The National Trust for Historic Preservation releases a list of 11 places it calls “most endangered, including the summer home in Washington where Abraham Lincoln drafted the Emancipation Proclamation. ‘We either save them now or we lose them forever.'” – CNN
Tag: 06.26.00
MEXICAN ART TAKES HIT
Last month the Museo de Monterrey – one of Mexico’s leading art museums – closed when the industrial group FEMSA announced that it was pulling its support. The consensus in Mexico is that a new generation of corporate leaders is abandoning its predecessors’ commitment to arts and cultural institutions.” – San Antonio Express-News
A MATTER OF LIVELIHOOD
The Australian senate debates new business taxes that will have far-reaching implications for artists. “It will be the difference between having a lively and energetic arts sector and having one that is struggling on its knees.” – The Age (Melbourne)
THE YEAR MICHAEL JACKSON HAD SEX
And other top arts stories – new Columbia University study reveals how television reports the arts. – Boston Herald
ARTISTS IN A GLOBAL AGE
Peter Sellars takes on the directorship of Australia’s Adelaide Festival and rails against globalism. “Sellars said it was an obscenity to call the arts community an industry. He questioned whether some artists did things only for show, suggesting unheralded actions were more important.” – The Age (Melbourne)
AFTER ALL THAT FUSS —
— about rating TV shows for violence and content, new studies show that parents aren’t using the ratings. “Two in five parents have a V-chip or other form of technology to block out objectionable programming, one study found, and half of those with the devices use them. But the researchers found that awareness of the age and content ratings put on shows, such as TV-G (suitable for all ages), to be used in conjunction with the V-chips, has dropped from 70% in 1997 to just 50% this year. Furthermore, nine out of 10 parents couldn’t accurately identify the age ratings for a sample of shows their children watched.” – Los Angeles Times
MEXICAN ART TAKES HIT
Last month the Museo de Monterrey – one of Mexico’s leading art museums – closed when the industrial group FEMSA announced that it was pulling its support. The consensus in Mexico is that a new generation of corporate leaders is abandoning its predecessors’ commitment to arts and cultural institutions.” – San Antonio Express-News
BUYING ART UNSEEN
There has been much conjecture in traditional gallery circles that collectors were not likely to buy works of art over the internet without first seeing them in person. But surprise – that’s not proving to be the case. “‘That we would be selling works in the $20,000, $30,000, and $40,000 range is a surprise,” says the president of Sothebys.com, which was launched by its Manhattan auction-house parent in January” – Business Week
TAKING ADVANTAGE
“For far too long many non-indigenous people have exploited indigenous culture through the production of Aboriginal art and cultural products not of Aboriginal origin. Artists whose paintings sell for tens of thousands of dollars have been paid in cans of beer. Ancient taboos have been broken by companies that reproduce sacred totems on dish towels and underwear. Allegations of fakery abound.” – ABC News
SOUTH AFRICA’S HOMAGE TO WOMEN
- Forty-four years ago, 20,000 members of the Federation of South African Women marched on the headquarters of the prime minister to demand equal gender laws. The South African government has commissioned a monument which will attempt to “avoid a sense of the “heroic” as we have come to expect of bronze and granite monoliths, but in so doing, not to cheat women of their heroism, and to take into account the polyphonic and multivalent qualities of [their] culture.” – Daily Mail & Guardian (South Africa)