Lord Cultural Resources logo Cultural News - 1 December 2011

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5 designs selected for world class museum in Patna

Faizan Ahmad (TNN), The Times of India, Dec 1, 2011, 10.08AM IST

 

PATNA – "Five architectural designs for the proposed international museum have been selected of which one will be finalized. The museum will come up on the Bailey Road on nearly 14 acres of land at an estimated cost of Rs 350 crore. For two days the five designs and concepts were presented before the members of the selection panel. These designs have come from the US, UK, Australia, Japan and Norway. In all, 24 architectural designs have come of which five were selected. Now all these five designs will be displayed at the Patna Museum for public viewing. "The final design will be selected by the state cabinet," HRD principal secretary Anjani Kumar Singh, who is also the nodal officer of the project, said on Wednesday. The selection panel, headed by chief secretary Navin Kumar, will submit its report to the state government. Singh said that the building construction department will take over the project once the design is finalized. The state government had floated a global tender for this project through a consultant, Lord Cultural Resources, and as many as 24 agencies of different countries showed interest by sending their designs."

 


Cultural News, a free service of Lord Cultural Resources, is released at the end of every week by our Librarians: Brenda Taylor and Danielle Manning, with contributions from Ameline Coulombier and Camille Balmand of Lordculture and Lord Cultural Resources consultants Javier Jimenez and Veronica Blandon. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for the latest digest of cultural news.


Our Clients and Lord Cultural Resources in the News

 

Next Pathway's Clara Angotti recognized as one of Canada's most powerful women for 2011

Canada NewsWire, Digital Journal, Dec. 1, 2011

 

TORONTO – "Clara Angotti, President and Founder of Next Pathway Inc., has been named a recipient of the prestigious 2011 Canada's Most Powerful Women: Top 100TM Award by the Women's Executive Network. She received her award in the "Entrepreneur" category. The Women's Executive Network awards recognize the highest achieving female leaders in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors in Canada. Winners in the "Entrepreneur" category are selected based on their role in founding and growing a company, their strategic vision and leadership, their organization's financial performance and their commitment to community service. Her passion goes beyond the technology industry through her leadership roles on various community boards and charities. Clara and her husband are a Founding Patrons of Luminato, a Toronto-based, annual multi-disciplinary celebration of theatre, dance, music and more. "Clara was an early and vigorous supporter of Luminato and over the last 5 years has helped it become the most important multi arts festival in North America." said Tony Gagliano, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of St. Joseph Communications and Co-Founder of Luminato."

 

SFMOMA announces new capital campaign goal and unveils details of design and expanded building program

Recent News, artdaily.org, 1 December 2011

 

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – "With 79 percent of the capital campaign goal raised two years ahead of the groundbreaking for the expansion of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the museum's Board of Trustees has approved visitor- and city-friendly enhancements to the original design program and, in turn, has raised the capital campaign goal to $555 million from $480 million, an increase of 15 percent. These additional funds will enable the museum to increase the number and types of spaces dedicated to education, public engagement, exhibitions, collections, and programs. Expanding strategically on the conceptual design announcement made in May 2011, SFMOMA today unveiled new design details including ground-level galleries and orientation spaces that will be free to the public and new educational spaces throughout the museum. The design also features new pedestrian pathways that lead to and through the museum from the surrounding streets, creating a nexus for the neighborhood. The expansion is designed by architectural firm Snøhetta in collaboration with SFMOMA; groundbreaking is scheduled for summer 2013, and completion is projected in early 2016."

 

New Utah museum leaps beyond old-school dioramas

Paul Foy (Associated Press), Seattle Post Intelligencer, Updated 05:02 p.m., Tuesday, November 29, 2011

 

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH (AP) — "Museum-goers are taking in the sounds, smell and feel of ancient life and landscapes at a new $100 million building in Salt Lake City. The Natural History Museum of Utah engages the senses, allowing visitors to mingle inside exhibits, touch artifacts, get a whiff of desert plants or rotting flesh and hear the soft warbling of birds. People are even walking on top of exhibits, with glass-panel floors covering fossil dig sites. Over the years, they'll also be able to watch paleontologists separate fossils from rock in a glass-walled working laboratory. The museum, which opened Nov. 18, is located in the Rio Tinto Center on the University of Utah campus. The center's copper and stone exterior is designed to blend into the high foothills of the Wasatch Range, and it's named for the mining company that donated the copper — 100,000 pounds of it — for the outside panels. The center was also designed to meet specifications for top ratings from the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building systems, with features like a planted roof and parking tiers that percolate rainwater. Rooftop solar panels will satisfy a quarter of the building's energy demands."

 

Art on shifting sands

The most culturally successful Abu Dhabi Art to date was without the Guggenheim this year

Anna Somers Cocks, The Art Newspaper, 29 November 2011

 

ABU DHABI – "The Guggenheim is certainly not cancelled," the US ambassador, Michael Corbin, told me. "It’s just delayed due to cash flow problems and the Arab Spring" (see facing page). This was at an exhibition of Middle Eastern artists hosted in the residence to show his general support for the role that art is playing in Abu Dhabi policy. There were more signs of official approval for the idea of art. A huge red ball is appearing in surprising places, such as the Zaha Hadid-designed bridge, and in shopping malls. This is an installation by Kurt Perschke to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the founding of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Why the general feeling of uncertainty about the future for art in Abu Dhabi? Much of it can be put down to the chronic secrecy with which public affairs are conducted, fed by uncertainty about where the focus of power is at any moment. What is certain is that central government (that is, Abu Dhabi, the energy-richest emirate and the capital of the UAE) has been pouring money into the four, poor, northern emirates for infrastructure projects over the past year. This is an indirect response to the unrest in other countries in the region, which has not occurred in the UAE but has changed the priorities in the Executive Council, and led to the increased influence of Sheikh Hazza bin Zayed Al Nahyan, ­national security adviser and deputy chairman of the council, a relative conservative who believes that housing and hospitals come before museums. So how was last month’s Abu Dhabi Art, run by the Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC), which is responsible for a housing and tourism development that includes the future museums? As a cultural event, which is what Abu Dhabi Art aims to be, this looked like the most successful so far."

 

Pier 21 taking immigration exhibit across Canada

Pat Lee, Chronicle Herald, 29 November 2011

 

CANADA – "The Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 plans to hit the road. The national museum has issued a tender to put together a travelling exhibit that will start off from Halifax in 2013, then cross the country for four years, ending up back in Halifax in 2017 to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the country. Marie Chapman, chief executive officer of Pier 21, said the ambitious project is in keeping with the museum’s expanded mandate to tell the stories of all new Canadians, not just the ones of those who arrived in Halifax via the south-end immigration shed. She said the mandate of the travelling exhibit will be two-fold. The plan will include a 1,600-square-foot movable exhibit about Canadian immigration from 1867 to present day."

 

Museum of Liverpool new galleries to open on Friday (VIDEO)

Catherine Jones, Liverpool Echo, 29 November 2011

 

LIVERPOOL – "Final preparations are being made for the opening of the new galleries at the Museum of Liverpool this Friday. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh will get a preview of the exhibits when they pay a visit to the waterfront landmark on Thursday, with the exhibits opening to the public 24 hours later. The first phase of the £72m museum opened in July. The new galleries include the Great Port, Overhead Railway, King’s Regiment, and a 38 metre (124ft) time traveller’s time line charting the history of the city."

