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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2007 > June
June 2007
Austin Lyric Opera hires new general director
The Board of Trustees of Austin Lyric Opera announced today the appointment of Kevin Patterson as General Director of the 20-year-old company.
Patterson is currently the Director of Artistic Administration for the Pittsburgh Opera, overseeing casting, artistic and production planning for the mainstage company, as well as for the Pittsburgh Opera Center, its young artist training program.
Patterson replaces artistic director Richard Buckley, who resigned as artistic director in December after four years and after dissatisfaction from members of the opera’s board with Buckley’s availability because of his other work commitments. A week later, managing director Tamara Hale resigned.
Hale’s resignation was a result of the opera board’s desire to consider a new management structure — chiefly the hiring of a general director who would replace both the artistic director and managing director positions.
A graduate of the Indiana University School of Music with a bachelor of arts in music, Patterson also holds a Masters of Business Administration degree from Indiana Wesleyan University. He also serves as vice-chairman of Opera America’s Production/Technical Committee and is an artistic advisor to the Asheville Lyric Opera.
He and his wife, Dana, have a young daughter, Janelle.
Although his appointment with Austin Lyric Opera is effective July 1, Patterson will be sharing his time with Pittsburgh Opera as completing his work there. He will start full time in Austin Oct. 1.
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Sculptor Bruce Wolfe selected to create new Barbara Jordan statue
Artist Bruce Wolfe of Piedmont, Calif., has been chosen to create a statue of Barbara Jordan, the first statue of a woman to be installed on The University of Texas at Austin campus.
Jordan, who died in 1996, was a UT professor and the first female African American member of Congress from a Southern state.
Wolfe also sculpted the 7-foot-tall statue of Jordan that stands in the baggage claim area at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.
University President William Powers Jr. said the Barbara Jordan Statue Advisory Committee unanimously recommended the artist after a nationwide search conducted during the fall semester of 2006. The commemorative bronze statue will be placed at Battle Oaks northwest of UT’s Main Building and Tower. The unveiling is tentatively scheduled for spring 2009.
“The university community is very proud that Barbara Jordan’s presence will remain visible on the campus where she spent her final 17 years as a teacher and mentor,” Powers said. “Throughout her lifetime, Barbara Jordan broke down the barriers of race and gender in a distinguished list of American ‘firsts,’ most notably in the Texas Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives. And so we are elated that she will be the first woman memorialized in bronze on our campus. This is a great moment for the entire UT family and for the people of Texas.”
Wolfe’s selection concludes the second search to find an artist to create a sculpture of Jordan.
In spring 2006, after a national search, the committee recommended a design by New Mexico sculptor Kim Crowley, who had portrayed Jordan sitting on a bench, reaching back as if to pull something out of a briefcase. But some community members complained that the statue didn’t capture the power or presence of Jordan. Others argued that it didn’t even look like her.
Last summer the committee of about 15 students, staff, faculty and alumni decided to reject Crowley’s design and restart the process. In January, the committee selected four finalists who were then commissioned to create maquettes or small models of statues. In April, the maquettes went on display on campus and public feedback was solicited. A series of open forums were also held on campus and in around the community.
For many years, members of the UT community discussed the need for greater ethnic and gender diversity in the statues and other prominent works of art on campus. Students took the initiative in 2003 by passing a referendum mandating that a $1 per student fee be collected to erect two statues on campus, representing a Latino and a woman who had made significant contributions to society. Student-initiated committees recommended that the statues be of two nationally recognized champions of civil rights: Jordan and civil rights and labor leader Cesar Chavez.
A statue of Dr. Martin Luther King on the east mall was unveiled in 1999.
Meggie Sudderth, incoming chair of the Barbara Jordan Statue Project Committee, said Wolfe impressed his artistic ability, knowledge of Barbara Jordan and sensitivity to the site where the sculpture will reside. “Based on the quality of the work he submitted, we are confident he will produce a piece that is right for the UT Austin community, and will capture her spirit and memory,” she said.
