Lord Cultural Resources logo Cultural News Feb 3-9, 2012

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Featured Story

 

City seeking public input on cultural plan

Heather Gillers, Chicago Tribune, 7 February 2012

 

CHICAGO, IL – "Chicagoans from all corners of the city can help brainstorm for the mayor's proposed Chicago Cultural Plan in a series of public meetings beginning next week, Michelle Boone, Commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, said Tuesday during a meeting of the City Council's Committee on Special Events, Cultural Affairs and Recreation. Boone said she expects the $250,000 cost of creating the plan will be covered by a combination of public and private fundraising. The Chicago Community Trust in September awarded her department a $100,000 grant for development of the plan, and she said $50,000 in city funding is also set aside for that purpose. The city has hired the international consulting firm Lord Cultural Resources to help draft the plan. Boone said she expects to hold more than 30 meetings to gather public input."

 


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Our Clients and Lord Cultural Resources in the News

 

Museum, Library: Future of the Art Gallery of Windsor

Windsoritedotca, 8 February 2012

 

WINDSOR, ON - "This morning, Art Gallery of Windsor Director Catharine Mastin sent out an update on the status of the City purchase of the AGW Building, the library move and the recommendation of the museum feasibility study to locate a new museum at the gallery:

"On February 2, 2012, Lord Cultural Resources, the consulting firm retained by the City of Windsor, presented their recommendations regarding a feasibility study for the Windsor Community Museum. Their proposals include consideration of a long-term relationship with the Art Gallery of Windsor and an expansion of the downtown Cultural Hub, a concept which has been discussed at length this past year. The preferred location identified for the Windsor Community Museum expansion is the AGW’s main floor. Based on consideration of public input, we look forward to working with the City and the Museum to ensure that the Gallery’s needs are met through further refinements to this proposal. The Gallery must play an important role in developing any Cultural Hub concept."

 

Let's Get Cultural, Cultural

Weetu to Lead Marketing Campaign for Chicago Cultural Plan Initiative

Branding and Social Media Campaigns to Begin in February

WEETU Corp, www.goweetu.com, 7 February 2012

 

CHICAGO, IL – "Weetu will helm the social media and marketing outreach for the Chicago Cultural Plan 2012. As the communications component of the City of Chicago's selected planning team led by Lord Cultural Resources, weetu's role will be to develop an overall branding campaign to be implemented across social media and traditional marketing channels. In partnership with Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, this plan will deliver a set of recommended initiatives that support the Chicago arts and promote its economic growth while enhancing the city’s reputation as a global cultural destination. [text omitted] "We are honored to be working with weetu on this project. Weetu's innovative approach, principles of inclusive public engagement, and leading-edge design emulate the elements we wish to reflect in Chicago's cultural plan," said Orit Sarfaty, Project Lead for Lord Team. Gail Lord, co-president of Lord Cultural Resources added, "Chicago is one of the world's leading cultural cities and so we are truly honored to be working with City leadership to plan its even greater cultural future."

 

Cheryl McClenney-Brooker, Director of External Affairs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, to retire after 29 years

Recent News, artdaily.org, 4 February 2012

 

PHILADELPHIA, PA – "The Philadelphia Museum of Art today announced that Cheryl McClenney-Brooker, the Museum’s Director of External Affairs since 1987, will retire on March 2, 2012, after 29 years of service. Over the years, Ms. McClenney-Brooker has been a key member of the Museum’s senior administration, serving to generate a broad range of initiatives to attract, engage, and build audiences for the Museum and to advocate on behalf of the Museum to elected officials and many other constituencies."

 

Museum feasibility study discussed with public

Sonia Sulaiman, Ourwindsor.ca, 3 February 2012

 

WINDSOR, ON – "Thursday night, the consulting firm Lord Cultural Resources presented findings of a feasibility study into the expansion of Windsor's Community Museum, currently located in the Francois Baby House. The event was well-attended by city councillors Jo-Anne Gignac, Alan Halberstadt, Ron Jones, Al Maghnieh, and Fulvio Valentinis, and residents from across the city filling Mackenzie Hall’s court auditorium. Recomendations included restructuring historic attractions of the region into a "hub and spoke" concept. A new central museum was proposed as the hub for the concept, and detailed plans were presented for housing the new museum in the current Art Gallery of Windsor's ground floor." [See also Art Gallery of Windsor, museum called good fit, by Rebecca Wright, The Windsor Star, 3 February 2012]

 

Cultural center taking shape

Jo Anne Killeen, Onalaska Holmen Courier-Life , Posted: Thursday, January 26, 2012 1:35 pm

 

ONALASKA, WI - "Consultants say the new Onalaska cultural and tourism center will attract more than 47,000 visitors a year by its third year of operation. That ranks the center right behind the Children’s Museum of La Crosse, which has an average annual attendance of 47,641. Last week, city leaders had their first comprehensive peek at the cultural center’s draft business plan and its key assumptions, the interpretive strategy for the exhibit spaces and proposed architectural designs.

Business plan

Lord Cultural Resources, the consulting firm hired by the city to develop the business plan, assumes the cultural center will be self-sustaining and will not have to rely on taxes from residents. Revenues are projected to be $819,199 in the first year and grow to $875,351 by the fifth year. According to Lord’s projections, the center will experience profit margins of 3.9 percent in the first year to 8.62 percent in the fifth year. According to Orit Sarfaty, senior consultant for Lord Cultural Resources, the margin is high relative to similar institutions, but by being smart, extra funds could be reinvested into opportunities for the center."

 

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Museums

 

China to build 1st archaeological museum

Xinhua, China Daily, 9 February 2012

 

XI'AN, CHINA - "China's first archaeological museum will be built in Xi'an, capital of the northwestern Shaanxi province this year, local authorities has said. The museum will aim to popularize knowledge of archaeology among common people and diversify China's museum types, said Zhao Rong, director of the provincial cultural relics bureau, at a provincial meeting attended by cultural relics officials."

