What are the great museums for? Talk to the directors of those museums and you get some very different ideas. The British museum, for example…
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Saving Art Without Buying It
This idea of “saving” art from being sold and taken out of the UK is unsustainable. “If our museums are going to continue collecting – and everyone agrees that “frozen collections” are a denial of what museums are about – priorities must be set. We cannot save everything.”
Hip-hop As A Brand
Hip-hop is big business, and full of branding opportunities. “It’s a pop culture phenomenon because it’s receptive to brands as opposed to other music genres which are diluted when commercial interests come in. With hip hop, it’s almost the reverse – they feed one another.”
Italy To Return Ancient Obelisk
Italy is finally returning an ancient obelisk to Ethiopia. “In a move that sends a message to all nations attempting to recover looted artifacts, and to the governments and private collectors that hoard them, Italy is finally making good on a promise to return the Aksum Obelisk, capping decades of bitter dispute over the monument’s fate and home. The 1,700-year-old obelisk is ranked by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization as an outstanding historic and artistic object and is cherished by Ethiopians as a pillar of their civilization. Aksum was the cradle of Ethiopian Christianity. Benito Mussolini’s forces seized the 75-foot-high monument in 1937, during Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia, and transported it to Rome as a trophy of fascist imperialism.”
Kushner, Front And Center
Playwright Tony Kushner is 47 and “heading into the most seismically charged week of his career: his latest work, the semi-autobiographical musical “Caroline, or Change,” opens at the Public Theater today; the first half of Mike Nichols’s six-hour, star-filled, $60 million adaptation of Mr. Kushner’s epic “Angels in America” has its premiere on HBO next Sunday. “Angels” will be broadcast and rebroadcast to more than 30 million homes, and the number of people who see it the very first night should easily outnumber those who have seen the play in the several hundred North American stage productions since it opened on Broadway 10 years ago.”
WTC Memorial In New 3D
Finalists for the World Trade Center memorial were presented with new technology. “With the chance to view the designs in this dynamic, strikingly ‘cinematic’ way, the public was given its first glimpse of a revolution that has been under way for the past few years. Indeed, the memorial competition itself accelerated that revolution, harnessing the explosion in broadband Internet access to allow millions of people around the world to view the animated presentations, more or less at once — something that was never before possible.”
Roy Disney Out At Disney
Roy E. Disney has resigned from Disney’s board of directors, “reportedly calling on chairman Michael Eisner to resign also. Disney’s resignation may be a pre-emptive move to avoid being forced off the board of The Walt Disney Co. The board’s governance and nominating committee has decided not to recommend Disney for another term because he is over the mandated retirement age of 72.
Everything Tchaikovsky
“Over the next month, the Kennedy Center will present an ambitious Tchaikovsky Festival as part of a celebration of the 300th anniversary of the founding of St. Petersburg. Among the participants will be the Kirov Opera, Ballet and Orchestra, straight from Russia, under the direction of Valery Gergiev; the Suzanne Farrell Ballet; cellist Yo-Yo Ma; pianist Yefim Bronfman; violinist Gil Shaham; the Vermeer Quartet; and the National Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Leonard Slatkin and Emil de Cou.”
Defining Race – Can You?
“How valid is the concept of race from a biological standpoint? Do physical features reliably say anything informative about a person’s genetic makeup beyond indicating that the individual has genes for blue eyes or curly hair? The problem is hard in part because the implicit definition of what makes a person a member of a particular race differs from region to region across the globe.”
Scottish Theatres In Revolt
The amateur Scottish theatre association is organizing protests against the Scottish Arts Council for its funding cuts announced last week. “The Scottish Community Drama Association (SCDA), a clearing house for some 200 drama clubs across Scotland that was founded in 1926, was told this week that it will lose its £58,000 annual grant. The money is a tiny fraction of the SAC’s £60 million annual budget, but its loss left the mostly volunteer association shell-shocked.”