International News in August 2002
Show all of 2002
Not a single, bold idea amid the arts council smokescreen
Scottish Arts Council chairman James Boyle must be well chuffed with the effectiveness of the smokescreen that he blew up a week ago. more >
Frankfurt Ballet Director says he'll leave in 2004
William Forsythe, the American choreographer who has led the Frankfurt Ballet since 1984, announced this week that he would leave the company when his contract expired in 2004. more >
Harare radio station bombed
An independent radio station in Harare has been targeted in a bomb attack. Faith Ndebele, head of the station, refused to speculate on who carried out the bombing, but said it was an attack on free speech. more >
A British protest to U.S. invasion
Equity, the British actors' union, is angry that West End theatres - and now the government supported National Theatre - are giving starring parts to American actors at a time when 80% of its membership is out of work. more >
A taxing situation
Suspicions that the art market is 'drying up' of art received unexpected support with statistics dropped by Sotheby's this week - The sellers have simply fled. more >
American Indian art business
The annual Indian Market in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is becoming an increasingly important event to both Native American artists, individual collectors and museums - 'it has become a great launching for any Native American who wants to get discovered and noticed.' more >
Arts academy to replace LA high school
The Los Angeles Unified School District is abandoning plans for a traditional high school at its former downtown headquarters and instead plans to spend about $20 million more to build a performing and visual arts academy. more >
Arts treasures saved from floods
Initial flood damage figures for Dresden's state art collections are starting to emerge - Of the four thousand paintings that were housed in the 'old masters' storage area only 25 large-size paintings received moisture damage. more >
Bamiyan Buddha niches at risk
The niches which once housed the Buddhas of Bamiyan will be 'gone within a decade' unless urgent conservation work is undertaken, according to Paul Bucherer, director of the Afghanistan museum in exile in Switzerland. more >
Barcelona celebrates architectural visionary
Barcelona has declared 2002 the Year of Gaudí, with more than 30 exhibitions and related events; including the opening of some buildings that had not been accessible to the public. more >
City Opera focuses on ground zero
In considering a move downtown from the Lincoln Center, the New York City Opera is seriously looking at the site of a heavily damaged landmark building south of ground zero, enlisting Merrill Lynch as a financial adviser. more >
Cleveland playhouse non-profit success
Cleveland Playhouse, with 10,000 seats, is America's second-largest performing arts center, after Manhattan's Lincoln Center. 'It's a rare case of a flourishing nonprofit arts foundation that earns its own keep - taking just a smidgen of government aid and private donations.' more >
Copyrighting carnival
In Trinidad & Tobago, a key cultural tradition is caught by intellectual property laws. Nikhil Gyan, an engineering student, pays the price of learning to adapt. more >
Disabled make themselves heard
The Drake Music Project is using music technology to remove physical barriers for disabled people. more >
Does the Edinburgh Festival make any money?
Everybody knows that there's a whole lot of money swilling around the Edinburgh festival. This is an arts festival, sure, but it's also a trade fair and a tourist attraction. Everyone knows that. So where's all the money going? Who's making any? more >
Egypts buried traesures
In December Egyptologists and museologists will gather in the garden of the Egyptian Museum to celebrate its 100th anniversary. more >
Importance of arts education in US schools
Americans for the Arts is celebrating National Arts and Humanities Week in October; this year's theme is based on arts education and the need for every child in America to have a comprehensive, high quality education in the arts. more >
Massachusetts faces cultural drought
Officials at the Massachusetts Cultural Council don't know exactly where the shortages will be; less music, smaller exhibits, or fewer artists teaching students - but with a 62 percent budget cut from $19.1 million to $7.3 million, they do know there will be a cultural drought more >
New direction for Salzburg Festival
The new artistic director of the Salzburg Festival Peter Ruzicka, has made some changes to the renowned summer event which are a far cry from the vision of his feisty predecessor, Gerard Mortier. more >
New ways of enjoying art
The desire of galleries to make art accessible is subtly altering the way the work itself is presented. Visitors are being invited not just to contemplate, but to engage in a more active experience. Not just to look, but also to learn. more >
Ticket scam hits the world's great opera houses
Patrons of the world's great opera houses - including Sydney's - are being stung by an Internet ticketing scam. more >
Underground museum plan for forbidden city
Custodians of the Forbidden City have drawn up secret plans for a three-storey museum under the sprawling palace in central Beijing to display masses of imperial artefacts that have never been shown to the public. more >
US classical dilemma of diversity
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has at last hired a permanent African-American instrumentalist - Why do African-Americans and Latinos comprise such a paltry percentage of classical musicians? more >
We just hope the big names will show
With the violence in Israel and the Occupied Territories continuing to escalate, more and more performers are cancelling planned appearances in the country. more >
Worldwide call to rebuild the US World Trade Centre
The agency overseeing the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan announced recently that it would conduct a worldwide design competition, to hire as many as five licensed architecture or planning firms to offer new ideas for the site of the World Trade Center. more >
The looting of Turquoise Mountain
Looting of Afghanistan's cultural treasures has not stopped with the overthrow of the Taliban - it seems to have escalated. more >
Water and woe for the Czechs' cultural gems
While the flood damage is still being quantified and evaluated, fund-raising for recovery has already begun, including pop and classical music benefit concerts around the republic. Unesco has promised aid, but no amounts have been determined. more >
A new style of french
Within a couple of decades, a popular slang called Verlan has gained widespread popularity among young people across France - expressing its love-hate relationship with its immigrant community. more >
Are politics built into architecture?
