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'Levitated Mass' by Michael Heizer gets to museum
San Francisco Chronicle, 11 March 2012
LOS ANGELES, CA – "It was 4:35 a.m. Saturday when the block-long
transporter carrying a 340-ton, 21-foot-high boulder wrapped in white plastic
pulled up in front of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
More than 1,000 people,
kept on the sidewalk by a squadron of police officers, responded with
applause and a burst of camera flashes.
But as the 196-wheel
transporter idled there under huge spotlights befitting a city known for its
star-gazing, the crowd poured off the sidewalk and moved toward the boulder
that will soon be the latest addition to the museum's art collection. They
touched the rock, marveled at its size, posed for photographs and
congratulated the workers who had overseen the complicated task of
transporting a rock-turned-art from a quarry in Riverside 60 miles away."
Planning
for Art
Chicago revising cultural
and economic development strategy
Christopher Bentley, The
Architect's Newspaper, 14 March 2012
CHICAGO, IL – "Mayor Rahm Emanuel, himself a one-time ballet
dancer, has long been a vocal supporter of the arts. Now City Hall is
coordinating an extensive outreach effort to check Chicago's creative
pulse, seeking comment on the city's first new cultural plan in more
than 25 years."
Toronto museum wouldn't remount James ossuary display,
vice-president says
James Adams, The Globe
and Mail, 15 March 2012
TORONTO, ON – "There will not be a 10th-anniversary showing of the
James ossuary later this year at Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum.
"We'd need
something new to say about [the ossuary]," said Dan Rahimi, the ROM's vice-president of gallery development. "If we have nothing new to say about it, it would
just be sensationalism. I don't really think we're in a more advanced
position than before so I wouldn't bring it back."
Mr. Rahimi was speaking in
the wake of an Israeli judge's ruling, announced Wednesday in Jerusalem, that
efforts by Israeli prosecutors to prove, in a five-year trial, that the James
ossuary is a forgery had failed."
[See also Judge set to lift lid on 'James ossuary' verdict, By James Adams, The Globe and Mail, 12 March
2012, and After seven years of trial and testimony from dozens of
experts, Israeli court clears 2 of faking Jesus-era box, By Daniella
Cheslow (Associated Press), Recent News, artdaily.org, 15 March 2012]
Régis Debray entre au conseil d’administration de la Maison de l’histoire de France
Le Journal des Arts, 12 mars 2012
PARIS, FRANCE – "Le ministre de la Culture vient de nommer les six membres du
conseil d'administration de la Maison de l'histoire de France, parmi lesquels la figure très engagée de Régis Debray."
Architects for Hong Kong's Xiqu Centre Competition
West Kowloon Cultural
District Authority Announces Design Competition for its First Arts Venue
Archinect Jobs, 13 March 2012
HONG KONG – "The West Kowloon Cultural District Authority
(WKCDA) launched today a design competition to deliver one of the first
landmark buildings for the West Kowloon Cultural District, the Xiqu Centre.
The Chinese opera venue will provide a world-class facility for the
preservation and development of the art form in Hong Kong and will be
designed to host and produce the finest examples of Cantonese and other
Chinese opera performances."
Luminato 2012: Festival announces bold lineup from K'NAAN to
the War of 1812
Richard Ouzounian,
Toronto.com, 14 March 2012
TORONTO, ON – "The 2012 edition of Luminato, Toronto
Festival of Arts and Creativity is the first one under its new Artistic
Director, Jorn Weisbrodt and it's not coincidental that the program announced
Wednesday is probably the boldest and most varied selection of works since
the Festival was launched in 2007.
"Arts shapes
history, just as history shapes art and it's that combination of Revolution
and Transformation we're exploring this year," Weisbrodt told the Star about the sixth edition of the event, which
will run from June 8 through 17 at various locations around Toronto."
[See also Luminato salutes Kate McGarrigle, Alice Munro, By Martin Knelman, Toronto Star, 14 March
2012, Toronto's Luminato Announces Initial 2012 Lineup with Philip
Glass, K'naan, Kathleen Edwards, Dan Mangan, Deltron 3030, By Alex
Hudson, Exclaim.ca, 14 March 2012, Rufus Wainwright, K'naan and Einstein included in Luminato
line up, By Bianca Puorto, Post City, 14 March 2012, and Luminato announces lineup: K'naan, Lepage, Glass and more,
By Guy Dixon, The Globe and Mail, 14 March 2012]
Back to Top
Aspen Art Museum Scores Big Gift to Amp Up Its Education
Offerings
Kyle Chayka, Artinfo,
15 March 2012
ASPEN, CO – "The Aspen Art Museum (AAM) will soon begin
construction on its new Shigeru Ban-designed building in the city's downtown,
expanding from 10,000 to 30,000 square feet. As the building's footprint
expands, the institution's public presence is expanding as well — the AAM has
just scored a $1.5 million gift from Allen and Kelli Questrom to establish
the Questrom Education Fund.
The new funding will
bolster support for the AAM's existing programs as well as expand the institution's
educational offerings, including reaching out to underserved populations,
working with local schools, and providing free museum tours for students and
educators."
Le
rêve artistique peut-il transformer l'Afrique ?
Le Monde,
14 mars 2012
DOUALA, CAMEROON (ENVOYÉE SPECIALE: Le MuMo, musée
mobile, à Douala) – "Je suis entrée au paradis!" Les mots ont du
mal à sortir, d'autant que la voix est toute timide. Dix ans à peine, un
immense sourire sur les lèvres, la frêle Mpemboura, petite Camerounaise,
vient de passer quelques minutes dans l'installation d'un immense artiste
américain, James Turrell: une bulle où les enfants pénètrent pour se laisser
irradier par un arc-en-ciel de lumière. Du bleu polaire au rouge sang, tout
le spectre y passe doucement et submerge le corps. Impossible de comprendre
d'où vient la lumière, inutile de chercher à saisir du regard les murs. Stupéfiant
de beauté."
Un nouveau pôle d'art actuel au centre-ville de Montréal
Une toute première oeuvre
d'art performatif occupera les vitrines du 2-22
Isabelle Paré, Le Devoir,
14 mars 2012
MONTRÉAL, QC – "Au cœur du Quartier des spectacles, un
nouveau pôle culturel, intitulé Art actuel 2-22, sera inauguré vendredi.
Déployé sur deux étages et quelque 4500 pieds carrés, le nouvel antre
entièrement consacré à l'art contemporain et aux pratiques émergentes
déploiera salles d'exposition, salles de documentation, librairie ainsi que
la toute première œuvre d'art performatif publique, intégrée à même la façade
du nouvel édifice culturel 2-22."
Who Wants to Donate to a Billionaire's Museum?
Fred A. Bernstein, The
New York Times, 14 March 2012
UNITED STATES – "When Eli Broad, the art collector and
philanthropist, decided to build a museum in downtown Los Angeles, he named
it The Broad. That pretty much ruled out asking anybody else for money, said
Barry Munitz, a governor of the Broad Foundation. The museum, about to break
ground on a Diller Scofidio & Renfro building, will have an initial $200
million endowment and has no plans to seek outside funding, according to
Joanne Heyler, who will be its director.
