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Animal Farm Goes Home

George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a biting critique of Communism. China is a Communist country with a highly-developed censorious streak. “This is subversive stuff. China’s media, including its theatre and films, are still heavily censored, so how on earth did Animal Farm get past them and onto the stage?”

Movin’ On Up

This summer when it opened in Chicago for tryouts, “Movin Out”, the Twyla Tharp/Billy Joel collaboration got packets of bad reviews. Now it’s a star on Broadway. What happened? “It had been a long time since a show considered doomed on the road was able to turn itself around so quickly and completely. Faced with similar crises, countless producers have summoned teams of show doctors, ordered emergency set changes, delayed their Broadway openings and ruthlessly dismissed choreographers, directors, and even stars. But in this case the rescue job rested with one person, Twyla Tharp.”

Beyond Existence (How Did It Happen?)

At the most fundamental level, scientists working on trying to explain how the world works have to admit there are things that defy understanding. “The more science learns about the origin and history of the cosmos and of life on earth and of Homo sapiens, the more it reveals how staggeringly improbable we are. Honest physicists will admit that they have no idea why there is something rather than nothing. Why does the universe look this way rather than some other way? Beyond science, then, what do we have?

Why Can’t We Just ask If Art Is Good? (Rather Than If It’s Art In The First Place)

How tiresome – another Turner Prize, another controversy – and why?. “We just can’t get past it. For some reason it seems far more pressing to ask whether something can actually be called art than to ask whether it’s good or bad. This barrier is more important and more damaging to art itself than it may sound. A lot of people – teachers, curators, critics, funding bodies – have to agree something is art before it can get nominated for an award such as the Turner Prize. Unless all these people are conspiring to make fools of us, that’s a pretty convincing consensus.”

Free Museum Admission Costs Museums

Since London museums dropped their admission charges last year, attendance at museums is up 62 percent. This is a good thing, and something the government has pledged to continue. But the move has “cost the Government more than £70 million – the cash was given to the institutions over three years to make up for loss of revenue.” And the museums say it isn’t nearly enough – they need more compensation…

All About The Art

Over the past 10 years there has been a succession of new museum buildings that seem to want to compete with the art inside – as if the permanence of the structure trumps the objects that can be rearranged inside. Tadao Ando’s new Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth is different – it “assumes that art remains a vital part of our existence. As an architect, his aim is to allow us to understand that relationship more clearly, to bring us into closer contact with both the art and ourselves. It is architecture for art’s sake, without condescension.”

Shell Game?

The Guggenheim’s financial fortunes are reeling. It “ran a $6.7 million operating deficit last year on a $57.71 million budget. Its endowment should reach about $42 million by the end of the year, still far short of the $100 million level,” and many of director Thomas Krens’ initiatives are on the rocks. “Perhaps the only good thing to emerge from the Guggenheim’s financial woes is its shift in exhibitions from superficial eye-poppers such as motorcycles and haute couture toward an increased reliance on treasures from its permanent collection.” And yet, is the empire crumbling?