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Featured Story"Design Is a Process of Rebirth": Michael
Arad on the Making of the 9/11 Memorial By Andrew
M. Goldstein, ARTINFO, 9 September 2011 NEW YORK —
“Ten years after 9/11, there is nothing unambiguous in the legacy of the
attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon other than the implacable
fact of the dead. This is true, too, for the memorial being unveiled at Ground
Zero this weekend, which comes to us as the product of conflicting creative
agendas, bureaucratic impasses, and the excruciating logistics of appeasing
the families of 2,983 victims (a number that also includes those who died in
the financial center's 1993 terrorist bombing). It is remarkable then that
the finished site — which will finally cost a total of $700 million, plus an
additional $60 million per year to operate — still largely hews to the
original vision of Michael Arad, the young architect who rose to national
prominence when he won the design competition for the site. …”
Cultural
News,
a free service of Lord Cultural Resources, is released at the end of every
week by our Librarians: Brenda Taylor and Danielle Manning. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for the latest digest of cultural
news.
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Our Clients and Lord Cultural Resources in the
News
Winning design announced for new $340M Royal Alberta
Museum
Elise Stolte, Vancouver Sun, 14 September 2011 EDMONTON –
“To Royal Alberta Museum architect Donna Clare, sun-speckled aspen leaves
tell the story of Alberta. A recent
graduate on her team took a photo of the leaves and wrote a computer algorithm
to translate the image into a series of spots, which will be cut into the
metal cladding of the new downtown museum by local companies Ledcor Group and Dialog Designs, with Toronto-based Lundholm Associates Architects. Their
winning design for the new $340-million museum was announced Wednesday. …” [For more commentary on this topic, see also: Winning design for new Royal Alberta Museum
to be announced Wednesday: Last, best chance to redesign downtown, says
critic, By Elise Stolte,
Edmonton Journal, 13 September 2011] Tate announces one of the most successful years ever Recent
News, artdaily.org, 12 September 2011 LONDON – “Tate
and its family of galleries have had one of the most successful years
ever, and have managed to maintain their independent income in the face of
recession and government cuts. At its annual press conference today, Tate
announced total visitor figures of 7.4 million to its four galleries between
1 April 2010 and 31 March 2011 and 19 million unique users to its
award-winning website. This makes Tate the most popular arts organisation in
the world after the Louvre in Paris. Nashville museum on African American music planned Travis
Loller, Recent News, artdaily.org, 14 September
2011 NASHVILLE,
TN – “A new museum in the works for Nashville will aim to expand the public's
idea of what makes the town Music City. The National Museum of African American Music may sound
counterintuitive for a city most closely associated with country music, a
genre dominated by white performers. But supporters of the new project say
the city played an important role in fostering African American music, which
in turn influenced the roots of country and many other American genres. …” Fred Bernstein, Architectural Record, 13 September 2011 NEW YORK – “The corner of 157th Street and River Avenue in the Bronx,
just south of Yankee Stadium, is a good place to examine the results of New
York City's decade-long park-building binge. […] All over New York, new parks are opening, and old parks are being
revitalized at a rate not seen since Robert Moses's
heyday in the mid-20th century. Indeed, one of Moses's
triumphs, Riverside Park, has spawned an archipelago of bold waterfront parks
in all five boroughs. Ten years ago, with smoke rising from the World Trade Center site,
parks were the last things on New Yorkers' minds. But during his first year
in office, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg lifted the death warrant on
the High Line, a railroad viaduct that the city had been planning to tear
down, signaling his intent to make parks a
priority. From then on, money for parks projects flowed like Central Park's
Bethesda Fountain. Capital outlays reached as much as $500 million a year,
dwarfing expenditures by previous administrations. Altogether, Bloomberg and
his high-energy parks commissioner Adrian Benepe
have spent more than $3 billion on parks renovation and construction. The
achievements include adding 700 acres of new parkland (and not, Benepe points out, through Moses's
controversial tools of eminent domain and landfill), bringing the city parks
acreage to near 29,000. But to New Yorkers, the parks are a necessity. “There
are eight million people in the city, and most of them live in houses without
backyards,” Benepe says. […] Benepe
has little patience with critics who say that by relying on public-private
partnerships, the city is selling its soul, or at least its soil. Of the
5,000 sites the parks department maintains, only about a dozen have
significant sources of private funding. The Central Park Conservancy
raises $25 million a year, but the park borders some of the world’s most
expensive real estate, creating sui generis fund-raising opportunities. The
Prospect Park Alliance in Brooklyn, which has nearly three quarters as many
acres to maintain, takes in just $5 million a year. …” Future Projections open door to film as art and installation Murray
Whyte, Toronto Star, 14 September 2011 TORONTO –
“Every year, the Toronto International Film Festival goes to some
effort to signal that festival-going isn’t just about celebrity feeding
frenzies — only 95 per cent of it is. For an event such as TIFF, which serves as a staging ground for superstars and blockbusters
on the grandest scale, that’s actually not a bad ratio. The other
stuff finds its expression most clearly with Future Projections, a collection
of off-site film installations and exhibitions sprinkled throughout the