But there's another Broad
museum, this one nearing completion at Michigan State University, in East
Lansing. Mr. Broad (pronounced Brode), a Michigan State alumnus, and his
wife, Edythe, gave $28 million to that cause — far less than the cost of the
museum's new Zaha Hadid building. And that means the museum's director,
Michael Rush, has to raise money before the museum opens this year."
Art Museums Giving It the Old College Try
Keith Schneider, The New
York Times, 14 March 2012
UNITED STATES – "When it opens this fall, the Eli and Edythe Broad
Art Museum at Michigan State University will be the latest in a series of new
university art museums that have opened around the country.
But here and at other
campuses, striking buildings are just a part of the new profile of university
art museums. With the help of departments as varied as nursing, law,
meteorology and engineering, the museums’ directors are deploying their
extensive collections, and sometimes the artists themselves, to enhance
curriculums."
Museums and me: Junction's top tips for engaging young people
Label your exhibits, not your visitors, says the Museum of London's youth panel. Young people want to
learn – just not how you expect
Junction and The Museum of London, The Guardian, 13 March 2012
LONDON, UK – "This summer the Museum of London will open Our
Londinium 2012, an exciting new look at the museum's Roman collections
created by over 100 young Londoners and co-curated by the museum's resident
youth panel, Junction. That's us, and here are our top tips for engaging
young adults in museums."
Rhino Horn Thefts a Growing Problem in Europe
Kate Katharina Ferguson, Spiegel,
13 March 2012
GERMANY – "Thefts of rhinoceros horns from museums around
Europe have increased sharply over the past year. A single horn can fetch
200,000 euros on the black market because it is wrongly seen as a powerful
remedy in East Asian traditional medicine, officials in Germany say.
Exhibitions are tightening security."
Palm Springs Art Museum in Palm Desert a work of art
Backers raise $5.5 million
for facility, which opens Thursday
Blake Herzog, The Desert
Sun, 13 March 2012
PALM SPRINGS, CA – "So, how did they do it?
While museums around the
country struggle for donations, how did the Palm Springs Art Museum come up
with $5.5 million to build a new campus in Palm Desert — opening Thursday —
complete with sculpture by Rodin and Picasso?
It only took a million
dollars.
Local philanthropist Helene
Galen said the charge to raise money for the first physical expansion in the
museum's nearly 75-year history was lagging.
"It needed a
kick-start," the museum
trustee said. "And I was there
for it."
Her $1 million donation got
the ball rolling — and the Galen name on the building."
Liverpool museums could start charging due to funding cuts
Museums in Liverpool have
warned they might have to close displays and start charging in order to save
money
BBC News, 13 March 2012
LIVERPOOL, UK – "National Museums Liverpool, which runs eight museums
in the city, is looking to save £3m over the next two years as part of
funding cuts.
The museum also warned that
one in four of its 588 staff could lose their jobs.
Director of National
Museums Liverpool Dr David Fleming said the savings would have a
"significant impact on our visitors and staff".
He added: "The funding
situation is very bad and it's getting worse. We will continue to look at
alternatives but job losses are unavoidable.
"We will try to keep
our museums open to the public, but it is with immense regret that we are
considering closure of display galleries, fewer exhibitions, and admission
charges for special exhibitions and events."
The nationally-funded
museum group said it was not possible to make the required savings without
taking action."
EYE Dutch Film Museum: Nieuwe Filmmuseum Amsterdam
E-Architect, 13 March 2012
AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS – "EYE, the new Dutch film museum, opens to the public
on 5 April 2012 in its brand-new building designed by the Vienna-based firm
Delugan Meissl Associated Architects.
The Amsterdam Metropolitan
Area is bursting with activity in 2012. After a multi-year renovation
project, the Stedelijk Museum will reopen with an eye-catching new façade.
And the redevelopment of Amsterdam Noord on the north side of the IJ waterway
continues to take shape with the grand opening of the EYE Film Institute's
striking new building."
Albert Abramson, Holocaust Museum Backer, Is Dead at 94
Douglas Martin, The New
York Times, 13 March 2012
BETHESDA, MD – "Albert Abramson, who became a principal force in the
creation of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington by
using the same pragmatic approach that had made him a successful developer of
apartments, offices and malls, died last Tuesday at his home in Bethesda, Md.
He was 94."
Museum awarded grant for preservation project
Strathroy Age Dispatch, 13 March 2012
STRATHROY, ON – "Museum Strathroy-Caradoc received a financial boost that will assist with the
preservation of the R.S. Williams photo negative collection.
The Canadian Museums
Association awarded the Museum $1,000 to put toward the purchase of cleaning
materials and archival storage for the glass-plate negatives acquired last
fall. [text omitted]
The grant is awarded
through the CMA's "Preserving
Canadian Treasures"
program, and was one of nine awarded across Canada."
MGS outlines restructure plans
MGS will transition into
national development body to deliver Scotland's museum strategy
Geraldine Kendall, Museums
Association News, 12 March 2012
SCOTLAND – "Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS) has released
further details of its new organisational structure as it adapts to become
the national development body charged with delivering Scotland’s national museum strategy.
The organisation is due to
begin a period of transition in April and its new role will be formally
established later this year."
Opportunities for new Getty museum leader
Christopher Knight, Los
Angeles Times, 12 March 2012
LOS ANGELES, CA – "With the Getty Trust's recent announcement that,
after a gap of more than two years, a director has finally been hired to lead
its museum, a perennial question arises. The Getty's art collection certainly
hasn't languished, with important additions periodically made, but few would
say it has lived up to hopes for the hugely wealthy institution. What does
new leadership portend for it?"
Cultural Olympiad 2012 reaches the critical masses
The Olympics cultural
programme is reaching the point of no return, with its brochure being
finalised. Organiser Ruth Mackenzie is sure of success
Mark Brown, The Guardian, 12 March 2012
LONDON, UK – "Borrowing marathon parlance, Ruth Mackenzie, in
charge of the Cultural Olympiad and its showpiece London 2012 summer
festival, says her efforts have reached a critical moment. "This is the
point where we hit the wall," she says. "This is our maddest
time." The analogy is a good one but also a risky one, because for some
runners "the wall" spells disaster.
With just 100 days to go
before the festival opens on 21 June Mackenzie fizzes with confidence and
enthusiasm for the cultural events commissioned to mark the Olympics.
"Our fundamental criteria has been that they will only happen once in a
lifetime," she says."
Ocho formas de transitar el alambre
A. García, F. Bono, M. Molina, & J. L. Estévez, El País, 12 March 2012
MADRID, SPAIN – "Darse una vuelta por el mapa artístico
español puede resultar descorazonador. Lo que antes parecía una sinfonía de
subvenciones públicas para crear un inédito tejido de arte contemporáneo,
ahora más bien parece el paisaje después de una batalla. [text omitted] Lo que sigue es un repaso
a las desiguales desdichas de ocho realidades de infraestructuras y
programaciones afectadas de una u otra manera por los recortes."
