Tag: 10.25.00

STEPPENWOLF TURNS 25

Twenty-five years after its first Chicago performances in a church basement, Steppenwolf Theatre Company is one of the most revered actors’ troupes in the world. “No important American theater ensemble has survived for even close to 25 years with the same core of performers. The troupe has expanded from its original 9 members to 33, but every one of the original members is still active. There is no such thing as a former member.” – New York Times

THE MIGHTY PR MACHINE

Massive public relations campaigns drive the visual arts industry in much the same way they do politics and advertising, so it might be worth asking just what the word “public” means in the art world today. “Broadly speaking, artists and curators have typically thought of the public (if at all) as an anonymous mass, ill-equipped and naive, that needs to be “educated,” while the public has tended to see artists as arrogant, self-regarding and even downright silly. There is some truth, I think, in both views.” – The Age (Melbourne) 10/25/00

THE NAME GAME

UCLA has agreed to restore the name of its concert hall to Arnold Schoenberg Hall, in honor of the great composer who taught on campus in the ‘30s and ‘40s. When the university announced a new dedicatee last month, record industry exec Mo Ostin, a slew of public protests ensued. “The Schoenberg renaming is not the first of its kind. I am told that the cinema at UCLA’s film school was de-plaqued, dumping a pioneering faculty member for a recent donor. Evidence from other US campuses suggests that the practice is widespread. Not since Stalin revised the great Soviet encyclopedia have famous persons been erased with such zeal.” – The Telegraph (UK) 10/25/00

VIVA LAS VEGAS

The Guggenheim and the Hermitage Museums are coming to Las Vegas. What will their new buildings look like? “Whether or not they succeed as architecture will go a long way in answering a question that has secretly terrified the profession for more than a decade: How does architecture assert its value in a world saturated by manipulative advertising and mass-market entertainment?” – Los Angeles Times

HIGH FASHION/HIGH PAY/HIGH INFLUENCE?

The Guggenheim’s new show of Armani fashion has reviewers in a tizzy. “Reviewers stumbled out of this array of some 400 garments in a higher-than-usual state of befuddlement, and have delivered themselves of reports written in rapturous poetry or horror-struck prose or, in some cases, both. And how do we factor in the US$15-million Giorgio Armani has reportedly given to the Guggenheim for its worldwide projects? Rich people have been giving tons of money to museums, and getting back favours, since the beginning of time. That’s perhaps a horrifying idea. But has anybody really suffered?” – National Post (Canada)

BOSTON BALLET IN THE DOCKET

Boston Ballet is to respond this week in the wrongful death suit filed against the company by the mother of a dancer who died weighing 97 pounds. The suit charges that the company is responsible for her death because it exerted pressure on her to lose wieght. “No matter how this is set up claim for claim, the public sees that the case goes forward and that this girl died on their watch. That’s not good news for the Boston Ballet.” – Boston Herald

RESEARCH WEB

So what will the web mean to academics, always on the lookout for places to publish their work? “The biggest change is that publication is suddenly cheap. Academics have always had much more opportunity to write than they’ve had sponsorship for publication so books and articles have had to be concisely focused – optimised – to deliver the most information using the fewest words. The Web allows an entirely new, discursive style of presentation, where an author can take however much space she needs to be as clear as possible.” – The Idler