city’s private galleries and artist-run centres. TIFF
collaborates with the institutions and foots a portion of the bill, helping
to provide some sense, at least, that film isn’t exclusively narrative, two
hours long and impossible to get into without waiting in line overnight:
Future Projections is open to the public and blissfully free. …” Gallery celebration draws hundreds By Heather
Rivers, Sentinel-Review, 10 September 2011 WOODSTOCK
— “There were so many people, organizers weren't quite sure if they would all
fit. Fans of
the Woodstock Art Gallery and Community Art Centre turned up in droves on
Friday evening to show their support for the gallery and rejoice in the official
opening of the building they fought so hard for. "I
guess we need a bigger gallery," joked Brad Janssen, the master of
ceremonies for the event. Roughly
1,000 people toured the new $5.5-million gallery, located at 449 Dundas St., whose grand opening was designed to coincide
with the start of the 53rd annual juried art show. […] [Pat] Sobeski said part of
council's plan for the facility is to review best practices in other
galleries and apply principals from Lord Cultural Resources "and
see if we can bring them here." …” Museumpublicity.com,
12 September 2011 NEW YORK – “To mark the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, National
Geographic has released A PLACE OF REMEMBRANCE: Official Book of the National
September 11 Memorial ($19.95), in bookstores. MuseumsHerbert F. Johnson Museum at Cornell University
Announces Opening of New Wing on October 15 Museumpublicity.com,
15 September 2011 ITHACA,
NY – “On Saturday, October 15, 2011, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum will open
renovated spaces in its landmark I. M. Pei building and a 16,000 square-foot
extension inspired by Pei’s original museum plan, designed by the original
architect-in-charge, John L. Sullivan III (Cornell Class of 1962) of Pei Cobb
Freed & Partners Architects LLP. “The
mission of the new wing is to serve the collection and the public by inviting
our visitors to use more of the collection more intimately and in new ways,”
said Frank Robinson, the Richard J. Schwartz Director of the Johnson Museum
from 1992 to 2011. …” Denver Museum of Nature and Science Breaks Ground on
New Education and Collections Facility Museumpublicity.com,
15 September 2011 DENVER
– “The Denver Museum of Nature & Science has begun construction of its
long-anticipated Education and Collections Facility. The Museum is adding
126,000 square feet and five levels of discovery to its south side, providing
even more space to engage, delight, and spark visitors’ imaginations. “This
newest addition allows the Museum to continue inspiring generations to come
and will leave a lasting positive mark on our community,” said George Sparks,
President and CEO of the Museum. “You will experience, firsthand, the
important role science plays in your life. We’ll be able to better conduct
new research and provide improved preservation of our community’s treasures,
while also continuing to make your Museum experience fun, exciting, and
engaging.” …” A virtual history of the Rideau Locks Trevor
Pritchard, OpenFile, 14 September 2011 OTTAWA
– “According to a Carleton University press release, the institution is
teaming up with the Virtual Museum of Canada to create an online museum on
the history of the Rideau Locks. The
project, which should be completed by next May, will "use digitized artifacts, texts, photos, and architectural and
engineering drawings to create a series of intertwined narratives of the
building of the canal between 1826 and 1855." …” One masterpiece can go a long way: Why blow the
budget on a blockbuster when a single Caravaggio or Titian will bring in the
crowds? UNITED STATES – “There might be less money to organise exhibitions in
many US museums, but by borrowing one masterpiece, putting it on display, and
so turning a single work into a star attraction, several are stretching their
budgets a long way. […] Creative use of smaller budgets for exhibitions is one driving force
behind this trend. The directors we spoke to said that loan fees, design,
insurance and transport costs for a single work are minuscule compared to a
big thematic or an in-depth show for a single artist. Marketing tends to be
the main expense, leaving museums in control of spending as much or as little
as their budget allows. …” Preserving a work by starving it of air: Anoxic storage can slow
deterioration Emily Sharpe, Art Newspaper, 14 September 2011 “A cutting-edge area of research, and one that has conservators and
museum professionals talking, is anoxic or oxygen-free storage and display.
Oxidation has long been associated with the deterioration of light-sensitive
materials, so the idea is that the degradation process can be slowed down by
eliminating or greatly reducing oxygen levels. In exploring the possible benefits of anoxic environments on highly
light sensitive colourants, scientists at the Tate
are using microfaders—devices that measure the rate
of colour change—to compare the light-sensitivity of materials in air and in
oxygen-free environments. Microfading involves
shining a beam of light smaller than a full-stop on an object’s surface and
collecting data on the rate of the induced colour change in real time. …” Comox’s history
and art move into a new home on main street Spencer
Anderson, Comox Valley Echo, 13
September 2011 COMOX
– “A new chapter in Comox's cultural scene began
with the opening of the new Pearl Ellis Gallery and Comox
Archives and Museum location Saturday. The
two organizations threw open the doors to the new space in the top floor of
the old library building on Comox Avenue in the
heart of downtown. Natural
sunlight lit up the newly renovated space, which featured an indoor replica
of the Lorne Hotel and many other exhibits, including photographs and
information boards. On
the gallery side of the space, work from several local artists is also being
featured. …” North Atlantic Aviation Museum is getting an upgrade Nicholas
Mercer, Gander Beacon, 13 September 2011 NEWFOUNDLAND
