“With public education struggling to stave off steep budget cuts and forced to cope with the extra emphasis on standardized testing, it has become difficult if not impossible for schools to add their own art, music, drama and dance teachers. Partnerships [with arts organizations] are sometimes hailed as an alternative to these arts classes. Adding to the desirability of partnerships is that the arts organizations pick up most of the tab for the program; they, in turn, have diverse sources to go to for funding, which has provided a significant impetus in the growth of such programs. But what do partnerships deliver? Are their promises fulfilled? Who really benefits? Until recently, it was hard to answer these questions.”
Tag: 05.25.03
The Five Best Regional Theatres In America?
Time magazine has ranked what it considers the five best regional theatres in America. Chicago’s Goodman Theatre topped the list, followed by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland; the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Mass.; the Guthrie in Minneapolis, and the South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, Calif.
Critics? What Use Are They?
“The relationship between artist and critic is an age-old battle between process and product, actor and observer, status quo and innovation. To an artist, a critic can feel like a thorn in the side, an impartial evaluator, a necessary evil to be rationalized accordingly — or one of the malicious, impotent little men and women with nothing better to do than play God with their destinies.”
Cannes Or Bust
Was this year’s Cannes a bust, as many critics have been suggesting? “This year’s Cannes is only ‘wretched’ (in the words of one major American critic) if you compare it to the best recent Cannes fests and ignore all the movies shown out of competition – like the restored versions of 20 Federico Fellini films, Charlie Chaplin’s ‘Modern Times’ and a number of rediscovered classics – as well as the best of the new films.”
Study: Downloaders Actually Buy More Music Than Others
People who download music over the internet are said to be the reason that CD sales have declined in the past few years. “But a study released this month shows that people who download music are more than twice as likely to buy CDs as people who don’t download. That makes sense. People who spend hours – and it takes a lot of time – scanning the Internet for music to download are likely to be eager music fans, looking for a new kick, a bit of rare trivia or even a cut they heard on the radio and wanted to hear again.”
The New Chick Lit Imprints
“Chick Lit is a literary genre that has been demanding attention for about four years. Since then, an explosion of books with candy-colored covers and sassy girlfriend titles have appeared on bookstore shelves across the nation. And now, Pocket Books, a division of publishing giant Simon & Schuster, is launching a new imprint called Downtown Press, symbolized by a shopping-bag logo and devoted exclusively to the genre.”
Bilbao-On-Hudson?
What will define success for Dia’s new Beacon home north of Manhattan? “Is this the kind of work that will bring in 100,000 visitors a year? That’s the number Dia hopes for. So does the State of New York and Beacon and its surrounding towns, which have chipped in $2.7 million toward the project so far and have visions of Guggenheim Bilbao dancing in their heads. Dia: Beacon offers some of the most potent art experiences to be found anywhere, in some of the most well-considered settings. But it was conceived largely to present difficult work for long durations in one space. And for much of what it offers, difficult is the word.”
Summing Up Cannes
As Cannes winds down for another year, Desson Howe writes that one thing is clear about this year’s lineup: “Someone was saving the really great movies for another year.”
Washington Ballet – Successful, But What Does That Mean?
Septime Webre has been running Washington Ballet for four years. “Sales of yearly subscriptions have tripled. The budget is up more than 50 percent. Last year the pool of individual donations hit the $2 million mark, a first for the institution. The annual number of performances has increased, and the company has moved from the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater to the larger Eisenhower for many engagements.” But “the populist drive that marks his programming and helps account for the increased ticket sales has at least one closely connected observer worried about its effects on the sterling tradition of the company’s training arm, the Washington School of Ballet.”
In Search Of The Great American Novel
“What really is the Great American Novel? It seemed elusive to me, considering the wealth of good novels in the last century and a half. There’s no such thing as The Great American Novel, only several good-great American novels, I’d declared, quibbling with the article ‘the.’ All we can do is trace the threads that run through these novels, isolate them as a scientist isolates germs in a petri dish, and see if that amounts to an American tradition, or an American canon, in the novel. Find what’s quintessentially American – if it’s there.”