local, national, and international arts news
Welcome to Arts News where Americans for the Arts brings you the relevant arts news from around the world. Highlights from these sources are included in the Arts News here.
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02/03/2010
Now Accepting Fellowship Applications
After a one-year hiatus, The Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) is restoring its "Artist Fellowship" program and will honor one extraordinary artist in the field of dance, movement, music or theater by awarding a $20,000 fellowship in the performing arts this spring. Applications are now being accepted online at www.racc.org/grants.
RACC established the Artist Fellowship program in 1999 to honor and support uniquely talented local artists who have contributed to the community in very meaningful ways. The accompanying cash award allows the selected artist to explore a particular project, or enhance his or her artistic process. RACC rotates the discipline being honored every year, and past recipients have crafted ideas and developed works that reflected the shape of our region and the voice of their time.
They include:
Mary Oslund and Obo Addy (Performing Arts, 1999)
Christine Bourdette and Terry Toedtemeier (Visual Arts, 2000)
Jim Blashfield (Media Arts, 2001); Michele Glazer (Literary Arts, 2001)
Tomas Svoboda and Keith Scales (Performing Arts, 2002)
Judy Cooke and Michael Brophy (Visual Arts, 2003)
Chel White (Media Arts, 2004)
Craig Lesley (Literary Arts, 2004)
Thara Memory (Performing Arts, 2005)
Henk Pander (Visual Arts, 2006)
Joanna Priestly (Media Arts, 2007)
Kim Stafford (Literary Arts, 2008)
RACC did not award a fellowship in 2009 because of the unstable economic climate. After thoroughly assessing the organization’s strong fiscal position and re-affirming the value of this career-changing award in our community, RACC’s Grants Review Committee recommended, and the RACC Board of Directors unanimously approved, restoring the fellowship program in 2010.
A panel of community representatives from both in and outside the tri-county area with expertise in the performing arts will select the fellowship winner. Review criteria for the Fellowship Award includes proof of sustained high artistic quality in the applicant’s work, as well as evidence of the applicant’s involvement in the community and the importance of his/her work to the local culture. Artists who are current, physical residents of Clackamas, Multnomah or Washington counties and meet strict eligibility criteria are eligible to apply. Guidelines can be downloaded from the RACC website and access to the online application form, www.racc.org/GrantApps.
All applications must be submitted electronically through RACC’s GrantsOnline system. To be eligible to apply, applicants must submit an "Intent to Apply" form electronically no later than 5:00pm, Wednesday, March 31, 2010. The deadline for electronic submission of the full application is April 7, 2010 by 5:00pm. Applicants are then required to physically submit hard-copies of the application along with supplementary materials.
Regional Arts & Culture Council online 02/02/2010
01/27/2010
Art Hangs in Limbo of Saints - Colts Game
The outcome of the Super Bowl will determine where two famous paintings hang for the next few months. The Indianapolis Museum of Art and the New Orleans Museum of Art have each wagered a three-month loan of one of their works as part of a bet for their respective teams. Apparently the combination of art and hometown teams got the museum directors all riled up as Tyler Green reports on ArtsJournal's, Modern Arts Note blog.
Art museum director Super Bowl trash talk: It's ON
"In response to the proposed Super Bowl bet between the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the New Orleans Museum of Art about which I posted on Monday, NOMA director E. John Bullard has come roaring back in defense of his Saints.
First, some background: On Monday, IMA director Max Anderson initially proposed wagering an IMA loan of an Ingrid Calame painting. That was a nice choice... but apparently Anderson wasn't too worried about having to pay off the bet: "We're already spackling the wall where the NOMA loan will hang," he tweeted.
On Tuesday morning Bullard emailed MAN HQ:
"Max Anderson must not really believe the Colts can beat the Saints in the Super Bowl. Otherwise why would he bet such an insignificant work as the Ingrid Calame painting? Let's up the ante. The New Orleans Museum of Art will bet the three-month loan of its $4 million Renoir painting, Seamstress at Window, circa 1908, which is currently in the big Renoir exhibition in Paris. What will Max wager of equal importance? Go Saints!"
Anderson TwitPics from his seat at the Colts' Lucas Oil Stadium. I expect a response...
UPDATE, Tuesday, 2:20pm EST: SNAP! Anderson tweets back at NOMA: "We'll see the sentimental blancmange by that "China Painter" and raise you a proper trophy: [A Jean-Valentine Morel jeweled cup, which won the Grand Medal at the 1855 Paris World Fair.]"
UPDATE: Tuesday, 11:20pm EST: These museums are getting serious.
 In an email I received while I was, er, on my way to dinner, Bullard raised the stakes: "I am amused that Renoir is too sweet for Indianapolis. Does this mean that those Indiana corn farmers have simpler tastes? If so why would Max offer us that gaudy Chalice -- just looks like another over-elaborate Victorian tchotchke. Let's get serious. Each museum needs to offer an art work that they would really miss for three months. What would you like Max? A Monet, a Cassatt, a Picasso, a Miro? Sorry but we have no farm scenes or portraits of football players to send you."
Ouch!: I suspect Bullard knows that the Indianapolis Museum of Art actually owns a farm. (It's part of the IMA's endowment.)
A couple hours after Bullard's rejoinder, Anderson replied to both Bullard and to @NOMA via Twitter: "Colts will win; here's how sure I am: [the IMA's four-by-six-foot JMW] Turner for Vigée Lebrun's Portrait of Marie Antoinette."
I think we might have a winner..."
Modern Arts Notes 01/28/2010
01/28/2010
No Dancing at the Jefferson Memorial
"So you think you can dance at the Jefferson Memorial? Think again.
