Here in the 21st century, we’re so retro that we don’t even need to look ahead. Or maybe it’s that we’re so global that we’re about to come full circle and become separatist. No, wait: we’re so full of self-conscious irony that we’ve forgotten how to be serious. Well, whatever we are, Philip Marchand finds it all deeply unsatisfying.
Tag: 12.14.02
San Jose Arts Groups Get Gift Of Status Quo
With economic times being what they are, arts groups across the US have been bracing for government grab-backs of promised funding, and indeed, many cities and states do intend to slash arts funding in an effort to balance budgets. But in San Jose, the city council rejected a commission’s proposal to cut all arts grants by 10%, and approved the full amounts previously guaranteed to 53 cultural organizations.
Subtly Impressive, And Ready For The Public
“Not much has gone wrong at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Japanese architect Tadao Ando’s $65 million addition to the city’s Cultural District that opens Saturday. For a major work by an international superstar, it is a surprisingly discreet building. No swirling titanium walls like the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain, no fluttering butterfly sunscreens as in the Milwaukee Art Museum. It sits politely, almost corporately on its site, five gleaming rectangles of aluminum and glass enclosing the second-largest postwar art museum in the United States.”
ExxonMobil Pulls PBS Funding
In what can only be termed a devastating blow to an already-staggering industry, petroleum giant ExxonMobil has informed Boston public TV station WGBH that it will be terminating its support of PBS mainstay ‘Masterpiece Theatre’ after 2004. The company has bankrolled the program for more than three decades, and the pullout comes as PBS is discussing a controversial proposal to allow corporate sponsors to air 30-second ads on its supposedly commercial-free network of stations.
We Want Our (ClassicF)MTV!
Next week, England’s ClassicFM, the station that proved that classical music can still draw huge listenership, launches a TV channel devoted to classical music videos. And while the channel is sure to draw fire for its reliance on short, lightweight works, the simple fact is that ClassicFM is the only current model for successful marketing of classical music on-air. So it probably wouldn’t hurt to trust them.
Charming Man In A Thankless Job
Given the current belt-tightening climate, director of the UK’s National Gallery is hardly the plum position it ought to be. And Charles Saumarez Smith is under tremendous pressure not only to preserve the institution itself, but to match the success of his predecessor, the legendary Neil MacGregor. On top of that, the Getty Museum in L.A. recently swiped a priceless Raphael right out from under the National’s nose. What’s a director to do?
Charming Man In A Thankless Job
Given the current belt-tightening climate, director of the UK’s National Gallery is hardly the plum position it ought to be. And Charles Saumarez Smith is under tremendous pressure not only to preserve the institution itself, but to match the success of his predecessor, the legendary Neil MacGregor. On top of that, the Getty Museum in L.A. recently swiped a priceless Raphael right out from under the National’s nose. What’s a director to do?
What Went Wrong With ‘Sophie’?
Nicholas Maw’s much-hyped new opera based on the Holocaust novel Sophie’s Choice is one of the hottest tickets on the London scene, but critical reaction has been less than stellar. “Sophie’s Choice ultimately… founders on gaping disparities between subject, score and production. It raises issues that take us into territory where music and theatre struggle to cope.”
For Whom The Cell Tolls
This week, as conductor Sakari Oramo, in his New York Philharmonic debut, was wowing a Lincoln Center crowd with Nielsen’s 4th Symphony, a cell phone went off in the balcony, breaking the breathless silence that follows the second movement. Such an event is, of course, all too common these days, but Oramo’s reaction was not: he refused to continue the performance until silence had been fully restored. Justin Davidson wishes more conductors were possessed of such temerity.
Bellesiles Stripped Of Prize
Historian Michael Bellesiles has been vilified by the political right, ostracized by his colleagues, and forced out of his professorship since charges of falsified research in his controversial book on America’s “gun culture” hit the front pages several months back. Now, Columbia University is stripping Bellesiles of the prestigious Bancroft Prize it awarded him when the book was originally published. For the record, Bellesiles continues to stand by his research.