[See also Los museos se vacían de contenido, 12 March 2012]
75 % des habitants d'Helsinki opposés au projet de Musée Guggenheim
Chloé da Fonseca, Le Journal des Arts, 12 mars 2012
HELSINKI, FINLAND – "Trois habitants sur quatre de la capitale finlandaise
sont contre la construction du Musée Guggenheim, dont le projet est en cours depuis un an. En cause: la dégradation de la situation économique d'Helsinki.
International art historian to assist in programming contemporary galleries and Transformer Station
Recent News, artdaily.org, 12 March 2012
CLEVELAND, OH – "Reto Thüring, a prominent editor for European
contemporary art publications, an accomplished exhibition organizer and a
scholar of historical Venetian portraiture, has been appointed Assistant
Curator of Contemporary Art for the Cleveland Museum of Art following an
international search. Thüring will work closely with Curator of Contemporary
Art, Paola Morsiani, in positioning the museum as a leader in contemporary
art amongst other comprehensive museums."
Art Fund launches 'unsung heroes' award
Award will recognise individuals' work for museums
Sharon Heal, Museums Journal, 12 March 2012
UNITED KINGDOM – "To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Art Fund Prize for
Museums and Galleries, its organiser the Museum Prize Trust has launched an award to find 10 "unsung museum heroes".
Museum and galleries can nominate the staff and volunteers who
have made a significant contribution to their organisation."
Réouverture
du Museum of Contemporary Art à Sydney
Jenna Charmasson, Connaissance des Arts, 12 mars 2012
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – "Le Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) de Sydney rouvrira
ses portes au public le 29 mars. Confiés à l'architecte Sam Marshall, les
travaux de rénovation, débutés en août 2010 et appuyés par des fonds d'investissement publics et privés, ont coûté près de 43 MEUR."
La
Catalogne veut rationaliser l’organisation de ses musées
Chloé da Fonseca, Le Journal des Arts, 12 mars 2012
BARCELONA, SPAIN – "Le ministre de la Culture de la Generalitat de Catalogne, Ferran
Mascarell, a présenté son plan pour les musées de Catalogne. Visant à
consolider le secteur culturel de la région, le projet s'établirait autour des quatre grandes institutions catalanes."
Airborne & Special Operations Museum is among North Carolina's top 30 attractions
Drew Brooks, Fay Observer, 12 March 2012
FAYETTEVILLE, NC – "In drawing nearly 150,000 visitors last year, the Airborne & Special Operations Museum ranked among the top museums or historic attractions in the state, according to a North Carolina publishing company.
The Matthews-based Carolina Publishing Associates included the museum at No. 28 of the state's top 30
such attractions, based on an annual survey of attendance figures."
H.E.H. The Nizam's Museum Inaugurates City Museum Wing
MuseumPublicity.com, 12 March 2012
HYDERABAD, INDIA – "H.E.H. The Nizam's Museum has inaugurated the City Museum wing. The Nizam's Museum is located at Purani Haveli which holds a special place for the Asaf Jahis, the dynasty of the Nizams of Hyderabad."
City Museum depicting Hyderabad's history inaugurated
WSN India, 11 March 2012
HYDERABAD, INDIA – "The historic city of Hyderabad Sunday added another
landmark with the formal inauguration of City Museum, said to be the first of its kind in the country.
The Nizam's Jubilee Pavilion Trust chairman, Prince Muffakham Jah launched the museum, which has
come up adjacent to Nizam Museum at Purani Haveli in the old city.
The museum depicts the history of the city, its culture and heritage from the times before its
inception to the times of the Qutub Shahis and then Asaf Jahis, popularly known as Nizams to the present times."
Damien
Hirst gallery to open in 2014
BBC News, 11 March 2012
LONDON, UK – "Damien Hirst's public gallery in south London, which is being developed to display
his personal art collection, will open in 2014, the artist has said.
He told the Observer the project, which has been years in the planning, would include six galleries and a cafe.
"It's my Saatchi gallery, basically," he said. Works by Hirst and others, including
Banksy and US artist Jeff Koons, will be exhibited."
[See also Damien Hirst annonce l’ouverture d’un musée privé à Londres, By Thomas Bizien, Le Journal des Arts, 13 March 2012]
Future tense, VII: What's a museum?
James Panero, The New
Criterion, 10 March 2012
"What's a museum?
Lately, it seems, the answer is whatever we want. Today's museums can be
tourist attractions, department stores, civic centers, town squares,
catalysts of urban renewal, food courts, licensing brands, showcases for
contemporary architecture, social clubs, LEED-certified environmentally
conscious facilities, and franchise opportunities. [text
omitted]
By the numbers, today's
museums are thriving enterprises. Billions of dollars have been spent in
recent years on expansion projects. In the United States, there were 46 art
museums in 1905, 60 in 1910, and 387 in 1938. Today there are 3,500 art
museums, more than half of them founded after 1970, and 17,000 museums of all
types in total, including science museums, children's museums, and historical
houses. Attendance at American art museums is booming, rising from 22 million
a year in 1962 to over 100 million in 2000, with 850 million Americans
visiting museums of all varieties each year.
Yet if today's museums are
successful cultural caterers with wide-ranging menus, no matter where we find
them, their fare manages to taste more and more the same."
Mall houses American Indian museum
Louis Casiano, Chron.com,
10 March 2012
HOUSTON, TX – "Expect Native American garb and powwow dancing to
become regular sights at Northwest Mall, where retail shops and eateries
cover almost every square inch of the facility.
The mall just added as a
tenant the Southern Apache Museum, a 3,500-square-foot facility that had its
grand opening ceremony Saturday.
The museum's owner, Chance
Landry of the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas, said part of the reason for the
museum is to make the public aware of Native American culture in Texas and to
counter stereotypes people may have."
Getty Museum Returns Antiquities To Greece
The Huffington Post, 9 March 2012
ATHENS, GREECE – "Three ancient marble fragments from the collections
of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles have been repatriated to Greece
following a deal last year.
A culture ministry
statement says two of the 2,400-year-old pieces are parts of the same broken
gravestone decorated with relief sculptures, and will be joined onto a third
section in a Greek museum."
[See also Le
Getty Museum restitue des marbres antiques à la Grèce, By Doriane Lacroix Tsarantanis, Le
Journal des Arts, 14 Mars 2012]
Metz,
le Bilbao français
Le Monde,
9 mars 2012
METZ, FRANCE – "Le Centre Pompidou-Metz, inauguré en mai 2010, attendait 250 000
visiteurs pour sa première année de fonctionnement. Il en a reçu 800 000.
Certains observateurs parlent déjà d'un "effet Bilbao", en
référence aux retombées positives massives qu'a connu la métropole du Pays
basque espagnol depuis la construction de son musée Guggenheim, en 1997."
National Media Museum's creative director quits outpost
project
Resignation blow to planned
London gallery
Gareth Harris, Museums
Journal, 9 March 2012
LONDON, UK – "National
Media Museum's plans to open a new space at the Science Museum in London have
suffered a blow with the resignation of the project's creative director,
Charlotte Cotton.
The new venture, called
Media Space, is scheduled to open early 2013 on the second floor of the
Science Museum.