Among the artist’s more prominent is a portrait of Asian Art Commissioner and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Chong-Moon Lee is at the New Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. A likeness of heart transplant pioneer Dr. Norman Shumway was unveiled in May 2004 at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Two 1996 bronzes of George P. Shultz, former secretary of state, are at Stanford University and at Hebrew University in Israel.
Wolfe received his training at San Jose State University and the Art Institute of San Francisco. He has studied with Bettina Steinke and Bruno Lucchesi and has taught figure painting at San Francisco’s Academy of Art, as well as sculpture and painting at the College of Arts in Oakland, Calif.
“I want to thank the people of Austin who voted for my depiction of Barbara Jordan,” said Wolfe. “For me this is a lifetime achievement award. She was a woman without equal. This is a great honor.”
Barbara Jordan sculpture maquette by David Wolfe. Images from Barbara Jordan Statue Committee.
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Refresher: Austin ranks high in arts, not in philanthropy, study says
People seem to be surprised that the Dallas Morning News reported that Austin receives more per capita state arts funding than other major Texas cities
A surprise? Not really, if you’ve been charting the history of Austin arts funding. As a refresher, here’s a story we ran last December on our front page that charts a more comprehensive review of Austin arts funding than an analysis of TCA funding can offer.
American-Statesman December 16, 2006
We love an arty party in Austin.
But we’re not too keen on anteing up for the arts.
A new study released Friday by the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan Washington research group, ranks Austin the No. 2 city in the country when it comes to hosting nonprofit arts festivals. Only Columbus, Ohio, bested Austin with more nonprofit community celebrations, festivals, fairs and parades.
However, when it comes to contributing funds to the arts, Austin doesn’t even make the top 50. Of metropolitan areas with populations of a million or more, Austin ranks 51.
What gives? Or rather, why don’t we give more money to the arts?
The answer may lie in one of Austin’s biggest drawing cards: its youth. Philanthropy is not just a function of wealth but age: the older, the better.
“Austin is an affluent town, and very educated, but it’s young,” said Peter J. Frumkin, director of the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service at the University of Texas. The median age in Austin is 29.6, according to a 2005 survey by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Although young people attend arts events, they aren’t as likely to pony up the big bucks like their older counterparts. They’re busy making money, not giving it away.
“People typically wait until their careers are settled,” Frumkin said. “A lot of people who have made big money here are not ready to step back from their careers and focus on philanthropy.”
Austinites are ready to work in the arts, though. The city is 11th in the number of artist jobs per capita. And in terms of cultural facilities and nonprofit organizations, the city is 13. But Austin ranks 40th in arts expenditures.
In creating the rankings, Urban Institute researchers used 2003 data from the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the institute’s National Center for Charitable Statistics.
The report, “Cultural Vitality in Communities: Interpretation and Indicators” scans the nation’s 61 largest metropolitan areas and ranks the top 50 by seven different measures.
The Urban Institute not only looked at symphony concerts, operas and museums but also drumming circles, quilting bees, poetry slams and street murals.
All the more expected, then, that Austin would top the charts, even though commercial ventures such as South By Southwest and the Austin City Limits Festival weren’t counted.
“Austin has the reputation of really celebrating the quirky, the free, the independent arts rather than supporting established organizations with big donations,” Frumkin said.
The back story on some recent cultural projects bears that out.
The Blanton Museum of Art may be Austin’s biggest and newest crown jewel.
But Austinites chipped in a little less than 20 percent of the $83.5 million price tag on the UT museum. Statewide alumni and foundations accounted for the majority of donors.
Houston, long known for donors with deep pockets and civic pride, tops the arts philanthropy scale in Texas (ranked 28), while Dallas ranks 30 and Fort Worth 43. San Antonio ranks 47.
The San Francisco region ranked No. 1 on three key measures: nonprofit arts organizations, artist jobs and employment in commercial and nonprofit arts establishments. Washington was tops in nonprofit arts spending and contributions.
Experienced Austin arts fundraisers don’t find the latest data discouraging.
