Who Is Sean Doran?

When Sean Doran was hired to run the English National Opera, everyone was asking who he is. “Indeed, the circumstances surrounding his hiring could hardly have been less auspicious. The selection process looked like a dog’s dinner, with well-qualified potential candidates refusing to apply for the position. All this amid chorus strikes, the apparent near-bankruptcy of the company and a bid for a large-scale injection of cash from Arts Council England. Into this smouldering car crash of a company Doran has now ventured. Fresh from the job of director of Perth festival in Western Australia, the 42-year-old has been at his desk for six weeks, during which time the acting executive director, Caroline Felton, has prematurely exited stage left. You can’t help feeling sorry for Doran.”

WATERING THE SPIRIT OF ART

A pair of “guerrilla artists” walked into the new Tate Modern museum and urinated in Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain.” “The pair claimed that the purpose of their action was to ‘celebrate the spirit of modern art.’ Bemused onlookers in the room applauded, thinking that they had just seen an officially planned performance. The artists claim that after their performance, which lasted about a minute, the Tate closed the room to the public but made no attempt to apprehend them.” – The Guardian

GOLD MEDAL PERFORMANCE

Toronto-born architect Frank Gehry has won the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture, “awarded on behalf of the Queen by the Royal Institute of British Architecture, and still, despite the big bucks attached to newer international prizes, the most prestigious of its kind.” – The Guardian

WHY WE LIKE OUR BIG McHOUSES

Everyone, it seems, decries suburban sprawl. From the McHouse architecture to the sterile street life, the ‘burbs make an easy target. But “for all the scorn that’s heaped on the suburbs – and especially on subdivisions of nearly identical houses on the fringe of metropolitan areas – people like living there. And not just middle-class drones either.” – Weekly Standard

REDEFINING CULTURE

  • Two new studies of the arts and culture in New Zealand promise the radical reshaping of the country’s creative industries. “There’s a culture of ignorance in the media. You can’t tell me that 88,000 people [the number of New Zealanders employed in the cultural sector] work entirely without effect.” – New Zealand Herald

TICKETLESS MASTER

Been reading those stories about how buying concert tickets online beats the traditional TicketMaster experience? Read on: “Fans are complaining they are being charged for tickets that never arrive, that they can’t track their orders online, and that it is extremely difficult to find a way to communicate their situations with the ticket-selling giant.” – Wired

WHY WE LIKE OUR BIG McHOUSES

Everyone, it seems, decries suburban sprawl. From the McHouse architecture to the sterile streetlife, the ‘burbs make an easy target. But “for all the scorn that’s heaped on the suburbs – and especially on subdivisions of nearly identical houses on the fringe of metropolitan areas – people like living there. And not just middle-class drones either.” – Weekly Standard