Cotton, who was appointed
in 2009, was responsible for the "curatorial vision" of the space, which was backed
by the Bradford-based museum.
Museums Journal understands that she will not be replaced, leaving
a question mark over the future direction of the project."
Biltmore Again Tops NC Museums and Historic Attractions
Annual Survey
MartketWatch (The Wall
Street Journal), 8 March 2012
ASHEVILLE, NC – "Asheville's Biltmore once again leads the list of
most visited North Carolina museums and historic attractions, and for the
sixth consecutive year attracted more than a million visitors.
The largest private home in
America drew 1,101,413 guests during 2011."
Can the Smith Center connect the cultural dots?
It's built and paid for.
Now, Downtown's performing arts centerpiece opens its doors
Kristen Peterson, Las
Vegas Weekly, 8 March 2012
LAS VEGAS, NV – "You can almost hear timpani rumbling and horns
ablaze when the Smith Center for the Performing Arts is mentioned in the
Valley. Clouds part. Angels sing. People who were lost are found. A new
cultural element, nurtured by donors with deep pockets and culturally
altruistic hearts, is entering daily conversations.
Not even a
multibillion-dollar casino, promising new jobs and more tourists, can elicit
such emotion within locals who are pinning community hopes on Downtown's
stately limestone centerpiece."
New history museum slated to open in summer in downtown
Winston-Salem
Ken Keuffel, Winston-Salem
Journal, 8 March 2012
WINSTON-SALEM, NC – "A new museum dedicated to preserving the cultural
history of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County will likely open by the middle of
July, giving the city its first history museum since 1979.
The New Winston Museum will
occupy a temporary space at 713 S. Marshall St. until a permanent facility is
built sometime over the next five years, said Kirk Sanders, an attorney who
serves as the president of New Winston's board."
Back to Top
The architect as a citizen-thinker-artist-builder
Miro Rivera discuss their
projects addressing both aesthetics and technology
World Architecture News, 12 March 2012
UNITED STATES – "Miró Rivera Architects has emerged as one of the
leading new architectural voices in the United States, quietly creating a
body of work that exemplifies design excellence and that has been recognized
nationally and internationally with over 50 design awards including the 2008
and 2006 AR Emerging Architecture Award in London.
At Miró Rivera,
architecture is understood as an endeavor where the realms of ideas,
aesthetics and technology intersect. Aware of the role of the architect as a
citizen-thinker-artist-builder, MRA aspires to create responsible
architecture that responds to its context, addresses basic human needs, is
beautifully crafted and has longevity and presence."
La
presión demográfica amenaza la utopía racionalista de Brasilia
F. Relea, El
País, 12 March 2012
BRASILIA, BRAZIL – "La capital brasileña, construida con un
diseño revolucionario hace 51 años en medio de la nada, no alcanza a dar
servicio a millones de habitantes de las ciudades satélite. [text omitted] La propiedad de la tierra,
la especulación inmobiliaria y el crecimiento desordenado son caras de un
mismo problema, que se traduce en una insoportable presión demográfica sobre
Brasilia, la capital que nació hace 51 años en medio de la nada, en el
corazón del interior profundo de Brasil."
SOM, Haworth Among Honorees at 2012 Accent on Architecture
Gala
A number of notable architects and design patrons were
recognized at the annual event hosted by the American Architectural
Foundation
Architectural Record, 12 March 1
"The
American Architectural Foundation (AAF) presented its annual Accent on
Architecture awards gala in Washington, D.C., on Friday, March 9. The event,
hosted by foundation president and CEO Ronald Bogle and board of regents
chair Sandy Diehl, brought nearly 400 people to a dinner at The Andrew W.
Mellon Auditorium—a Neoclassical building on the National Mall designed by
San Francisco architect Arthur Brown Jr. and completed in 1931. Throughout
the evening, people and organizations that promote the virtues of design in
urban planning and business ventures were honored for their contributions."
Sur
le chantier du Palais de Tokyo
Myriam Boutoulle, Connaissance des Arts, 12 mars 2012
PARIS, FRANCE – "Maintes fois transformé, le Palais de Tokyo, à Paris, connaît
une nouvelle révolution. Un chantier jamais vraiment interrompu, qui
permettra cette fois d'ouvrir le lieu plus largement aux expositions
temporaires. Ouverture au public le 12 avril."
National Museum of Afghanistan Competition / S.E.E. | office
for architecture and design
Alison Furuto, Arch
Daily, 11 March 2012
AFGHANISTAN – "On behalf of the Afghan Ministry of Information and
Culture (MoIC), representing the Government of the Islamic Republic of
Afghanistan and supported by the Government of the U.S. and the U.S. Embassy
in Kabul, S.E.E. | office for architecture and design is pleased to announce
and promote the International Architectural Ideas Competition (IAIC_NMA) for
the new National Museum of Afghanistan.
The competition is a one
stage ideas competition to generate design proposals, which are due no later
than June 6th, for an architectural master plan and detailed building design
for the site of the National Museum of Afghanistan."
Sauvée,
la halle Freyssinet se cherche un avenir
Le Monde,
10 mars 2012
PARIS, FRANCE –
"La halle Freyssinet est sauvée. Ce
bâtiment, témoin de l'architecture industrielle du XXe siècle, situé dans le
13e arrondissement de Paris, derrière la gare d'Austerlitz, a été inscrit le
23 février par le préfet de Paris à l'inventaire des monuments historiques."
Back to Top
History: Interactive Timeline Database and Open-Source
Software Project Launches Beta of Version 2.0
Gary D. Price, INFOdocket,
14 March 2012
[GLOBAL] – "Wow! This has the potential to be
a very important and very useful tool. A beta version of ChronoZoom 2.0, an interactive
timeline resource allowing users to browse interactive timelines filled
with relevant textual and other embedded material (e.g. videos). The software
can also
downloaded (open source) to create timelines for your own use."
National
Libraries and a Museum open up their data using CC0
Jane Park, Creative
Commons, 12 March 2012
[GLOBAL] – "CC0 has been getting lots of love in the last couple
months in the realm of data, specifically GLAM data (GLAM as in Galleries,
Libraries, Archives, Museums). The national libraries of Spain and Germany
have released their bibliographic data using the CC0 public domain
dedication tool. For those of you who don't
know what that means, it means that the libraries have waived all copyrights
to the extent possible in their jurisdictions, placing the data effectively
into the public domain. What's more,
the data is available as linked open data, which means that the data sets are
available as RDF
(Resource Description Framework) on the web, enabling the data to be linked
with other data from different sources."
Google to Announce Venture With Belgian Museum
Eric Pfanner, The New
York Times, 12 March 2012
MONS, BELGIUM – "Google, which organizes the world's information digitally, is linking up with a
precursor that aimed to do something similar, on paper.
It plans to announce
Tuesday that it is forming a partnership with a museum in Mons, Belgium,
dedicated to a long-ago venture to compile and index knowledge in a giant,
library-style card catalog with millions of entries — an analog-era
equivalent of a search engine or Wikipedia.
