“While it hasn’t yet shaken the stage-driven foundation of traditional theatre and dance, site-specific theatre is certainly rousing a state of artistic excitement on Canada’s West Coast. The charge is being led by innovative young companies that all agree site-specific theatre should involve more than just plunking a script into an offbeat locale.”
Tag: 04.11.03
Some Fear Archaeological Looting In Iraq
Many in the art world are concerned that Iraq’s cultural treasures will be looted after the war ends. “After the last gulf war a lot of treasures disappeared onto the black market and archaeologists in Britain and the US are concerned this will be repeated on a much larger scale in the power vacuum after the fall of Saddam Hussein, as happened in Afghanistan. For poor Iraqis the temptation to sell stolen antiquities will be greatly increased if it is known there is a ready market in the west. Alarm bells had been set ringing by reports of a meeting between a coalition of antiquities collectors and arts lawyers, calling itself the American Council for Cultural Policy (ACCP), with US defence and state department officials before the start of the war. The group offered help in preserving Iraq’s invaluable archaeological collections, but archaeologists fear there is a hidden agenda to ease the way for exports post-Saddam.”
Guthrie Layoffs
Minneapolis’ Guthrie Theatre is laying off employees in an attempt to shore up the theatre’s budget. “The layoffs, combined with voluntary resignations, union wage concessions and hiring freezes, could save about $3 million and will help the theater reach its $17 million budget.”
Frankfurt Fair To Stay In Frankfurt
After long debates and threats to leave town, “the Frankfurt Book Fair, the world’s largest publishing trade fair, will stay in Frankfurt. Threats to relocate to Munich have lost currency and that’s the end to all that. This decision was made public Tuesday following an extraordinary meeting of the publishing association’s management board.”
Iraqi Looters Steal Everything But The Books
Looters emptied the house of Iraqi vice-premier Tariq Aziz, “stealing everything from paintings to curtains, kitchen units, and even stripped the electrical wires from the villa’s main switchboard. But what they left behind in his library was politically notable: the complete works of Saddam Hussein in Arabic, the mafia novels of Mario Puzo, author of the Godfather, and a book on geopolitics by Richard Nixon, former US president.”
Stolen Schiele Painting To Be Sold
An Egon Schiele painting that spent half a century in an museum in Austria before being returned to the heirs of the Jewish collectors from whom it was stolen by the Nazis is expected to bring in £7 million at Sotheby’s in London in June.
What Music Slump? Indie Labels Flourish As Majors Struggle
While execs at major recording labels “wail about the industry’s imminent collapse, indie labels and artists are singing a much happier tune. Profits are up – in some cases by 50 to 100 percent. That’s in contrast to overall album sales, which dropped about 11 percent in 2002. You won’t hear many of these labels’ artists on pop radio – and ironically, that’s one of the secrets to their success. By avoiding the major expenses associated with getting a tune on the air – which can cost upwards of $400,000 or $500,000 per song – independent labels are able to turn a profit far more quickly, and share more of those profits with their artists.”