“Hard American power may or may not be in decline. But American cultural influence is prevailing. It has infected us deep inside.”
Tag: 03.03.11
Former UK Culture Minister: Local Governments Should Be Forced To Fund Culture
Chris Smith is “one of many high-profile figures outlining concern about cuts to local authority funding and how they could affect arts organisations. He said he was even more concerned about local funding than Arts Council England cuts, which will be announced at the end of this month.”
This Time V&A Museum Plays It Safe With Building Design
“With one exception, the shortlisted designs to replace an old boilerhouse on Exhibition Road are all safety-first concoctions. They will not trigger objections from the cultural nabobs who bridled with fear and loathing at Daniel Libeskind’s “exploding box” proposal.”
A Revival In Portraits
“Five years ago the National Portrait Gallery celebrated its 150th anniversary – but this year it may have even more to celebrate. The art of portraiture appears to be having a revival. Since that anniversary, numbers of visitors to the gallery are up by around 100,000, and the launch of the new BP Portrait Award Next Generation show sold out – with, says the gallery.”
See Proposals To Expand London’s V&A Museum
A slideshow…
Assessing The Boston Symphony’s Levine Years
“Recurring health setbacks drew sympathy for his plight but also real frustration from players, concertgoers, and the board. It took a toll on the orchestra to see, time and again, its capstone artistic projects outsourced to last-minute substitute conductors.”
Is The Internet Killing Creativity?
“Suppose we found that computers are diminishing our capacity for certain pleasures, or making us worse off in other ways. Why couldn’t we simply spend less time in front of the screen and more time doing the things we used to do before computers came along – like burying our noses in novels? Well, it may be that computers are affecting us in a more insidious fashion than we realise.”
Where Did Hamlet’s Odd Name Come From? Ireland
“The identity of the Prince of Denmark has fascinated scholars for centuries, with disputes about the name’s Jutish, Icelandic or Latin etymology jostling for academic pre-eminence.” Now a Scottish professor “has published research which traces the unusual word to a little known Gaelic mystery tale from the dark ages.”
Adelaide Festival’s Next Director Wants to ‘Break the Pop Barrier’
David Sefton, who takes the helm at Australia’s most prestigious arts festival for the years 2013-2015 (as the festival changes from a biennial to an annual event), hopes to break down what he calls “that artificial divide” between “popular” and “serious” culture.