Boston mayor Thomas Menino has announced a plan where the city’s Cultural Affairs office will raise money privately and redistribute it to arts groups. “The mayor described the campaign as a ‘two-pronged’ public-private partnership that would ‘streamline distribution of Boston resources, generate new revenues to support arts and culture, and raise the visibility of the arts in the city’ at a time when public funding for the arts has been slashed in Boston, throughout Massachusetts, and across the country.” Critics wonder if this now means the city will be in competition with them to raise money for the arts…
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Broadway Bottoms-Out – Shows Close, Theatres Empty, Deep Ticket Discounts In Post-Holiday Slump
Happens every year. But this year somehow it seems more dramatic. The post-holiday January drop in Broadway ticket sales is dramatic – 75 percent in at least one theatre. “Broadway producers said they weren’t panicking — it was a good fall and very strong holiday season, after all — but they were rolling out all manner of marketing to combat the cold.”
Explaining The Younger Generation
The young-20s attitude is something of a puzzle to older people. “This generation created a new definition of ‘smart.’ Intelligence lies in one’s ability to spin pop-culture references in order to show how others have fallen prey to the media and are stupid. This cynical, reactionary response serves as a basis for ‘intelligent’ humor and entertainment. This construct validated our apathy because we felt smarter than the system and, thus, unmotivated to be a part of it. As media stories became more and more ridiculous and commercialism became more and more oppressive, this construct seemed to work. But, now, we are at war…” And we’re paralyzed.
Ode To Ailey
The success of the Alvin Ailey company is one of the great ongoing stories in American dance. What explains it? A major part of the answer certainly lies in the company’s repertory cornerstone, the sure-fire Revelations, which inevitably anchors every season. This year it closed 26 of the company’s 39 New York programs, and I’m sure that every one of those performances was greeted with delirious enthusiasm.”
State Arts Spending Slipped Below Historic Trends in 90s
Arts spending by American states soared in the 1990s. But did it really? “Adjusted for inflation, state spending from taxes, fees and other state revenue sources per person increased by an average of 2.0 percent per year between 1989 and 1999. However, this is below the long-term growth trend of 2.9 percent per year from 1949 to 1999.”
Reruns Rule
“Rarely does a Hollywood film get made just once. The real business of Hollywood is creating that most desirable of products: the franchise. It’s reaching the point where audiences might not see a film any more unless they’ve watched an earlier instalment.” But are sequels ever as good as the first time around? Not usually. But it doesn’t seem to matter. People will shell out for tickets if they’ve seen it before…
LA Opera Falls Victim To More Illnesses, Cancellations…
Los Angeles Opera is having a rough season. Earlier this year the company had to cancel a Kirov production of Prokofiev’s War and Peace, then saw sets for the replacement production go sailing out of the harbor in a dock strike. The latest is a series of illnesses that have forced cancellations and scrambling for replacements. Tenor (and LA Opera director Placido Domingo) is sick and had to cancel out of a series of January performances. And a much-anticipated new opera by Luciano Berio had to be canceled because the composer was too ill to finish it. Then there was a rush to find replacement programs and singers, a visa scramble and…
High Design – Too Violent To See, Evidently, But Not Too Violent To Be Nominated
London’s Design Museum is censoring one of the shortlisted finalists for its top design award. A violent video game was shortlisted, but the museum does not want to show it in its galleries. “A spokeswoman for the Design Museum said yesterday that visitors to the competition exhibition, opening in March, would see an explanation of the Grand Theft Auto design ethos, and be able to play other games designed by the Rockstars team, but not Vice City.”
Vienna Philharmonic Hires Its First Woman Player
The Vienna Philharmonic has hired its first-ever female member, after decades of refusing. “Ursula Plaichinger, a 27-year-old viola player, has caused a sensation in artistic circles by appearing unannounced at the 158-year-old Philharmonic’s traditional new year’s concert in Vienna. The performance was seen by millions around the world and a recording has already sold out in Austria.”
Hilton Kramer Attacks Study of Visual Arts Critics
Hilton Kramer is in a huff about a new study of visual arts criticism published by Columbia University’s National Arts Journalism Program. He’s pleased to see that in a name-recognition poll, he rates highly among fellow critics – an 80! But a few sentences later he reveals that he only earns a 12 – can you believe it? – among other critics for his influence on the field. In conclusion? “The Visual Art Critic is in every respect a perfectly useless enterprise—perfect, above all, in its flawless incomprehension of the subject it addresses…” So there.