January 2, 2001
Volume #10 No. #1
Judy Malloy, Editor
jmalloy@artswire.org

Arts Wire CURRENT is a project of the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) -- http://www.nyfa.org

Arts Wire CURRENT features news updates on social, economic, philosophical, and political issues affecting the arts and culture. Your contributions are invited. Contact Judy Malloy, Editor.

To encourage the exchange of arts information and perspectives, Arts Wire CURRENT contents are not copyrighted unless specifically stated. We ask that you cite Arts Wire CURRENT as well as Arts Wire's url (http://www.artswire.org) when reprinting material. In addition, Arts Wire is very interested in documenting the use of material from Arts Wire CURRENT in other newsletters, publications and on online networks. Please send a copy to: Judy Malloy.

This week's Current is sponsored by OPERA America -- http://www.operaam.org



FROM NEW YORK FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS PROGRAMS DIRECTOR, PENELOPE DANNENBERG

As 2001 begins I would like to announce, on behalf of the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) and Joe Matuzak that Joe has moved from the position of Director of Arts Wire to that of an advisor on technology to the Foundation. Joe has been Co-Director and Director of Arts Wire since 1993.

"This transition represents the ongoing integration of Arts Wire's activities into the overall structure of NYFA, something we've been pursuing for the past several years. It simply makes more sense for Arts Wire to receive direction from within NYFA itself now that many other departments are pursuing areas that Arts Wire pioneered," notes Matuzak. "This also frees me up to pursue other projects in which I'm interested while allowing me to stay part of something that has been very important to me and to the field".

Matuzak adds that "It's been my privilege to work continuously with an amazing collection of talented people, and the thing I will miss particularly is the ongoing day-to-day contact with Beth Kanter, Judy Malloy, Doug Cohen, Ted Berger, and Penny Dannenberg, as well as others from NYFA and also Dan Martin and Jerry Coltin from Carnegie Mellon University's (CMU) Center for Arts Management and Technology. Obviously, I'm not dropping off the face of the earth, and I look forward to finding new ways to work with these and other friends in the future."

Arts Wire consultants, Beth Kanter, Judy Malloy and Doug Cohen will continue to provide valuable information and assistance to artists as NYFA moves on with the integration of Arts Wire into all of its programs. Judy, based in Northern California, continues as the Editor of Current and Jobs, as well as in assisting new members of Arts Wire. Beth, outside of Boston, continues to develop programs to educate artists and arts organizations in the planning for and uses of technology as a tool to carry out artistic missions. Beth also consults on technology issues with arts organizations on NYFA's behalf. Doug, in New York, maintains the Arts Wire server, on which so many artists and organizations have their emails and websites. (through a partnership with CMU where the server is housed) Doug also provides technical assistance to many Arts Wires users and NYFA. Nancy Clarke, Embury Arts Consulting, has been working with NYFA in the integration and long term planning processes.

I want to take this opportunity to thank the many of you who responded to our on-line survey this fall. We are using the information gathered from the survey, along with a lot of other research, to plan the enhancement of our technology related services for artists, and organizations that serve artists. We will announce the results in the summer of 2001.

In the meantime you will begin to see changes in format of the Arts Wire site, expanded information through the collaboration of Current, FYI, and the Visual Artists Information Hotline, and more services for our Arts Wire users.

Happy New Year and please keep in touch.

Penelope Dannenberg


IVEY SETS FORTH A CULTURAL BILL OF RIGHTS

WASHINGTON, DC -- In a speech to the National Press Club on December 18, citing and distilling the thoughts of observers, critics, and scholars -- including John Adams; Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam; New York City school chancellor Harold Levy; and poet Wole Soyinka -- Bill Ivey, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) put forward an "American Cultural Bill of Rights". Ivey described this Cultural Bill of rights as "the first step toward capturing a greater role for cultural heritage and creativity in our nation."

Its six segments are "a series of moral claims on the public conscience....Each is intended to deepen our national conversation about the value of art and cultural heritage to our democracy," he stated. They are:

Ivey emphasized that the Cultural Bill of Rights is not just about the NEA, and he called for the commitment of communities, non-profit organizations, entertainment industries, corporations, volunteer associations, school leaders and education reformers, journalists, as well as all levels of government -- the Department of State, the Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institution, Kennedy Center, Humanities Endowment, and state and local cultural agencies -- to connect "many players, many partners, to assemble the material, legal, spiritual, and moral resources required to bring art and art making, cultural heritage and creativity, in from the margins to the center of community and family life."