 

Paris show unveils life in human zoo

Sense of shock as exhibition reveals how people were displayed in freak shows in the 19th and early 20th centuries

Angelique Chrisafis, The Guardian, Tuesday 29 November 2011 18.22 GMT

 

PARIS – "Half-naked Africans made to gnaw bones and presented as "cannibals" as they shivered in a mock tribal village in northern France; Native American children displayed at fairgrounds; families from Asia and the South Pacific behind railings in European zoos and dancing Zulus on the London stage. Paris's most talked-about exhibition of the winter opened on Tuesday with shock and soul-searching over the history of colonial subjects used in human zoos, circuses and stage shows, which flourished until as late as 1958. Human Zoos: The Invention of the Savage, curated by former French international footballer turned anti-racism campaigner Lilian Thuram, traces the history of a practice which started when Christopher Columbus displayed six "Indians" at the Spanish royal court in 1492 and went on to become a mass entertainment phenomenon in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Millions of spectators turned out to see "savages" in zoos, circuses, mock villages and freak shows from London to St Louis, Barcelona to Tokyo. These "human specimens", and "living museums" served both colonialist propaganda and scientific theories of so-called racial hierarchies. The exhibition at Paris's Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac's museum dedicated to once-colonised cultures – is the first to look at this international phenomenon as a whole." [See also Paris museum questions racism in human display, New Zealand Herald, 28 November 2011]

 

Toronto’s Power Plant gallery gets first woman director

James Adams, The Globe and Mail, 29 November 2011

 

TORONTO – "For the first time in its 34-year history, the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto is appointing a woman as its director. The gallery announced Monday that Gaëtane Verna, currently director of the Musée d’art de Joliette, in Joliette, Que., would take on the high-profile post, culminating an international search lasting more than eight months. Verna, who takes up the new job in March, 2012, succeeds New Zealand-born Gregory Burke. After a five-year stint, he left the not-for-profit art gallery in late May after announcing his resignation in February."

 

250,000 students to get free access to AGO learning wing

Kate Hammer, From Monday's Globe and Mail, Published Sunday, Nov. 27, 2011 9:36PM EST

 

TORONTO – "The Toronto District School Board and the Art Gallery of Ontario are teaming up for a first-of-its-kind educational partnership that will bring students, especially those from high-needs communities, into the gallery. The partnership includes free access for students to the educational wing of the gallery, specialized curriculum resources for teachers, and a chance for students to view TDSB-owned art previously relegated to a school basement. More than 250,000 students, as well as their parents and teachers will have free access to the learning wing of the gallery. "A partnership of this scale affecting this many students and teachers has never happened before," said Kelly McKinley, director of education and public planning for the AGO. "We wanted to do it because we wanted to help the board take full advantage of the [art] collection that they hold, we wanted to make sure that it was preserved and that the public has access to it."

 

Content focus of rights museum: Chinese group wants story told

Geoff Kirbyson, Winnipeg Free Press, Posted: 11/27/2011 1:00 AM

 

WINNIPEG – "With both fundraising and construction moving toward completion, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights is turning its attention toward the exhibits it will put on display. Museum officials met Sunday with representatives from across the country from the Chinese Canadian community to begin discussions how to tell their story. Joseph Du, president of the Winnipeg Chinese Cultural and Community Centre, where the talks were held, said he'd like to see a pair of human rights issues that are close to his heart addressed at the museum -- the head tax, a fixed fee charged to each Chinese person entering Canada starting in 1885, and the Chinese Exclusion Act, a U.S. law that banned immigration from China. "It's about education. People will learn from history and hopefully won't make a similar mistake," Du said. "We hope (the discussions) are the beginning, like a seed that will flower and turn to fruit."

 

French Museums Atone for a Colonial History

Edward Rothstein, The New York Times, 25 November 2011

 

PARIS — "You walk through a garden lush with overgrowth, a cultivated wilderness with exotic grasses gone deliberately to seed. Inside the effect is the same: You enter the eerily atmospheric hall where you meander past artifacts from Oceania, Africa and other realms beyond Europe’s borders, as speckled daylight seeps through window scrims decorated with forest foliage. The displays are lush with miscellany: here, an ivory statuette of a goddess from the Tonga islands that once was shown in an 18th-century curiosity cabinet; there, a desiccated human skull, covered in black-colored beeswax, acquired in early-20th-century Papua New Guinea. But wait: before trying to decipher this strange universe, at the Musée du Quai Branly, consider another, elsewhere in Paris. Only here the impression is of vast, arching spaces and skylights that cast no shadows. You readily recognize the iconography of church portals, pilasters and statuary. It looks as if entire facades had been amputated from cathedrals all over France in a wild species of plunder. Here are the intricately ornamented arches of a 12th-century church in Saintes; there, ornate 16th-century doors from the cathedral of Aix-en-Provence. Centuries of grotesque, open-mouthed gargoyles are poised on a wall overhead, as if prepared to spew venomous rainwater. You gaze in wonder at what seems to be intricately carved and worn stone. But, more remarkably, everything is made of plaster. It is a hall of casts chronicling some 700 years of French architecture on the ground floor of the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine."

 

Pier 21: Canada's newest museum goes through tough transition

Jacob Boon, OpenFile, 21 November 2011

 

HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA – "It’s not everyday a new Crown corporation is created, and less often does that new corporation take over from a previously established non-profit. But sitting on the Halifax waterfront is the one museum that's been able to make it through that transition. Which is to say, it's been a busy couple of years for Pier 21. "It's probably a lot like childbirth," says CEO Marie Chapman. "Once you're out of it, it feels good again." Labour pains notwithstanding, the sheer logistic challenges the newly formed Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 has had to figure out since Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced its creation in 2009 are enough to make anyone want an epidural. Aside from the legal matters surrounding the transfer of all of its assets, the Pier 21 Society also had to figure out how to comply with the 15 federal acts—bureaucratic exercises like Expenditure Restraint Act, and others like Freedom of Information and the Privacy Act—which now govern the museum's operations."

 

Construction nearly complete on Niagara Falls history museum

Daily Commercial News and Construction Record, 24 November 2011

 

NIAGARA FALLS, ONTARIO – "The City of Niagara Falls, Ontario announced Nov. 14 that construction is nearly complete on the Niagara Falls History Museum. Located near the site of the Battle of Lundy’s Lane in the War of 1812, the museum is undergoing a $12-million renovation project. The renovation and expansion was designed by Moriyama and Teshima of Toronto. "

 


Museums

 

The Met Resets a Gem

Walter B. Denny, Saudi Aramco World, vol. 62 no. 6, November/December 2011

 

NEW YORK CITY – "In November, after an eight-year, $50-million renovation, 15 galleries devoted to "The Arts of Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia and Later South Asia" will open in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. In what is almost a new museum within the museum, visitors will view some 1200 of the Met's nearly 12,000 Arab-Islamic works arranged not chronologically from past to present, but rather as a kind of geographical traverse across places and cultures. This new way of organizing the exhibits, reflected in the long name that omits the word "Islamic," reflects an evolving emphasis on the diversity that exists within a vast field that includes not only religious art by Muslims, but also much secular and luxury art by Muslims, as well as art by Muslims for non-Muslims and vice versa. Among the new cases and spaces are three displays that promise to be especially striking: the Spanish Ceiling, an elaborately carved, painted and glazed wooden ceiling probably made in the 14th, 15th or 16th centuries by Muslim artists for Christian patrons; the Damascus Room, an early-18th-century reception room (qa'a) from a Damascus merchant's mansion; and the Moroccan Courtyard, the Met's newest jewel, created this year inside the museum in authentic 14th-century style by contemporary artists from Fez, Morocco who used materials and tools of the era. "

 

Museums enjoy 10 years of freedom

Ian Youngs, BBC News, 1 December 2011

 

UNITED KINGDOM – "Exactly 10 years ago, museums and galleries - including the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Natural History Museum - scrapped entrance fees as part of a government plan to widen access to the nation's culture and heritage. Visitor numbers have shot up - but who has really benefited, and can free admission survive in an age when government funds are stretched to the limit? When then Culture Secretary Chris Smith guaranteed that flagship museums and art galleries would be free, he promised that it would herald "an exciting new beginning for the arts and cultural life of this country". Ten years on, Smith, now Baron Smith of Finsbury, says the success of the policy has exceeded his expectations. "

 

