Children’s theatre is thriving at a time when other performing arts are struggling. “This is a corner of the theatrical world that, as Rodney Dangerfield would say, has gotten no respect, but may now be seeing a renaissance. Although economic times are tough for all regional theaters today is ‘a remarkable time’ for children’s theater. There’s been ‘nothing less than a sea change in the field. It’s a significant historical moment.”
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The NEA’s Shakespeare Guild
The National Endowment for the Arts is forming a performers guild to support its program touring Shakespeare across the country. “The endowment has taken on the guild image in organizing the respected performers and art experts who will openly support the Shakespeare project. Shakespeare in American Communities will bring professional performances of the Bard, along with related educational activities, to more than 100 communities throughout the country.”
After The Budget Cuts Comes The Pain
It’s been a tough year for arts funding, with cutbacks in public funding across America. “Taken together, it’s clear that last spring’s budget battles, in which most state legislatures agreed to substantial cuts in arts funding, are now being acutely felt by not-for-profits nationwide.”
Book Sales Surge In August
The economy might be down, but book sales are up. “Preliminary estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau show a large gain in bookstore sales in August, up 15.5% to $2.11 billion. The Bureau reported that bookstore sales for the first eight months of the year were up 3.3%, to $10.53 billion.”
The Wallpaper That Killed Napoleon?
A little scrap of wallpaper that might have helped kill Napoleon has been sold at auction. “Tests eight years ago, on a lock said to have been cut from Napoleon’s hair after his death revealed eight times normal levels of arsenic. One culprit could have been the red-and-gold wallpaper of his bedroom, at Longwood House on St Helena, where he was exiled for six years until his death in 1821.”
An Artist’s Grassy Knoll
An artist has covered a church in London in grass. From the inside. “The walls of the church – indeed, every vertical surface, including doors and the railings around the organ loft – are covered in grass. It is a pelt-like, sensual second skin, and the first thing you want to do is reach out and touch it. The blades are superfine and delicate, damp and slightly resistant to the touch. This is nothing like a groomed, respectable, well-kept British lawn, nor a disciplined, close-shaved grass court or golf course. It is something altogether wilder and stranger.”
Ligeti At 80
Gyorgy “Ligeti has a unique place in the history of 20th-century music: an avant-gardist who is familiar to a wide public (even if he has Stanley Kubrick’s use of his music in 2001 to thank for that popularity), and an uncompromising modernist whose music revels in its connections with other cultures, other art forms, and the music of earlier centuries.”
Miles Davis Raw…Is It Fair?
In 1970, Miles Davis was “clean and healthy and at the height of his powers.” He made a set of recordings in which he tested out music. But the recordings were never meant to be released, and now that they are, some Davis fans are angry. “The set offers unprecedented insights into the musical intelligence that went into the album’s creation. But with mistakes and doodles included in the mix, are these private explorations really for public consumption decades later?”
Disney-High Ambitions
LA’s Disney Hall opens next week. “For all the energy and playfulness of this $274 million piece of civic sculpture, Disney Hall also bears a heavy burden as an instrument of this city’s heady ambition. Sixteen years in the making, it represents Los Angeles’ determination to shake off its perpetual No. 2 status, to be recognized, along with New York, as an international cultural heavyweight, yet on its own highly theatrical terms.”
The New Corporate Art
“Pardon visitors to this King County library branch if they can’t quite get a fix on the new addition to the art collection: One minute it’s a Winslow Homer, a few minutes later it’s a Cezanne, and then a Latour. They’re among the first to experience high-resolution digital art delivered by Seattle startup RGB Labs through its just-launched GalleryPlayer, a software-hardware service that provides secure delivery of copyright art directly to plasma screens. Designed primarily for corporate or public-space use, for $195 a month… the GalleryPlayer service delivers digital galleries of art displayed in intervals of 15 to 25 minutes.”