 

Museum hunts for stolen artifacts

Officials hope to see stolen pieces returned

Jason van Rassel, Calgary Herald, 8 February 2012

 

CALGARY, AB – "Many were relics paid for with the blood of Canadian veterans: hundreds of medals and other military artifacts stolen from a Calgary war museum and sold for profit. Although a recent police investigation recovered some of the relics stolen from the Military Museums of Calgary, most of nearly 600 items taken from its collection have not been found. Now museum officials want to find the items that are still missing, issuing a public appeal Tuesday to collectors and others to return any articles they may have bought not knowing they were stolen."

 

Wedgwood Museum may lose UNESCO listing

Status will be reviewed if collection dispersed

Patrick Steel, Museums Journal, 8 February 2012

 

STOKE-ON-TRENT, ENGLAND - "David Dawson, the chair of the Memory of the World Working Group, which administers the UK Memory of the World Register, told Museums Journal that if the Wedgwood collection were dispersed it might not remain on the register. "If the collection were broken up we would have to review its status, and its status as a designated collection would also be reviewed," said Dawson. [text omitted] The Wedgwood collection is currently one of only 20 collections to be inscribed to the UK Memory of the World Register, a list of documentary heritage which holds cultural significance specific to the UK." [see also Wedgwood Museum closure condemned by Unesco, by Dalya Alberge, The Guardian, 5 February 2012]

 

Ford's Theatre opens new museum, education center in DC to study Abraham Lincoln's legacy

Brett Zongker (Associated Press), The Republic, First Posted: February 08, 2012 - 5:46 am, Last Updated:

8 February 2012 - 5:26 pm

 

WASHINGTON, DC — "Flowers once attached to President Abraham Lincoln's coffin and ribbons from mourners have joined videos and interactive displays to explore his life and legacy in a new museum and education center at the theater where Lincoln was assassinated. The Ford's Theatre Center for Education and Leadership opens to the public Sunday, the 203rd anniversary of Lincoln's birth. The new center built in a 10-story former office building is part of a $60 million project to create a four-part campus for visitors to learn about the 16th president in the nation's capital."

 

Cash's 80th birthday, legacy to be celebrated

AP, CBS News, 7 February 2012

 

NASHVILLE, TN - "Johnny Cash is still cool. Like Elvis or Hank Williams, Cash retains a certain cachet in current popular culture even in death. More proof of his enduring legend is on the way as plans to celebrate what would have been the American icon's 80th birthday unfold later this month and year. There will be a groundbreaking on the project to preserve Cash's childhood home in Dyess, Ark., on Feb. 26, his birthday. A new Cash museum will open in Nashville later this year and several music releases are expected to commemorate the anniversary of his birth. There are three documentaries in the works as well." [see also New Johnny Cash Museum Set To Open In Nashville, Starpulse, 7 February 2012]

 

St. Louis tries new approach in museum expansion

Bruce Olson, Reuters, 7 February 2012

 

ST. LOUIS, MO - "A U.S. art museum is rearranging galleries by theme rather than time period, seeking to make them more accessible to visitors as part of a $162 million expansion. Galleries at the St. Louis Art Museum that once covered the 18th Century, for example, now focus on "The Modern Body" with nudes from different eras, or "The American Scene." It's an approach already in use at the Detroit Institute of Arts Museum and the Cincinnati Art Museum, as more museums try to connect art to visitors' personal experience, said Robin Cembalest, executive editor of ARTnews. "Themes like food and eating or similar approaches are a way to get into other cultures or past culture so we see the commonalities with our own daily lives," Cembalest said."

 

Transformed Yale University Art Gallery to open in December 2012

Recent News, artdaily.org, 7 February 2012

 

NEW HAVEN, CT – "The Yale University Art Gallery, in New Haven, Connecticut, the oldest and one of the most important university art museums in America, is in the final phase of a renovation and expansion that will transform the visitor experience of both the museum and its esteemed collections. The project will enable the Gallery not only to enhance its role as one of the nation's most prominent teaching institutions but also to join the ranks of the country's leading public art museums. The expanded Gallery will open in December 2012."

 

Art Fund Prize unveils longlist but drops public poll

List includes four new museums and three Scottish venues

Rebecca Atkinson, Museums Journal, 7 February 2012

 

UNITED KINGDOM - "The Art Fund Prize 2012 will not include a public poll following criticism last year that the judges ignored the public choice. [text omitted] A spokesman for the Art Fund said the public poll, which was used by the judging panel to assess visitor support, caused “confusion” last year. Instead, members of the public will be invited to submit comments about their favourite longlisted museum." [see also Longlist for Art Fund Prize Museum of the Year 2012 announced, by Culture24 Reporter, 08 February 2012]

 

Forgan makes the case for Smarter Loans at launch of MA's principles for UK loans

Cheaper to loan from Gdansk than London, says Captain Cook Museum chair

Patrick Steel, 7 February 2012

 

UNITED KINGDOM - "Speaking at the launch of the Museum Association’s publication Smarter Loans: key principles for loans in the UK, Sophie Forgan, chair of trustees at the Captain Cook Museum, told the audience: "I know loans take work, time and trouble, and I know they cost. "But I was amazed that bringing material over from Gdansk in Poland cost us a fraction of what it takes to bring stuff up from London.

