Category: issues

Not so much, shows a test run of $100 bills with an Asian scientist on them.

“[E]verybody in the art world is now talking about the Detroit Institute of Arts, a world-class institution that just came within inches of closing. Instead, it’s now more financially stable than at any time in the past quarter-century” – because it convinced voters to approve a decade of public funding. How did they pull that off?

“In Italy, for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, they had 500 years of democracy and peace – and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”

“Officially the idea is that the writer, artist, or musician should be allowed to reap the just rewards for his effort. This is quaint. There is very little justice in the returns artists receive. Works of equal value and quality produce quite different incomes or no income at all.”

“If artists are leaving in droves, why? Massachusetts consistently ranks in the country’s top 10 for arts funding, so why does its capital have a reputation for lacking a contemporary art scene?”

“The Burbank Senior Artists Colony is remarkable. Opened in 2005, it is a mix of market-rate and low-income apartments. The building looks like an upscale hotel but is built for the arts, with studios, a video editing room, a theater and classrooms. Residents may arrive with no previous artistic experience or skill as an artist — but artists they become.”

“Mariinsky II, the second stage of the world-famous Mariinsky Theater, will receive its first spectators in May 2013, Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky promised this week after a meeting with the company’s artistic director, Valery Gergiev.”

“It will be the jewel of Main Street but nobody knows what it will look like – yet. … HKS Architects, in conjunction with Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, will design the Utah Performing Arts Center, touted as the new cultural centerpiece of Salt Lake City.” The announcement came one day after Salt Lake County agreed to contribute about ¼ of the project’s $110 million cost.

“The preponderance of online reviews speaks to their basic weakness: Because it’s essentially free to post a review, it’s all too easy to dash off thoughtless praise or criticism, or, worse, to construct deliberately misleading reviews without facing any consequences. It’s what economists (and others) refer to as the cheap-talk problem.”

“What is the purpose of having artists straddle the line between content creator and board member?”