"The partnership
with Google gives us a great opportunity to spread knowledge of this
remarkable Belgian project throughout the world," Jean-Paul Deplus, director of the museum, the
Mundaneum, said in remarks prepared for a news conference Tuesday.
The partnership is part of
a broader campaign by Google to demonstrate that it is a friend of European
culture, at a time when its services are being investigated by regulators on
a variety of fronts."
[See also Google will form partnership with Belgian 'paper internet'
museum, By Adi Robertson, The Verge,
12 March 2012]
Smithsonian Channel Unveils a Great New iPad App
An X, Hyperallergic,
12 March 2012
LOS ANGELES, CA – "New in the Apple Store this month is the Smithsonian
Channel's iPad app, which lets you play videos from the Channel's extensive programming. It includes short clips for
a quick burst of knowledge during the day, as well as longer documentaries
for an extended viewing.
As long as you have access
to wifi, you can tap into the broad selection of videos, from short documentaries
like a look at how Leonardo Da Vinci used layers to develop the Mona Lisa, to
longer works like Tattoo Odyssey, a look at tattoo culture around the
world. The videos play seamlessly in crisp, full-screen resolution."
Pinterest 101 for Arts Organizations [mini-nar]
Rachel Wilkinson, Technology
in the Arts, 9 March 2012
[GLOBAL] – "Pinterest
is the latest and greatest in social media, we've
talked about it before, and it just reached 10 million unique hits in a
month, the fastest independent website to ever attain this lofty title. Every
blogger with access to a data set out there is looking at the demographics of
Pinterest, but what can a visually based social media do for your
organization? This Mini-Nar is going to take a look at some of the basic
functions of Pinterest, as well as how some arts organizations are
maintaining and utilizing their Pinterest accounts."
The Art of the Tablet
Ellen Gamerman, The Wall
Street Journal, 8 March 2012
[GLOBAL] – "In London, Museum visitors are dashing through the
Tate Modern, taking in works of art—on their smartphones. During the latest
Art Basel art fair in Switzerland, a collector agreed to buy a $250,000
painting—while sitting in a hair salon in Los Angeles, looking at the work on
her tablet. These days, anyone with an iPad can create their own Damien Hirst
painting, thanks to an app from the Gagosian Gallery, which recently showed
the artist's work at its 11 global outposts.
Digital tools are changing
the way that art is bought, sold and simply looked at."
Back to Top
Line up announced for Edinburgh International Festival 2012
European
Festivals Association, 15 March 2012
EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND – "Launching the Edinburgh International Festival programme
for 2012 (Thursday 9 August to Sunday 2 September), Festival Director
Jonathan Mills today said, 'Every year, since 1947 we have set out to create
an event to inspire and uplift audiences. In the words of Sir John Falconer,
Lord Provost of Edinburgh at the time, the Festival exists to "provide a platform for the flowering of the human spirit." In hard times as well as good the Festival remains one
of the world's most important examples of the power of culture and the arts
to transform individual ambitions and lives.'"
Le
jubilé de la Tefaf
Valérie de Maulmin, La Connaissance des Arts, 15 mars
2012
THE NETHERLANDS
– "Née
il y a vingt-cinq ans dans un spot quasi inconnu des Pays-Bas, la Tefaf (The
European Fine Art Fair) est la plus puissante foire d'art et d'antiquités au
monde (mais pas plus belle, apanage de la Biennale des antiquaires), souvent
décrite comme un véritable "musée à
vendre."
What will the arts centre of the future look like?
As austerity bites, the
temples of culture will have to change, says Nicholas Kenyon
Nicholas Kenyon, The
Independent, 14 March 2012
UNITED KINGDOM – "In
the years after the war it was a utopian vision of what an arts centre could
be: theatres, galleries, halls and cinemas, not cut off from life, but placed
at the heart of a residential estate.
That estate was a result of
an idealistic post-war aspiration for what a civilised life could be, backed
by exceptional resources from the City of London Corporation. But by the time
the Barbican Centre opened in 1982, 30 years ago this month, its style was
out of fashion and it has taken three decades of reassessment, improvement
and changing taste for the Barbican now to be declared an icon of its style,
a model of architecture that has at its core (like the Bauhaus movement which
is the subject of our next big exhibition) the enlightened life and the practice
of the arts.
Across the arts, the issue
now is how to reflect radically changing taste, and changing behaviour in our
many audiences. All arts centres that were built as temples of culture have
this challenge: the imposing portico of the Royal Opera House, the massive
rotunda of the Royal Albert Hall, the post-war sleekness of the Royal
Festival Hall – are they off-putting for audiences who never dare to cross
their thresholds?"
Landmark ruling to be challenged
Why a British judge decided
that image of a bus on Westminster Bridge infringed copyright
Anny Shaw, The Art
Newspaper, 14 March 2012 [From Issue 233, March 2012]
LONDON, ENGLAND – "Lawyers
are appealing against a controversial copyright ruling in which a judge said
it was unlawful to recreate parts of a composition of an existing photograph,
even if the second work is not a copy but a separate photograph taken from a
different angle. Art and copyright legal experts have criticised the judgment
for moving into the realm of protecting ideas, rather than the expression of
ideas. The application to appeal is due to be heard at the end of this month.
The ruling could have
serious implications for artists who reproduce parts of other photographs.
"If other courts follow this approach, it raises issues for artists who
appropriate or closely copy photographs," says Simon Stokes, a lawyer
who specialises in art and copyright."
[See also What you can and cannot copyright,
Simon Stokes, The Art Newspaper, 14 March 2012 [From Issue 233, March
2012]]
Curtain falling on Vancouver's cultural scene
Marsha Lederman, The Globe and Mail, 14 March 2012
VANCOUVER, BC – "In Vancouver, culture has always taken a
back seat to nature's beauty.
But when, within the space of a few days, a venerable theatre
company announces it is closing, a historic indie movie house says it will
shut down and a public appeal is launched to keep a beloved work of public
art from being carted off, there is an uncomfortable question in the coastal
air: Is Vancouver becoming a cultural backwater?"
[See also Vancouver Playhouse Theatre company to shut down: Financial
problems force 49-year institution to go dark,
CBC News, 9 March 2012]
A
Douala, la princesse qui veut éveiller les consciences
Le Monde,
14 mars 2012
DOUALA, CAMEROON (ENVOYÉE SPECIALE) – "Pour exposer l'art
contemporain en Afrique, il faut savoir être seigneur ou guerrier: se battre
chaque jour pour rappeler que ce qui peut paraître "superflu", sur
un continent qui a bien d'autres priorités, relève en fait de l'essentiel.
Marilyn Douala
Manga Bell est un peu des deux : princesse de sang, la petite-fille du
dernier roi de Douala, pendu par l'Empire allemand, est aussi combattante
dans l'âme. Elle dirige depuis 1991 l'un des centres d'art contemporain les
plus dynamiques du continent: Doual'art (Doualart.org), installé dans un
cinéma désaffecté, au coeur de l'ancien quartier colonial de Bonanjo."
Une
exposition universelle pour le Grand Paris ?