Cliff Redd, executive director of the Long Center for the Performing Arts, noted that a small but important group of donors has made Austin home to a symphony orchestra, opera and ballet companies as well as hundreds of smaller groups.
He added that Austin’s major arts donors have already made a convincing leadership case for a new group of maturing future philanthropists. The Long Center, which will open in 2008, has raised more than $72 million toward its $77 million goal.
“Philanthropy is a learned attribute,” Redd said. “And the good news is, we are learning.”
Cookie Ruiz, executive director of Ballet Austin, is optimistic about future philanthropy.
“With a thriving community of young professionals who are actively engaging in our arts community, it is my guess that as they grow professionally, so will our city’s collective giving to our arts ecology,” she said.
Ruiz touts Austin’s community of artists as a major asset.
“It is wonderful to see that we rank near the top for the number of working artists,” she said. “Should we cease to be a city where artists want to live, that loss would be unrecoverable.
“Our high concentration of working artists should become an issue of city and regional pride, and a resource to be protected with the passion we devote to the protection of our environment,” Ruiz said.
HOW THE AREAS RANK
The 50 metropolitan areas (population more than 1 million) with the most arts nonprofits per 1,000 population
- San Francisco
- New York
- Washington
- Boston
- Seattle/Bellevue/Everett, Wash.
- Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.
- New Haven/Stamford, Conn.
- Oakland, Calif.
- Hartford, Conn.
- Portland, Ore./Vancouver, Wash.
- Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, N.C.
- Milwaukee
- Austin/San Marcos
- Rochester, N.Y.
- Buffalo, N.Y.
The 50 metropolitan areas (population more than 1 million) with the most nonprofit contributions per 1,000 population
- Washington
- San Francisco
- New York
- Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.
- Seattle/Bellevue/Everett, Wash.
- Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, N.C.
- Hartford, Conn.
- Boston
- Nashville, Tenn.
- Los Angeles
- Denver
- Cincinnati
- Philadelphia
- Norfolk/Virginia Beach/Newport News, Va.
- Newark, N.J.
Source: Urban Institute
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Arts funding capital of Texas?
Does Austin get the lion’s share of state arts funding because it’s the capital of the Lone Star State?
That’s what an article in the Dallas Morning News points out.
Analyzing five years of statistics from Texas Commission on the Arts, the DMN reports that Austin has received more money per capita for the arts than Dallas, Houston or San Antonio. According to the DMN number crunching, Austin arts groups have netted almost $3.6 million in state arts grants since 2002. That’s about $5.50 for each Austin resident. In Dallas and San Antonio, the TCA grants about $1.50 per person in Dallas and San Antonio; in Houston t $1.80.
And that has some in the Metroplex fuming. Here’s the stinger that really jumps out of the article:
“The quality of the arts in Houston, in Dallas, in San Antonio, certainly merit more state funding than what Austin does,” said Maria Muñoz-Blanco, director of Dallas’ Office of Cultural Affairs. “It’s a lovely city. But culturally speaking, outside of live music, I don’t know how Austin can compete.”
Whoa.
Sure — Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth all have much larger arts institutions than Austin. And more importantly they have a lot more deep-pocket donors and established philanthropic foundations than we do here in egalitarian-oriented, historically democratic Austin.
For example, well-funded places like the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas and the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth don’t even bother with the bureaucratically intense state arts funding process. Indeed, given the relatively small dollar grants the TCA awards — typically at the level of a few thousand dollars each, not a few hundred-thousand dollars — it’s really only worth it for medium and small arts groups to apply for state money. Plus, smaller groups need the imprimatur of legitimacy that a TCA grant implies. The Kimbell, by comparison, doesn’t need to prove to anyone, let alone a state agency, that it’s a first-rate museum. And they don’t need to go through a paperwork quagmire to get a few thousand bucks.
But many small and medium size groups — like the ones that have always filled Austin’s arts landscape — do rely on TCA grants. And here in Austin, they also rely on a nurturing community ready to embrace all manner of artistic experiments.