– “The outside of the North Atlantic Aviation Museum looks as it should. Dotting
the landscape surrounding the orange building are numerous airplanes, an
obvious connection to Gander’s
history with aviation. Inside,
there is no doubt that you are in a museum. A
black and yellow bi-plane greets visitors as they walk through the front
doors. Everywhere
you look there is a homage to aviation history in
the town of Gander. Look
closer, and you will see that some of the display
cases could use an upgrade. Pieces
of history that are not on display sit behind a divider wall, defeating the
purpose of not having them on display. However,
help is on the way. On
Aug. 5, it was announced the museum would be on the receiving end of a
$169,646 contribution from the Newfoundland
and Labrador government. It
is intended to help improve the museum’s viability and its ability to attract
visitors. …” Musée de
Pointe-à-Callière: Molson fait un don de 325 000 $ MONTREAL
– “La brasserie Molson Coors a annoncé
ce mardi à Montréal avoir remis un don de 325 000 $
à la Fondation Pointe-à-Callière
pour aider le musée d’archéologie
dans son projet d’expansion. Le
don est associé aux célébrations des 225 ans de la brasserie montréalaise qui participe au développement de
la métropole depuis la fondation de l’entreprise de
John Molson au bord du Saint-Laurent en 1786. Smithsonian Museums Board of Regents Host Annual
Public Forum on September 19 Museumpublicity.com,
13 September 2011 WASHINGTON – “The Smithsonian’s governing body, the Board of Regents,
will conduct its 2011 public forum Monday, Sept. 19, from 2:30 to 3:45 p.m.,
in the Hirshhorn Museum. Reporters are invited to
attend the public session and ask questions. Subjects
to be addressed include an overview of federal funding, the impact of a weak
economy on private fundraising and using technology to do more with less. There
will be a microphone for questions from the audience and an email address (comments@si.edu) for
questions before and during the session. The
forum will be webcast live on the Smithsonian’s public website: http://si.edu.” New model ship museum opens its doors Cheryl
Brink, Cornwall Standard Freeholder, 12 September 2011 IROQUOIS
– “It was like weeks of Christmas for Bert Cunningham as he carefully
unpacked his collection of model ships and put them on display, many for the
first time. The
Morrisburg native has amassed dozens of boats of
all shapes and sizes over the last decade, hand-crafted by professionals and
worth thousands of dollars. He has made them available for the public to
enjoy as well, by establishing the Doran Bay Ship Museum just outside
Iroquois. …” Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Baltimore could close BALTIMORE
– “Of all the cities that claim a connection to the troubled author Edgar
Allan Poe, Baltimore likes to think its case is strongest. Poe's family is
from Baltimore, his literary career began in the city, he died a mysterious
death at a Baltimore hospital and his body was buried here in 1849. But
the city that named its NFL team after his poem "The Raven" may
soon lose a key physical connection to Poe. The Edgar Allan Poe House and
Museum, where the writer lived for four years in the early 1800s, is in
danger of closing next year, due to budget cutbacks by the city. "Everyone
is tightening their belt," said Jeff Jerome, the museum's curator and
only employee, who also works for the city's planning department. Cash-strapped
Baltimore stopped funding the museum's $85,000 budget two years ago. It now
operates on funds raised privately over recent years. A
feasibility study, to be completed by December, will explore ways to make the
museum self-sustaining. More likely than not, the museum will close at the
end of June 2012. …” Le musée rénové de Gustave Courbet
attire les visiteurs Artclair.com,
12 September 2011 ORNANS
(DOUBS) – “A Ornans, dans le Doubs, c’est un musée Courbet rénové qui a rouvert en juillet 2011. En septembre, soit deux mois après son
inauguration, le musée a déjà accueilli
près de 40 000 visiteurs. Depuis l’inauguration du nouveau musée
Gustave Courbet, le 2 juillet
2011, 40 000 visiteurs se sont
rendus à Ornans, dans le Doubs. Ce chiffre de fréquentation témoigne du nouveau succès que rencontre l’établissement. Avant les travaux de rénovation, le musée ne recevait que 20 000 visites par an. Après
trois ans de travaux, l’objectif du conseil général était d’atteindre 40 000 à 50
000 visiteurs annuel. « Ce qui correspond à la fréquentation
moyenne dans les musées de même envergure consacrés à un
artiste de renommée internationale
» précise L’Alsace.fr, avant
d’ajouter que 50% de ces visiteurs proviennent d’autres départements et de pays étrangers.
…” Vandals go on rampage in the Battlefords SASKATCHEWAN
– “A museum, school and grocery store in the Battlefords
were trashed by vandals overnight, police say. RCMP
said they are investigating three incidents of vandalism that they believe
took place late Friday night and early Saturday morning. …” Cold War museum proposal in ‘limbo’ Gordon
Kent, Edmonton Journal, 10 September 2011 EDMONTON
– “The man trying to turn an abandoned Edmonton bomb shelter into a Cold War
civil defence interpretive centre says he’s in “limbo” waiting for a city
response to his proposal. Fred
Armbruster, who unsealed the doors with a team last
May to study and clean the facility, has completed an operations plan for a
museum that would show visitors how the structure looked when it was built in
1953. The
local photographer said Friday he has spent $4,000 to $5,000 of his own money
buying hundreds of artifacts to put on display in
the historic shelter, beside 142nd Street on the north edge of the MacKenzie Ravine. …” Cincinnati Art Museum celebrates record attendance:
Third highest on record Recent
News, artdaily.org, 9 September 2011 CINCINNATI – “In an all staff meeting today Director Aaron Betsky confirmed what had been rumored
for weeks: the Cincinnati Art Museum has just finished it’s last fiscal year
with the third highest visitor attendance in the history of the art museum.