Free museums: Visits more than double

David Sillito, BBC News, 1 December 2011

 

UNITED KINGDOM – "Government-sponsored museums that have stopped charging since 2001 have seen combined visitor rates more than double in the past decade, figures show. Almost 18 million people visited the 13 attractions in 2010-11, compared with 7 million in 2000-01. Thursday marks the 10th anniversary of the Labour government's decision to end charges at England's national museums. Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said free museums and galleries "ensure that culture is for everyone". Entrance fees to museums, including the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Natural History Museum, both in London, were scrapped on 1 December 2001 as part of a government plan to widen access to the nation's culture and heritage. "

 

Museum entry fees: How the UK compares

Vincent Dowd, BBC News, 1 December 2011

 

UNITED KINGDOM / WORLD - "It's a decade since most of Britain's national museums and galleries abandoned entrance fees as a matter of government policy. Since then, only a few other nations around the world have followed suit. Why do so many countries remain wedded to taking money at the door? In the first half of 2008, visitors could enjoy many French museums and galleries free of charge for the first time. The experiment, ordered by President Sarkozy soon after he came to power, was inspired in part by Britain's shift to free admission in 2001. Some French institutions threw open their doors entirely, while others introduced free admission on certain days. But when the six months were up, the charges returned and the experiment has not been repeated. "

 

Sixty museums in search of a purpose

An analysis of the mission statements of leading US art museums yields some surprising results

András Szántó. From The Art Newspaper, Published online: 01 December 2011

 

UNITED STATES - "Quick. What do the following terms have in common? Beauty. Values. Discussion. Contemplation. The answer: none of them figures prominently among the institutional imperatives of US art museums—at least in light of their mission statements. In fact, if you scanned 60 mission statements of prominent museums that exhibit contemporary art, you would find that each of the words above appears exactly once. Other words found missing from 59 of 60 mission statements: advocate, progressive, ambitious, ethical, intelligence, strategic, video. Why spend time counting up words in mission statements? The inspiration for the exercise is an Art Basel Conversation taking place tomorrow morning about evolving museum missions. "

 

‘I’ve given it all I can’

Canadian Baseball Hall Of Fame: Tom Valcke gets ready to clear out his locker

Morris Dalla Costa, London Free Press, Thursday, December 1, 2011

 

ST. MARY’S, ONTARIO – "The man who for 11 years has been the driving force behind the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum said simply, "It was time to go." After more than a decade as chief executive and president of the Hall of Fame, Tom Valcke has told his board of directors he's resigning effective Feb. 29. The Windsor native has increased the profile of the Hall of Fame and museum and kept it afloat financially -- all the while improving its facilities, such as establishing a baseball diamond that Valcke calls Canada's Field of Dreams because it's used by dozens of teams, including Canada's national team. "

 

The World’s Largest Model Railroad Adds the World’s Largest Model Airport

Andrew Liszewski, Gizmodo, 30 November 2011 [includes a fabulous promo video!]

 

HAMBURG, GERMANY – "With expansions planned all the way to 2020, the world's largest model railroad just opened its latest addition: a 1,600-square-foot model airport, chock full of tiny aircraft support vehicles, hangers, terminals, and passengers. Originally scheduled to open in 2009, it has taken more than six years to complete the $4,440,000+ expansion to Hamburg's Miniatur Wunderland. "

 

Children's Museum lands home in downtown St. Augustine

'Fantastic space' set to open by 450th

Sheldon Gardner, The St. Augustine Record, Posted: November 30, 2011 - 12:37am

 

ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA – "After almost five years of work, officials at the Children’s Museum of St. Johns have found a home for a future "world-class" children’s museum. The Children’s Museum plans to buy the Dow Museum of Historic Houses site in downtown St. Augustine and transform it into a multi-themed, locally focused museum. "This is our first bit of big news," Children’s Museum Executive Director Susan Connor said. "We really think this is going to be a fantastic space." Officials at the Children’s Museum have been working on getting the Dow property, formerly known as the Old St. Augustine Village, since May, Connor said. Museum officials entered into a six-month lease to purchase agreement earlier this month. Operated by the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach, the property is a collection of nine historic houses at the intersection of St. George, Bridge and Cordova streets. "

 

En Grèce, le ministre de la Culture veut poursuivre le plan de rénovation des musées malgré la crise

Artclair, 30 novembre 2011

 

ATHENES - "En 2010, un plan de rénovation des principaux sites et musées grecs avait été lancé pour remettre aux normes des institutions souvent privées de services élémentaires comme de toilettes ou d’un accès dédié aux personnes en situation de handicap. Après un week-end troublé par la menace d’une grève générale des gardiens de sites, le ministre de la Culture, Pavlos Geroulanos, a assuré, le 28 novembre 2011, poursuivre cette entreprise malgré la crise. 177 sites sont concernés par les travaux, dont une part sera financée par l’Union européenne. " [see also Greece improves museums, sites for tourists: ministry, Agence France-Presse, The Vancouver Sun, 29 November 2011]

 

Curators becoming a vanishing breed on local art scene

With three sites dropping them as a luxury, have exhibits suffered?

Kyle MacMillan, The Denver Post, 29 November 2011

 

DENVER, COLORADO – "The big story in the Front Range art scene over the past five years has been the explosive growth in museums, from the addition of a $29 million institution devoted to artist Clyfford Still​ to an array of sleek new buildings and additions. With this new construction has naturally come increased curatorial firepower, like the addition of Nora Burnett Abrams at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, and more and often better-quality exhibitions.

But as museums take major strides forward, the area's alternative art centers seem to be slipping backward, cutting curatorial positions and settling for inconsistent and often unambitious exhibition schedules. "

 

Sheppard opens military museum

Jim’s Independent Military Museum open

Colleen Kelly, The Coaster (Harbour Breton, NL), 29 November 2011

 

HARBOUR BRETON, NL – "For many of us Remembrance Day comes and goes and except for those brief two minutes of silence the day passes much like every other day does. It’s not that we don’t care, or we don’t know, it is often times the hectic pace our modern lives have evolved into that seems to eat away our attention and our days. However, one man in the small coastal community of Rencontre East decided that his passion for everything military was worth sharing with others and so Jim Sheppard, (Chief Warrant Officer, retired), officially opened his private museum, affectionately known as J.I.M.M. or Jim’s Independent Military Museum on November 10th, 2011. "

 

The Ashmolean's State-of-the-Art New Galleries Allow Visitors to Commune With Mummies in the Afterlife

Coline Milliard, ARTINFO, 29 November 2011

 

OXFORD – "Oxford University's Ashmolean Museum has just opened a new chapter in the distant past, unveiling its new galleries dedicated to Ancient Egypt and Nubia. This £5 million ($7.7 million) refurbishment has allowed the re-housing of 40,000 artifacts collected over the last 300 years, including coffins and mummies that haven't been displayed since the Second World War. Designed by Rick Mather Architects, the six new galleries lead visitors from Egypt's origins in the Paleolithic period to the annexation of the country by the Roman Empire after the suicide of Cleopatra in 30 BC. Liam McNamara, lead curator for the redevelopment of the new galleries, told ARTINFO UK: "We hope that by presenting the galleries in a chronological sequence we will enable our visitors to understand the great length of time that the Egyptian civilization covers — three millennia — but also the aspects of continuity and change that occurred during those 3,000 years."