Indeed, I think Austin is a much better incubator for indie arts than Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth and San Antonio. The other Lone Star cities might get more national or international attention for their well-heeled, well-moneyed arts institutions — or at least they have in the past. But as cities they don’t compete when it comes to cultivating new arts, new ideas and risk-taking creativity.
Change up at Austin Script Works
Austin Script Works, Texas’ largest playwright development organization, announces that Colin Denby Swanson will be leaving her post as artistic director, effective June 30.
Swanson, who has led the organization for the past three years, will be leaving to concentrate full-time on her own writing career. A 2007/2008 participant in the National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group Theater Residency Program for Playwrights, she will be working with Zachary Scott Theatre Center to develop a new play about the late Clifford Antone.
Christina J. Moore, current ASW Producing Director, will become the organization’s executive director. Moore was a co-founder of Austin Script Works in 1997 along with Emily Ball Cicchini, the late David Mark Cohen and a group of twenty core writers.
“I am so proud of all we accomplished in our first decade,” Moore said. “Dozens of plays developed in our programming have received productions locally and around the country. I look forward to continuing our mission of service to the playwriting community and extending our network to create even more avenues for development, production and publishing.” Moore has a 20-year history developing and directing new plays by writers such as John Walch, Dan Dietz, Amparo Garcia-Crow, Cyndi Williams, Kirk Smith, David Gunderson, and Steven Tomlinson.
Swanson succeeded former artistic directors — and playwrights — Cohen, John Walch and Dan Dietz in 2004. Under Swanson’s leadership, ASW hosted the 2005 Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas conference, launched its Latino Playwright Initiative and the 30/60/90 daily writing practice and continued to develop local and national partnerships on behalf of its 100-plus members.
“Austin has a national reputation as a hotbed of playwriting, and Austin Script Works is at the center of it,” Swanson says. “It’s been my privilege to work with ASW and its writer members for the past three years, and I look forward to remaining close to the organization as a board member and active participant in its programs.”
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Lone Star state of mind?
You have until Saturday — that’s TOMORROW — to catch Tom Molloy’s brilliant ‘Lone Star’ exhibit at Lora Reynolds Gallery.
Using different yet always meticulously crafted media, the Irish artist — who’s having his very first U.S. solo show right here in the Lone Star State —creates work that is rich with deep yet subtle messages about global politics, violence/war, peace and political and personal freedom.
With painstaking skill he’s cut the map of the world from a single one dollar U.S. bill. Then, as if to match, he’s also cut the ornamental borders from a dollar bill, discarding all of the other graphic content — the monetary value? — and leaving just the frills.
A stand-out piece is “Lone Star.” Molloy painted 50 cards to look exactly like BB gun carnival shooting targets. “All Star (Red) Must Be Shot From Card To Win Prize,” each one reads, and they are numbered from 1 to 50. Molloy even punched holes in them to make them look as if they’ve been riddled with BB shot. He then installed them on the gallery row arranged to mimic the stars in the U.S. flag.
There’s a gentleness to the commentary on gun violence in “Lone Star.” Smartly, Molloy isn’t relying on irony, cynicism or the kind of one-liner so often found in conceptual art. That goes for the entire body of work on view. Maybe it’s the sincerity of effort in his meticulously crafted art objects. Maybe it’s the subtlety of his content. Probably it’s both.
In the end, Molloy speaks volumes with a delicate touch.
“Map.”
“Border.”
‘Lone Star.”
Images courtesy Lora Reynolds Gallery.
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Zach Scott extends bi-lingual Jesus Christ Superstar
Zach Scott is extending the run of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar/ Jesucristo Superestrella,’ artistic director Dave Steakley’s bilingual Latino-themed production of the popular rock musical.
Originally set to close July 15, the show now runs to Aug. 12. See the Zach Scott web site for ticket info.
Photo by Kirk R. Tuck.
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The teen touch
Looks like some things really are family traditions.