In his speech to the National Press club, Ivey also pointed out that in recent years, the Arts Endowment has made progress both in appropriations and in "recapturing the dialogue".

"Through a solid program, a clear, citizen-oriented message, and building upon the commitment of a supportive Clinton-Gore Administration, the NEA today offers a firm platform on which any future administration -- the Bush-Cheney Administration -- can build a strong commitment to America's cultural life," he stated.

He added that "...despite advances in both the level of funding and the quality of discourse, we're not yet where we should be. Some still oppose the agency's work, and an increase to a budget of $105 million is simply not enough."

Source:

Bill Ivey, Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts
"An American Cultural Bill of Rights"
speech to National Press Club, Washington, DC December 18, 2000
NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS WEB SITE -- http://www.arts.gov/endownews/news00/PressClubSpeech.html


FRANK GEHRY, REM KOOLHAAS DESIGN NEW GUGGENHEIM SITES IN NEW YORK CITY, LAS VEGAS; BOTH SITES TO INCLUDE EXHIBITION SPACE FOR MULTIMEDIA ART

NEW YORK CITY, NY -- A new Guggenheim Museum designed by Frank O. Gehry is expected to begin construction on Piers 9, 11, 13, and 14 on East River in Lower Manhattan after a two year design and development phase. In addition to exhibition space, a Performing Arts Center, a public park and outdoor sculpture areas, the 570,000 square feet new museum building will include 60,000 square feet for architecture, design, and multimedia art. A 23,000 square foot Center for Arts Education will broaden the Guggenheim's educational programming and outreach to New York City public schools.

In Las Vegas, construction began in September on a new Guggenheim exhibition space for the presentation of large-scale traveling exhibitions including multi-media, video, and high-technology based art. Situated within The Venetian Resort complex, the new 63,700-square-foot building, to be named the Guggenheim Las Vegas, is designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Rem Koolhaas. It is scheduled to open in Summer 2001.


New NYC Museum Will be Built "on connecting platforms resting on piers at water level"

The Guggenheim notes that Frank Gehry's design for the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain has been universally praised by critics and that in selecting Gehry to design the proposed museum, it has chosen an architect with whom it has had an enormously successful relationship. Although Gehry, who recently designed the Experience Music Project in Seattle, has won practically every award bestowed in the architectural profession, including the Pritzker Prize, the Praemium Imperiale Award, the AIA Gold Medal, and the National Medal of the Arts, he has not yet designed a major building for the New York metropolitan area.

"Hallmarks of Frank Gehry's work include a particular concern that people exist comfortably within the spaces he creates, and an insistence that his buildings address the context and culture of their sites," the Guggenheim states. "This aspect of Gehry's work makes him a particularly appropriate choice for a large-scale structure located on the waterfront in Lower Manhattan, where the context of the surrounding skyscrapers, the constraints of the river site, and the needs of the community create a unique and challenging environment."

The museum will be built "on connecting platforms resting on piers at water level," according to the Guggenheim. In order to preserve the openness of the platform, and to create a sense of space, light, and views from South Street through to the East River, most of the museum building will be raised above the platforms and will have large light and air wells.

"This design creates both a view corridor of the waterfront below the level of the FDR Drive, as well as a public waterfront promenade, sculpture garden, fountain, and an expansive public park on the platform, with access to the water for ferry service and possible other boating activities," the museum explains.

New York City designated The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation for the development of Piers 9, 11, 13, and 14 on the East River following a comprehensive review of submissions received pursuant to a Request for Proposals (RFP) issued by the NYC Economic Development Corporation.

The fundamental rationale for the building project centers on the permanent collection. A new Guggenheim Museum will take the pressure off the Frank Lloyd Wright building on Fifth Avenue, allowing more of the prewar permanent collection to be continuously on view in the original museum's 50,000 square feet of gallery space.

NYC Mayor Giuliani also announced that the City will make a capital contribution of $67.8 million toward the project. The museum estimates that the cost of the project will be $678 million. The capital campaign for the new museum will be formally launched in spring of 2001.

"Our expectation is to immediately begin the two-year design and development phase, which includes environmental reviews and obtaining various city, state, and federal approvals," said Thomas Krens, Director, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. "Once this process is complete, we anticipate the construction will be carried-out in three-to-four-years. We look forward to working closely with the community and government agencies."

According to the City's analysis of the new museum's economic impact, the project will attract 2 to 3 million visitors annually and create at least 2,550 new permanent jobs. It will generate $280 million in economic activity and $14 million annually in new City and State tax revenues.



