The French government is putting together a plan to encourage arts sponsorship and the creation of foundations. The government released figures showing that “France has few private donors and a pitiful number of foundations (only about 1,000, compared with 2,000 in Germany, 3,000 in England and 12,000 in the USA).” France spent $1.3 billion in 2001, or 0.09 per cent of GDP, compared with $230 billion (£142 billion) on the other side of the Atlantic, i.e. more than 2% of GDP.
Tag: 01.17.03
Why We’re Buying Less Music
So CD sales are down. A good deal of the decline has to be from consumers burning their own discs. But there are other reasons too: “We have brilliant new video game platforms, brilliant surround sound and brilliant wide-screen TVs all emerging in the last two to three years at very affordable price points. Music has come up with absolutely zero as a compelling alternative to those new technologies.”
National Picks Up 20 Olivier Nominations
London’s National Theatre was “showered with 20 nominations” for Olivier Awards. It’s a tribute to departing director Trevor Nunn, who’s reign at5 the National has been controversial. Still, “Nunn himself has very oddly been overlooked for best director despite pulling the strings on Tom Stoppard’s trilogy The Coast of Utopia, A Streetcar Named Desire with Glenn Close and the ecstatically received musical Anything Goes.”
Toronto’s Art Gallery Of Ontario Makes its Move
For 103 years, the Art Gallery of Ontario has been a middling player on the global art scene. It has built a respectable international reputation and a loyal local audience by mounting innovative shows, such as a Yoko Ono exhibit, and by specializing in such areas as Canadian art. Its Canadian paintings include windswept pines, moody lakes, and rugged mountains by the Group of Seven, the landscape pioneers whose works are now Canadian icons. The museum has a solid collection of European art, and its grouping of sculptures by Britain’s Henry Moore is considered one of the world’s best.” Now it’s been given a major collection and is into planning for a new Frank Gehry building.
Art In Groups
“As more artists work collaboratively or in art collectives, the stereotype of the lone artist in a garret is fading. In place of the romantic ideal of the figure sweating in front of an easel is a growing teamwork ethos, particularly among young artists. As a result of a greater focus on the process than the product, ‘do-it-ourselves’ now seems more hip than do-it-yourself.”