Rosalind Faires — the lovely daughter of local actress Barbara Chisholm and Austin Chronicle arts critic (and actor/director) Robert Faires — along with her pals Jessica Rife, Circe Torosian and Sadie Wolfe — will present Week 32 of Suzan-Lori Parks’ ‘365 Plays/365 Days’.
Austin is one of several cities around the country taking part in the ambitious play cycle by the Pulitzer prize-winner. See, in November 2002, Parks sat down and committed to writing a play a day for the next 365 days. Some are super-short; others thoughtful brevities. Participating theater companies each take a week of plays and put their own spin on them.
Believe it or not, as the Eva Street Players this ambitious tribe of 14-year-olds has been making theater together for four years. But we think that a lot of theater just crops up pretty regularly in the Chisholm-Faires household. In fact, we think the family just routinely breaks out into theater the way the Von Trapp family broke out into song.
The performance is Friday at 5 p.m. in Zachary Scott Theatre Center’s Arena Stage, 1510 Toomey Road. Mom Barbara Chisholm directs.
All are welcome. Admission is by donation of a canned or shelf-stable food item.
You go, girls!
I love dust!
Hustle, hurry over to Okay Mountain before June 30 and see “Thickly Settled,” the beguiling installation by Jeff Williams.
Williams manages to play it multiple ways, making his fake dust-encrusted arrangements of quotidian household stuff project both a wry humor and also a foreboding unease. Currently a Fellow in the Core Program at the Museum of Fine Arts-Houston, Williams is presenting his first solo exhibit here. And he’s demonstrating his dexterity with an electrostatic charge and craft-flocking sprayer.
But mostly Williams is giving us a deep well to draw our own ideas from. Is this a comment on our over-cluttered consumer culture? Our transient, rootless modern lives? Or is this some futuristic snapshot of environmental disaster?
You decide.
Images courtesy Okay Mountain.
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Shopping in Venice and Basel for Austin
Reporting from the Venice Biennial and Art Basel fairs, the Art Newspaper was on the lookout for private collectors who were doing a little art shopping:
“Also much in evidence, were Kentucky collectors Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson, who announced plans at Art Basel to build a $200 million residential, commercial and cultural development in Austin, Texas, modelled closely on their 21C museum-hotel in Louisville, Kentucky. Their purchases for the Austin complex includes pieces from both Venice and Basel, and they are still buying.**
Last week, we announced that Brown and Wilson were behind the plans for a contemporary art-filled hotel-condo project slated for 3rd and Brazos streets. Though not a spade of dirt has been turned, looks like the collectors are at least doing their part by, well, collecting.
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Blanton Museum director to retire
Blanton Museum of Art director Jessie Otto Hite announced today that she will retire in March 2008. Hite, 60, has been at the University of Texas art museum for 28 years. She said she plans to take a year off before making any further career decisions.
“It just seems like a good time for me and for the museum to make the move now,” she said.
Hite’s long tenure and tenacious leadership is credited with seeing the Blanton Museum of Art through some very tumultuous times that made the new $83.5 million UT institution a reality. Opened last year, the Blanton is the largest university art museum in the country with important collections in Latin American art , American art and prints and drawings.
A native of Houston, Hite joined the museum’s staff in 1979 as a part-time curatorial assistant. She then went to become an assistant curator then to assistant director of public affairs within five years.
Hite assumed the directorship in 1993 just as UT began in earnest to build a major new art museum. A highly publicized architect search led to the Swiss firm of Herzog and de Meuron, known for their ultra-modern style. But in 1999 the UT regents rejected the forward-looking building. Supporters of the design demonstrated on campus.
Hite decided to stick it out. “I knew that if I left, the new museum project might get put on the back burner — maybe even for good,” she recalled last year when the new museum opened. “I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t just walk away.”
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Free theater is a good thing …
Austin Circle of Theaters and Theatre Communications Group just announced the results of a survey of participants of the 2006 Free Night of Theater held in 14 cities including Austin on October 16, 2006.