 

NDP offre 150 000 $ au Musée d'art de Joliette

Geneviève Blais, L'Action, 7 février 2012

 

JOLIETTE, QC – "Notre-Dame-des-Prairies accorde 150 000 $ au Musée d'art de Joliette pour son projet de mise aux normes et de réaménagement. «Le conseil municipal a décidé d'investir dans son Musée, parce qu'il y croit», affirme d'emblée le maire de la Ville, Alain Larue. Lors de leur passage dans la région, en juin 2011, les ministres Christine St-Pierre et Michelle Courchesne ont fait valoir l'urgence d'agir puisque l'établissement, en plus de manquer d'espace, ne répond plus aux normes muséales canadiennes. Elles ont du même coup annoncé l'injection, par le gouvernement, de dix millions de dollars dans ce projet de réfection. Cette aide représente tout près de 85 % du coût total des travaux, lequel est estimé à 11 775 000 $. Afin de compléter le montage financier, le Musée d'art a lancé une campagne de financement à laquelle répondent aujourd'hui les élus prairiquois."

 

Fermeture du Liechtenstein Museum de Vienne

Connaissance des arts, 6 Février 2012

 

VIENNE, AUTRICHE – "À Vienne, le Liechtenstein Museum ferme ses portes au grand public et n’accueillera plus que les visites réservées et les réceptions. N'attirant que 45 000 visiteurs par an sur les 300 000 escomptés, le musée, situé dans le Gartenpalais, coûte trop cher au prince Hans-Adam II du Liechtenstein. Ouvert en 1807 à Vienne pour abriter les collections de la famille princière, le Liechtenstein Museum est pourtant l'un des premiers musées d'Europe en terme d'acquisition."

 

Guggenheim to Close Berlin Outpost

Carol Vogel, The New York Times, 6 February 2012

 

BERLIN, GERMANY - "After 15 years, Deutsche Guggenheim, an outpost of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in the headquarters of Deutsche Bank in Berlin, is closing at the end of the year. The decision to end the partnership between the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and Deutsche Bank was announced in Berlin on Monday morning. Neither the bank nor the Guggenheim gave a concrete reason for the decision, saying only that their contract expires at the end of 2012." [see also Fermeture du Deutsche Guggenheim de Berlin, Le Journal des Arts, 8 Février 2012]

 

Chase Museum recovering from fire

Salmon Arm Observer, 5 February 2012

 

CHASE, BC – "The spirit of community is strong in the Village of Chase, residents are active as volunteers in non-profit organizations in addition to busy careers in other businesses. Word gets around quickly, groups pool efforts to make great things happen. After the two fires in July 2011 caused by arson, the Chase and District Museum is slowly rising from the ashes once again. Insurance benefits fell short of reconstruction costs, so other fundraising is in the works. Reasonable decisions are being made to make the best use of financial resources in the rebuilding."

 

Cheekwood announces new 2012 Officers and Board of Trustees

Recent News, artdaily.org, 4 February 2012

 

NASHVILLE, TN – "Cheekwood Botanical Garden & Museum of Art has recently announced new officers of the Board.

The new officers, who will serve for two years in these roles are:

Chairman: Mr. George B. Stadler, CFA [text omitted]

Vice-Chairman: Mrs. Lillian C. Bradford (Tooty) [text omitted]

Treasurer: Mr. Don MacLeod [text omitted]

Secretary: Mrs. Katherine Higgins DeLay."

 

Walker Art Center's Sarah Schultz appointed Director of Education and Curator of Public Practice

Recent News, artdaily.org, 3 February 2012

 

MINNEAPOLIS, MN – "Sarah Schultz has been named Director of Education and Curator of Public Practice at the Walker Art Center. Schultz has been the Walker’s Director of Education since 2000. The new title reflects the evolution of the Walker's pioneering education department and recognizes Schultz's leadership around several important public initiatives. In 2010, Schultz and her team organized the Walker's Open Field, the first in a series of summer-long experiments in how museums can engage the public in new ways. Inspired by models of the commons, crowd-sourcing, collective action, and new forms of socially-engaged art practice, Open Field opens the museum to the public and artists together by using four acres of adjacent green space to create an alternative public park--a type of cultural commons with social interaction and creative participation as its guiding philosophies. Open Field hosts over 100 activities each summer season, created and led by interested members of the general public alongside invited artists-in-residence and activities generated by the Walker."

 

Mine Museum wins awards

Renovations at Britannia attraction recognized

John French, Pique Newsmagazine, 2 February 2012

 

BRITANNIA BEACH, BC – "The $14.7 million transformation of the mining museum in Britannia is paying off with the museum picking up two prestigious awards. The Association for Mineral Exploration British Columbia (AME BC) and the B.C. Museum Association (BCMA) have honoured the Britannia Mine Museum on Highway 99. AME BC gave the museum the Award for Social and Environmental Responsibility while the BCMA honoured the museum's executive director with the award of merit."

 

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Architecture

 

HWKN’s Eco-Friendly ‘Wendy’ Wins MOMA PS1 Young Architects Program

Stephanie Murg, UnBeige, on February 8, 2012 11:30 PM

 

"Who’s tripping down the streets of the city, smilin’ at everybody she sees? Who’s reachin’ out to neutralize an airborne pollutant? Everyone knows it’s Wendy! That’s right, fans of emerging architectural talent, the spiky and proactive creation of New York-based HWKN (Hollwich Kushner) has been declared the winner of this year’s MOMA PS1 Young Architects Program, besting finalists Ammar Eloueini of AEDS Ammar Eloueini Digit-all Studio (Paris and New Orleans), Martin Felsen and Sarah Dunn of UrbanLab (Chicago), and the solid Cantabrigian (Massachusetts) contingent: Mariana Ibañez and Simon Kim of I|K Studio and Cameron Wu. Now in its thirteenth year, the Young Architects Program program challenges each year’s winners to develop creative designs for a temporary, outdoor installation at MoMA PS1 that provides shade, seating, and water."

