Why are there so few architecture critics in America? “For a long while now mainstream architectural journalism has been mostly synonymous with architectural criticism — with reviews of significant buildings. But you don’t have to browse through too many Arts or Entertainment or Weekend sections to see that critiques of buildings are an odd, uneasy fit amid all the reviews of movies and plays and TV shows, of music and dance and literature — of arts that are easily accessible and (often) widely distributed, arts that you can affordably experience simply by visiting a local theater or gallery, buying a book or CD, or tuning in HBO.”
Tag: 06.02.05
Missing Eos
Why did the adventurous orchestra Eos fold after 10 years? Conductor Jonathan Sheffer ponders the question: “Ironically, Eos’s decline during the past year happened against the backdrop of the rise of Red {an orchestra} in Cleveland, now entering its fourth season. The opposite trajectory of these two groups perfectly manifested all that was problematic with Eos, and all that is right with Red. With only my programming ideas in common, Red and Eos, each in its own way, embody all the challenges and rewards facing the smaller, more iconoclastic arts groups in America.”
Regan: LA’s Where The Action Is
Why is super editor Judith Regan bringing her publishing house from New York to LA? “Over the last 20 years, she explains, New York has turned into a city that’s better suited to bankers, Wall Street lawyers and the superrich than it is to publishers. Artists are fleeing, creativity is dying, and the rents keep going up.”
New Yorker Hits DVD
The New Yorker magazine is issuing its complete archive of issues on DVD. “The collection, titled “The Complete New Yorker,” will consist of eight DVD’s containing high-resolution digital images of every page of the 4,109 issues of the magazine from February 1925 through the 80th anniversary issue, published last February. Included on the discs will be “every cover, every piece of writing, every drawing, listing, newsbreak, poem and advertisement.”
Flexibility May Be The Future
As the range of entertainment options available to Americans gets ever wider, it seems to be increasingly difficult for arts organizations to draw a crowd, and by extension, to raise money. “It’s not only the will and wherewithal to give that can erode arts funding. Social needs, priorities and sensibilities change. A museum or new theater that was exciting to build and open isn’t necessarily as thrilling to fund five years later, when it’s up and running… The culture is constantly evolving, under the pressures of changing demographics, audience behavior, seductive new technologies and the nature of making and consuming art. No organization, no artist can afford to assume that anything that’s working today will do so tomorrow.”
Cleveland’s Departing Director Getting Out Now
“Katharine Reid announced in February she would retire as director of the Cleveland Museum of Art as soon as a successor could be named. This week, she sped up her schedule… Effective Friday, July 1, Reid will become consulting director of the museum. Deputy directors Charles Venable, Susan Jaros and Janet Ashe will run the museum as a team until a new director is appointed.” Reid’s departure comes as the museum is gearing up for a massive six-year expansion project, and the search for her successor is likely months from being completed.
The Best Of The Soon-To-Be-Also-Rans
It’s been an unusually strong year on Broadway, according to Michael Riedel, and while not everyone’s efforts on stage will be rewarded in gold next Sunday night at the Tony awards, the year has brought an embarrassment of riches in the honorable mention category…
Melting The New Music Permafrost
Contemporary music remains a tough sell in most concert halls, so when flutist Claire Chase decided to found her own ensemble specializing in the stuff, she knew she’d better be ready to take her performances outside traditional “classical” spaces. Three years later, Chase’s Chicago-based International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) is a bona fide cult hit, performing everywhere from chamber music venues to seedy dive bars, and thriving on a combination of youthful energy (nearly all the Icicles, as members of the group are known, are under 30) and serious artistry.
Could Hollywood Benefit From Illegal File-Sharing?
Even as Hollywood ramps up its attempts to shut down BitTorrent, the high-volume peer-to-peer file sharing system that is allowing users worldwide to illegally download and share movies and television shows, some in the industry see serious upside to the technology. Specifically, BitTorrent has created cult followings for many foreign TV shows that would otherwise have almost no chance of getting any notice from America’s market-driven broadcast industry. Besides, say supporters, Hollywood already uses peer-to-peer networks to create buzz about their latest products, so the lawsuits and pronouncements of doom are ringing fairly hollow.
New Digital Distribution Law Stalls In House
“A key lawmaker has complicated the movie industry’s push for a law to restrict consumers’ ability to redistribute digital TV content over peer-to-peer networks and the internet at large. Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), chairman of the House Commerce Committee, has indicated that he opposes inserting a broadcast flag measure in his newly introduced digital TV bill, which would set a 2008 hard deadline for broadcasters to give back their analog spectrum.”