The Guardian takes six pieces of contemporary art out of the galleries and puts them into private houses. How would ordinary people feel about living with a Tracey Emins or a Chapman Brothers artwork? “Many participants expressed anxiety about exposing their ignorance, aware of a kind of knowing exclusivity that characterises the art world. But they also expressed a sneaking suspicion that this world might be applauding something empty and banal.”
Blog
Swearing On The Radio Is Fine If It’s In Italian?
A Toronto radio station airs a promotional spot full of obscenities. The uptight Canadian Broadcast Standards Council rules that the spot was okay. “Yes, the content was ‘coarse, crass, vulgar’ and ‘very much on the edge of acceptability,’ but it didn’t violate the code of ethics subscribed to by private broadcasters. Moreover, KISS’s defence was ‘entirely plausible,’ the CBSC ruled. The standards council went on to say it was ‘comforted by the fact that fewer people [were likely to have been] offended by the coarseness of the language’ since the comments were made in Italian.”
Finally – Harry On Review
“A considerably darker, more psychological book than its predecessors, ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’ occupies the same emotional and storytelling place in the Potter series as ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ held in the first ‘Star Wars’ trilogy. It provides a sort of fulcrum for the series, marking Harry’s emergence from boyhood, and his newfound knowledge that an ancient prophecy holds the secret to Voldemort’s obsession with him and his family.”
Harry By The Numbers
So how popular is the new Harry Potter book? One major bookselling chain has already declared it to be ‘the fastest-selling book ever,’ outpacing even the frenzied buying that accompanied the release of the previous installment of the Potter series. At W.H. Smith, another chain, managers estimated that they were selling eight copies per second. Amazon has taken orders for 1.3 million copies. The first printing run of the book was for an astounding 13 million copies, and author J.K. Rowling is expected to net £30 million from book sales alone.
Shakespeare First Edition? Ugh – What A Mess
“The first published version of the play commonly regarded as Shakespeare’s best was yesterday revealed as a travesty of the drama that helped shape the modern English language. The version of Hamlet known as the ‘bad quarto’ is a salutary warning of the dangers of literary piracy. An entrepreneurial player in Richard Burbage’s company at the Rose Theatre, where Hamlet is believed to have been first staged, beat the Bard to the press with a version of the play he remembered from rehearsals and its first performances in 1600.”
Shaw, Stratford Festival Get Bailout
Ontario’s Stratford Festival and Shaw Festival are suffering as American tourists stay away because of fears of SARS. With their seasons ravaged by the ticket slump, theatres will get $800,000 in emergency help fromthe Ontario government.
Why Is Artistic Success Measured By Money?
How do we judge the success of an arts institution? The new heads of London’s National Theatre and the National Gallery – Nicholas Hytner and Charles Saumarez Smith – co-hosted a conference addressing the question of “how we judge whether culture is a success. Both worry that the vocabulary of praise in the arts world has become entirely financial (how many came?) and social (is the work educational? is the audience diverse?). While recognising the importance of these measures, they seek a new language which will recognise the worth a theatre or gallery has simply by existing.”
Judge Prevents Newspaper From Printing Early Harry Review
A judge in Canada has ruled that the Montreal Gazette could not publish a review or details of the new Harry Potter book before the book is officially released this weekend. “It is clear to me that the information was confidential … its inadvertent or surreptitious disclosure does not necessarily remove its confidential nature.”
China Arrest Museum Official For Stealing Art
China has arrested a museum official in Chengde, a city north of Beijing, for “stealing some of the precious antiquities he was supposed to be guarding. It is the biggest such theft reported in half a century of Communist rule.” The official is accused of “stealing 158 relics during 12 years, substituting fake artifacts or doctoring inventories to conceal his crimes.”
Israel’s Ongoing Culture Cuts
Israel’s culture budget has been cut nine times in two years. “Economic uncertainty hovers over the nation’s cultural institutes and has grown larger with a new cut in the budget that was passed last week. Announcements about the size of cuts in the culture budget were contradictory. Millions of shekels were added to the budget and were then subtracted with a stroke of the pen.”