Guggenheim Las Vegas -- "a scale, practicality and elasticity of space that is absolutely unique"

The new facility in Las Vegas is a free-standing building within The Venetian. According to the Museum, the exhibition space -- with a 70-foot ceiling which gives the main room a hangar-like feeling -- features a massive skylight, a functioning industrial crane, and additional lower level galleries. The floor of the ground level is flexible and may be opened to reveal a trench that drops down to lower-level galleries and spans the length of the exhibition space.

"The Guggenheim Las Vegas has been designed as an exhibition space, not as a museum with a permanent collection," said Krens. "Our challenge was to design a building that had the aesthetic and practical capability to do things that were not possible in any other museum or exhibition space in the world."

The Guggenheim Las Vegas will be able to accommodate exhibitions ranging from THE ART OF THE MOTORCYCLE to a retrospective of Richard Serra sculpture to comprehensive presentations of multi-media, video, and high-technology based art.

"The one quality that exhibitions of this kind require is a scale, practicality and elasticity of space that is absolutely unique, in fact impossible to find in any museum that I know of," Krens noted. "That was the challenge for Rem Koolhaas, and the result, in my opinion, is extraordinary."

Sources/resources:

GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM WEB SITE -- http://www.guggenheim.org


NEW BELLEVUE ART MUSEUM DESIGNED BY STEVEN HOLL OPENS JAN 13

BELLEVUE, WA -- Bellevue Art Museum opens the doors to its new home on January 13, 2001 with a public dedication ceremony at 10 AM.

Visually connecting museum activities to the surrounding community by means of large windows, the glass, aluminum and textured concrete structure designed by architect Steven Holl supports the Museum's mission of providing opportunities not only to see art, but also to explore and make art.

Holl's design -- incorporating an elliptical Court of Light on the rooftop and a north courtyard wall which follows the curve of the 48th parallel and allows people to watch the sun trace the arc of the wall during the summer solstice -- also reflects the architect's interest in changes in the light throughout the day and the seasons.

According to the museum, the move to the three-story 36,000 square-foot building, on the corner of Bellevue Way and NE Sixth Street, gives the Museum a presence in downtown Bellevue's pedestrian corridor. It also allows the Museum to expand its visual arts exhibitions and educational programming.

The new museum has exhibition galleries which are wired in every possible way, giving the Museum the capacity to show art utilizing new and emerging technologies. It also has four classrooms for its Museum School, including a ceramic studio with two kilns and twelve potters wheels; an interactive Explore Gallery which reflects the Museums emphasis on experiential learning; an artist-in-residence program; an auditorium equipped with state-of-the-art audio/visual equipment and moveable seating; a multimedia library; and a Museum store and cafe.

It opens with exhibitions thematically linked to the design of the new building. LUMINOUS: LIGHT AS MATERIAL, MEDIUM AND METAPHOR is an international exhibition of media art, painting, design, photography, sculpture and site-specific art focusing on artists use of light. It includes works by Iole Alessandrini, James Carl, Dan Flavin, Bonnie Porter, Mark Tobey, Bill Viola and Dan Webb and runs through June 17, 2001.

Other exhibitions to open the new museum are work by Seattle-based artist Juan Alonso which he developed with the architecture of the new building in mind, and a project by the artists collective, bureau of inverse technology which is organized around video footage of the Bellevue area, gathered by the collective with a small remote control, military-surplus aircraft.

The museum's newly established Artist-in-Residence Program will engage visitors through collaborative creative projects, demonstrations, informal discussions, lectures, classes, workshops and community outreach activities. In keeping with the building's emphasis on perception and collaboration, the first artists to use the studio in the new building are a team led by Washington-based artist and educator Donald Fels. Fels is working with optic lens designer Ed Mannery, sound artists Robert Millis and Jeffrey Taylor, and performance theater artist Warner Blake on a project that responds to Steven Holl's design of the new Museum.

Sources/resources:

BELLEVUE ART MUSEUM -- http://www.bellevueart.org
tel: 425-519-0770
Fax: 425-637-1799


Conferences

SAN FRANCISCO, CA
January 28-30, 2001
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

DIGITAL INDEPENDENCE 2001: INDEPENDENT MEDIAMAKERS CONFRONT THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

"Is the digital media revolution opening-up new creative and financial opportunities for independent mediamakers? Will indies gain real independence through digital technologies?"