From September 1, 2010 to August 31, 2011, 272,352 people visited the museum
to see Wedded Perfection, Arms and Armor,
Thomas Gainsborough and the Modern Woman, The
Way We Are Now: The 21c Collection, Not Just Pretty Pictures: The Carl
Jacobs Collection, and The Amazing American Circus Poster. While
they came for our world class exhibitions they stayed for our lectures,
educational programs, Museum Shop, and Terrace Café, all of which saw
significant increase in attendance and revenue this past year. …” Le musée de
Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue en difficulté financière Myles
Dolphin, Cités Nouvelles,
9 septembre 2011 QUEBEC
– “Jean-Marc Richard recherche désespérément
une aide extérieure, afin de garder son musée ouvert. Le musée de Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue a ouvert
en juin, mais il est sur
le point d'être forcé à la fermeture. «J'ai déjà investi 35 000$ de ma
poche», explique-t-il. «Je ne peux plus continuer
à mettre de l'argent là-dedans.» Jean-Marc
Richard a reçu en avril une subvention de 15 000$ du centre local de développement, Développement économique West-Island. C'était
quelques semaines avant l'ouverture de son musée, situé à la maison Fraser. Ce montant d'argent
a presque été entièrement dépensé au moment où il a reçu
les clés de la bâtisse,
le 15 avril dernier. «J'ai dû acheter
de l'équipement, la structure qui soutient les photos exposées,
payer pour quelques mois
de loyer», dit-il. «C'est parti assez
vite.» Le
gouvernement provincial et le gouvernement
fédéral ont tous deux refusé
ses demandes de financement. Selon monsieur
Richard, Québec a déjà promis une
subvention à l'ouverture du musée,
mais cette promesse n'a pas été remplie, dû à un changement de gouvernement. Québec n'a
plus d'argent pour les nouveaux musées,
lui a-t-on dit. …” Tate Modern's Herzog & de Meuron
Expansion Delayed for Lack of Funds Kate
Deimling, ARTINFO, 9 September 2011 LONDON
– “Tate Modern's ambitious expansion plan to provide the museum with 70
percent more space has been partially delayed due to a money shortage amid
the economic turmoil in Europe. The first phase of the project — the
transformation of two abandoned oil tanks into spaces for performance and
installation — will still take place in summer 2012, in time for the London
2012 Festival, a series of cultural events coinciding with the London
Olympics. But the second phase, which involves constructing 10 new floors of
galleries above the tanks, may not proceed until as late as 2016 to allow
sufficient time for fundraising. …” City eyes Olympic museum for oval Matthew
Hoekstra, Richmond Review, 8 September 2011 RICHMOND,
BC – “The Richmond Olympic Oval Corporation is proposing to build an Olympic
museum inside the oval at an estimated cost of $6 million, The Richmond
Review has learned. A
delegation of oval and city officials recently pitched the idea to International
Olympic Committee brass in Lausanne, Switzerland and received a “very
positive” reception, a city spokesperson said. Dubbed
“The Richmond Olympic Experience at the Richmond Olympic Oval,” it would
become the first museum in the Americas to join the International Olympic
Committee’s Olympic Museum Network, which centres around
the IOC’s Olympic Museum in Lausanne. It
could open as soon as next year. …” ArchitectureShonquis Moreno, New
York Times, 14 September 2011 ISTANBUL – “‘Design is not about objects anymore; it’s more
pervasive,’ says Vasif Kortun,
a director of Istanbul’s new arts center Salt (Istiklal
Caddesi 136; saltonline.org). ‘Turkey is
picking it up belatedly.’ And quickly. Since the opening of Adnan Kazmaoglu’s austerely
geometric Yesil Vadi
Mosque in Istanbul last year, a design and architecture movement is sweeping
through the city. Salt’s Beyoglu building, a
columned space by the local architect Han Tumertekin
on the boulevard Istiklal, features the work of a
different Turkish designer in each room — there’s a cinema by Hakan Demirel, a bookstore by
Omer Unal and a cafe by Ali Selcuk
and the chef Murat Bozok. Regular symposiums cover
everything from urban planning to electronic music, and later this fall a
second outpost will open nearby in Galata. …” Nouveau projet pour l’agrandissement du Kunsthaus à
Zurich Artclair.com,
13 September 2011 ZURICH
– “Le 6 septembre 2011, le nouveau projet pour l’agrandissement du
Kunsthaus de Zurich a été dévoilé. Suite aux différentes critiques, l’architecte
anglais, David Chipperfield,
a dû modifier ses plans
pour mieux intégrer le bâtiment à son environnement.
Les travaux, estimés à
206 millions de francs suisses (171 millions d’euros), doivent maintenant être approuvés par la Ville. Le 6 septembre 2011, le Kunsthaus
de Zurich a dévoilé son nouveau projet
d’agrandissement. L’architecte
anglais, David Chipperfield,
responsable du projet, a dû revoir ses
ambitions à la baisse. Le bâtiment
qu’il avait proposé en 2008, a été jugé trop
imposant par la municipalité.
Le nouveau prévoit donc une réduction de 8 % du volume
total, ce qui doit permettre de dégager une grande esplanade sur la Heimplatz. …” Montreal Concert Hall designed by Diamond and
Schmitt Architects opens to the public Recent
News, artdaily.org, 12 September 2011 TORONTO
– “Music lovers rejoice. Montreal has a new sound: a concert hall for our
times where musical expression can be seen and heard in comfort and style.
The Montreal Concert Hall adds a new dimension to the city’s dynamic cultural
identity and completes the downtown arts complex, Place des Arts, with an
inviting and engaging structure that is every bit a part of the life around
it. Diamond
and Schmitt Architects with Aedifica Architects,
and a team of acousticians and consultants reinterpret the rectangular
‘shoe-box’ theatre configuration with an intimate three-balcony, 1900-seat
auditorium designed principally for symphonic use. The new home of the
Montreal Symphony Orchestra and other arts groups is an initiative of the
Quebec Government and developed by Groupe immobilier Ovation, a subsidiary of SNC-Lavalin. …” Breathing the rarefied air at Centennial College’s
new library Lisa
Rochon, Globe and Mail, 9 September 2011 TORONTO –
“At
the corner of Highway 401 and Markham Road, where Toronto is at its most
banal and concrete heavy, Centennial College has opened a library and
learning centre robustly framed by walls of dark iron-spot brick and
lustrous, moody copper. Surprisingly – wonderfully – architecture is making a
difference here. What makes the commute through grinding traffic to the Progress Campus
extra worthwhile for the college’s 16,000 students (22,000 are enrolled in
continuing studies) is the architectural re-branding of Centennial.
