Of Interest in the World of Arts & Entertainment.

[sechan19]

There were a number of intriguing articles in this morning's news. My two favorite concerned art and film.

First off, this man is my hero:
O'Toole in '07: Still on a Role (Washington Post)

Everyone else can have their Sean Connerys and their Anthony Hopkinses. For me, it is all about Peter O'Toole, and I want to see his latest film desperately. Here's hoping it comes to my little cow town sometime in the next decade. Check out the article for a great description of Venus as well as a bit about O'Toole and his recommended filmography.

This next one requires more consideration. It concerns the struggle in France over whether or not to brand museums and begin building branches of them outside of the country. Both the Louvre and the Pompidou are considering ambitious projects for overseas museums. Now, on the one hand this could have great benefits - making more of these huge collections (the majority of which are in storage) available to more people all over the world, and fostering a sense of cultural cooperation between nations East and West. On the other hand, there is the question of how much of a mercenary attitude should be taken towards public collections of art. This question is particularly touchy in France, where the public does not have the final say in the situation. Though the major collections of art in the country belong to the government, the museum decision-making process rests with cultural ministers and never goes to the people for a vote. I'm not sure if that's right. The public should be able to weigh on in the issue, one way or another. Knowing the French, however, they'll balk if they want to - and the government will sit up and take notice if they do. They always do.

Louvre - Georges Pompidou Center - Abu Dhabi - Report (NY Times)

EDIT: Check out the comments section for links to more information, albeit from a different perspective, on this issue. Thanks lordameth for the tip!

Comments

[lordameth.livejournal.com]

Thanks for mentioning that museum article - I've become a total museum geek in the last couple of years and am really interested in all sorts of aspects of the industry (but you knew that already).

I don't know anything about the Louvre or French politics, but I find the controversy over branding of museums and expansion into international branches interesting. As you might have known, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts has a sister museum in Nagoya; according to the Wikipedia article on the Nagoya museum, there's significant conflict between the Nagoya curators, who want to show certain types of things, and the Boston administrators, who effectively own/control the entire Nagoya museum and its collections, and who want them to show certain other types of art.

I've contacted the author of the article, to see if he has any further information - maybe a news article or something. I imagine you might find this interesting as I do.

[reteva.livejournal.com]

I would indeed be very interested in this. Please let me know if you hear back from this person. If there's a relevant article to this issue, I'd love to read it. In the meantime, I'll check out the Wikipedia article.

[lordameth.livejournal.com]

He's responded quite quickly (as have you)! ^_^

The article's here: Boston MFA Opens Nagoya Outpost - Boston Museum of Fine Arts opens branch in Japan.

[reteva.livejournal.com]

The wonders of the automatic email notification system... Thanks again for the information!