Free Night of Theater is a national program of Theatre Communications Group, the premier service organization for nonprofit theater in the USA. Free Night is presented locally by regional partner service organizations such as ACoT. The program offers a pair of free tickets — via online reservation — to anyone who has not been to the theater before — or who hasn’t been to see the work of a particular theater group before.
The final research from the 2006 Free Night of Theater program revealed audience habits and demographics for the 14 cities where 387 participating theater companies presented 522 performances offering 35,627 tickets nationally. Free Night of Theater 2006 was held in Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Cleveland, Connecticut, Washington D.C., New Jersey, North Carolina, Philadelphia, Seattle, Los Angeles, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, San Francisco Bay Area and the state of Wisconsin (which I guess counted as a city …).
The bottom line: People like theater and want to go.
The findings specific to Austin:
— 76 percent said the theater they visited during Free Night of Theatre was their first time to that theater.
— 51 percent said that the ability to try a new theater was important in their decision to attend Free Night of Theatre.
— 36 percent returned to the venue chosen for Free Night of Theater after the Free Night of Theater event.
— 81 percent purchased tickets for professional theater since Free Night of Theater.
— 31 percent said they are attending theater more often as a result of Free Night of Theater.
— 90 percent of Austinites attending Free Night of Theatre rate it as Excellent/Very.
— 92 percent said they were very likely to attend Free Night of Theatre again
KEY FINDINGS NATIONALLY:
— The program attracted a significant number of people who fall into nontraditional theater participant categories, including infrequent theater attendees, younger people, less educated, non-white and those with lower incomes. Specifically, 24 percent of those at Free Night of Theater attended the theater 2 or fewer times in the past year, 31 percent are under age 35, 18 percent have less than a college degree, 26 percent are non-white, and 33 percent have incomes of less than $50,000. Diversity is evident in all regions.
— Free Night of Theater exposed many to several new aspects of their theater experience, including a venue or company they hadn’t previously attended or a type of play they usually don’t see. Two out of three (67 percemt) chose to attend a theater they hadn’t been to before. Significant numbers, overall, in each region, and across demographic categories, said an important reason for attending Free Night of Theater was that they could try something different without worrying about whether they would get their money’s worth. For example, many said they attended because they could risk seeing a play they hadn’t heard of since it was free (60 percent), they could try a new theater without worrying about the cost (45 percent), or they could see a type of play they usually don’t choose to see (42 percent). A modest, but significant number (15 percent) said Free Night of Theater gave them the opportunity to see theater for the first time, again a fact in each region and for non-traditional attendee groups.
Shugoll Research in Bethesda, Md., conducted an online quantitative survey with program participants to understand the impact Free Night of Theater had on the their theatergoing habits and the profile of people who attended.
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Cookie Ruiz named head of Dance/USA
Ballet Austin’s executive director, Cookie Ruiz, was named the chairwoman of the board of trustees for Dance/USA Thursday night at their annual national conference held this year in Chicago.
The energetic Austin arts leader will preside for two years over a board of 40 trustees and will represent the full dance industry on the combined national advocacy board of opera, dance, symphony, and theater. Ballet Austin’s artistic director, Stephen Mills, accompanied Ruiz to the roundtable where she officially assumed her duties.
Of her tenure, Ruiz says, “My two-year focus will be national branding initiative for dance and building the national funding capacity dedicated to dance.” She adds, “I am also involved in a national task force on dancer health and in building a national model for dancer career transition.” As her term begins, Dance/USA kicks off its 25th anniversary. Dance/USA has 387 member organizations around the world.
Ruiz joined the staff of Ballet Austin as development director, became general manager in 1997 and executive director in 1999. She also is chairwoman of the “Create Austin” cultural planning process and is a member of the national Board of Directors of the American Arts Alliance (Washington D.C.), the Association of Fundraising Professionals.
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Inside the Long Center
You still need a hard hat and an invitation to get inside the Long Center to see how the $77 million performing arts center is coming along. But after months of looking like, well, just a bunch of construction, it’s now looking much like a theater inside.