The dour series of pre-cast concrete buildings put up in the 1970s are still
standing, but now they’re offset by light-filled buildings with lounges
equipped with computer bars and hipster seating in shades of cool, cucumber
green. At the heart of the new $34-million library by Diamond + Schmitt
Architects is a living wall of mesmerizing greenery that’s four storeys high.
Even with hundreds of students milling about the library commons, toiling at
computers or talking at group study tables, the air feels pristine here; more
mountain-like than urban fringe. …” World
Architecture News, 9 September 2011 TAIPEI,
TAIWAN – “New-York based firm ZERAFA ARCHITECTURE STUDIO have revealed their
proposal for the design of the New Taipei City Museum of Art (NTCArt) in Taiwan. The
design aims to establish a new paradigm for celebrating art in Taipei, one
that brings lifestyle, art, recreation and education together to celebrate a
vibrant cultural identity for the community. The fusion of art with all
aspects of daily experience is driven by ideas about the intrinsic
relationship between art and life in Taiwan's popular contemporary culture.
…” TechnologyClemens
Bomsdorf, Art Newspaper, 15 September 2011 SWEDEN
– “Fotografiska, the Swedish-based photography
museum, says that it has been forced to censor images on its Facebook pages
to avoid them being deleted by the social-media giant. The
museum, which is devoted to contemporary photography, is showing 200 works by
Robert Mapplethorpe (until 2 October). His oeuvre presents difficulties
because of its focus on the nude; according to the museum’s spokesman,
Facebook “dislikes nakedness whether it is in paintings or photography.” …” National Gallery of Art Launches Second Edition of
the Gemini G.E.L. Online Catalogue Raisonne Museumpublicity.com,
14 September 2011 WASHINGTON – “A newly expanded version of the Gemini G.E.L. (Graphic
Editions Limited) Online Catalogue Raisonné
introduces 333 works produced by the acclaimed Los Angeles print and
sculpture workshop between early 1997 and late 2005. The online catalogue now
represents 2,069 editions, recording Gemini’s creative activity from its 1966
inception through 2005. Since 1981, the National Gallery of Art has been home
to the Gemini G.E.L. Archive, which represents an example of virtually every
print and edition sculpture produced by this important workshop. The
Gallery’s holdings of Gemini works are a cornerstone of its contemporary
graphic art collection. …” Introducing Artconnect, the Would-Be
LinkedIn of the Berlin Art Community Ashton Cooper, ARTINFO, 14 September 2011 The hippest social networking site of all time may have just been
invented, at least if you are just judging by concept: a Web site that caters
exclusively to artists living in Berlin. Artconnect
Berlin went live at the end of July and aims to create beneficial connections
between budding artists in all mediums — putting the underground online. Notoriously cheap rent and studio space has made Berlin the plat du
jour of young artists, but while creative types are flocking to the city,
some, of course, find it hard to connect with other members of the artistic
community once there. Spanish born artist Julia Mari Bernaus
has set out to change that by creating a central meeting place for the
artistic community, not in the Berlin Gallery District, but on the Internet. Why some ache to tweet, and others couldn’t care
less Ivor Tossell,
Globe and Mail, 13 September 2011 TORONTO
– “[…] Twitter has done much better in some industries than it has in others.
It seems to specialize in fields where influence is traded like a commodity.
For instance, a public-relations professional is hardly a public-relations
professional unless they have a Twitter account. Journalists, especially the
younger ones, are increasingly enmeshed in the medium. Politicians have
flocked to it. Arts professionals, musicians, writers, students, celebrities,
people who fashion themselves as celebrities, and generically creative types
are all a part of the mix. But Twitter has been slower to catch on across the
general population. The
reason why might have nothing to do with lunch meat. A recent study from the
Harvard Business Review turned up some unsurprising, yet telling statistics
about the way the service works. Declaring (perhaps a bit broadly) that
“nobody tweets,” the study found that 90 per cent of the content on Twitter
comes from the top 10 per cent of users. In fact, the median number of tweets
issued by all users is precisely one. The conclusion that many have drawn is
that Twitter isn’t a social network at all, but a broadcasting network. …” Authors sue universities over digital libraries Larry
Neumeister, The Associated Press, 13
September 2011 NEW YORK – “Authors and authors’ groups in the United States,
Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom sued the University of Michigan and
four other universities Monday, seeking to stop the creation of online
libraries made up of as many as 7 million copyright-protected books they say
were scanned without authorization. The
Authors Guild, the Australian Society of Authors and the Union Des Ecrivaines et des Ecrivains
Quebecois, or UNEQ, joined eight individual authors to file the copyright
infringement lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan against Michigan,
the University of California, the University of Wisconsin, Indiana University
and Cornell University. The
lawsuit accuses the University of Michigan of creating a repository known as HathiTrust where unlimited downloads could be accessed by
students and faculty members of so-called orphan works, which are
out-of-print books whose writers could not be located. …” Historypin app lets
people create a "time machine" Natasha
Baker, Recent News, artdaily.org, 12 September 2011 BANGKOK
– “For people who have stood at a monument or scanned a landscape -- the
Great Wall of China, for instance, or the U.S. Grand Canyon -- and wondered
how it looked 100 or more years ago, there is now an app for you. Historypin, on iOS and Android
platforms, strives to create a collection of memories about locations by
counting on people to dig up and digitize old photographs and other media of
the places, along with personal recollections of the past. Combined
with modern pictures and memories, the app creates a story of a place for
people to enjoy -- a sort of "time machine in your pocket," its
backers say. "It's
about people coming together to create a web of human history", said
Nick Stanhope, chief executive of We
Are What We Do, a United Kingdom-based non-profit organization responsible
for the Historypin project. …” Art and Culture
Julia
Halperin, ARTINFO, 15 September 2011 UNITED
STATES – “The last time we heard from Rocco Landesman,
the plucky chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, he was pissing
people off. In editorials and at conferences, the former Broadway producer
made the case for "decreasing the supply" of nonprofit
arts organizations. Now, Landesman has established
a new initiative that may do the opposite: it aims to promote the best new
local arts projects across the country in an unprecedented collaboration
amongst foundations, corporations, and federal agencies. The
initiative, called ArtPlace, is most easily
understood as a venture capital firm that provides seed money to nonprofit arts organizations instead of tech start-ups. The
goal is simple: use the arts to enliven communities and spur economic growth.