 

Hurt by war in Iraq, a Baghdad museum reemerges

Exhibit gives sign that war horrors are receding, and country is settling into a new normal

Scott Peterson, The Christian Science Monitor, 29 November 2011

 

BAGHDAD — With a snip of red ribbon, a new exhibit opened Nov. 17 at the Iraqi Museum, providing one more sign that Iraq is leaving behind the worst horrors of war and creating a new normal. "You know what we have been through, and it was very dangerous," says Shaimaa, an archaeologist who has worked at the museum since 1999. "So many things are happening that convince us things are changing for the better." Among them is the reemergence of her beloved museum, after being devastated by looting early in the war. "We were heartbroken – it's like someone takes your heart, or takes one of your children. Any human would feel this way," says Shaimaa, who would only give her first name. "But we are optimistic people we have turned back, with so much help." Indeed, the transformation at the museum – where 15,400 priceless artifacts were carted away by looters soon after US forces entered Baghdad in 2003 – shows a determined optimism, in a nation where pessimism has become ingrained. "

 

Museum Workers Strike over Pensions

Patrick Steele, Museums Journal, 29 November 2011

 

ENGLAND – "Museums in Liverpool, Newcastle, Preston and Inverclyde, and parts of BM, to close – Museum workers across the country are to strike over government plans to increase public sector pension contributions. In London, a mass gathering of union members from the Victoria and Albert Museum, Science Museum and Natural History Museum (NHM) is to take place on Exhibition Road at 10.30 on Wednesday 30 November. Workers from the British Museum (BM), Imperial War Museum, Museum of London, National Gallery, National Maritime Museum, Tate Modern and Tate Britain, and the National Portrait Gallery, are also expected to strike. "

 

Make Museums Free: What we can learn from Britain and Washington

Robert Fulford, National Post, 29 November 2011

 

CANADA – "After two or three centuries in business, public museums have developed into one of the splendours of democracy, the only places where private taste meets elite scholarship and we all pursue our own passions at our own pace. It’s an arena of opinion that permits individualism and innovation to come magnificently alive. Just one thing is wrong: Going to a museum in Canada costs money. Unlike parks, libraries and cathedrals, museums have box offices. If two adults take three teenagers to the National Gallery in Ottawa, they pay $18. That’s to enter a building that their taxes built, to see art that they, being citizens, own. The Vancouver Art Gallery, which charges $17.50 for an individual ticket, offers a family rate (maximum two adults and four children) for $50, plus tax. Paddy Johnson, a Canadian curator who runs an art blog from Brooklyn, recently wrote: "I’ve never thought the public should be charged to see their own belongings." That’s also the British view. In Britain most of the national museums are entirely free, most of the time. In Washington the array of museums run by the Smithsonian Institution on the Mall proudly advertises "admission always free."

 

The cost of the cultural revolution

Free entry to the UK’s museums and galleries comes at a high price, says Stephen Deuchar

The Independent, 28 November 2011

 

UNITED KINGDOM – "It has been 10 years since universal free entry to the permanent collections of the UK's elite group of national museums and galleries was introduced by the Labour government. Following a campaign led by the museums themselves, the Art Fund and others, entry charges were dropped in stages – for children in 1999, the over-60s in 2000 and finally for all visitors from 1 December 2001. First, the good news: the impact was huge. Museums that used to charge admission – the Science and Natural History Museums for example – saw their visitor numbers increase by more than 150 per cent over the following decade. And those that didn't charge, like the British Museum, Tate and National Gallery, flourished with the help of the extra funding they received to guarantee they could remain free. In all, more than 43 million visitors to our national museums were recorded last year. [See also Free museum entry is a treasure too precious to lose, By Charlotte Higgins, The Guardian, 28 November 2011]

 

Expanded museum gives boost to Tel Aviv art scene

Ari Rabinovitch, Recent News, artdaily.org, 28 November 2011

 

TEL AVIV – "Tel Aviv's recently expanded modern art museum, with its dazzling new building no less an attraction than the art showcased inside, has given a home to hundreds of displaced Israeli works and helped boost the city's cultural scene. The new wing, designed by Massachusetts architect Preston Scott Cohen, has doubled the size of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art by 19,000 square metres (200,000 square feet) and lured a growing number of art fans through its new, triangular concrete and glass complex since its November 3 unveiling. "There has never been an exhibit that fully reflected Israeli art, and now there is," said the museum's acting director Shuli Kislev. "Tel Aviv received a wonderful gift." The reason for the four-year, $50 million building project, she said, was to provide a space for the collection of Israeli art that was growing in the museum's storage rooms. "

 

State museum may have to close for up to 2 years

Pat Forgey, Juneau Empire, 28 November 2011

 

JUNEAU — "The Alaska State Museum has been an institution in Juneau for decades, but it's one that the city and its hundreds of thousands of visitors may have to learn to live without for up to two years. The new state Library, Archives and Museum project now underway will be built on the Willoughby Avenue site of the current museum building.

That means if project advocates, including history buffs around the state and members of the Juneau legislative delegation, are successful in getting approval of remaining funding from the Parnell administration and the Alaska Legislature, the museum could "go dark" for up to a couple of years, said Linda Thibodeau, director of the Division of Libraries, Archives and Museums. The construction plans are still being drafted and a timeline has yet to be finalized, but a closure time of about 20 months is expected. However, when that 20 month period would start is not clear. "

 

The hidden gem museums of Paris

David Farley, Gadling.com, 28 November 2011

 

PARIS – "The City of Light. The City of Love. The City of Museums? Why not. With the Louvre's 30,000 paintings and the Musée d'Orsay's thousands-strong art collection, it's easy to forget that there are other museums in the City of Light. In fact, almost 200 museums-both plus-sized and petite, illustrious and obscure-are sprinkled throughout the French capital, featuring everything from Picasso to Edith Piaf, submarines to sewers, eyeglasses to medical implements. I spent a few months in Paris and, after I grew tired of dealing with the crowds at the popular museums, I sought out the lesser-known spots, the hidden gem museums of Paris. "

 

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts used Architem to design settings for its collections

John Pohl, The Montreal Gazette, November 27, 2011

 

MONTREAL – "Ever try to hang a painting on a wall and wonder why it doesn’t speak to you as clearly as the day it came into your life? Maybe the problem is the painting is competing for attention with the room or the objects in it. Architem, an architectural firm that designs spaces for displaying art collections, has this advice: design the space to suit the art. The firm’s expert work for private clients won it a commission in 2007 from the Museum of Fine Arts to design All for Art! Our Great Private Collectors Share Their Works. That led to Architem redesigning the many galleries of the MMFA’s Old and Modern Masters collections, a job completed to coincide with the opening, in October, of the museum’s Bourgie concert hall and the new pavilion for Canadian and Quebec art. Everything in the design of a gallery revolves around the art. This is what I learned on a tour of the galleries from Eduardo Carrera, who led the MMFA project for Architem, along with two of the firm’s partners, Andrea Wolff and Elizabeth Shapiro. "

 

Bicentenary knocks on door, but Indian Museum stuck in time warp

Avik Das (TNN), The Times of India, Nov 27, 2011, 05.04AM IST

 

KOLKATA – "Indian Museum, one of the oldest in the world, will celebrate its bicentenary in 2014. But nobody at the helm of affairs appears to have any clue about how to make this historic feat a gala event. An attempt was initiated in 2008 with the formation of a Bicentenary Vision And Development Committee (BVDC) to steer the restoration work at the museum, but the effort has ended up in a bureaucratic muddle and resulted in resignation of eminent scholars who were once inducted into the committee. Anup Motilal, director of the museum as an additional charge, said work on the external facade will start in December this year. He claimed Chapman & Taylor (C&T), which has been roped in as the consultancy firm to prepare a report on the restoration work, has already submitted a report. But when contacted, C&T India representative Sapna Kumar told TOI they have three months time and will submit the report in December. Sources in National Buildings Construction Corporation Ltd (NBCC), which was awarded the project by the ministry of culture on a turnkey basis, also confirmed it. "

 

Vigeland Museum revitalized

Views and News from Norway, November 27, 2011  

 