Thomas Bizien, Le
Journal des Arts, 14 mars 2012
PARIS, FRANCE –
"Le
maire de Neuilly-sur-Seine, Jean-Christophe Fromantin, lance l'idée d'une
candidature du Grand Paris pour l'Exposition universelle de 2025. La
dernière édition française remonte à 1900."
Marine heritage's troubled waters
The popular assumption is
that anything recovered from the sea is 'finders keepers'
Joe Flatman, The Art
Newspaper, 14 March 2012 [From Issue 233, March 2012]
[GLOBAL] – "Two recent
news stories have reignited public interest in how historic sites are managed
in the deep ocean. On the one hand there is the US court ruling that the
594,000 gold and silver coins originally recovered by Odyssey Marine
Exploration from the Black Swan/Mercedes site should be handed over to Spain.
On the other hand, there is the news that the wreck of HMS Victory (a
predecessor of Nelson’s famous flagship) will be investigated by Odyssey
after an agreement was struck with the British government.
There are two issues at
stake here. First, there is the legal status of wrecks in deep water in terms
of individual as well as national claims on any materials recovered from
them. Second, there is the broader issue of the ethical frameworks underlying
historic site management—whether "marine" or otherwise—and in turn
efforts to better manage, protect and understand such heritage."
[See also Cache of sunken coins returned to Spain, Emily Sharpe, The Art Newspaper, 14 March
2012]
La résistance s'organise en Allemagne contre la hausse de la
TVA sur les objets d'art
Isabelle
Spicer, Le Journal des Arts, 14 mars 2012
BERLIN, GERMANY
– "L'injonction de la Commission européenne dictant à l'Allemagne d'harmoniser
sa TVA sur les objets d'art et de collection
suscite un tollé parmi tous les acteurs concernés. Le taux de TVA sur les
transactions commerciales d'œuvres d'art originales, à l'exclusion
des photos ou vidéos d'art, est actuellement
de 7 %, alors que le taux général est de 19 %."
Have art restorers ruined Leonardo's masterpiece?
A crucial detail in The
Last Supper is no longer how the artist wanted it, says expert
Dalya Alberge, The
Independent, 14 March 2012
UNITED KINGDOM – "The
restorer of Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper "blundered"
in restoring the central figure of Christ, according to research by a British
art expert.
Michael Daley, director of
ArtWatch UK, spoke of his astonishment in discovering a draped sleeve had
been reshaped so that Christ's right hand now emerges from a muff-like
drapery that rests on the table when in both of the near-contemporary copies
by Leonardo's own assistants the sleeve is painted falling behind the
table."
Record collection may leave Canada
CBC digitizing historic
recordings and moving them to central archive in Toronto in bid to save money
Stephen Hume, Vancouver
Sun, 13 March 2012
VANCOUVER, BC – "Call
it yet another case of self-inflicted cultural dementia.
A group of concerned city
residents says Vancouver is on the brink of losing an irreplaceable library
of at least 55,000 historic musical recordings, including some cylindrical
technology invented by Thomas Edison at the dawn of recorded music.
The CBC collection of vinyl
78s, 45s, LPs and CDs is being dismantled to save costs in the face of severe
budget restraints and in preparation for the possibility of even more
draconian cuts by the Conservative government in Ottawa, they say."
Comox
Valley Regional District asked to acknowledge culture
Scott Stanfield, Comox
Valley Record, 13 March 2012
COURTENAY, BC – "The Courtenay and District Museum and Comox Valley
Art Gallery are requesting the regional district board to endorse various
recommendations in a pair of reports conducted by Jennifer Wilson &
Associates.
The reports are intended to
assist in the decision-making process to establish a regional
recreation/culture facilities service.
In particular, the
organizations hope the board will agree to expand a bylaw to recognize
culture alongside recreation as a force to develop the region."
Art
experts find 'possible' Leonardo Da Vinci fresco
BBC News, 12 March 2012
FLORENCE, ITALY – "Researchers in Italy say they may have found traces
of a Leonardo Da Vinci work hidden under a Florentine fresco.
Tiny probes, sent through
drilled holes in Giorgio Vasari's The Battle of Marciano in the Palazzo
Vecchio, found black pigment also used in the Mona Lisa, project workers
claimed.
"These data are very
encouraging," said the project's leader Maurizio Seracini.
But historians at a press
conference in Florence stressed their research was "not
conclusive."
[See also Lost Leonardo Da Vinci mural possibly found, Aljazeera, 13 March 2012, Researchers in Florence may have discovered lost mural by
Leonardo da Vinci, By Annalisa Camillia (Associated Press) and Frances
D'Emilio (Associated Press), Recent News, artdaily.org, 13 March 2012, and L'OEUVRE AU NOIR – Les traces d'une fresque disparue de
Léonard de Vinci déchirent Florence, Le
Monde, 12 mars 2012]
Arte
que entra por el oído
P. Obelleiro, El
País, 12 March 2012
A CORUÑA, SPAIN – "El oído antes que el ojo. El sonido por
encima de lo visual. Y convertido en potente elemento artístico. De todo eso
va la innovadora exposición inaugurada anoche en la Normal, el espacio de
intervención cultural de la Universidade da Coruña: el arte sonoro en sus
múltiples y más vanguardistas facetas. Dos meses de actividades, charlas y
exposiciones que pretenden primar el sonido sobre la dictadura de la imagen."
Getting the Israel Ballet back on its toes
While she has had
relatively little experience in the cultural realm, Lea Lavie, the new
general manager of the Israel Ballet, has considerable business expertise and
big plans for the company.
Elad Samorzik, Haaretz.com,
12 March 2012
ISRAEL – "Things are beginning to move at the Israel Ballet,
just four months after new general manager Lea Lavie assumed her post. Lavie,
whose management experience includes working for tycoon Lev Leviev and the
Likud party, has replaced Hillel Markman, who directed the company since he
and Berta Yampolsky founded it in 1967. The new developments are part of an
overall reorganization plan aimed at extracting the troupe from an
accumulated deficit of NIS 6.4 million.
Creation and implementation
of the new plan, after other such initiatives flopped, was essentially the
condition for funding of the Israel Ballet by the Culture and Sports Ministry,
within a special framework for failing public institutions."
Les
élus EELV de Paris demandent un « festival off » pour la Nuit blanche
Le Journal
des Arts, 12 mars 2012
PARIS, FRANCE –
"Le
groupe des élus écologistes au Conseil de Paris déposera prochainement un vœu
demandant la création d'un festival off en
parallèle de la Nuit blanche. Selon EELV, celui-ci serait l'occasion de mettre en avant "les initiatives associatives et locales."
Artists group fighting for re-sale rights
Murray Whyte, Toronto
Star, 11 March 2012
CANADA – "In 2003,
Charles Pachter painted a vibrant, poppy-red double image of a barn, as seen
after the springtime thaw had turned the fields near his rural studio into
sodden slicks of melted snow. It was called "Red Barn Reflected," a
playful nod both to geometric abstraction and the weighty heritage of
Canadian landscape painting that many artists of his generation labour
beneath ("I called it my Lawren Harris barn," chuckles Pachter, 69,
citing the Group of Seven giant).