The method is part WPA, part venture capital: ArtPlace
will fund projects that incorporate artists and arts groups into local
efforts to improve transportation, housing, community development and job
creation. What you get, then, are projects like these: the renovation of a
vacant Harlem school into a home for 90 artists and their families, or the
redevelopment of a rundown city block in Detroit complete with a new music
center, pedestrian greenways, and improved museum space. …” Tears flow as Urban Affairs library closes Michael
Woods, Toronto Star, 15 September 2011 TORONTO
– “Tears ran freely as the city’s Urban Affairs library closed its doors for
the last time on Wednesday night. The
branch, which opened at Metro Hall in 1992, was slated for closure in March
after months of budget negotiations between the library board and city
council. Its staff and collection are moving to the Toronto Reference
Library. …” Court Allows Richard Prince to Appeal Copyright
Decision Randy
Kennedy, New York Times, 15 September 2011 UNITED
STATES – “In a closely watched visual-arts copyright case, a federal appeals
court ruled on Wednesday to permit an appeal by the artist Richard Prince,
who was found in March by a lower court to have unlawfully used images by a
French photographer to create a series of collages and paintings. The
original decision, by Judge Deborah A. Batts, found
in favor of Patrick Cariou,
whose book “Yes Rasta,” featuring portraits of Rastafarians he took during
several months in Jamaica, was published in 2000. According to the suit, Mr.
Prince used 41 or more of the pictures as the basis for a body of work he
called “Canal Zone,” which was shown in St. Barts
and in a 2008 exhibition at the Gagosian Gallery in
Chelsea. According to the suit, a gallery that was planning to show Mr. Cariou’s photographs canceled
that exhibition after learning that Mr. Prince had already created works
based on the photographs. …” E-flux,
15 September 2011 ISTANBUL
– “The 12th Istanbul Biennial explores the rich relationship between art and
politics, focusing on artworks that are both formally innovative and
politically outspoken. It takes as its point of departure the work of the
Cuban American artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1957–1996). Gonzalez-Torres was
deeply attuned to both the personal and the political, and also rigorously
attentive to the formal aspects of artistic production, drawing in part from
post-Minimalism and Conceptualism and in part simply from everyday life. The
biennial is composed of five group exhibitions and approximately 50 solo presentations, all housed in a single venue, Antrepo 3 and 5. Each of the group exhibitions occupies
its own space, distinguished from the solo presentations via gray walls, and
features a large number of artists' works brought together under a particular
theme. Around them the visitor will encounter the solo presentations. Each
solo presentation is linked to one or more subjects of the group exhibitions
but pushes the themes decidedly further. Artists from every continent are
represented, with a specific focus on artistic practices from Latin America
and the Middle East. …” [For more commentary on this topic, see also:
From Old Disco to New Media, Istanbul Capitalizes on
Biennial, By Susanne Fowler, New York Times,
14 September 2011; and A Simplified and Secretive Istanbul Biennial, By Susanne Fowler, New York Times, 14 September
2011] Houston, We Have an Art Fair: Hamptons Group
Launches New Art Bazaar in Texas Shane
Ferro, ARTINFO, 15 September 2011 HOUSTON,
TX – “New York and Los Angeles are the cultural behemoths of the United
States. But what's the third largest art market in America? Houston,
Texas — or so says Rick Friedman, the president of Hamptons Expo Group
Management, which is launching the inaugural Houston Fine Art Fair Thursday
to bring a roster of international dealers and high-profile clients together
in the Texas city, focusing on Latin American art. "When
we talk to the major art galleries in America and the various art auction
houses in America, they will tell me that many of their works that are being
sold are being shipped into Houston," quipped Friedman. …” New Vancouver Art Gallery site ‘obvious’ Brian
Hutchinson, National Post, 14 September 2011 VANCOUVER
– “[…] most visitors know the VAG for its heritage location, which is prime. For almost 30 years the gallery has been housed
inside a former provincial courthouse, a gorgeous, neoclassical pile designed
more than a century ago by Francis Rattenbury, the
British-born architect who also designed Victoria's iconic legislative buildings
and the adjacent Empress Hotel. The VAG occupies the centre of Vancouver's
downtown core at Robson Square, a civic plaza that became familiar to
millions during the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Perfect?
