Pittsburgh’s New Cultural Center On The Rise

Cultural forces in Pittsburgh are teaming up to turn a 26,000-square foot vacant warehouse into an arts center in the heart of the city’s business district. The center would house a theater, a coffee shop, and studios for various local artists. The partners have already come up with $800,000 in community funding for the project, but are estimating that the renovation will cost $4 million overall.

Nothing More Dangerous Than A Little Bit Of Information

This year’s edition of the Arts Electronica festival, which focuses on the connection between technology and art, is taking a hard look at all the technological innovations of the last 25 years, and asking the question: are we actually any smarter or more creative as a result of the digital revolution? Or is it possible that all the instantly available information is only making us more confused and polarizing our society?

Popular Choice To Head Australia’s National Gallery

Ron Radford is a popular choice as new director of Australia’s National Gallery of Art. Radford is “known in Adelaide, where he has been director of the Art Gallery of South Australia for 13 years, as a boisterous, larger than life bon vivant with a wicked sense of humour and an easy ability to dissolve potential conflict with light-heartedness.”

Is James MacMillian Spreading Himself Too Thin?

James MacMillan is one of Scotland’s most successful composers. But in recent years, besides his busy composing schedule, he has developed a whole other career conducting. This leads some critics to wondering if “all this conducting – he’s also lined up with orchestras in Japan and Europe – is diluting his compositional output, or if it might even be a way for him to deliberately lighten the compositional load.” There is some evidence…

An Artist Collective In Beijing

In Beijing, a group of artists (as artists do) clustered together, fixed up some space and set up 74 galleries and private art studios in a refurbished 1950’s-era weapons factory. Some critics feel that an artist complex is not a good idea, but “the artists were supported by officials who said that a flourishing art scene would help Beijing become a vibrant city. Long Xingmin, the assistant party secretary of development and planning ministry for Beijing, visited the galleries in April, and the vice mayor of Beijing has weighed in to support the artists. Visiting dignitaries, including the president of Switzerland, have also stopped by the complex to offer support.”