This article examines the role of architecture in shaping political conflict. 'Some argue that by designing and constructing Israeli settlements in the occupied territories, the architectural profession has, perhaps unwittingly, contributed to escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.' more >
Artists and arts groups share $4.6 million from S11 fund
The New York Foundation for the Arts has recently announced a new fund that will provide $4.6 million in grants to 352 New York artists and 135 New York arts organizations that have suffered since last year's terrorist attack. more >
Attracting younger audiences to classical music
Festival director and musical evangelist Brian McMaster wants to attract younger audiences to classical music; hence the Usher Hall's series of £5-a-seat concerts. more >
South African Department split
The Performing Arts Network of South Africa (PANSA) has reported on its role in the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology (DACST) split which occurred on August 1. more >
The funding dilemma for Britain's music business
The UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) funded a research project examining the problems faced by small business in the music industry in accessing finance. more >
UK Parents online
Resource, The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries has announced the details of 'Parents Online 2002,' an iniative aimed at bringing families together to gain information on internet learning. more >
UK Portuguese Performing Arts Awards
UK organisations, Visiting Arts and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation have recently launched a new series of awards which will support the creation of new work by Portuguese performing artists in the United Kingdom. more >
£15m medieval book goes online
One of the UK's most valuable medieval books, the Sherborne Missal, can now be studied safely, easily and in detail thanks to new digitization technology and the Internet. more >
Augmenting the musical experience with visual aids
The Kansas City Symphony wants music to go beyond sound, as such, the symphony is looking for ways to enhance concerts by creating a visual experience to accompany the musical one. more >
Egypt damands return of antiquity
The Republic of Egypt has demanded the return of an antiquity acquired in 1963 by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, which Egypt says is stolen. more >
Illegally exported Roman sculpture returned
The Princeton University Art Museum (PUAM) has returned to Italy an ancient Roman sculptural relief it bought in 1985, but which a curator discovered had left Italy without an export permit. more >
Massachusetts Cultural Council faces huge budget cut
The Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency that has been fighting proposed cuts for months, learned recently that it is likely to lose $12 million of its current $19 million budget. more >
Mexico's cultural diplomacy aims to win hearts in U.S.
Over the next two years major Mexican art shows will be at American museums almost without interruption, as part of Mexican President Vicente Fox's desire for closer relations between the United States and Mexico. more >
Rebranding Poland
In August of 2001 Corporate Profiles DDB, Poland's largest advertising agency, won a tender called by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - the brief was to design a recognisable and universally applicable logo representing Poland in the outside world, it was recently unveiled. more >
S11 to be marked by musical tribute
The arts will play a prominent role in New York City's September 11 commemoration, which will feature a bagpipe processional, concerts, and historic readings, among other things. more >
Tate gallery provides ultra-modern visual access
London's Tate Modern gallery has launched a new online art resource to help visually impaired people explore key concepts in modern art. more >
UK Museum visits soar after entry fees are scrapped
It has recently been claimed that visitor numbers to Britain's museums have seen a "spectacular" rise as a result of a government policy, last winter, restoring free admission. more >
US Museums reflect upon S11
Museums across the US are hosting a range of events in remembrance of the first anniversary of the September 11 attacks. more >
Young musicians granted a respite from war's curses
The Hill Center for Chamber Music provides a desperately needed respite for thousands of classical musicians from war torn areas, giving participants space and time to practice their instruments away from bullets and bombs. more >
Museum visits soar after entry fees are scrapped
Since British museums did away with admission fees last winter, average attendance is up by 2.7 million - or 62%. more >
Sudanese judges visit WIPO
The President of the Supreme Court of Sudan, Jalal Al-Din Mohamed Othman, recently led a delegation of his colleagues to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) for talks. more >
UNESCO activating in Asia
UNESCO has recently held an international symposium on the preservation of Afghan cultural heritage in Japan, as well as the Childrens' Performing Arts Festival of East Asia. more >
Increased ethinic diversity for UK museum and library staff
Resource, the Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries, has recently announced the creation of new ethnic-minority traineeships, which are viewed as a step towards addressing the overwhelmingly 'white' profile of museum and gallery staff in the UK. more >
National Museum of the Philippines becomes interactive
A feature article on the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) website details the new software package that has put the National Museum on the map with its sophisticated yet accessible museum management. more >
Renowned curator moves to Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art
Japanese Art Scene Monitor has reported that long-time curator at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Michiko Kasahara, has recently moved to the the city's Museum of Contemporary Art. more >
British Library closed by strike action for first time
The British Library was closed for the first time in its history by a strike on July 29. The 24-hour closure was over the library's refusal to raise a 4% pay award to staff. more >
Reuniting China along artistic lines
The Palace Museum in Taiwan, which holds some of China's great art treasures, has begun to change following the Nationalist Party's fall from power. more >
The international who's who in cultural policy, planning and research >