ASIAN ARTS MECCA

A Taipei official has pledged to make the city “the cultural city of the Asia-Pacific,” beginning with a year-long arts festival of work from 10 nearby countries. “The Europeans know their neighbors well – they learn each others’ languages, histories, and literature and they work together to form a cultural power house. Someday, perhaps, our children will not only learn English and French and German but also confidently speak Vietnamese and Korean, read Sanskrit and write Chinese.” – China Times (Taiwan) 10/31/00

DEFINING THE ARTS

At a forum on the future of the arts, Australian artists launch “a withering attack on the government, the arts media, populism and the boards of the performing arts companies. One cited the image of Nicky Webster’s ‘Dream’ at the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics as a metaphor for a bland and hypocritical culture that says it embraces diversity but does otherwise. ‘You cannot present to the world your culture as the dream of a white 10-year-old school girl’.” – The Age (Melbourne) 10/31/00

FAIR PLAY

What are the elements that make a successful world’s fair? The Hannover World’s Fair is about to end. “No one will consider it one of the best, despite the unexpected increase in attendance over the last few weeks and although paying visitors were always more impressed than the critics who received complimentary tickets.”- Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

AN EXPENSIVE WOBBLY BRIDGE

There are more engineers studying how to fix the wobble in Norman Foster’s Millennium footbridge across the Thames than there are people who have been to the Millennium Dome. “Yet the £5 million currently quoted for a remedy to the famous wobble is a colossal sum compared both to the original estimate of £9 million and the much increased ‘final’ figure of £18 million. – The Times (UK)

THE MUSIC TO COME

In a demonstration of the new data-transmission capabilities of Internet2, a conference in Atlanta today will “allow musicians from across the U.S. to perform together over the Web. At the Atlanta conference, Dr. Karl Sievers of the University of Oklahoma will play trumpet while the rest of his brass quintet accompanies him – via Internet2 video conferencing – from the university.” – Sonicnet.com