The UK’s Stirling Prize for architecture is to be awarded this week. “Beyond the difficulty of choosing between this year’s nominees, something about the prize that aspires to do for buildings what the Man Booker does for books, and the Turner does for art, fails to add up. The real problem faced by the Stirling Prize since its launch in 1996 has been its failure to come up with a coherent sense of what the award is for, and then to stick with it.”
Tag: 10.09.05
Protests Over Gallery Expansion
The Tate St. Ives Gallery is very successful. So now the museum wants to expand (naturally). But “more than 2,000 local people have signed a petition against the expansion plans, many of them believing the gallery is losing touch with the town. Some protesters object because the proposed creative centre, which the gallery and Cornwall county council want built on land above the existing building, would mean a loss of views and car parking spaces.”
Pinter At 75 – Attention Should Be Paid
Harold Pinter is 75. In Dublin they’re throwing big parties. In London, nothing, really. “One way and another, Pinter’s 75th birthday will not go unremarked. It just seems suprising that an English dramatist, for whom London is a living presence, should be more honoured by the Liffey than the Thames. But perhaps, in the end, it’s the ultimate tribute.”
“A” For Art In Arizona Gets A “B” For Business
Arizona museum directors are taking a more serious attitude about running like businesses. They have to. They have expanded so much in recent years that “we’ve created a new museum here every five or six years.” “A national debate over the desired skill set for directors has been rekindled with job searches under way at more than 15 major art museums across the country, including the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.”
Courting Relevance – Time To Matter
The West End’s Royal Court Theatre is turning 50. “But there’s no getting away from it: the home of angry young men is facing middle-aged spread; its position as standard bearer of the new is under threat.”
New Volley Of Plays Take On The Iraq War
“As the Iraq war approaches year three, a new volley of war-themed plays is landing on the stages of the United States and Britain, the countries that led the assault on Saddam Hussein. Most express strong opposition to U.S. and British policies. Many of these scripts will surely have a short shelf life. But most of the playwrights say that the theater offers ways of thinking and feeling about the war that go deeper than the images on TV — and that the communal experience of theatergoing is likelier to change attitudes than the solitary experience of looking at a screen.”
A World Of Trends? How Yesterday!
“Today, fads ping across continents and disappear so quickly that the coolhunter, even the whole notion of “cool,” has become passé. Every big-city scenester or bored teenager on the planet has a blog or mass e-mail anointing the moment’s hot restaurants, hobbies and handbags. Add to this, mass obsession with celebrity style and global corporatization and you can get nearly the same chai latte or straight-off-the-runway skirt in Columbus, Ohio, that’s available in Manhattan or Milan. Trend-spotting has, in essence, become just another trend…”
Ballet Pacifica Makes A bid For The Big Time In Southern California
The company has a new director, and the Irvine-based group has ambitious expansion plans. “Ballet Pacifica would make its debut in fall 2006 outside Orange County. The company’s first home repertory season would include three different programs performed in spring 2007 at the new $200 million concert hall. Again, dates have been ‘penciled in,’ but contracts have not yet been signed, Arts Center officials confirmed.”
Is Digital Downloading Classical Recording’s Saviour?
So says a spokesman for Naxos. “This is all pure profit for us. There are no post-production costs – no booklet to print, no (disc) pressing costs, no jewel case costs. And really, it hasn’t hurt our CD sales. People out there look at the price of a download in a different way. This is disposable music. It’s a way for them to sample something without making a large investment. They’ll pay the 99 cents for one cut and either decide to try the whole album or not. If they like it, they’ll maybe go out and purchase the CD.”
Aussie Arts – Money And Censorship
“In John Howard’s Australia, libraries, museums, theatres and orchestras are on the same list as ports and roads and hospitals – traditional institutions, and necessary parts of the civic fabric. To understand what’s happened under Howard to the arts in general and theatre in particular – the odd mix of generosity and meanness, celebration and indifference, abuse and support – it’s best to keep in mind the lessons learnt in the kafuffle over the orchestras: that the bedrock arts policy of the Howard Government is not support for the arts – it’s support for arts institutions. Big, traditional institutions. And in the way we understand these things in Australia – let’s not talk of what’s possible in Europe – the big traditional arts companies are flourishing under John Howard as never before.”