 

Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei to design Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2012

Recent News, artdaily.org, 8 February 2012

 

LONDON, UK – "The Serpentine Gallery announced that Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei will create the 2012 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion. It will be the twelfth commission in the Gallery’s annual series, the world’s first and most ambitious architectural programme of its kind. The design team responsible for the celebrated Beijing National Stadium, which was built for the 2008 Olympic Games and won the prestigeous RIBA Lubetkin Prize, will come together again in London in 2012 in a special development of the Serpentine’s acclaimed annual commission which will be presented as part of the London 2012 Festival, the culmination of the Cultural Olympiad. The Pavilion will be Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei’s first collaborative built structure in the UK." [see also Le pavillon éphémère 2012 de la Serpentine Gallery confié à Ai Weiwei et au duo Herzog & de Meuron, Le Journal des Arts, 09.02.12]

 

New York City Mayor Says Green Building Codes Will Help City Meet PlaNYC Goals

Carolina Worrell, Architectural Record, 8 February 2012

 

NEW YORK, NY – "New York City’s adoption of new green building codes are expected to result in reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 5% and saving $400 million by 2030, says a recently released report from the Urban Green Council, the U.S. Green Building Council’s New York chapter. The codes are also expected to divert 100,000 tons of asphalt from landfills each year; reduce greenhouse gas emissions citywide by 5%; and lower the costs of lighting energy by 10%.

The city has so far enacted 29 of 111 recommendations made by a task force established two years ago to detail steps the city should take to increase sustainability in the buildings sector. Eight more recommendations are in the process of becoming codified, the city says. The new codes will help put the city on track to meet its PlaNYC program goals, says Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who launched the green initiative in 2007."

 

Met Aims to Build Itself a Museum-Quality Plaza

Carol Vogel, The New York Times, 7 February 2012

 

NEW YORK, NY - "More than 40 years after its last makeover, the plaza in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is showing its age: the fountains are leaking, the sidewalk is crumbling, and the trees are dying. Overcrowding on the institution’s grand front steps — one of the most popular meeting places in Manhattan — often causes bottlenecks for visitors trying to get to the front door. Now an ambitious plan is in the works to transform this four-block-long stretch along Fifth Avenue, from 80th to 84th Street, into a more efficient, pleasing and environmentally friendly space, with new fountains, tree-shaded allées, seating areas, museum-run kiosks and softer, energy-efficient nighttime lighting." [see also Met Museum Announces Major Renovation Plans for its Fifth Avenue Plaza and Fountains, Recent News, artdaily.org, 8 February 2012]

 

Story of the North: Young Danish architects win competition for the House of the North

World Architecture News, 7 February 2012

 

ODENSE, DENMARK - "A design consisting of three houses on pillars in a landscape of stairs, shelves and terraces is the winning proposal for a future culture house on the harbour of Odense in Denmark. The building is set to open in 2013. Young Danish architects CORNELIUS + VÖGE and ISAGER architects together with contractor Hans Jørgensen og Søn, Grontmij and Masu Planning, have been selected winners of the cultural building House of The North Atlantic. The Building will represent and exhibit the 3 North Atlantic countries: Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland in Denmark. The building has an area of 3800 m2 and will include exhibition areas, conference rooms, restaurant, library and student housing."

 

Canada's Gorgeous Green-Roofed VanDusen Botanical Garden Visitor Centre Opens to the Public!

Diane Pham, Inhabitat, 7 February 2012

 

VANCOUVER, BC - "Canada's brand new VanDusen Botanical Garden Visitor Centre is a flowing green building that blends into its surrounding landscape in Vancover. Designed by Perkins+Will, the billowing structure is sited amidst a thicket of tall and lush greenery, and it brings a harmonious balance between modern architecture and nature. From its rammed earth walls, all the way to the top of its green roof, this LEED Platinum building is also steeped in green building strategies that will help it achieve net-zero energy."

 

Marks Barfield Proposes a Soaring Bamboo Science Center for the Amazon Rainforest

Nathaniel Ross, Inhabitat, 02/07/12

 

RORAIMA, BRAZIL - "Imagine the High Line elevate park on the lower west side of Manhattan, only instead of a one-mile walkway above beeping taxis and century-old brick facades, it's a six mile network of walkways spanning over unspoiled rainforest with chirping Toucans and ancient trees over a thousand years old. This walkway, part of a proposed science center designed by Marks Barfield Architects in the northeastern Brazilian province of Roraima, would offer important research opportunities to scientists from the Royal Botanical Gardens and organizations like Kew and the Brazilian Amazon Research Institute, as well as breathtaking views for visiting tourists."

 

Architects Fight Obesity Epidemic Through Active Design

Paula Melton, GreenSource, 7 February 2012; This article originally appeared on BuildingGreen.com.

 

NEW YORK, NY - "Better design choices in homes, workplaces, and communities can increase access to healthier food and provide built-in opportunities for physical activity, fighting the nation’s childhood obesity epidemic. That’s the premise of the burgeoning “active design” movement focusing on elements like playgrounds, walking trails, gardens, and prominent and attractive stairways. The Active Design Guidelines developed by New York City collect many of these design strategies—for cities, neighborhoods, and individual buildings—into a free reference guide."

 

New Research Reveals the Safety Hazards of Green Building

By Katie Frasier, GreenSource, 7 February 2012, This article originally appeared in ENR Mountain States.

 

UNITED STATES - "During the past several years, the green building trend has soared, with an increase in government incentives and availability of affordable supplies driving a huge growth of U.S. Green Building Council LEED-certified buildings. With the LEED program ambitiously hoping to certify one million commercial buildings by 2020, it’s no surprise that this trend has come under some scrutiny. And while most great rewards often have a price, in this case it could be at the expense of the safety of construction workers on the job."

