars. So what can be done? A conference of arts leaders and supporters came up with a number of ideas to boost the city’s cultural scene, and the first order of business seems to be convincing more Louisvillians that they have an arts scene worth supporting.
Training Your CEO
It has long been the dirty little secret of the arts world that the majority of the people running the show don’t actually have any particular training in how the arts world works, or how running an orchestra differs from running, say, a textile mill. It’s not that most of these leaders are incompetent people, merely that they are almost forced to learn their job through trial and error. A new program in the UK is aiming to make better administrators out of the folks who run the country’s arts groups, and possibly to attract better leaders to the industry.
For When Your Art Has Be There Right Now
An East London gallery is soliciting art from graphic artists, designers, and filmmakers for a new exhibition. Anyone who responds to the request will likely have his/her work displayed, but only if the art is sent, as requested, by e-mail or CD. Not surprisingly, a computer company is sponsoring the project, and recently installed thousands of dollars of printers, projectors, and other equipment there. “When a piece of art is received, via e-mail or on a CD, it is printed out on huge machines, mounted, then hung on the wall for all to enjoy.”