“Iran’s hardline Islamic regime has banned all foreign films deemed to promote ‘secular, feminist, liberal or nihilist ideas.’ The decision reverses prior moves by ex-president Mohammad Khatami to open up Iran to Western culture and will likely add more fuel to Iran’s massive black market and illicit satellite viewership.”
Tag: 10.30.05
Gioia: NEA Has Grown Up
“I see we have a whole generation of Americans growing up with inadequate education in the arts, but yet we want a society which is more creative, innovative and ingenious as we come into the 21st century. The American economy (of the future) is not going to thrive on cheap labor and raw materials. It’s going to thrive on our ability to be inventive and creative, and I can’t see that a generation that’s been deprived of creative problem-solving is going to meet that challenge.”
Art To Engage A Damaged Mind
Can exposure to art slow the advance of Alzheimer’s Disease, or at least make its effects more bearable? The answer seems to be yes, but no one really understands why. “Art therapy, both appreciating art and making it, has been used for decades as a nonmedical way to help a wide variety of people – abused children, prisoners and cancer and Alzheimer’s patients. But much of this work has taken place in nursing homes and hospitals. Now museums like [New York’s] Modern and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, are trying to bring it into their galleries, using their collections as powerful ways to engage minds damaged by dementia.”
Wilma’s Terrible Timing
As South Florida begins to dig out from the damage caused by Hurricane Wilma, the region’s theatres are struggling to cope with the revenue loss that will inevitably be the result of continued power outages and civic chaos. “Most arts groups are hopeful that early-November shows will go on as scheduled, and once a facility’s power is restored, that should be the case.” But the weekend that the hurricane hit was opening weekend for a number of local productions, and “by the time the reviews ran (though people who didn’t get a newspaper, have Internet access or were otherwise consumed with post-hurricane life undoubtedly didn’t read them), the theaters were like the vast majority of South Florida’s population: in the dark.”
Denver Orchestra On The Rise Even As Ballet Sinks
Denver’s performing arts scene is a study in contrasts these days. On the one hand, the Colorado Symphony has been reinvigorated by the arrival of its new music director, Jeffrey Kahane, and recently reported a $71,000 surplus for the 2004-05 season. “In stark contrast, the Colorado Ballet has suffered one setback after another, culminating with a mid-September revelation that it suffered a deficit of $341,000 in 2004-05 and accumulated debt totaling $700,000… So the unfailing cycle plays out yet again in a story of two vital Denver arts organizations on different paths.”
Some Architect-On-Architect Action
Richard Meier’s trademark-white High Museum of Art in Atlanta, which opened to wide critical acclaim in 1983, has been conjoined with an addition by Renzo Piano…”
America’s Chamber Orchestra
The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra has made a move on the big time. “With ticket sales up and deficits down, the nation’s only full-time professional chamber orchestra is clearly moving beyond its former image as a smaller version of the older and bigger-budgeted Minnesota Orchestra. The SPCO now conceives itself as its own artistic entity — ‘America’s chamber orchestra,’ as its ads proclaim.”
Vettriano Strikes Back
Why are the critics so hard on artist Jack Vettriano? “Vettriano has accused the artistic establishment of disliking ‘rampant heterosexual behaviour’ and of resenting him because of his popularity with the public and because he does not come from a traditional artistic background. The artist defends himself against charges of plagiarism by countering that the reference volumes at the centre of the criticism are there precisely to give people a source of inspiration.”
Coming Soon: Webster’s Ninth Collegiate Musical Spectacular!
Now that Strunk & White’s Elements of Style has been reborn as a song cycle, and Broadway appears to have finally run out of all original ideas (see Movin’ Out), Dominic Papatola says that it may just be time for the theatre world to embrace the great English language reference books as inspiration. “The three-volume Columbia Gazetteer of the World sits on my bookshelf at home, and, I’m telling you, you can’t beat it for sheer drama. If Richard Wagner could make a 15-hour opera out of the story of some doofus dwarf and a ring, I see no reason the epic tale of the Encyclopaedia Britannica couldn’t be made into an heroic-scale grand opera.”
Getty Starts Internal Investigation
The board of the Getty Trust has formed a committee to investigate some of the difficult issues that have plagues the institution in recent months. “The committee, composed of five board members, will review issues related to an Italian criminal inquiry into allegedly looted antiquities and an investigation by the state attorney general into spending by the trust and its chief executive, Barry Munitz.”