 

Steven Holl Architects Chosen to Design Houston Museum of Fine Art Addition

Molly Cotter, Inhabitat, 02/06/12

 

HOUSTON, TX - "The Houston Museum of Fine Arts has just chosen Steven Holl Architects to design a new building for their expansive institution. One of our longtime favorite firms in sustainable design and recent winner of the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal, Holl and Co. will certainly produce an eco-savvy and innovative addition to the museum. With buildings already designed by iconic artists Isamu Noguchi, Mies van der Rohe, and Rafael Moneo, the museum’s newest structure is certainly in good company."

 

Le Grand Palais prépare son chantier

Connaissance des arts, 6 Février 2012

 

PARIS, FRANCE – "Le Grand Palais a obtenu l’accord de l’État pour des travaux de rénovation qui s’élèveront à 236 millions d’euros. Ce projet, présenté en avril 2010 par le président de la RMN-Grand Palais, Jean-Paul Cluzel, sera mis en œuvre de 2014 à 2022."

 

Zaha Hadid signe le phare de Marseille

Connaissance des arts, 6 Février 2012

 

MARSEILLE, FRANCE – "Troisième groupe mondial de transport maritime en conteneurs, la CMA-CGM a confié à Zaha Hadid le soin de construire son nouveau siège social, en plein cœur d’Euro méditerranée, à Marseille. Tel un phare face à la mer, la tour de trente-trois étages est venue se loger sur une parcelle ingrate, entre deux viaducs autoroutiers."

 

La hausse de la constructibilité proposée par Nicolas Sarkozy inquiète les architectes

Le Journal des Arts, 2 Février 2012

 

PARIS, FRANCE – "Depuis l’annonce par Nicolas Sarkozy, le 30 janvier 2012, d’une loi augmentant de 30 % les possibilités de construction, plusieurs associations de défense du patrimoine ainsi que le Conseil national de l’ordre des architectes s’inquiètent. Ils craignent que cette mesure, destinée à abaisser le prix de l’immobilier, ne nuise à l’esthétique des immeubles et ne remette en cause les zones patrimoniales protégées."

 

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Technology

 

Maurizio Cattelan app named top app for 2012

Recent News, artdaily.org, 8 February 2012

 

NEW YORK, NY - "The Sunday Times (UK) has recognized Maurizio Cattelan: All in its list of Top 500 Apps. Produced on the occasion of the Guggenheim's Maurizio Cattelan retrospective exhibition, which was on view November 4, 2011–January 22, 2012, the app is available on iPhone, iPad, and Android. It includes dramatic views of the Guggenheim installation, texts about the works, and video commentary by many of the artist’s key collaborators. The annual list is put together by a team of experienced app reviewers and experts, and features a roundup of apps from around the world in categories such as travel, music, the arts, entertainment, books, TV and radio, science, DIY, gardening, and games."

 

Short film brings the Finnish Pavilion to life at the 1900 Paris World Fair

Aalto University: School of Arts, Design and Architecture, 7 February 2012

 

AALTO, FINLAND - "Researchers and students from the Department of Media of the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture have created a short film called Le Pavilion de la Finlande à l’exposition universelle de 1900 à Paris. The eight-and-a-half-minute film will be shown at a large exhibition presenting the works of Akseli Gallen-Kallela opening on February 7 at the Musée d’Orsay, Paris. The film takes its viewers on a journey in time to see the Finnish Pavilion at the Paris World Fair in 1900. The makers of the film have used 3D modelling and animation and connected archival materials with computer generated imagery in order to render a simulation of the Finnish Pavilion and the 1900 World Exposition in Paris."

 

Access thousands of TV clips from across Europe

JISC, 6 February 2012

 

EUROPE - "Over 14,000 items of archived TV footage from 17 European countries are now available via the EUscreen online portal. EUscreen – the result of collaboration between 36 partners across Europe – provides a rich insight into Europe’s television heritage with content dating from the 1920s to the present day. The portal includes rare footage and commentary on key events in history, including a 1962 interview with Martin Luther King about racial discrimination in the US. John Ellis2, Professor of Media Arts at Royal Holloway and principal investigator on the EUscreen project, said: "This is a valuable resource for anyone interested in social history or indeed TV history, as it brings together tens of thousands of clips from across Europe. The portal is available to anyone (not only academics) and it is very easy to get absorbed and spend hours browsing all of the footage." The expansive footage has also proved popular as a learning aid for foreign language students, with clips available in 14 languages."

 

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Art and Culture

 

Hungary’s government tightens grip on arts

Right-wing leadership stands accused of controlling the cultural sector for political ends

Julia Michalska. The Art Newspaper, Issue 232, February 2012, Published online: 09 February 2012

 

HUNGARY - "Already under attack from the European Commission for its policies on banking, the law and the media, Hungary’s national conservative government is now facing a tide of protest from the arts community. The government, led by Viktor Orban, stands accused of systematically replacing key figures in cultural institutions, staging pro-government exhibitions, rethinking permanent museum displays and replacing historic statues to fit its political agenda."

 

Four-in-10 children 'have never been to an art gallery'

Millions of British children have never been to an art gallery, theatre or stage show, according to research.

The Telegraph, 9 February 2012

 

UNITED KINGDOM - "The 'culture starved' generation emerged in a study of 2,000 parents of five to 12 year-olds throughout the UK. Four in 10 children have never seen the inside of an art gallery, while 17 per cent haven't visited a museum with their parents. The research, which was commissioned by Visit Birmingham, also revealed that a quarter of children haven't been to the theatre, while six in 10 have never heard or been to a classical music concert. One in 10 kids hasn't even left their home town to visit other cultural sites in the UK. And half of parents admit they make little effort to educate their children on culture or history, relying on schools to do so."

 

Why sip your java when you can inhale it?