He sold it for $7,500 that
year, he remembers, to a couple in Caledon whose names he can't recall. On
Thursday night, it went up for auction with a presale estimate between
$25,000 to $30,000.
It didn't sell, but
Pachter's wound is only to his pride, not his wallet. Had it sold, he
wouldn't have seen a cent of it: resale rights for artists' works sold in
Canada are a non-existent sore point on the to-do list of CARFAC, which
lobbies for artists' rights here, and they've started to gain traction."
Alan Grieve: Is the future of the arts in his hands? A serial
giver owns up
As a new contemporary art
gallery opens on the beach at Hastings, Simon Tait asks the man behind The
Jerwood Foundation about nepotism, saving theatres, and picking up the tab
for British culture
Simon Tait, The
Independent, 11 March 2012
UNITED KINGDOM – "The
name Jerwood is ubiquitous in the arts, adorning playhouses, dance studios,
rehearsal spaces, student bursaries, prizes ranging from drawing to dance,
exhibitions and now an art gallery. Jerwood is the great enabler, the crucial
partner without which the Royal Court would have closed. And Jerwood is
controlled absolutely by a single, 84-year-old retired lawyer, driving it on
a path of cultural philanthropy.
Alan Grieve is a
21st-century Dickensian. He was the bright young solicitor who earned the
trust of a self-exiled millionaire called John Jerwood (even the names have a
Dickensian ring), and with the fortune left on Jerwood's death he created his
own empire. In 20 years, Grieve has given £90m to the arts, building
theatres, dance houses, libraries and creative facilities, and helping the
careers of countless young artists, performers and craftspeople."
Damien Hirst: 'I still believe art is more powerful than
money'
Damien Hirst has gone from
mouthy YBA to global brand over the past 25 years – and become the world's
richest living artist on the way. Here he talks about money, mortality and
his first retrospective in Britain
Sean O'Hagan, The Guardian,
11 March 2012
UNITED KINGDOM – "With
Damien Hirst, though, it aways seems to come down to three things: art,
ambition and money, though not necessarily in that order. For that reason, as
curator Ann Gallagher asserts in her catalogue introduction to the Tate
Modern show: "Like no other artist of his generation, Damien Hirst has
permeated the cultural consciousness of our times." What that says about
us – and about Hirst – is a matter of some debate. Writing recently in the
New Yorker on the simultaneous exhibition of all Hirst's 1,500 signature spot
paintings in all 11 Gagosian galleries dotted around the globe, the American
art critic Peter Schjeldahl wrote: "Hirst will go down in history as a
particularly cold-blooded pet of millennial excess wealth. That's not Old
Master status, but it's immortality of a sort."
Culture talks for geeks begin at inaugural Ignite Culture
Toronto
Riva Gold, BlogTO,
11 March 2012
TORONTO, ON – "A
TED-talk style networking event for Toronto culture geeks? Don't mind if they
do. This past Thursday, "culture enthusiast" Jenn Nelson ran
Toronto's first ever Ignite Culture night, inspired by the Seattle-born
Ignite movement. Held at the ING Cafe, with its orange, "deconstructed
MAC" aesthetic, 12 speakers were invited to speak for five minutes each
as their slides advanced automatically every 15 seconds. From mitten
collections to the social nuances of DJ culture, here's a rundown of what was
covered."
L'hommage
unanime du monde de la culture à Moebius
Le Monde, 10 mars 2012
FRANCE – "Après la mort de
Jean Giraud, alias Moebius, ce samedi 10 mars, les hommages du monde de la
culture se succèdent, en France comme aux Etats-Unis, pour saluer l'œuvre
d'un des auteurs les plus créatifs du neuvième art."
Une
"liste rouge d'urgence" dresse la typologie d'objets volés en
Egypte
Le Monde,
10 mars 2012
EGYPT –
"Figurines funéraires (shabtis), statuettes en bronze, portraits
en quartz, calcaire ou granit, bols, vases, bijoux, amulettes, flacons
utilisés dans les rituels de momification, papyrus illustrés, pièces de
monnaie, [etc.]. Au total, une typologie des cinquante pièces les plus
pillées, photos à l'appui, et regroupées en dix-sept catégories, compose la
"liste rouge d'urgence des biens culturels égyptiens en péril" que
vient de dresser le Conseil international des musées (ICOM) en partenariat
avec l'Unesco."
"La culture, plus on la consomme, plus on a envie d'en
consommer"
Françoise Benhamou,
spécialiste de l'économie de la culture, Le Monde, 9 March 2012
FRANCE – "Lors d'une
intervention en octobre 2010 à Savigny-sur-Orge (Essonne), Nicolas Sarkozy a dit : "Quand on va au théâtre ou au concert étant jeune, on y va toute sa vie. Quand on créé l'habitude, quand on a créé le désir, on le décline sa vie durant." Est-ce là une remarque qu'un économiste pourrait reprendre à son compte ?
Tout à fait. Quand les
économistes ont commencé à réfléchir sur les consommations culturelles, ils ont fait le parallèle avec la drogue. On n'assouvit pas son désir d'héroïne
en la consommant. Au contraire, le désir ne fait qu'augmenter à chaque dose.
C'est à peu près la même chose avec la culture : plus on la consomme, plus on aime ça, et plus on a envie d'en consommer."
Le musée de Denver et le Rijksmuseum, lauréats du fonds de restauration de la TEFAF
Jenna Charmasson, La Connaissance des Arts, 9 Mars 2012
EUROPE – "A l'occasion de son jubilé d'argent, la TEFAF Maastricht a annoncé, mardi 6 mars, les deux premiers lauréats de son fonds de restauration."
EFA Secretary General discussed role of culture with European Young Leaders
European Festivals Association, 9 March 2012
PARIS, FRANCE – "Key messages from the first "40 under 40: European Young Leaders" seminar
(8-9 December) in Paris are: think European but work trans-nationally, re-engage with European citizens yet look beyond Europe's borders. They are contained in a report that coincides with the March 1-2 European Council. Kathrin Deventer, Secretary General of the European Festivals
Association, spoke at the seminar about the role of culture in Europe.
The young leaders identified six key priority areas; the need to invest into culture being one:
Broadening horizons means re-affirming the role of culture as a fundamental lever and a window onto values that can be shared in Europe and in the wider
world. Like education, culture is not a cost but an investment."
The Armory Show 2012: A Foregone Conclusion?
Alissa Guzman, Hyperallergic, 9 March 2012
NEW YORK, NY – "The Armory this year delivers on all fronts: it's predictable in the ways it always is and it's surprising when you don't expect it be. But the Armory is never the place to see what's new and experimental, what's conceptually edgy and raw. It will leave you visually exhausted and yet hungry for something more substantial."
The Top-Selling Living Artist
Last year at auction, German painter Gerhard Richter outsold Monet, Giacometti and Rothko—combined.
A case study of an artist's rise. Will it last? .
Kelly Crow, The Wall
Street Journal, 8 March 2012
[GLOBAL] – "In the early 1980s, German artist Gerhard Richter
painted 24 views of flickering white candles, and not a single one sold. When
one of those "Candle" canvases came up at Christie's in London this past fall, it sold for $16.5 million.