OSLO – "MUSEUM GUIDE: Tucked away on the south side of Oslo’s famed Frogner Park is a large historic building that in many ways made the park itself possible. The Vigeland Museum, named for the artist behind the park’s enormous collection of sculptures, is where Gustav Vigeland lived and worked for nearly two decades. It reopened earlier this year and a visit can make a tour of the park much more meaningful. There actually are two historic homes and museums on the park’s south side, both of which led to creation of the park, and this guide already has visited the Oslo City Museum (Bymuseet) and Frogner Hovedgård. Now visitors are welcome once again at the Vigeland Museum across the street, after a major if somewhat unnoticeable renovation. "

 

New unit of the Moderna galerija, the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova opens in Ljubljana

Recent News, artdaily.org, 26 November 2011

 

LJUBLJANA – "More than 15 years after the time Moderna galerija was allotted the use of one of the buildings in the former Yugoslav People's Army barracks in Metelkova Street, the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova, the new unit of the Moderna galerija in Ljubljana, is finally opening. The MSUM will house the collection of contemporary art (the national and the international Arteast 2000+ collections) and stage a related exhibitions program. Located in MSUM there are also some of the expanded institution's professional services: the archives, the library and the restoration-conservation studio. "

 

Change Through Applied Art

Christoph Thun-Hohenstein Presents New MAK Program: Exhibitions – Projects – Strategies

e-flux, 26 November 2011

 

VIENNA – "After taking office as MAK Director in September, Christoph Thun-Hohenstein has begun a vital project of transforming the museum for the future. Under the title of "Change through applied art", the museum has commenced a process of public consultancy, open forums, and reflexive examination of what a universal Museum of Applied Arts stands for in the twenty first century. Crucially, this questioning focuses on a collection that encompasses art, architecture, design as well as on what the MAK Collection stands for and on the role it can play in advancing museology and exhibition making. "Applied art needs to be filled with new life. Utilizing its potential as a motor of positive change in our society—socially, ecologically and culturally—is the main mission of an active museum of applied arts," explains Thun-Hohenstein at his first program presentation on 24 November 2011. "

 

San Francisco's Mexican Museum to get new home

Fox News Latino, 24 November 2011

 

SAN FRANCISCO – "Plans are in the works for a new building to house San Francisco's Mexican Museum, a project with a price tag of more than $13 million. Some 50,000 people visit the museum each year at its current location at the Fort Mason Center, which covers 10,500 sq. feet (232 sq. meters). Although that site represents a significant upgrade over its original two-room location on Folsom St., it is no longer adequate for the museum's expanded collection. "Our institution has more than 14,000 works of art in its collection. We need a bigger site to display more of the works and better serve the community and our audiences through educational, cultural and public programs," Jonathan Yorba, CEO of the Mexican Museum, told Efe. The museum recently received an $800,000 planning grant from the California Cultural and Historical Endowment, or CCHE, to design and develop the new location, a 40,000-sq.-foot (3,720-sq.-meter) building that will be located in San Francisco's Yerba Buena cultural district on the corner of 3rd St. and Mission St. "

 

Lanzamiento de la revista Museus em Números por el IBRAM

El Instituto Brasileño de Museos lanza la publicación en dos volúmenes

Ibermuseos, 23/11/2011

 

BRASIL – "La revista Museus em Números ofrece un panorama estadístico nacional e internacional del sector de museos y textos analíticos sobre la situación de los museos en las unidades federativas del Brasil. Los dados son referentes a 1.500 instituciones museológicas brasileñas que respondieron al cuestionario do Cadastro Nacional de Museus (CNM), registradas entre las más de tres mil instituciones mapeadas en todo el país en el momento del levantamiento de datos para la investigación (septiembre de 2010). "

 

What Hours Should Museums Be Open?

Nina Simon, Museum 2.0, 23 November 2011

 

WORLD – " It's interesting to me that so many museums debate admission fees but don't get comparably riled up about open hours. Some of the most innovative, community-focused museums I know of are trapped in the 11-5 game, and it's frankly a little bizarre--especially from visitors' perspective. The obvious outcome of daytime hours is fewer visitors. But it also has a lot of other chicken-egg effects. Imagine if a theater or jazz club was only open during the day, and what conclusions one might draw about audience type and preferences based on that decision. "


Architecture

 

Keast & Hood Co. Part of Statue of Liberty Renovation Team

Recent News, artdaily.org, 1 December 2011

 

PHILADELPHIA, PA – "Keast & Hood Co., in collaboration with Mills & Schnoering Architects, LLC, is the structural engineer-of-record for the year-long $27.25 million renovation of the Statue of Liberty. Work began on October 29th of this year, the day after the 125th anniversary of the statue’s dedication in 1886. Though the statue itself is not directly affected, the work includes the gutting and reconstruction of the interior of the monument’s 10-story pedestal. The result will be a transformed interior with two new enclosed, fire-rated stairs, an elevator shaft, and new mechanical systems to enhance comfort, life-safety, and accessibility for the thousands of visitors who enter the monument each year. "

 

For Aspen Museum, Shigeru Ban Takes His Cue from the Snowy Slopes

Shigeru Ban talks to Architectural Record about his design for the new 30,000-square-foot building in central Colorado

David Hill, Architectural Record, 28 November 2011

 

ASPEN, COLORADO – "At nearly 8,000 feet above sea level, Aspen, Colorado, is known for its mountain splendor. The ski slopes of Ajax Mountain rise from the heart of the resort town’s central business district, with its high-end shops and restaurants. It’s fitting, then, that Japanese architect Shigeru Ban brings up skiing when describing his design for the Aspen Art Museum, scheduled to be completed in 2013. " [see also Shigeru Ban Unveils Plans for a Naturally Daylit Art Museum for Aspen, by Bridgette Meinhold, Inhabitat, 11/29/2011]

 

Critic's Notebook: London's Olympic venues challenge architects

Instead of having been designed to make a statement, as in Beijing, London's stadiums are a reminder of today's austere times

Christopher Hawthorne, Los Angeles Times, 27 November 2011

 

LONDON – " in London, this time around, it is far more than the roster of architects that has changed. Thanks to old-fashioned British reserve and concerns about avoiding the white-elephant syndrome that has plagued many if not most host cities — and also to the sober realities of the economic moment — next year's Olympics promise to be an exercise, more than anything, in architectural restraint. "

 

The Power of Five: Moshe Safdie's Khalsa Heritage Centre opens today in Anandpur Sahib

World Architecture News, 25 November 2011

 

ANADPUR SAHIB, INDIA – "Today the Honorable Chief Minister of Punjab, Sardar Parkash Singh Badal will officially dedicate Moshe Safdie’s latest completed building - the Khalsa Heritage Centre (KHC) in Anandpur Sahib - to the nation. A medley of sharply curving roofs and bowed exterior walls, the impressive form responds sensitively to its surrounding landscape and neighbouring architecture. The KHC is an important new addition to this holy city; a museum of the Sikh people, it provides an enlightening history of the religion made even more prominent by the 300th anniversary of the Khalsa scriptures (written by the founder of the modern Sikh faith, Gobind Singh). "

 

Des pièces de monnaie antiques remettent en question la construction du Second Temple de Jérusalem

Artclair, 25 novembre 2011

 

JERUSALEM - "Contrairement à ce que pensaient jusqu’ici archéologues et experts, toutes les murailles du Second Temple juif de Jérusalem n’ont pas été construites par le roi Hérode (73-4 avant J.-C.). C’est ce que révèlent des pièces de monnaie antiques récemment découvertes près du Mur des Lamentations. "

 

La future « cité idéale » de Fontevraud

Artclair, 25 novembre 2011

 

FONTEVRAUD, FRANCE - "L’abbaye royale de Fontevraud est en chantier. D’ici cinq ans, la cité monastique accueillera notamment un complexe « d’affaires », un pôle technique avec chauffage éco-respectueux et un complexe hôtelier haut de gamme. "

 


Technology

 

Time To Tweet The Art: Museum-Analytics.org Keeps Tabs On Curatorial Social Media

John Biggs, TechCrunch, 29 November 2011

 

NETHERLANDS – " Museum-Analytics.org is a site with a simple mission: to calculate the social reach of various museums. The service uses various and sundry sources as well as Twitter and Facebook to find news and information about almost 3000 museums around the world. For example, you can see trends at the Van Gogh Museum (Motto: "It doesn’t cost an ear and a leg to get in!") including new Facebook likes, Tweets, comments mentioning the museum, and engaging content created for and about the museum. I could see this as a boon to curators and directors alike and valuable to museum fans who are trying to push these staid organizations into, at the very least, the 20th century.