Rodrique Ngowi (The Associated Press), The Globe and Mail, Published Wednesday, Feb. 08, 2012 3:31PM EST

Last updated Wednesday, Feb. 08, 2012 3:46PM EST

 

CAMBRIDGE, MA — "Move over, coffee and Red Bull. A Harvard professor thinks the next big thing will be people inhaling their caffeine from a lipstick-sized tube. Critics say the novel product is not without its risks. The product, called AeroShot, went on the market late last month in Massachusetts and New York, and is also available in France. A single unit costs $2.99 at convenience, mom-and-pop, liquor and online stores. Biomedical engineering professor David Edwards said AeroShot is safe and does not contain common additives, like taurine, used to amplify the caffeine effect in common energy drinks. Each grey-and-yellow plastic canister contains 100 milligrams of caffeine powder, about the amount in a large cup of coffee, plus B vitamins."

 

Art market analysis: A market in need of supervision

The best way to protect the trade is to safeguard scholarship

Marion Maneker, The Art Newspaper, Issue 232, February 2012, Published online: 08 February 2012

 

WORLD - "The most striking thing about the art market—especially as it has grown from the small, passionate community of the early 1990s to a $50bn industry today—is that it largely functions along self-regulating lines. Prices, authenticity, standards and practices are all arrived at among the art world itself, without much reference or recourse to government—it feels like a libertarian’s dream of a free and unfettered market. But, the recent scandal engulfing the 165-year-old Knoedler Gallery, with the authenticity of works attributed to US painters including Robert Motherwell and Jackson Pollock coming under scrutiny (The Art Newspaper, January 2012, pp4,5), suggests that more adult supervision is required."

 

Second edition of $100,000 art prize launched online

The Future Generation Art Prize, funded by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation in Ukraine, is open to any artist around the world up to the age of 35

The Art Newspaper, Web only, Published online: 08 February 2012

 

WORLD - "The second edition of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation’s Future Generation Art Prize, worth $100,000, was launched this week with a press conference streamed live on The Art Newspaper’s website and moderated by our founding editor Anna Somers Cocks. Applications for the award are now available online at www.futuregenerationartprize.org until 6 May, with the winner due to be chosen in December. [text omitted] artists up to the age of 35 from anywhere in the world can apply to win."

 

History expert Barry Landau pleads guilty to stealing documents; faces up to 10 years in prison

Sarah Blumfield (Associated Press), Recent News, artdaily.org, 8 February 2012

 

BALTIMORE, MD – "A memorabilia collector and self-styled expert on presidential history pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring to steal thousands of documents signed by leaders throughout U.S. history. Barry Landau, whose knowledge of the White House earned him network morning show appearances, acknowledged in the plea to taking documents from the Maryland Historical Society and conspiring with his assistant to steal historical documents from several institutions with the intent of selling them. Thousands of documents were seized from Landau's artifact-filled Manhattan apartment. Prosecutors say he schemed for years, if not decades, to steal valuable documents signed by historical figures from both sides of the Atlantic including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Marie Antoinette, and Charles Dickens. The oldest document listed in the plea was dated 1479."

 

Top contemporary art figure, Spanish painter and sculptor Antoni Tapies, dead at 88

Ciaran Giles (Associated Press), Recent News, artdaily.org, 8 February 2012

 

MADRID, SPAIN – "Catalan painter and sculptor Antoni Tapies, one of the world's top contemporary art figures, has died. He was 88. A statement from the government of his native northeastern Catalonia region said Tapies — whose work has been displayed in major museums across the world — died Monday evening in Barcelona. It said he had been in poor health since 2007. Born in Barcelona in 1923, Tapies was one of Spain's main exponents of abstract and avant-garde art in the second half of the 20th century." [see also Disparition du maître de l’abstraction Antoni Tàpies, Connaissance des arts, 8 Février 2012]

 

Les ventes aux enchères flambent, dopées par les achats de Chine

Le Monde, 8 Février 2012

 

LE MONDE - "Le produit des ventes aux enchères d'œuvres d'art dans le monde a bondi de 21 % en 2011, atteignant le niveau inégalé de 11,54 milliards de dollars, la Chine caracolant en tête avec une part de marché de plus de 41 %, indique la société Artprice, première base de données sur le marché de l'art dans le monde, qui publie mercredi 8 février son bilan annuel du secteur."

 

La Cueva de Nerja podría albergar la primera obra de arte de la humanidad

El profesor de la Universidad de Córdoba José Luis Sanchidrián dirige el proyecto de conservación de esta cueva

EFE, Diario Córdoba, 2012/02/07

 

MÁLAGA, SPAIN - "Seis pinturas rupestres de la Cueva de Nerja (Málaga) que representan a focas podrían tener una antigüedad de al menos 42.000 años, lo que las situaría como la primera obra de arte de la humanidad, que además no habría sido realizada por sapiens, sino por neandertales, según varios expertos." [see also These Are the Earliest Human Paintings Ever, by Jesus Diaz, Gizmodo Australia, 9:30AM February 8, 2012; and Les toutes premières œuvres d’art de l’humanité dateraient de 42 000 ans et se trouveraient en Espagne, par Chloé da Fonseca, Le Journal des Arts, 08.02.12]

 

Le Qatar achète un tableau de Cézanne pour une somme record

Le Journal des Arts, 7 Février 2012

 

DOHA, QATAR – "À la fin de l’année 2011, la famille royale du Qatar a acheté « Les Joueurs de cartes » de Paul Cézanne (1895) aux héritiers du magnat des transports maritimes, le grec George Embiricos. Le montant de la transaction s’élève à 191,5 millions d’euros, un record historique dans le marché de l’art."