Few people can pinpoint the
moment when an artist becomes iconic in the way of Pablo Picasso or Andy
Warhol, but right now the art world is trying to anoint Mr. Richter. Last
year, his works sold at auction for a total of $200 million, according to
auction tracker Artnet—more than any other living artist and topping last
year's auction totals for Claude Monet, Alberto Giacometti and Mark Rothko
combined."
With Cutbacks, Greeks Say Antiquities Are At Risk
Sylvia Poggioli, NPR,
8 March 2012
GREECE – "International creditors have pressured Greece to
make severe cuts in its large public sector to help pay back billions of
dollars in loans and avoid default. But the recent robbery at the Museum of
the Olympic Games added to the sense that these cuts are making the country's
vast cultural heritage increasingly vulnerable.
Even before the economic
crisis, critics say that Greek governments were never generous in
safeguarding antiquities from the cradle of civilization. Less than 1 percent
of the budget was earmarked for the country's hundreds of museums,
archaeological sites and monuments.
The Culture Ministry says
austerity policies have cut that sum in half. Ten percent of the Culture
Ministry's archaeologists have been either laid off or forced to retire. And
the number of guards has also been cut in half, to fewer than 2,000."
Ellsworth Kelly sculpture to be at Barnes on Parkway
Stephan Salisbury (Inquirer
Culture Writer), Philly.com, 8 March 2012
PHILADELPHIA, PA – "After a few brief words of praise, the city Art
Commission gave its unanimous blessing Wednesday to a soaring Ellsworth Kelly
sculpture proposed by the Barnes Foundation for its new site on the Benjamin
Franklin Parkway."
Mona Lisa could have been completed a decade later than
thought
A drawing of rocks by
Leonardo in the Royal Collection provides evidence that the artist worked on
the portrait for much longer than the dates officially given by the Louvre
Martin Bailey, The Art
Newspaper, 7 March 2012
PARIS, FRANCE – "Leonardo's Mona Lisa was probably completed a decade
later than the date given by the Louvre. This radical redating follows
conservation work on the Prado's copy of the Mona Lisa.
The Louvre dates the Mona
Lisa to 1503-06. It has now been realised, however, that part of the
painted background was based on a drawing of rocks that Leonardo made in
1510-15."
London's newest theatre to open for business
London is about to get a
brand new theatre, with a little help from Sir Ian McKellen
Anita Singh, The
Telegraph, 6 March 2012
LONDON, ENGLAND – "If these are gloomy times for arts funding, nobody
told Jez Bond.
Two years ago, Bond took
possession of a nondescript office block in Finsbury Park, north London. His
plan was almost ludicrously ambitious: to drum up £2.2m in the middle of an
economic downturn and build a theatre from scratch.
By the end of this year,
the shiny new Park Theatre will open its doors.
Not only has Bond secured
almost all of the funds - although there is a crucial £400,000 left to raise
- but he has received the high-profile backing of Sir Ian McKellen and other
theatre luminaries."
Back to Top
Grands Prix du tourisme: 32 nominations dans 15 catégories
Brigitte Trahan, Le Nouvelliste, 14 mars 2012
SHAWINIGAN, QC – "Tourisme Mauricie a dévoilé, hier, le nom des
entreprises qui seront en compétition dans diverses catégories dans le cadre
du 27e gala des Grands Prix du tourisme de la Mauricie 2012 qui se tiendra le
23 mars, à Espace Shawinigan.
Pas moins de 27 entreprises ont soumis 32 dossiers de candidature
dans 15 des 18 catégories du concours."
Les festivals demandent huit millions de plus à Québec
Patrice Bergeron, La Presse Canadienne, 14 mars 2012
QUÉBEC, CANADA – "Les grands festivals prétendent que la culture
et le tourisme ont été négligés par les gouvernements au cours des dernières
années et demandent donc leur part du gâteau, à quelques jours du dépôt des budgets du Québec et du fédéral.
Ils veulent près de 8 millions $ supplémentaires dans le budget du
ministre des Finances, Raymond Bachand, qui sera déposé le 20 mars."
The growth lesson America could take from China
Ezra Klein, The Washington Post, 13 March 2012
UNITED STATES – "The basic driver of remarkable economic growth
in China — and India, Vietnam, Thailand, Brazil and pretty much every other
developing country — is pretty simple: people migrating from rural areas,
where they're not very productive, to dense cities, where they are very
productive. This is a tried-and-true strategy for making people and countries
richer. But it’s not just for developing nations.
Over the past year, three terrific books have come out on the
importance of cities in America's economy. In "Triumph of the
City," Harvard economist Ed Glaeser details how cities all over the
world have supercharged human development and ingenuity. In "The Gated
City," Ryan Avent focuses more narrowly on the role cities play in
making Americans better off. And in "The Rent is Too Damn High,"
Matt Yglesias focuses on, well, why the rent is so damn high. [text omitted]
The three make similar arguments: First, cities make us smarter,
richer and more productive. Avent sums up some of the (voluminous) evidence:
"Economist Masayuki Morikawa finds that productivity rises between 10
and 20 percent when density doubles. Morris Davis, Jonas Fisher and Toni
Whited estimate that a doubling of density may increase productivity by
between 17 and 28 percent. Their work suggests that more than 30 percent of
real wage growth over the past 35 years is attributable to changes in
density."
Cities, Glaeser says, are "our greatest invention." People
offer ideas and teach skills to, buy services from and engage in healthy
competition with one another. Cities enable closer contact among the
population. The results can be remarkable."
Chicago's next great public space? Push to turn dormant
elevated line into vibrant path and park shows promise; Emanuel announcing final funds for project's first phase
Blair Kamin, Chicago Tribune, 11 March 2012
CHICAGO, IL – "With the grandiose plan for the 2,000-foot
Chicago Spire deader than the Illini's chances of making the NCAA basketball
tournament, the most ambitious architectural endeavors in Chicago today are
horizontal, not vertical.
One seeks to remake the carnivalesque public spaces of
3,000-foot-long Navy Pier. Expect a winning team, or teams, to be named for
that assignment within the week — and lots of media hoopla because the pieris Illinois' biggest tourist attraction.
Another big horizontal project is getting far less attention,
probably because it's out in the neighborhoods, far from the glamorous
lakefront. And that's too bad because it could be Chicago's next great public space.
This plan would transform a dormant, 2.7-mile stretch of an elevated
railroad line on the Northwest Side into a lively multiuse path and park that would run from Ashland Avenue (1600 west) to Ridgeway Avenue (3732
west)."
Public art used to attract visitors
Commission cites other cities using culture to draw tourists
John R. Pulliam, Galesburg.com, 11 March 2012
GALESBURG, IL – "The Galesburg Public Art Commission is working
to raise money for a 15-foot statue of Carl Sandburg — and a Nubian goat — in
Central Park in the Public Square.
GPAC hopes to bring more public art to the community. The president
of the nonprofit organization can see this statue and other public art
becoming a tourism attraction. [text omitted]
Other communities, including Pontiac, in east-central Illinois, have
found public art an effective way to attract visitors."
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