No. It won't do. The VAG has outgrown its digs, says director Kathleen
Bartels, and it has to move. Since arriving in 2001, Ms. Bartels has been
pushing for a new, larger facility, and the city and province have been
trying to accommodate her. Former B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell identified a
site near False Creek three years ago, and his government cut the VAG a
cheque for $50million. The site was rejected, but the VAG was able to keep
the money. Earlier
this year, the City of Vancouver agreed to reserve another site downtown, an
encumbered, city-held parking lot on busy West Georgia Street, where a bus
depot once stood. The gallery was given two years to develop a solid business
plan for a new venue. Building from scratch will cost at least $300-million,
by all accounts. …” World
Architecture News, 13 September 2011 LONDON – “Open City is an annual event in London
(and more recently extended to Tel Aviv, New York, Dublin, Galway and
Barcelona) which throws open the doors to some of the city’s most treasured
buildings so that the general public can experience these usually off-limits
spaces. Algerian Artist Rachid Koraïchi Wins the 2011 Jameel
Prize Coline Milliard,
ARTINFO UK, 13 September 2011 LONDON
– “Last night Algerian-born Rachid Koraïchi was named the winner of this year's Jameel Prize during a ceremony at the Victoria &
Albert Museum, receiving the £25,000 ($39,626) honor
for "Les Maitres invisibles" ('The
Invisible Masters"), a 2008 series of banners paying homage to the 14
great mystics of Islam. These large panels, inscribed with calligraphy and
symbols belonging to an array of different cultures, celebrate the religion's
quiet spirituality and its poetical tradition, which are often obliterated by
representations of the religion in Western news reports. …” Richard Hamilton, British Artist Who Beat Warhol to
Pop, Dies at 89 Reid
Singer, ARTINFO, 13 September 2011 BRITAIN – “Richard Hamilton, the painter and
collagist whose work became a fulcrum of the British Pop art canon, passed
away at the age of 89 this morning. The artist's death was announced by the Gagosian Gallery, which represents his work. No cause was
released. Trois-Rivières acquiert la Maison des Jésuites Louise
Plante, Le Nouvelliste,
13 septembre 2011 QUEBEC
– “Le comité exécutif de
la Ville de Trois-Rivières a adopté,
lundi, une résolution acceptant que la
Corporation de la Maison de la Madone
cède gratuitement à la
Ville la Maison des Jésuites
(qu’on appelle aussi le manoir) située sur la rue Notre-Dame Est, près du Sanctuaire Notre-Dame-du-Cap. Ce faisant,
la Ville s’est aussi engagée à restaurer ce bâtiment conformément
aux règles de l’art en matière d’immeuble à caractère patrimonial et à utiliser celui-ci
à des fins municipales, sociales,
culturelles ou patrimoniales. Yvan Toutant, du service des
communications à la Ville, a par ailleurs confirmé que le projet de restauration de l’immeuble, d’abord évalué à 500 000 $, (moitié payée par la Ville et moitié
par Québec) s’élève maintenant
à Case of Los Angeles' stolen Rembrandt drawing
intrigues art world with ownership issue John
Rogers (Associated Press), Recent News, artdaily.org, 12 September 2011 LOS
ANGELES, CA – “On the surface it looked like an open-and-shut case: A pair of thieves drop by an art exhibition at the
Ritz-Carlton and, while one distracts a curator, the other snatches a
valuable, centuries-old Rembrandt drawing and bolts with it. Apparently
finding the small pen-and-ink work by the Dutch master too hot to fence, the
thieves have second thoughts. They abandon it, undamaged, at a church on the
other side of town. Then the real mystery begins. Three
weeks after recovering the framed, 11-by-6 inch drawing called "The
Judgment," authorities aren't sure whether it really is a Rembrandt or
if it even belongs to the art dealer that displayed it with other works at
the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Marina del Rey. "They
have to show us something to prove that they own it, and they haven't been
able to do that," said Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for the Los Angeles
County Sheriff's Department. He said authorities are keeping the alleged
Rembrandt under lock and key until the ownership issue is resolved. …” Hitler's
Atlantic Wall: Should France preserve it? Hugh
Schofield, BBC News, 12 September 2011 FRANCE
– “Sections of Hitler's Atlantic Wall are being restored by French
enthusiasts. But should the Nazi fortification be fully embraced as part of
the country's heritage? Along
800 miles (1,287km) of French coast lie some of the most substantial and
evocative vestiges of war-time Europe. The
so-called Atlantic Wall - Hitler's defensive system against an expected
Allied attack - stretched all the way from the Spanish border to Scandinavia. Inevitably,
it was in France that the most extensive building took place. Today there are
still thousands of blockhouses, barracks and gun emplacements visible along
the French shore. But
in France there has been no effort up until now to preserve this
extraordinary historical landmark. …” Europe Extends Copyright on Music Larry
Rohter, New York Times, 12 September 2011 NEW
YORK – “In a victory for the financially troubled recording industry, the
European Union on Monday extended the term of copyright on sound recordings
to 70 years from 50, while declining to include provisions that would allow
artists in Britain and elsewhere in Europe to recoup ownership of their music
easily. Had the Council of the European Union not acted, many of the most
famous and popular recordings of the British Invasion of the 1960s, including
albums by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who and the Yardbirds, would have fallen into the public domain in
the coming years. For example, the Beatles’ first hit record, “Love Me Do,”
which was released in 1962, could have been treated next year in much the
same way as works by classical composers whose exclusive ownership of their
music has expired. With multiple versions available at cheaper prices, the
four major record labels would be deprived of one of their biggest sources of
income. …” [For more commentary on this issue, see also: L'Europe prolonge de vingt ans les droits des interprètes et producteurs de musique, Le Monde, 12 September 2011] Swedish Art Biennial Evacuated Due to 9/11
Anniversary Terrorist Threat By
Kate Deimling, ARTINFO France, 12 September
2011 SWEDEN – “Suspecting a possible terrorist plot,
Swedish police ordered the evacuation of the opening of the Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art
Saturday night, causing 400 people celebrating the event to hastily leave the
Röda Sten Art Center in
Sweden's second-largest city. Police also arrested four individuals suspected
of terrorist activity. In a statement, the Swedish Security Service said that
further details remained under wraps yesterday due to "the ongoing
preliminary investigation." But today CNN reports that three of the four
men arrested, who range in age from 23 to 26, are of Somali origin, while the
fourth is Iraqi. Why We Desire But Reject Creative Ideas Freakonomics, 9
September 2011 UNITED
STATES – “According to a new paper by researchers from Cornell, University of
Pennsylvania, and the University of North Carolina, creative ideas make
people uncomfortable. The paper, which is based on two studies from UPenn involving more than 200 people, is set to be
published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science. …” [The full article is accessible here:
The Bias Against Creativity: Why People Desire But
Reject Creative Ideas, By Jennifer S. Mueller, Shimul Melwani, and Jack A.