A federal judge has ruled against a woman who was arrested for dancing with a group of 17 others at the memorial dedicated to President Thomas Jefferson. The woman, Mary Oberwetter, and others were dancing to music on their headphones near midnight April 12, 2008, the eve of Jefferson's birthday."
Washington Post 01/27/2010
01/26/2010
"Self-Made Man" Donated to Business Park
"Developer Bob Blettner believes that the business parks he creates should evoke emotion and that the people who work there should be celebrated — through art.
Not with just watercolors in an atrium or landscape prints in a conference room, but with big, bold, expressive sculptures.
 "I wanted to use art, these life-size sculptures, to celebrate positive emotions that people tend to have when they’re at certain physical spaces," said Blettner, chief executive officer of the Blettner Group, which designs and builds business parks in the Upper Midwest.
Now he wants to put a 10-foot bronze sculpture of a man chiseling himself out of stone in a public place — the median of Deming Way south of Airport Road. The location is also the entrance to Blettner’s Middleton Corporate Center business park.
Blettner has tried to donate the sculpture to Middleton before, but city officials were concerned that it posed a safety hazard should motorists ever run into it.
This time, designers from Gary Brink and Associates have suggested replacing shrubs currently in the 14-foot-wide median with "jagged rocks" that would surround the sculpture.
"If a vehicle were to enter the median, their wheels would be hung up on the stone before it hit the sculpture," said Abby Attoun, the city’s associate planner.
The Middleton Plan Commission this month approved the design of the median, but it needs to go back to the city’s Arts Committee to finalize the lighting details. The plan could have final city approval by March, Attoun said.
Liesel Fenner, who manages the public art program at Americans for the Arts, said more developers are integrating art in their projects. Fenner, whose arts-advocacy organization is based in Washington, D.C., recommends that communities develop policies on how to handle art donations.
"The donation policy is usually to ensure that there's a mindfulness about the overall direction about the city's overall art collection," she said."
Wisconsin State Journal 01/22/2010
01/19/2010
Sundance Reveals Special Events Roster
Screen Daily.com 01/19/2010
01/14/2010
Right Brain Initiative Continues to Grow
"The Right Brain Initiative, a regional arts education program grounded in diverse community alliances, is pleased to announce today a series of new partnerships achieved during Fall 2009. The Initiative began its second school year bringing integrated arts learning experiences to K-8 classrooms throughout the Portland metropolitan area this
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| Photo: Briana Linden |
fall. The recent support received from all sectors of the region is an important indication of the program’s relevance and viability."
"Thomas Breuckman, principal, Beach School in North Portland said of his new relationship with Right Brain: "At Beach PK - 8, we are very excited to begin a partnership with The Right Brain Initiative! The Initiative will help us achieve our academic (and other) goals by giving us the resources and the planning tools to integrate arts activities into our curriculum, inviting each student to engage in learning—not only with reading and writing, but also with collaboration, team work and problem solving."
Regional Arts & Culture Council online 01/12/2010
01/12/2010
Jeffery Deitch Named MOCA LA Director
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles Online 01/11/2010
01/12/2010
Human Ear Ice Sculptures on Display
 "Installation of the third annual Triumph Winterfest illuminated ice sculpture exhibit begins this week in Vail, Colorado.
The exhibit, called "are you listening…", is composed of several larger-than-life ice sculptures of the human ear. Exploring the "pathways of listening," Argent poses the questions, "What do we listen to? What or who is creating the sounds we listen to? When we do, how is it filtered through our systems of consciousness and knowledge?"
The exhibit engages the viewer to contemplate the interpretation of sound and conversation, especially in this day of modern technology.
Triumph Winterfest has garnered national media attention. It has been named one of America's best public art projects by the Americans for the Arts. "are you listening…" will be on view throughout the day and evenings, until the ice melts."
Vail Daily 01/11/2010
01/07/2010
Are Ticket Prices To High?
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts President Michael Kaiser wrote that restructuring the reliance on ticket sales as part of performing arts group budget balancing must end if the goal is to build larger audiences: "The central challenge facing arts managers is to fill the ever-widening gap between rapidly increasing expenses and earned income, primarily from ticket sales. This gap continues to grow each year since the number of seats we have to sell does not increase but expenses do. Unfortunately, the favored technique used to fill budget gaps has been increasing ticket prices. When we increase prices, typically at budget time, we hope that a small increase will not be noticeable and we need the added revenue to break even. However, we have been doing this for so long that tickets prices are now too high for many people to afford regularly."
The Huffington Post 01/04/2010
01/05/2010
A Creative Work Force: What it Means
Product Design & Development 01/05/2009
01/07/2010
Three Theaters Coming to NYC's 42nd Street
"Three new theaters promising low-priced $20 tickets are going up on West 42nd Street. Expanding the New York City’s performing arts industry amidst a gloomy economy, the project is an infrastructure investment for the city, which is pitching in $25 million of the $60 construction cost. Amidst the noise of the construction, Mayor Michael Bloomberg was joined at the site by Council Speaker Christine Quinn and theater representatives on [December 29] to give a peek at what is to come. 'Art and culture is the heartbeat of New York City, and even though times are tough we can still feel it pulsating here at 42nd Street,' Bloomberg said...The 70,000-square-foot project, known as the Signature Center, is being constructed at 10th Avenue and 42nd Street, across from the Manhattan Plaza—home to many of the city's artists, actors, and playwrights. After enduring the noise of construction until its completion in 2012, the new center will bring some extra jobs to the local performing arts community—up to 400 jobs a year."
The Epoch Times 12/30/2009
01/05/2010
Welcome to Amateur Hour
Newsweek 12/30/2009
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