Fans of The Da Vinci Code are endangering the historic Roslyn Chapel in Scotland. So many are visiting that the chapel is showing wear. “The fragile carvings in the 15th-century Midlothian church risk being damaged by people brushing against them and the humidity from their breath.”
Tag: 01.10.05
Major Painting Theft In Netherlands
A number of 17th Century paintings worth 10 million euros were stolen from a Dutch museum Sunday. “Up to 20 Dutch paintings and numerous silver items were taken during the Sunday night break-in at Westfries Museum in Hoorn. ‘The heart of our collection is gone, including top artworks of national importance’.”
More Than A Tap Phenom
Savion Glover is a genius, a phenomenon. “Sometimes he rides the music; sometimes he becomes one of the instruments in the ensemble; sometimes he converts the score into a concerto in which he alternately plays solo and blends back seamlessly into the group. He’s his own choreographer, of course, and his invention is wide-ranging and seemingly inexhaustible.”
British Theatre – Ready For Some Big Themes?
Last month’s Birmingham Rep Sikh protests proved that theatre still matters. But what to do with that energy? “New writing in British theatre seems at a real crossroads, facing a choice between bite-sized, narrative-dominated star vehicles or a renewal of the kind of large-scale statement that is thought to have perished under Mrs Thatcher’s tank tracks but has clearly re-emerged in the past 12 months. The re-creation of a culture of large-scale new writing in British theatre won’t just happen – without Monsterism, minimalism will triumph.”
Funding Australian Art In The 21st Century
Australia needs to reconsider how it funds the arts, writes the head of the Australian Council Jennifer Bott. “Australians now spend $10 billion annually on arts goods; 85 per cent of Australian adults attend cultural events or performances; 78 per cent read for pleasure on most days; and close to 30 per cent of Australia’s children are involved in after-school arts activities. All this builds a grid of new arts stakeholders whose needs must be considered by the Australia Council along with its more traditional areas of focus. The arts develop qualities that are the building blocks of the new economies shaping the world. Demand for the arts is growing but, by and large, funding is not.”