What’s up with writers with writer’s block? “You have to be able to afford to be blocked because, if you are a writer, not writing is a very expensive business – and it becomes more so by the hour. Therefore, it tends not to happen on Grub Street. I myself have written three novels and averaged 2,000 words of journalism a week for 15 years without ever experiencing the kind of bank balances where a block becomes a serious possibility.”
Tag: 02.17.03
Philanthropy Takes A Dive
“The 2002 Slate 60, the annual list of charitable gifts and pledges from the country’s top philanthropists, totaled $4.6 billion, less than half of 2001’s total of $12.7 billion.” The good news is that two of the biggest gifts last year in America were art-related. Walter Annenberg’s bequest of $1 billion worth of art to the Metropolitan Museum led. And “Ruth Lilly, heiress to the Eli Lilly pharmaceutical fortune, came in at No. 2 with a $520 million pledge to various arts organizations, including a $100 million gift to Poetry magazine.”
Broadway Musicians Dispute – Who’s Really Deciding?
Broadway producers say that the number of musicians emplyed for a show “should be left to the composer, lyricist, and musical director of a Broadway musical.” The head of the musicians union agrees: “We agree completely, absolutely 100%. The problem is they’re not the people who make the decision. How do we know? Those people are members of our union. And they say, unless we protect the minimums, they can’t work in the same parameters as they do now on Broadway, because the numbers are dictated to the musical creative team by producers.” Musicians and producers are locked in contract talks.
Emotionally Impressed – Studying Emotion And The Arts
“Emotion has always been at the core of the humanities: Without the passions, there would not be much history, and even less literature. Indeed the very word “philosophy” begins with philos (love). But only in recent years have scholars begun focusing, without embarrassment, on emotion itself, producing a body of work that regularly crosses the line between the humanities and the social sciences, with occasional forays into neurophysiology.”
No “Oh Canada” For This Orchestra
The Toronto Symphony touts next season’s programming as “balanced.” “You might think that an orchestra that’s all ours would aim to be reflect where it lives; and that ‘balanced’ would imply some kind of symphonic variations on the old rhyme about something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. But at the TSO next year, the old and the borrowed trump everything else. The new is hardly there, and as for the blue – well, that would describe the mood of anyone scanning the new schedule for music created in Canada.”
Looted Art Sale
The family of Eugene Gutman has recently recovered 233 works of art worth about £2 million .from the Dutch government, and will sell 90 of them at auction. The art was looted by the Nazis 60 years ago, and includes silver, Old Master paintings, furniture and other antiques. The sale will be one of the biggest of war-looted art ever.
Storage Problem: Dresden’s Museums Are Angry
“Six months after the dramatic rescue of Dresden’s art treasures from incalculable flood damage, the mood in this city’s leading museums is sour. Heralded for their heroic salvage effort, museum administrators and curators are now complaining that Saxony’s regional government has refused to provide them with a safe place to store their art.”
Oslo Begins Construction Of New Opera House
Construction began Monday on the Norwegian capital’s new opera house. “The project, budgeted at NOK 3.3 billion (nearly USD 500 million), sparked years of political debate. Oslo’s current opera house at the central square known as Youngstorget is well past its prime, but the sheer cost of a new opera, not to mention where it should be located, was the subject of seemingly endless argument.”
Art Of Recycling – You May Be Wearing Last Year’s Movie
“Ideas are not the only thing Hollywood recycles: The thousands of prints left over after all those blockbusters have run out of steam at the nation’s multiplexes have sparked a thriving industry that helps transform old film into other products, including polyester fabric. Last year’s ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, for example, required 8,400 prints for the U.S. and Canada alone. For that three-hour movie, the total for those prints amounts to about 29,000 miles of film.”
Frida: The Art On Film
“Frida” has been one of the most talked-about movies of the season (at least by artists). But when Julie Taymor was offered the film to direct, she hesitated. “I wasn’t interested, even though I’m a painter, because normally I don’t think you can figure out why a painter paints. How do you know? You can suppose many things, but often the artist comes out quite monstrous, full of angst, and you never get behind the inspiration.”