And what a theater it promises to be. The 2,400 Michael and Susan Dell Foundation Hall features parterre, mezzanine and balcony levels that wrap around the interior walls of the hall to form boxes at each level. The intimacy of theater is stunning. Every level has an immediate, palpable connection with the stage. Dare we say every seat in the house promises to be a good seat? Might be so.
American-Statesman photographer Ralph Berrera joined us on a tour with Long Center director Cliff Redd and board president, donor and building namesake Joe Long. We saw inside the Dell Hall and went out to yet-to-be-enclosed donor lounges that offer a stunning view of downtown Austin.
Long Center executive director Cliff Redd.
Joe Long (left) and Cliff Redd.
Joe Long.
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Not on ‘the Grand Tour’?
The well-funded arterati might be off on the so-called Grand Tour of 2007. What with the Venice Biennale; the annual Art Basel in Switzerland; Documenta, which is held every five years in Kassel, Germany; and the once-a-decade Munster Sculpture Project hitting all in the same summer, organizers wised up and planned so the jet set could sequentially and conveniently jet to the parties — oops, I mean see the art — at all four fests.
But before there was so much big buzz surrounding international biennials and art fairs — back before every place even had a biennial like nowadays — the Lone Star State had “New American Talent.”
Organized by Arthouse, the super-hip contemporary arts presenter that was formerly that not-so-hip Texas Fine Arts Association, “New American Talent” is now in its 22nd annual incarnation. This year’s show features the work of 45 artists from the United States — 15 of whom currently live and work in Texas.
The curator this year is Anne Ellegood, associate curator of the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden.
And as usual, the opening — Friday, 8 to 11 p.m. — will be a blowout.
Rebecca Rothfus
William Hundley
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Dancing about architecture
Sally Jacques and company are at it again. Dancing with architecture, that is.
Last year that eyesore of our urban landscape — the concrete-and-rebar unfinished shell of the Intel Corp. building — was transformed into a graceful stage, thanks to Jacques and her collaborators: principal dancers Laura Cannon and Nicole Whiteside along with lighting designer extraordinaire Jason Amato. Harnessed to the six-story building skeleton and dangling on ropes and bungee cords Cannon, Whiteside and company soared above our heads like balletic angels.
Now, a pair of 1970s institutional modernist buildings are getting their turn. Starting tomorrow, Jacques et al. are using the federal courthouse buildings and Plaza at East Eighth and Trinity streets to stage “Constellation”, the latest site-specific aerial, acrobatic dance to alight on the downtown Austin cityscape.
American-Statesman photographer Brian K. Diggs grabbed a few stunning shots of Cannon and Whiteside during a recent rehearsal.
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Arty condo hotel cum museum?
An art-filled condominium/hotel is being proposed for downtown Austin.
Developers today will announce a $200 million project at Third and Brazos streets that is to include a 21c Museum Hotel, the second such project following the successful opening of one last year in Louisville, Ky. Read the full story here
Behind the project are investors and avid contemporary art collectors Steve Wilson and his wife, Laura Lee Brown, of Louisville, who conceived of the 21c Museum Hotel in their hometown.
While Wilson and Brown have luminaries in their collection (estimated to be worth around $10 milion) such as Chuck Close, Andres Serrano, Bill Viola, Louise Bourgeious and David Hockney, Wilson told me last week that he and his wife prefer to “go for the gut reaction.” The collectors make their decisions solo, without a consulting curator steering their acquisition. The couple also restrict their collection to work by living artists. “I tell artists that once they’re dead, we’re through with them,” Wilson deadpanned over the phone. Wilson and Brown were in Venice to see the Biennale 2007 before heading to Documenta 12 and Art Basel.
While Wilson was hesitant to characterize his collecting habit, he did say that he and Brown appreciated more challenging and provocative artwork, especially projects with an ironic or slyly humorous twist.