It is up and running in beta right now. From the about page: Museum Analytics has been initiated by INTK in the Netherlands. INTK researches and develops online strategies primarily for cultural organizations and creates critical interventions that reflect on art, technology and society. It could be a great source to learn about upcoming events and interesting exhibits, which makes it great for tourists. I could definitely see a mash-up between this site and a city tourism site "

 

British Library Launch Historical Newspapers Online Website

MuseumPublicity.com, 29 November 2011

 

LONDON – "The British Library and online publisher brightsolid today launch a website that will transform the way that people use historical newspapers to find out about the past. The British Newspaper Archive website will offer access to up to 4 million fully searchable pages, featuring more than 200 newspaper titles from every part of the UK and Ireland. The newspapers – which mainly date from the 19th century, but which include runs dating back to the first half of the 18th century – cover every aspect of local, regional and national news.

 

Un nouvel appel à projets du ministre pour des « services numériques culturels innovants »

Artclair, 29 novembre 2011

 

PARIS - "Le ministère de la Culture a lancé lundi 28 novembre l’appel à projets « services numériques culturels innovants » pour l’année 2012. Une enveloppe d’1,5 million d’euros soutiendra les idées nouvelles en matière de technologie numérique appliquée à la culture. "

 

RETOUCHE – Un algorithme contre les méfaits de Photoshop

Le Monde, 29 novembre 2011

 

"Le chercheur en informatique Hany Farid, en association avec son élève doctorant Eric Kee, a mis au point un algorithme qui permet de visualiser le nombre de modifications subies par une photographie. "

 

It's Here! NMC Horizon Report > 2011 Museum Edition

New Media Consortium (NMC), Posted November 17, 2011 by Samantha Adams

 

"In partnership with the Marcus Institute for Digital Education in the Arts (MIDEA), the NMC is pleased to release the NMC Horizon Report > 2011 Museum Edition. This report, the second in the NMC Horizon Project Museum series, examines emerging technologies for their potential impact on and use in education and interpretation within the museum environment. "


Art and Culture

 

How Miami became an artistic hotspot

Since its first edition in 2001, Art Basel Miami Beach has been a catalyst in transforming the city

Cristina Ruiz, The Art Newspaper, 30 November 2011

 

MIAMI – "Ten years ago Miami was known mostly for its beaches and nightlife. Today it is a cultural destination with burgeoning ambitions. The city’s museums are expanding and its private spaces for art are increasingly active. Major buildings by Frank Gehry, Herzog & de Meuron and Zaha Hadid have either been completed or are planned. As Art Basel Miami Beach celebrates its tenth anniversary we asked four of the city’s most prominent figures—including Norman Braman and Craig Robins, who lobbied hard for the fair to come to Miami—how important the fair has been to that resurgence. We also spoke to a leading European curator to see how the international art world’s view of Miami has changed in the past decade. "

 

Création de la Fondation Martine Aublet

Artclair, 30 novembre 2011

 

PARIS - "Les proches de l’ancienne directrice du mécénat du Musée du quai Branly ont annoncé la création d’une fondation à son nom. Présidée par son mari et étroitement liée au musée, elle a pour but de financer des projets pédagogiques, d’attribuer des bourses de recherche et de récompenser des ouvrages consacrés aux cultures extra-occidentales. "

 

Why the decline of art schools hurts more than just artists

Russell Smith, From Thursday's Globe and Mail, Published Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011 5:00PM EST

 

CANADA – "I have lived in two towns where social and intellectual life was galvanized by art schools; both those art schools are now threatened. I grew up in Halifax in the 1970s, and witnessed the first great spurts of physical and emotional growth of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design: I saw its move from a small building near the Dalhousie University campus to a few blocks of renovated 19th-century warehouses in the oldest district of the city, and I saw it become an international centre of artistic radicalism. At the same time I saw Halifax turn into an actual city with restaurants with windows on the street. The two things are not unrelated. "

 

EUNIC publishes Europe-China Cultural Compass

European Festivals Association, 29 November 2011

 

EUROPE/CHINA - "Are we meaning the same, when we say the same? -- This was the leading question at the start of the EUROPE-CHINA CULTURAL COMPASS project, an initiative by partners of EUNIC in China, the Goethe-Institut, the British Council, and The Danish Cultural Institute. After a year of research, including over a hundred interviews and discussions cultural practitioners on experience of collaboration between Europe and China, the result is a publication not only containing a glossary with selected intercultural key-vocabulary, but a broad range of knowledge relevant for cooperation: context knowledge on Europe and China (history, society, media, value systems, etc), information on how the cultural sectors work differently, case stories of cultural practitioners, a project cycle analysis crystallizing challenges, learning and practices, and an extensive resource-chapter. "

 

Canadian formula could prove the right stimulus

Wendy Frew, The Sydney Morning Herald, November 29, 2011.

 

AUSTRALIA/CANADA – "CANADA'S Royal Winnipeg Ballet could not survive without its Creations Endowment Fund. It allows the company to stage new works, like its wildly successful Dracula, says artistic director Andre Lewis, as well as buying works by famous choreographers and reviving well-known productions. ''There is also this fantastic matching funds by the federal government so fundamental to what we are and who we are,'' Lewis says. Donations from the public received as of last Friday were eligible to be matched by the Canadian government, which wants arts organisations to build new revenue streams. It's a model the Australian government may turn to in its bid to increase philanthropy to the arts. "

 

The Opera House Effect

Richard Florida, The Atlantic, 29 November 2011

 

WASHINGTON – "Urban and regional economic development, which focused on attracting factories and companies not too long ago, has taken a bit of artistic turn in recent years, with mayors, chambers of commerce and economic developers lauding the arts as a key factor in attracting skilled workers. Art and culture's role in urban development is well-documented. University of Minnesota economist Ann Markusen and her colleagues argue that the arts make substantial, if occasionally hidden, contributions to regional development. Markusen dubs this the "artistic dividend."

Cultural amenities in general play a role in city growth, according to research by Harvard economist Edward Glaeser and his collaborators. Sociologists Terry Nichols Clark, Dan Silver and Lawrence Rothfield have been documenting the importance of artistic and cultural scenes in attracting talent and spurring urban growth. My own research highlights the importance of street-level artistic and creative scenes, even more so than the high arts, in making cities more attractive, energized and diverse. "

 

True artists should not give the Olympic Games their blessing

Embracing such a corporate extravaganza blunts our ability to be critical and creative

Peter Suchin, The Guardian, 29 November 2011

 

LONDON – "Charlotte Higgins says "boo hiss to the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers" and calls them "spoilsports" for refusing to get involved in Martin Creed's proposed work for the Olympic Games next July (Arts Diary, 16 November). Creed wanted Work No 1197: All the Bells in a Country Rung as Quickly and As Loudly As Possible for Three Minutes to mark the start of the Games, and for the public and bell-ringers to "ring whatever bell comes to hand at 8am on 27 July". But the council director, quoted by Higgins, says: "We are not able to work closely with this project as we believe it is misconceived We do not believe ringing for three minutes nor ringing as fast as possible is really suitable for church bell-ringers." Such a position of refusal vis-à-vis Creed's ill-thought-out project is echoed by art world scepticism regarding the value, culturally and economically, of the Games. "

 

Rapport du CALQ - La culture au temps du numérique

Fabien Deglise, Le Devoir, 29 novembre 2011

 