 

Christie’s et Sotheby’s Londres tablent sur une hausse de plus 20 % par rapport à 2011 de leurs ventes d’art impressionniste et moderne

Le Journal des Arts, 7 Février 2012

 

LONDRES, ROYAUME-UNI –  "À elles deux, Christie’s et Sotheby’s espèrent réaliser un chiffre d’affaires de 164 millions de livres (estimations basses et hors frais) lors de leurs vacations d’art impressionniste et moderne à Londres les 7 et 8 février. Les auctioneers comptent notamment sur la prestigieuse provenance des œuvres, notamment pour celles issues de la collection d’Élizabeth Taylor, pour séduire les acheteurs."

 

Le 2-22 Sainte-Catherine, enfin ouvert!

Jean Siag, La Presse, 6 février 2012

 

MONTRÉAL, QC – "Sept ans après le début du projet de la Société de développement Angus (SDA), après de nombreux revirements dans son financement et un changement d'architectes, le 2-22 Sainte-Catherine a finalement été inauguré hier en présence des six copropriétaires. L'édifice vitré de six étages, construit à l'intersection du boulevard Saint-Laurent et de la rue Sainte-Catherine, a coûté 20 millions. Les partenaires financiers sont la Ville de Montréal, Fondaction CSN et le gouvernement du Québec. Élément intéressant, le nouveau lieu de diffusion culturelle abrite des organismes qui sont devenus propriétaires de leurs espaces grâce à des fonds publics, environ 12 millions au total."

 

Paris participera à Art souterrain

Éric Clément, La Presse, 6 février 2012

 

MONTRÉAL, QC – "Contre vents et marées, Art souterrain revient pour un quatrième hiver consécutif habiller nos souterrains montréalais d'oeuvres d'art et de performances inédites. Organisé par le galeriste et commissaire Frédéric Loury, l'événement d'art contemporain présentera du 25 février au 11 mars les oeuvres de 200 artistes dont une vingtaine en provenance de Paris. Après avoir dû éponger un déficit de 7 000 $ en 2010 et de 26 000 $ en 2011, Frédéric Loury ne recule pas. Malgré le manque d'appui financier public (il regrette l'absence d'aide du Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec), il va de l'avant grâce aux commanditaires privées et un appui inédit: la France."

 

Uruguay gets its first biennale

The event is timed to take place during São Paulo’s international exhibition

Nicolas Smirnoff, The Art Newspaper, Web only, Published online: 06 February 2012

 

"The debut edition of the Biennale de Montevideo—Uruguay’s first such event and titled "Big Sur"—is due to open on 15 October, right in the middle of the São Paulo Biennial, which is set to take place between 8 September and 9 December. The concept of "the South" and its relationship to the rest of the world is due to be examined in the Biennale de Montevideo by around 50 artists from five continents, although the list has not yet been released. Sponsored by the Laetitia d’Arenberg Foundation, the Uruguay biennale has a budget of around $2m, says its artistic director, Gustavo Tabares."

 

America's 50 top philanthropists include 12 arts donors

Mike Boehm, The Los Angeles Times, February 6, 2012

 

UNITED STATES - "The most generous members of the 1% devoted more than 2% of their charitable giving last year to arts and culture, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, which issued Monday its annual ranking of America’s 50 most generous donors. Reporters for the Chronicle found specific donations of at least $1 million to arts and cultural institutions by 12 of the 50, totaling $213.4 million. The Philanthropy 50, as the Chronicle calls them, gave $10.4 billion in total charitable donations in 2011, more than three times the $3.3 billion they donated in 2010. Just about all of that increase can be attributed to Margaret A. Cargill of La Jolla, who died in 2006, leaving a bequest to two foundations she had established, resulting in gifts that the Chronicle placed at $6 billion. Cargill, needless to say, was No. 1 in the rankings. The Chronicle’s methodology on arts giving among Philanthropy 50 wasn’t sufficiently fine-tuned to capture all the arts interests of top donors. For example, the Chronicle did not identify Cargill (pictured), as a cultural donor, because it counted all $6 billion as a gift to a foundation, rather than one that would benefit the arts. But Cargill’s will specified that Native American culture and folk art will be one of the areas funded regularly through her foundations –- potentially yielding millions of dollars in annual arts giving."

 

Do Unpaid Internships Exploit College Students?

The New York Times “Room for Debate”, 6 February 2012

 

UNITED STATES – "Employers often seem to flout the Labor Department rules about unpaid interns, but college students keep lining up for these positions year after year. Should government intervene, because the downsides of unpaid internships outweigh the benefits? Or should officials step back, assuming that this arrangement mutually benefits employers and interns?" [a debate comprising 5 opinion pieces by Ross Perlin (author, "Intern Nation"), David Lat (founder, Above the Law), Alex Footman (filmmaker), Camille Olson (employment attorney), and Raphael Pope-Sussman (writer)]

 

Une copie contemporaine de la « Joconde » de Léonard de Vinci découverte au Prado

Le Journal des Arts, 3 Février 2012

 

MADRID, ESPAGNE – "Et si la « Joconde » avait une sœur jumelle ? Au Musée du Prado, une copie du portrait de Mona Lisa était conservée depuis de nombreuses années, mais elle n’était pas jugée digne d’intérêt Une copie comme des dizaines d’autres, réalisées après la mort de Léonard de Vinci. Pourtant, après des travaux de restauration, l’œuvre est apparue comme fondamentale pour l’histoire de l’art : elle a été réalisée simultanément à la « Joconde » par l’un des disciples du maître florentin.”

 

Vols et vandalisme à la Villa Médicis

Connaissance des arts, 3 Février 2012

 

ROME, ITALIE –  "Des voleurs se sont introduits à trois reprises dans la Villa Médicis ces derniers jours pour y dérober plusieurs fragments de sculptures. Pour s'emparer des pièces antiques, ils n'ont pas hésité à les mutiler, comme pour cet Apollon du IIe siècle arraché à son bas-relief. Manquent aussi à l'appel deux torses d'époque impériale, deux têtes en marbre de la Renaissance ainsi que deux copies de têtes antiques."

