Toronto has a number of major arts projects currently looking for funding. In the current funding climate “is there enough money to go around and sustain all these projects? Or are at least some of them doomed to fail while others succeed? The answers to those questions will largely depend on two kinds of players — the arts philanthropists of Toronto and the professional fundraisers hired by various cultural organizations to lead their capital campaigns.” Here’s what they say…
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Book Jacket Portraying WWII Nazi Ties Upsets Swiss
A new book by a Clinton administration official who led negotiations with Switzerland, Germany, France and Austria to “get nearly $8 billion in reparations for art, unpaid insurance policies and confiscated bank accounts taken from Jews during World War II” is angering the Swiss. The objections are not so much about the content, as the cover, which “has a swastika made of gold ingots spread over the red Swiss national flag.” But author Stuart E. Eizenstat and his publisher say the design “accurately reflects what he learned during the negotiations in the late 1990s.”
Kennedy Honors – Where Are The American Male Singers?
So how is it that six male opera singers have won Kennedy Center Honors since the awards were started in 1978, but never an American male opera singer?
Celebrating (And Saving) St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg, Russia is a remarkable and historic city. It’s listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it turns 300 years old this year. So the city is exporting the best of its culture to the rest of the world to celebrate. But “if musicians, dancers, historians, designers, poets, actors and more are reintroducing St. Petersburg to center stage, the attention comes in the nick of time. Buildings are crumbling. Population is declining. Tourism is stagnating. The cultural community is dispersing. And modernity – in the form of bold new architecture – is knocking aggressively at the door.”
Picture Hunting – On The Hunt For Chicago’s WPA Murals
An effort to find and restore WPA murals in Chicago’s public schools has turned up hundreds of them – many painted over or tagged with graffiti. “Others had tears and severe water damage. And all of them were covered with up to 70 years’ worth of dirt and grime.” So far the project has resulted in restoration of 400 heavily damaged and hidden murals, painted during the WPA (1933-1943) and Progressive Era (1904-1933). Many of the works are by prominent artists.
Pressure To Perform
As arts funding declines, ticket revenue becomes more important for arts organizations. But waht does that mean for the kinds of art they make? “We have to ask how are we going to be true to our artistic vision – the original reason nonprofit theaters were founded – and yet not be irresponsible to our community by going out of business. As funding sources become tighter and tighter, this is the conflict facing all artistic nonprofits.”
From A Skeptic – What Explains The Glenn Gould Phenomenon?
Twenty years after he died of a stroke, pianist Glenn Gould is still a star. David Patrick Stearns wonders why. “Philosophically, I admire Gould’s irreverence: I believe that every performance should confront and challenge the listener. However, his insights often arose from obscure, perverse viewpoints. Once, he recorded Mozart piano sonatas to illustrate why the composer wasn’t, to his mind, much good. These interpretive agendas often weren’t presented with great regard for communication.”
Art Of Dance
“More than half of the art Edgar Degas produced during his 60-plus years as an artist depicts dancers. For his late career, the percentage rises to about two-thirds. Degas not only produced a lot of dance art, he created Western art’s most transcendent images of dancers and dance performance. It’s difficult to imagine that their radiance and authority could ever be duplicated, let alone surpassed.”
What Separates Humans From Other Animals?
“Culture was once thought to be a particularly human trait. But careful observation of apes demonstrated that they have culture, too. Before culture, tool use was considered a distinctively human capacity. Again, merely watching other creatures shows that this is not the case. One of the last refuges of the species exceptionalist is language, and indeed, human language does seem to be unique. What remains controversial is this: Does our use of language stem from some innate mental capacity that only humans possess?”
Bootleg Nation (So What If It’s Illegal)
“With a minimum of online searching, fans of virtually any band from arena-filling superstars to cult-worshiped club acts, can find a Web site or electronic mailing list to feed a habit for live CD’s. Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen? No problem. Illicit recordings, or bootlegs, of their concerts circulate soon after the last car leaves the parking lot. But a show by the singer-songwriter Dirk Hamilton or the electronica musician Luke Vibert? Also no sweat. In the music world, you’re nobody until somebody loves you enough to want your bootlegs.”