QUEBEC – "La culture, comme bien des choses, se numérise, et le Québec devrait désormais en tenir compte en adaptant ses programmes d'aide et de soutien à la création, en encourageant ces nouvelles formes d'expression artistique, mais également en favorisant le développement des nouveaux outils de diffusion de cette culture 2.0, suggère le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ) au terme d'une vaste consultation pilotée dans le milieu des arts et des lettres. L'organisme, invité par la ministre de la Culture et des Communications, Christine St-Pierre, à prendre part à ce chantier de réflexion — baptisé projet @LON, pour Arts, Lettres et Option numérique —, juge d'ailleurs dans un rapport dévoilé hier que cette «mise à jour» est inévitable pour faire face à la mutation culturelle et sociale en cours, mais également pour permettre à la culture québécoise de trouver sa place et de rayonner dans des univers numériques où l'anglais affirme là aussi sa suprématie. "

 

Big national drop in theater subscriptions

Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune, 29 November 2011

 

UNITED STATES – "For those in the theater industry who long have followed the late Danny Newman's "Subscribe Now!" mantra to build loyal subscribers rather than fickle single ticket buyers, the latest research from the Theatre Communications Group should make sobering reading. At least where non-profit American theaters are concerned, it is not working so well anymore. According to Theatre Facts 2010, the annual research snapshot released by the TCG lobbying and support organization, subscription income is dropping at American theaters at an alarming rate. "

 

International trade in culture goods: 2010

Statistics Canada, The Daily, 28 November 2011

 

CANADA – "Data on culture goods trade for 2010 are now available for exports and imports by type of goods and culture framework category. Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 5088. Detailed and summary data tables for culture goods trade, by culture category and sub-categories, along with cross-tabulations of trade between Canada and selected countries are now available in Culture Goods Trade: Data Tables, 2010 (87-007-X, free), from the Key resource module of our website, under Publications. "

 

Concluyó Tecnópolis

Secretaria de Cultura, Presidencia de la Nacion, nuestraCultura, 28/11/2011

 

ARGENTINA – "Cerca de 4 millones y medio de personas visitaron la feria de ciencia, arte y tecnología, que funcionó hasta el 28 de noviembre, en Villa Martelli. La muestra, ubicada en un predio de 50 hectáreas, entrará ahora en una etapa de obras de infraestructura para reabrir en 2012. Durante el acto formal de cierre, los trabajadores de todos los sectores soltaron miles de globos con luces led, mientras Fuerza Bruta arengó con su murga electrónica. Danza, música, experimentación artística, fusión y mixtura de géneros musicales, circo, contenidos audiovisuales, deportes urbanos, tecnología y contenidos on-line, son algunas de las propuestas que integraron el Espacio Joven de Tecnópolis. "

 

Arts Council England publishes internship guidelines for cultural organisations

Alistair Smith, The Stage, Published Monday 28 November 2011 at 16:07

 

ENGLAND – "Arts Council England and Creative and Cultural Skills have published guidelines for arts organisations wanting to take on interns, including that they pay them at least national minimum wage. The document outlines the legal obligations for arts and cultural organisations offering internships, as well as highlighting best practice. In addition to paying interns a wage, it recommends that companies offer an "open, transparent and fair" recruitment process and give interns "meaningful experiences and responsibilities that contribute to the aims of the organisation".

 

La Commission européenne dévoile son plan 2014-2020 pour la culture

Artclair, 28 novembre 2011

 

BRUSSELS - "La Commission européenne a présenté, le 23 novembre 2011, son plan 2014-2020 pour la culture. Intitulé « Europe Créative », il propose la fusion des programmes « Culture », « MEDIA » et « MEDIA Mundus », qui aident depuis 20 ans les secteurs culturels et audiovisuels des pays membres de l’Union. Il prévoit également d’augmenter son budget de 35 %. Sur 1,8 milliard d’euros, 500 millions seraient consacrés aux arts plastiques et au spectacle vivant. Il doit être validé par le Conseil et le Parlement européens pour entrer en vigueur. "

 

Étude pancanadienne - Les bibliothèques sont plus populaires que jamais

La Presse Canadienne, 28 novembre 2011

 

MONTREAL – "C'est un lumineux après-midi d'automne, sans doute l'une des dernières journées chaudes de cette année, et, pourtant, la plus grande bibliothèque de Montréal est en pleine effervescence. Les rangées de sièges et de bureaux de la Grande Bibliothèque sont remplies de gens tapant au clavier, parcourant des magazines et oui, lisant même des livres. Malgré la croissance de la popularité des téléphones intelligents et des liseuses numériques, plusieurs bibliothèques canadiennes sont plus occupées que jamais. Et cette renaissance pourrait être due en partie à cette même technologie qui devait menacer leur existence. À travers le pays, la fréquentation des bibliothèques a augmenté de 45 % au cours de la dernière décennie, passant de 16,6 à 24,1 transactions en moyenne par habitant, selon un rapport récent préparé par Lumos Research pour le Conseil des bibliothèques urbaines du Canada. "

 

Fredericton commits to long-term funding plan for gallery

Mayor says it’s a combination of tax breaks and grant increase

Heather McLaughlin, Daily Gleaner, 28 November 2011

 

FREDERICTON, NB – "The Beaverbrook Art Gallery didn't get the $2.5-million capital commitment it asked of city council Saturday, but it's getting a 10-year financial commitment and a combination of operating grants and tax breaks that Mayor Brad Woodside says is worth close to what it was seeking. The art gallery, which has launched a $25-million 'silent' capital campaign to raise $10 million to refresh its existing $7.5-million endowment fund and $15 million for an additional building, will get a $50,000 per year commitment for 10 years toward its capital campaign. The city increased its operating grant to $30,000 per year from $25,000 per year. It will contribute $5,992 toward paying its water and sewer bill and it already writes off its property taxes. Putting that all together, the gallery is getting $178,205 worth of grants and tax breaks from the city, Woodside said. "

 

Figuring the price of free admission

Collection should be open to all Canadians: director of National Gallery

Peter Simpson, Ottawa Citizen, 27 November 2011

 

OTTAWA – "If Marc Mayer quit today as director of the National Gallery of Canada, he would already leave a gift of access to Canadians. Turns out his biggest gift may be yet to come; Mayer wants to make the permanent collection at Canada's gallery free, all of the time. It's the latest move in his campaign to open the gallery doors to more people. Mayer, who took the top job three years ago, has pushed more art outdoors, where anybody can see it any time. He speaks in plain language that demystifies art, and encourages gallery curators and other employees to do the same.

Now he wants the cost barrier removed. "I would like to see the permanent collection free, and we're working on it, but it's much more complicated than I thought," Mayer said in an interview this week. "We're just at the beginning of raising (the question). I don't know if it would be free anytime soon." "

 

After visiting Ai Weiwei exhibition, Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou calls for artistic freedom in China

Recent News, artdaily.org, 26 November 2011

 

TAIPEI – "Taiwan's president urged China on Friday to respect the artistic freedom of outspoken Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, who was detained for nearly three months earlier this year and is currently confined to Beijing. "He's an artist and should have the freedom to express his artistic views," President Ma Ying-jeou said after viewing Ai's exhibition at a Taipei museum. "This is also the core value of Taiwan." Ma said he deplored that Chinese police detained Ai at the Beijing airport on April 3 as the conceptual artist was about to depart for Taiwan to prepare for the exhibit. The detention came during a sweeping Chinese crackdown on activists and sparked an international outcry over China's deteriorating human rights situation. Ai was released in June but is prohibited from leaving Beijing. China's government says Ai was detained on tax evasion charges. However, activists say he is being punished for his often outspoken criticism of the authoritarian government. "

 

Return of the culture vulture

For all our economic woes, we’re off to the theatre, opera, galleries and cinema in our thousands.