Goncalo, Cornell University ILR School, DigitalCommons@ILR,
Articles and Chapters, Paper 450] Recent
News, artdaily.org, 9 September 2011 HAMBURG – “In a very difficult financial situation
the Kunstverein Hamburg asked 36 artists who had
been presented in the Kunstverein Hamburg in the
past, to donate a work for the two charity auctions hosted by Sotheby's. The
benefit will hopefully save the future of this established institution: Surviving the Air India tragedy through the arts Marsha
Lederman, Globe and Mail, 9 September 2011 VANCOUVER – “Dance saved Lata Pada’s life, twice. Literally, the first time: She had
travelled to India ahead of her family to rehearse for a performance there,
so she was not with her husband and two daughters on Air India Flight 182 on
June 23, 1985, when a bomb exploded on-board. Then, dance rescued her again:
She relocated to India and spent years working with her guru, dancing, she
says, like a woman possessed. “Dance was that one thing that kept me from being on the same flight
as them, and I was literally in my teacher’s dance studio when I got the news
of the tragedy,” Pada said recently from her
Mississauga home. “So I just returned to it intuitively, instinctively,
instantly, intensely. Because at that moment, that was the only thing I could
return to.” So after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 (which gave Pada unwanted visual imagery for her own loss), when she
heard that artists were among the first back at work in Lower Manhattan, it
reaffirmed her view of art as saviour. “They were back in their studios painting, writing, dancing, creating
music, because that is the nourishment that we get from the arts at a time
like this. And I was so taken by that and it resonated deeply for me, because
I know what it did for me.” …” Bonnie
Rosenberg, Art Newspaper, 8 September 2011 NEW
YORK – “Plans have been shelved for the controversial $100m Islamic cultural
centre in lower Manhattan, derisively known as the “Ground Zero mosque”.
While organisers of the project, Park51, have vowed to create a space for
cultural outreach and understanding in the area, as per their original
mission, they are reassessing the ambition of their plans. …” Demographics, Economics, and Tourism
Elizabeth Weingarten, Slate, 13 September
2011 UNITED STATES – “Hanna Rosin's 2010 Atlantic cover
story, "The End of Men," was one of the most talked-about magazine
articles in recent years. "Man has been the
dominant sex since, well, the dawn of mankind," wrote Rosin, an
award-winning journalist for Slate and the Atlantic. "But for the first
time in human history, that is changing—and with shocking speed." That shift, she says, hasn't showed signs of slowing
in the past year. And that's why she'll debate for the motion that "men
are finished" during the Sept. 20 live Slate/Intelligence Squared
U.S. debate at NYU. …” 5 Reasons the Chinese Art Boom May Not Buoy the
Global Art Market After All Shane
Ferro, ARTINFO, 13 September 2011 CHINA
– “The news has been filled this summer with articles ballyhooing the ascent
of the Chinese art market, most recently the glowing New York Times report on
the demand for more Western art from Chinese buyers. But while there have
been some astonishing sales in China and Hong Kong over the past few years,
there are plenty of indicators that point to a market without a firm
foundation. It could be that China is just finding its footing — but the
country could also be following in the footsteps of Japan in the late 1980s
leading up to the art market crash in 1992, when loose money from the huge
Japanese property bubble led to astronomical prices for art at auction. Is
China really going to live up to the hype? …” Melanie
Gerlis, Art Newspaper, 12 September 2011 “Fears are growing about the potential impact of this summer’s renewed
global economic turmoil on the art market. The 2008 financial crisis sharply
hit art sales across all sectors, but the market bounced back quicker than
many others, particularly for blue-chip works. At issue now are two diverging
premises: that art is a luxury brand, as sensitive to stock markets as
high-end fashion and first-class flights (this is the view of those looking
at the art market from the outside); or that it represents a safe investment,
sought after in troubled times much like gold and the Swiss franc (the view
of those with more vested interests). …” [For more commentary on this issue, see also: Is art still a safe bet for investors?: As research from the last
crisis shows, when investor confidence evaporates, all assets start to
correlate, something many art market insiders like to forget,
By Anders Petterson, Art Newspaper,
Published online 12 September 2011] Google Street View puts Israel on the digital map Daniella Cheslow, Globe and Mail, 12 September 2011 JERUSALEM
– “Google's Street View will soon provide virtual visitors a glimpse of the
narrow stone-paved alleyways of Jerusalem's Old City and other tourist
destinations in Israel. Google
deploys cameras mounted on cars and other vehicles to take Street View's
360-degree images, which users of the Web site can then view by zooming in on
any given point on a map. Outside
Jerusalem's Old City walls on Monday, Google Israel's managing director Meir
Brand announced that filming will begin in the next few months in Jerusalem,
Tel Aviv, Haifa, and tourist attractions elsewhere. “For
the first time we can truly say Israel is on the digital map,” Mr. Brand
said. …” |
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