In America state governments are getting out of the arts business. State after state is slashing arts funding. Why now? ArtsJournal editor Douglas McLennan suggests that in trying to recover from the culture wars of the early 1990s, arts leaders may have unintentionally pursued an endgame strategy. “As the current arts-funding crisis suggests—the survival strategy might have topped itself out and ultimately killed public arts funding.”
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The Closing Of The American Mind (Round II, College Edition)
The culture wars are raging on college campuses. “The left has been attempting to brainwash students for years, and it’s only now, it seems, that the intolerant tide is flowing both ways. Students are facing off, left and right, along the ideological divide, declaring hard and fast the prejudices of their respective political extremes. This, it appears, is how so many of them are leaving school: not eager idealists, fertilized with learning and rife with critical thinking, but blinkered ideologues and hardened partisans, indoctrinated in conflict, deaf to inquiry, groomed and ripe for politicking.”
Penn Lawyers Ask Barnes To Amend Its Request To Move To Philly
Pennsylvania Attorney General Mike Fisher has asked the Barnes Foundation to change its petition requesting that the Barnes be allowed to move to Philadelphia. Among the requrested changes are “a ban on selling any of the art that is on display in the Barnes gallery, and the preservation of founder Albert C. Barnes’ arrangements of the artwork in unique ensembles.”
What’s The Alternative?
“Ask the current generation of emerging artists what an ‘alternative space’ is, and you?ll likely get a vague response. Associated with the 1970s and the experimental art and installations of that period, such venues are no longer as much of an ‘alternative’ to commercial galleries in the content or opportunities they provide.”
Who Is The Enemy of Literacy?
“When the enemy of literacy is imagined to be television or comic books, one can rightfully feel impatient with the kind of pro-book aphorism found on a tasseled bookmark. But what if the enemy is fire, or incendiary shells, or Nazism? In ‘Library: An Unquiet History, Matthew Battles shows that the history of libraries is the history of the destruction of books.”
Birth Of The Blues (And So Much Else)
It’s amazing how much of American culture is traceable back to the blues. “Without the blues, we wouldn’t have jazz, rock, gospel, soul, R&B, country, or rap music – or even George Gershwin’s masterpiece, ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ (note the word “blue” in the title). The way we dance, dress, and speak, the music used to sell cars on TV – even our very concept of coolness – can be traced to the blues and its African roots.”
Cincinnati’s New “Titillating” Architectural Experience
The Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati is the “first major American art museum designed by a woman. It is also the first major American commission completed by the London-based Zaha Hadid, one of the profession’s most precocious talents. But the best reason to fall in love with the building is its seductive pull.”
St. Paul Chamber Orchestra Renegotiates Its Future
The financially-struggling St. Paul Chamber Orchestra has negotiated a pay cut with its musicians. As well, “in a fundamental shift modeled by some European orchestras, the orchestra is transferring responsibility for core artistic decisions away from the artistic director and into the hands of a new ‘artistic vision committee’.”
Duopoly
More and more hit recordings are featuring more than one performer. “In 1993, not a single tandem recording appeared among the 25 top sellers in the U.S. Five years back, there was just one such record in the top 10, and five in the top 25. Last year, two of the top 10 and four of the top 25 were recorded by multiple artists.” Recently though, “at least 10 of the Top 25 have paired performers — five in the Top 10 and three in the Top 5.”
Turner Prize Shortlist Chosen
This year’s shortlisted artists for the Turner Prize have been selected. “The four nominees, all British artists under 50, include a transvestite who depicts himself involved in sex acts on the surface of his pottery vases.”