Roy Strong, The Telegraph, 26 November 2011

 

ENGLAND – "I was taken to the opera at Covent Garden a week or so ago, Bellini’s La Sonambula, to be precise. I’ll pass over the fact that what was meant to be a jolly village drama about sleep- walking in early 19th-century Switzerland was located instead in a spa hotel in the 1930s in which everyone was dressed as a waiter or waitress. Rather, I’ll dwell upon what really struck me. And that was the fact that the ROH was jam-packed and that, as few seats on the lower level pass for less than £100 to £150, austerity hadn’t set in here. Although there must have been a fair number of corporate seats and those bought by the ilk of the notorious bankers, the types I noticed were good old Middle Englanders, members of Ed Miliband’s "squeezed middle". Whatever else had been squeezed out of their lives, going to the opera was clearly not going to be part of it. "

 

Art Basel Looks South

Ellen Gamerman, The Wall Street Journal, 25 November 2011

 

MIAMI BEACH – "Art Basel Miami Beach, the major contemporary-art fair, will mark its 10th year next week with a bus full of bananas. It's an installation by Brazilian artist Paulo Nazareth, a rising star whose presence underscores the increased influence of Latin Americans at the fair. The four-day Miami event, which opens to the public Thursday, showcases more than 2,000 contemporary artists from about 260 galleries world-wide. This year, there are 26 galleries from countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Peru, compared to 20 Latin American galleries last year, according to fair organizers. "Over the last 10 years, what was once a relatively small Latin American market and very regionally focused has become not only larger, but more and more sophisticated," says Marc Spiegler, the fair's co-director. He attributes the strong Latin American showing to the region's financial boom and a groundswell of activity by artists and collectors there. [see also Miami Beach getting ready for Art Basel art fair in its 10th edition in South Florida

Suzette Laboy (Associated Press), Recent News, artdaily.org, 25 November 2011]

 

Dinosaur fossil treasure trove found at oilsands

The Canadian Press, 25 November 2011

 

ALBERTA – "Alberta's oilsands is not just producing black gold — they're also yielding a treasure trove of ancient reptile and dinosaur fossils. The area, which contains one of the largest proven crude oil reserves in the world, was once covered by an ancient sea. Last week, Maggy Horvath, a heavy equipment operator at Syncrude, unearthed a nearly complete plesiosaur fossil during her shift. It's the 10th fossil discovered on leases held by the oil giant. "

 

Les ambitions planétaires de la Société des arts technologiques

Vincent Brousseau-Pouliot, La Presse, 25 novembre 2011

 

MONTREAL – "Avec son immense dôme de 18 mètres de diamètre et 15 mètres de hauteur, ses 157 boîtes de son et ses 8 projecteurs vidéo, c'est certainement la salle de spectacle la plus bizarre à Montréal. Mais la Satosphère sera bien plus qu'une salle pour oeuvres artistiques immersives. La nouvelle fierté de la Société des arts technologiques (SAT) pourrait contribuer à la renaissance des planétariums partout dans le monde et intéresser les entreprises québécoises de technologies de l'information. "

 

Stride complains about ‘creative industries’ tag

Natalie Woolman, The Stage, Published Friday 25 November 2011 at 10:47

 

ENGLAND – "Farnham Maltings director Gavin Stride has claimed that the term "creative industries" does the arts sector a disservice, claiming that it makes theatre into a commodity. Speaking at the Independent Theatre Council conference last week, Stride said: "Let’s not forget it was Chris Smith who first started the whole notion of the creative industries. I think it has done us a service in some respects and a huge disservice in others because it has commoditised what we do and I do not want to be a commodity. "

 

POLITE PLEAS FOR CHANGE

S.T., Intelligent Life, 25 November 2011

 

ABU DHABI – "The affluent emirate of Abu Dhabi appears to be revising its cultural policy. The Arab spring has ushered in a shift in consciousness across the region; citizens are re-considering their rights while rulers watch their step. Last month Abu Dhabi's Tourism Development and Investment Co (TDIC) announced that its Guggenheim and Louvre museums, which are part of a $27 billion development, would not be completed by 2014 as projected. No new dates for the openings have been announced, and the museums may proceed with a new agenda. What started as a tourism-driven project may be transformed into a local education initiative " 


Creative Cities, Cultural Tourism and Urban Planning

 

The Most Artistic Cities in America

Richard Florida, The Atlantic Cities, Nov 30, 2011

 

UNITED STATES – "Art Basel Miami Beach kicks into full gear this week, bringing nearly half a million people from across the globe to greater Miami. Art and design have played big roles in Miami’s revitalization, from South Beach’s restored Art Deco treasures to the more recent redevelopment of the Design District and the Wynwood Arts District, homes to galleries, private museum collections, bars and restaurants. Art and culture are increasingly important components of urban redevelopment efforts everywhere. The National Endowment for the Arts embraces the connection in its pioneering ArtWorks slogan and strategy. But which U.S. cities and metros have the most extensive artistic communities? With the help of my Martin Prosperity Institute colleague Kevin Stolarick, I used data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey to rank the leading metros for both their numbers of artists and their concentration relative to their population. We used the data on "artists and related workers," which covers both employed and self-employed visual artists in the United States. There are about 237,000 such artists across the U.S., of which roughly 210,000 are located in cities and metro areas. "

 

Celebrating Bermuda’s Cultural Identity

BerNews, November 26, 2011

 

BERMUDA – "After decades of neglecting the island’s heritage as part of its hospitality product, Bermuda is belatedly — and aggressively — promoting cultural tourism one of the Government Cultural officers told a recent international conference. In her presentation entitled "In the Heads of Our People: Tradition-Bearers and Cultural Tourism", Dr. Kim Dismont Robinson told delegates at the seventh International African Diaspora Heritage Trail conference in Nova Scotia that Bermuda had come to recognise the value of celebrating its cultural identity. She said showcasing the island’s heritage not only served to enhance the island’s tourism product — encouraging vacationers to go "beyond beaches", as she put it — but also fostered a sense of national identity among Bermudians. "

 

Port Lands makeover to speed up

Paul Moloney, The Toronto Star, 25 November 2011

 

TORONTO – "Efforts are under way to come up with a speedier development plan for the city’s barren Port Lands district. Work had been expected to start in about 10 years but the city and Waterfront Toronto are now looking for faster results. A public spotlight was thrown on the area earlier this year after Councillor Doug Ford, Mayor Doug Ford’s brother, advocated a large shopping mall and Ferris wheel be built there. Current plans call for a mix of commercial and residential but the mix may need to change to make quicker progress, officials told a City Hall press conference. "I think there’s growing demand for office," said deputy city manager John Livey. "I would very much like to see whether we could have a viable office presence." Livey added that retail and residential uses would likely continue to be part of the mix. The public can offer ideas at an initial public meeting Dec. 12 at the Toronto Reference Library. Two rounds of public consultations are planned early next year and a report to city council is due in June. "

 

Squaring public space with human needs

Lisa Rochon, From Saturday's Globe and Mail, Published Friday, Nov. 25, 2011 3:30PM EST

 

PARIS and CANADA – "Place des Vosges always draws me to its magnificent truths whenever I visit Paris. But, last weekend under a cloudless autumn sky, the 17th-century square seemed especially ageless – and, for the makers of public space back home in Canada, freshly instructive. The prototypical European square was packed with children in classic blue cardigans playing make-believe in the sandboxes and with teenaged boys playing raucous games of soccer on the fine gravel. Along the edges of the square – past the geometric lawns of grass – friends, lovers and families were folded into conversations at tiny restaurant tables under the sheltering, arched arcade. Girlfriends peered into the artisan shops and haute-couture boutiques. Tired-looking fathers cradling babies, and elderly couples in stiff woollen coats gathered on the wooden benches near the rows of clipped, leafless linden trees, bathed in the warm rays of sun. Four hundred years ago, this square laid down a new framework for public space – a multifunctional urban meeting ground – where social behaviour is learned and celebrated. "

 

 

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