You can’t open a newspaper these days without coming face to face with a story extolling the virtues of HBO’s runaway hit mob drama, The Sopranos. But at least one demographic is not at all enamored of Tony and his gang of thugs: Italians, who see the portrayal of all-Italian mobs as stereotypical and insulting. “On Monday, Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister added his voice to protests by Italian-Americans at the depiction of their community.”
Tag: 10.13.04
Quantifying Art’s Value To The Taxpayer
In Wisconsin, civic and arts leaders are holding a Congress at the spectacular new Overture Center in Madison to try to sell legislators and the public on the idea that the arts are a good investment. The main thrust of the argument is that the arts attract tourists, who spend dollars in the state. (Of course, the Overture Center itself was built entirely with private money…)
Bringing Hollywood Back To California
Having a governor with serious Hollywood clout is paying big dividends for California’s movie industry. “Capitalizing on his industry insider knowledge, the governor has signed laws to ease red tape in filming, fought Internet video piracy, appointed proven Hollywood veterans to the state film commission, and mandated film industry liaisons in all state agencies and departments.” The effects have been most immediately noticable in the number of films being made in the state which might otherwise have fled to Canada or other lower-cost environs.
The Accidental Documentarian
“In 1946 Li Tianbing stole his grandmother’s cow and bought a camera with the proceeds. Some 300,000 photos later, he is being feted as one of his country’s most influential artists… For Li, it is a hobby and a job, rather than art. But his evocative images of a China that was thought to have passed without visual record have upstaged some of the most provocative installations and performances of the country’s growing avant-garde movement.”
It’s Kind Of Like Watching Paint Dry
The world of art restoration is a mysterious one to even the most frequent of museumgoers, but a new program launched by the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts is giving non-experts a glimpse of the processes involved in caring for great and aging artwork. “On two occasions now, the Institute has performed its magic in a public gallery, so that visitors could witness the techniques in progress and in person – and for those who may have been prevented by time or geography from following the exhibit first-hand… the entire process [is archived for public viewing] on the web.”
The Munch Attraction
At some point in the last twenty years, the works of Edvard Munch crossed over from being mere admired art to being symbols of contemporary culture. But what is it about the painter that so engages people, more than 50 years after his death? It may be that Munch’s “landscapes and portraits of inner anguish” touch a nerve with nervous individuals in a world filled with fear and uncertainty.