With curated screenings and a technology expo focusing exclusively on the impact of the digital media transformation on independent mediamakers, DIGITAL INDEPENDENCE 2001: INDEPENDENT MEDIAMAKERS CONFRONT THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION is a National Conference on the State of Independent Production and Distribution.

The event will bring together independent makers of film and television, web-casting and video games. Highlighting four principal themes -- legal/regulatory, technical, business and creative -- the conference will provide a setting for cross-fertilization, networking, education and informed debate as to the future of independent mediamaking.

Plenary Sessions include:

THE DIGITAL MEDIA CHALLENGE
Gigi Sohn, Ford Foundation
Warrington Hudlin, maker/dvRepublic
Jan Hauser, Sun Microsystems
Rob Nilsson, maker/"Chalk"
Mod: Denise Caruso, formerly NY TIMES
"Everything is going digital -- and independents are scrambling to adapt. But just what is the transition in technology all about, really? And where's the money? What are the tools? Some obstacles for independents are the same ones we've always faced -- yet often disguised as "unique to our time" -- but others really are new. Get the Big Picture and be ahead of the curve."

NEW DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION OPTIONS
Lucy Mohl, Real Network
Robin Mudge, Pearson Broadband
Kim Spencer, WorldLink TV
Steve Welch, KQED
Pamela Arthur, Westport Media Res.
"The big guys maintain their market dominance through controlling distribution and end-user reception. This panel will expose the pluses and minuses of webcasting, digital broadcast satellite (DBS), digital cable- casting, and handheld platforms -- and workable combinations -- for independent mediamakers."

INDEPENDENTS AROUND THE WORLD
Tikoy Aguiluz, Philippines film specialist
Roger Garcia, Chinese/Asian film specialist/"Hit Man"
German rep
David Wallace (UK)
"The digital revolution is global -- and we aren't alone. In fact, often independents in Asia and Europe are way ahead of us in creating and opening new production and distribution techniques. Here are snap-shot profiles from around the world, from people who are on the front lines, of brilliant alternatives you can use right here at home."

Breakout Sessions include "Intellectual Property in a Digital Age - An Oxymoron?"; "Personal Video & Public Access: The Future of Media Arts Centers"; "Making the Web Work: Promoting and Distributing Your Film Online"; "Streaming Video: An Alternative to TV?"; "1st Amendment Rights in a Digital Age -- What cannot be said in free, digital society?"

Presenters include conference organizer David Rosen; Brad deGraaf, computer animation; Jan Hauser, design engineer; Natalie Jeremijenko, technoartist; Michael Nash, Warner Music Group; Sally Fifer, Bay Area Video Coalition Claire Aguilar, Independent TeleVision Service (ITVS) Ken Jordan, Media Channel, Sonic Net and Charles Benton, Public Media.

Presented with the cooperation and support of: American Film Institute; American Museum of the Moving Image; Bay Area Video Coalition; California Arts Council; Directors Guild of America Film Arts Foundation; Ford Foundation; Independent Television Service Institute for Global Futures; Museum of Modern Art, New York City; National Alliance for Media Arts & Culture; Rockefeller Foundation; Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers

For details including registration information, visit http://www.digitalindies.com



BOSTON, MA
February 24-25, 2001
New England Aquarium Conference Center

ENARRATIVE 2: HYPERTEXT NARRATIVE FLASH TIME:
CREATING WEB EXPERIENCES WITH LASTING IMPACT

"The role of narrative in the Web experience is a pressing concern throughout the Web world, from entertainment to ecommerce. How can we manage the narrative experience in the presence of both interaction and animation?"

At ENARRATIVE 2, a small group of writers, designers, and theoreticians will look at these questions, while focusing on two core time-based concerns, equally important to ecommerce, Web marketing, electronic art, and education. They are: creating one intense moment of communication; and crafting an ongoing experience that engages the audience for days, weeks, or even years.

Participants include Mark Bernstein, Eastgate, hypertext publisher; designer of the new-technology Storyspace; Diane Greco, Eastgate author of CYBORG and hypertext editor; and Donna Leishman, Glasgow School of Art, author of LITTLE RED RIDINGHOOD, pursuing a Ph.D. in interactive storytelling

For details, visit http://www.eNarrative.org/



COLLEGE PARK, MD
University of Maryland

CONSTRUCTING CYBERCULTURE(S) and
CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN/AND CYBERSPACE

Two University of Maryland Cyberculture Working Group conferences will address cyberculture this spring. They are: