Irish artists have always felt ambivalent about London – the need to live there for career vs. resentment of the British omnipresence. The new generation of Irish artists working in London are finding national identity increasingly irrelevant. “Your nationality depends on who’s giving you the grant.” – Irish Times
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THE ROCKWELL DEBATE
Was he artist or illustrator? Who cares, asks the Chicago Historical Society, on the eve of the opening of the blockbuster Rockwell show. The show was so popular in Atlanta they couldn’t get all the people in who wanted to see it. – Chicago Tribune
SWING LOW
New Paris footbridge across the Seine opens, then closes quickly after disconcerting swaying and “weird and wonderful” movement. – The Times (UK)
TRADE IN HORROR
Museums and exhibitions dedicated to the Holocaust have seen a growing commercialization in artifacts from the Holocaust. – The Globe and Mail (Canada)
POP! GOES THE …
A new kind of songwriter has infiltrated the soul of the Broadway musical – the pop-tune writer, who’s work plays as well alone on the radio (or skating rink) as it does onstage. – Chicago Tribune
CHARLOTTE CHURCH –
– is the biggest thing to hit the classical charts in recent years. Now the manager who helped get her there is suing the 14-year-old for breaking her contract with him. – BBC
“DAMN THOSE CANADIAN JUDGES”
Francis Ford Coppola’s online writers’ workshop is a figure skating free-for-all. The judges can be brutal, but the experience of having your work mauled out there in the ether can also be strangely addictive. – Salon
SLUMP? WHAT SLUMP?
US book publishing sales rose 4 percent last year, beating $24 billion. – Publishers Weekly
BOLD BUT BLOWN OUT
The budget and box office, that is, for this year’s Perth Festival, which reached for some ambitious international projects, but seems headed to a record deficit. – Sydney Morning Herald
GROWING CHORUS —
— of artists protests inclusion of Joerg Haider’s far-right Freedom party in the Austrian government. – CBC (AP)