 

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Cultural & Urban Planning, Human Rights, Demographics

 

Council backs plan to raise support for the arts

David Reevely, The Ottawa Citizen, 9 February 2012

 

OTTAWA — "A five-year plan to increase Ottawa’s arts spending by $5 million a year got council’s approval Wednesday, but only after a handful of councillors got assurances that it doesn’t actually commit them to spending the money. It wasn’t so much the operating increases, which add up to a steady extra $5 million a year by the end of the plan, that got attention as a set of plans for capital projects like a downtown concert hall, which councillors Allan Hubley and Steve Desroches wanted to be sure the plan doesn’t require the city to live up to. The strategy suggests the city government will push a concert hall — which several people and organizations have tried to get built, generally failing at the point of drawing private-sector contributions — into construction by 2018. They were assured that the five-year plan doesn’t take the place of each year’s budget, when councillors decide what they want to fund and what they don’t. The arts plan is a list of priorities and timelines but not a firm commitment, said deputy city manager Steve Kanellakos."

 

Canada census shows people moving west

Overall population rises to 33.5 million, with Ontario's growth slowing

The Canadian Press, CBC News, Posted: Feb 8, 2012 8:39 AM ET Last Updated: Feb 8, 2012 10:07 PM ET

 

CANADA - "The latest census figures show Canada's population at 33.5 million, with more people continuing to migrate to the West. Western Canada's population has finally surpassed that on the other side of Ontario — a trend that has been decades in the making, but was compounded by the recent recession. The first barrage of data from the 2011 census, released Wednesday, showed that there were 33.5 million people living in Canada in May of last year — and that for the first time ever, more of them are living west of Ontario than in Quebec and the Atlantic provinces. At the national level, there was a healthy 5.9 per cent surge in population from the previous census in 2006, giving Canada the fastest growth pace of all the countries in the G8." [see also Census numbers crystallize Ontario’s exodus, by Maria Babbage, The Hamilton Spectator, 8 February 2012; and Statistics Canada’s 2011 Census site at http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/index-eng.cfm]

 

Restore a Gateway to Dignity

It’s time to address the calamity that is Penn Station.

Michael Kimmelman, The New York Times, 8 February 2012

 

NEW YORK, NY - "Nearly a half-century has passed since the destruction of the great 1910 station designed by Charles Follen McKim of McKim, Mead & White, a “monumental act of vandalism,” as an editorial in The New York Times called the demolition in 1963. A vast steel, travertine and granite railway palace of the people, the old Pennsylvania Station had declined by the end into a symbol of bygone Gilded Age opulence. It was replaced by Penn Plaza and Madison Square Garden, Modernist mediocrities, erected to serve real estate interests, with a new subterranean Penn Station entombed below. Some 600,000 commuters, riding Amtrak, Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit, now suffer Penn Station every day. That makes it probably the busiest transit hub in the Western world, busier than Heathrow Airport in London, busier than Newark, La Guardia and Kennedy airports combined. To pass through Grand Central Terminal, one of New York’s exalted public spaces, is an ennobling experience, a gift. To commute via the bowels of Penn Station, just a few blocks away, is a humiliation. What is the value of architecture? It can be measured, culturally, humanely and historically, in the gulf between these two places. Long trumpeted as a solution to the blight that is Penn Station has been the plan, well more than a decade old, to transform the present James A. Farley Post Office, opposite Madison Square Garden on Eighth Avenue, into a new train hub. The project is named for Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the New York senator who championed the idea before his death in 2003. It is a first step. But the only way to fix Penn properly is to move Madison Square Garden."

 

Modernist vision unveiled for a renovated Lansdowne

David Reevely and Neco Cockburn, The Ottawa Citizen, 8 February 2012

 

OTTAWA — "Plans for a renovated Lansdowne Park will make it an active place for Ottawans and visitors day and night, in hot weather and cold, promised politicians and designers as they revealed drastically refined plans for the rundown Glebe property. The Tuesday morning presentation in city hall’s council chamber was interrupted repeatedly by applause from a sympathetic audience of developers, former Rough Rider football players and other allies of the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group, the city’s partner in the redevelopment plans. Although the plan’s proponents are still waiting a tad anxiously for a ruling from the Ontario Court of Appeal on whether the city’s deal with OSEG to share the cost of the $350-million project is legal, the presentation was clearly designed to give the project an air of inevitability."

 

‘We the People’ Loses Appeal With People Around the World

Adam Liptak, The New York Times, 6 February 2012

 

WASHINGTON, DC — "The Constitution has seen better days. Sure, it is the nation’s founding document and sacred text. And it is the oldest written national constitution still in force anywhere in the world. But its influence is waning. In 1987, on the Constitution’s bicentennial, Time magazine calculated that "of the 170 countries that exist today, more than 160 have written charters modeled directly or indirectly on the U.S. version." A quarter-century later, the picture looks very different. "The U.S. Constitution appears to be losing its appeal as a model for constitutional drafters elsewhere," according to a new study by David S. Law of Washington University in St. Louis and Mila Versteeg of the University of Virginia. The study, to be published in June in The New York University Law Review, bristles with data. Its authors coded and analyzed the provisions of 729 constitutions adopted by 188 countries from 1946 to 2006, and they considered 237 variables regarding various rights and ways to enforce them. "Among the world’s democracies," Professors Law and Versteeg concluded, "constitutional similarity to the United States has clearly gone into free fall. Over the 1960s and 1970s, democratic constitutions as a whole became more similar to the U.S. Constitution, only to reverse course in the 1980s and 1990s."

 

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