Category: visual

For trustees of museums, “a reward of investing time and money is gaining proximity to art and artists. Critics say that can translate into financial advantage when the art is contemporary – if, for example, insiders buy pieces before they gain museum cachet, thus becoming more valuable.”

London’s Millennium Dome was one big spectacular failure. Five years later, the fortunes of those who were associated with the project are mixed. And the Dome itself is getting new life. It’s being redeveloped into a “26,000- capacity venue that it promises will ‘provide international acts and sports teams with arena facilities of a standard currently unseen in Europe’ by 2007. The arena is also part of London’s official bid for the Olympics in 2012.

Cambridge is trying to close its architecture program. It’s one of the top three in Britain, so the idea’s perverse. And yet, changing requirements for how university schools must behave puts it in danger. “Architects have spent the best part of a century trying to be taken seriously and now the subject is being pushed into the second- or even the third-tier universities, as if it was catering or windsurfing. That is bad for architecture, bad for education and terrible for the quality of Britain’s cities.”

One of the biggest British arguments for keeping the Parthenon Marbles in London has been that keeping them there has protected them better than if they had been left in Greece. But “a distinguished Cambridge scholar says the sculptures would have been just fine if Lord Elgin had left them in Athens. Following a sophisticated 11-year conservation program in Athens, the 14 slabs that Lord Elgin did not manage to remove are now showing surprisingly bright original details.”

Jeremy Deller wins this year’s Turner Prize with his video “Memory Bucket, a documentary exploring Crawford, Texas, and the site of the Branch Davidian siege in Waco. Video art dominated the 2004 shortlist, with Kutlug Ataman, Langlands & Bell and Yinka Shonibare also nominated.”

“The 38-year-old Londoner (Jeremy Deller), who describes himself as ‘not a technically capable person’, is almost unnaturally well-liked both by the art world and the general public. After the shockers of previous years – unmade beds, elephant dung and copulating sex dolls – Deller’s most startling revelation was that Laura Bush likes a deep fried jalapeno chilli with her burger.”

Art Basel Miami Beach has yet to turn a profit, even though it has been a hit in the art world. “In budget documents, the Swiss art show listed a $145,000 shortfall from last year, a loss it hopes to erase this weekend with higher exhibitor fees and ticket prices and more dollars from corporate sponsors. ‘This year will be the first year when we see a little black’.”

When Ed Rendell became mayor of Philadelphia in the early 1990s, the city was at a civic and cultural low point, having seen its national reputation plummet in the previous two decades. Over his two terms as mayor, Rendell spearheaded a relentless drive to revive his city, and championed arts initiatives and building projects which he saw as essential to Philadelphia’s future. But while the city’s comeback has been remarkable, the buildings used to accomplish the feat are somewhat disappointing from an architectural standpoint. “Given a once-in-a-generation chance to distinguish itself with design, Philadelphia instead showed a preference for the prosaic.”

Leonard Lauder runs the Whitney Museum. No, that’s not strong enough: Leonard Lauder is the Whitney Museum. “As chairman of the Whitney for the last 14 years, he has run the museum like a family business, deploying his considerable resources and connections on its behalf, regularly scribbling suggestions to staffers on his blue personal stationery. It is a hands-on approach that makes it hard to tell where he ends and the museum begins.” But that warm-and-fuzzy one-man management is making things difficult for the Whitney at a time when other New York museums are grabbing the spotlight and the dollars that come with it. Questions abound, not the least of which is whether the Whitney can survive Lauder’s eventual departure.

“Hundreds of letters and photographs are missing from the National Archives and its regional offices, including one presidential library. Many are suspected stolen. The extent of the losses is detailed in a series of reports from the organization’s investigative office, but the value of the items is difficult to determine because that is largely measured by historic importance and rarity.”