Opera Foundation Australia staged its competition recently, but participants are crying foul. “Earlier this week, finalists received a letter from the Opera Foundation informing them that the $40,000 prize had been awarded to another singer who had not taken part in the competition.” – Sydney Morning Herald
Tag: 09.21.00
NEW HARVARD STUDY ON ARTS EDUCATION
After a comprehensive review of 50 years of arts education research and nearly 200 existing studies, researchers concluded that spatial-temporal reasoning improves for children when they learn to make music and improves temporarily for adults when they listen to certain kinds of music. However, researchers uncovered no generalizable, causal links between studying the arts and improvement in SAT scores, grades or reading scores, challenging a popular argument that the arts can and should be used to buttress other types of learning. – Washington Post 09/21/00
NEA INCREASE
The National Endowment for the Arts finally got a budget increase from the US Congress yesterday – an additional $7 million this year, for a total of $105 million. But the extra money comes with a catch. – Washington Post 09/21/00
TAKING CONTROL
New report says that music and book publishers could lose billions of dollars over the next few years because of the internet and digital copying. On the other hand, “it predicted that musicians will gain $1 billion, authors $1.3 billion, and third party service companies $2.8 billion by 2005 in ‘a historic transfer of revenues’,” due to artists choosing to distribute their own work. – The Age (Melbourne) 09/21/00
ROYAL WRITER
England’s Elizabeth I had a lot of drama in her life. But she was also a gifted writer, and new publication of her work argues for study of her oeuvre. “People are only beginning to realize what a good writer she was. A lot of her success in government had to do with her skill at writing. When she put people down, they stayed down.” – Chronicle of Higher Education
THE WORLD’S LARGEST LIBRARY
In 1996 Brewster Kahle launched an effort to gather up all the information on the internet. “In just three years we got bigger than the Library of Congress, the biggest library on the planet,” he says, arms outstretched, smiling. “So the question is: What do we do now?” – Feed
SELL-OFF
It’s official – Cleveland San Jose Ballet shuts down and moves to liquidate its assets to pay creditors. But not to pay season subscribers, however. Ticket-holders will be given vouchers that they can exchange for some other local arts events. – The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
FEELING SOMETHING
Something new is happening in dance. “The cool, formal abstractness of body movement of the past 30 years, American in origin, is being overtaken by a new, psychoanalytical, emotional approach from Europe, where feelings matter more than aesthetics.” – The Telegraph (London)
BOSTON RENOVATION
Boston Ballet has been through some difficult times of late. But the company is embarking on an ambitious five-year plan to boost attendance, build an endowment and perhaps partner in the construction of a new $150 million theatre. – Boston Herald
CLASS REUNION
A set of 92 Botticelli drawings illustrating Dante’s “Divine Comedy” has been gathered and reunited in Rome after more than five centuries of being dispersed throughout Europe. – The Guardian