That’s pretty evident if you look at the exhibit programming at 21c Museum Hotel in Louisville. With exhibits curated by museum and independent curators, it leans a little toward the quirky. Currently on view is “Through the Rabbit Hole: Sleights of Scale and Flights of Fantasy” organized by Alice Gray Stites, an independent curator living in Louisville. Stites used Lewis Carroll’s surrealistic sensibility as inspiration for a group show. Among the works on view is “Traveler CLXXXVI (186),” a beguiling photograph of one of the absurd and tragicomic snowglobes by Walter Martin and Paloma Muniz.
Among the site-specific commissions at 21c Museum Hotel is “Untitled (chandelier),” by Austrian artist Werner Reiterer (Austrian).
Within the last year, Wilson and Brown acquired “Well #1” by Tiffany Carbonneau. The Georgetown-based artist was featured in the Texas Biennial 2007. Although Wilson and Brown were in the planning phases of the Austin project at the time they bought Carbonneau’s piece at New York gallery, Wilson said they chose the piece not knowing Carbonneau’s Austin connection. Instead the collectors were attracted to the work’s commentary on the now-ubiquitous urban detritus: the plastic water bottle.
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Austin Critics’ Table Award Winners
Austin Critics’ Table Award Winners, 2006-2007
THEATRE
Production, Drama ‘In On It,’ dirigo group
Production, Comedy ‘The Assumption,’ Refraction Arts
Production, Musical ‘Parade,’ Mary Moody Northen Theatre
Direction Marcus McQuirter, ‘Funnyhouse of a Negro’ Dave Steakley, I’ Am My Own Wife’/’Present Laughter’/’Take Me Out’
Acting in a Leading Role Jill Blackwood, ‘As You Like It’ Breanna Stogner, ‘I Love My Dead Gay Son’/’Psycho Beach Party’ Ken Webster, ‘St. Nicholas’/’Thom Pain (based on nothing)’
Acting in a Supporting Role Ron Berry, ‘The Assumption’ Quincy Kuykendall, ‘Parade’
Ensemble Performance ‘Red Cans,’ Rubber Repertory Company
David Mark Cohen New Play Award ‘My Child, My Child, My Alien Child,’ Zell Miller III
Musical Direction Michael McKelvey, ‘The Music Man’/’Seven Brides for Seven Brothers’/’Parade’/’Big River’
Movement Robin Lewis, ”The Music Man’/’Seven Brides for Seven Brothers’/’Big River’
Touring Show, Theatre ‘Hamlet,’ Actors from the London Stage
DESIGN
Scenic Design Cliff Simon, ‘Present Laughter’ Chase Staggs, ‘The Assumption’/’Macbeth’
Costume Design Susan Branch, ‘Seven Brides for Seven Brothers’/’Present Laughter’ Sarah Mosher, ‘The Way of the World’
Lighting Design Jason Amato, ‘Requiem’/’I Am My Own Wife’/’The Souls of Our Feet’/’Take Me Out’
Sound Design William Meadows, ‘Requiem’
Video Design K. Eliot Haynes, ‘The Assumption’
DANCE
Dance Concert ‘Requiem,’ Blue Lapis Light ‘The Souls of Our Feet,’ Tapestry Dance Company
Short Work “Room,” Fuse Box Festival, Deborah Hay, Linda Austin, Tahni Holt
Choreographer Sharon Marroquin, “Creative Process: Weekday 6:00AM,” Hot September Flurries/ “Upstream,” Suite … Peggy Lee/”Prayer 1-4,” Dance Carousel 2007
Dancer Theresa Hardy, ‘Requiem’ Aara Krumpe, “Serenade”/Golden Section Nicole Whiteside, ‘Requiem’
Ensemble ‘The Souls of Our Feet,’ Tapestry Dance Company
Touring Show, Dance ‘The Bends of Life,’ Wideman/Davis Dance, Dance Umbrella
CLASSICAL MUSIC
Symphonic Performance Shostakovich: Symphony no. 13 ‘Babi Yar,’ Nikita Storojev with Austin Symphony Orchestra
Chamber Performance ‘Two to Tango: Nuevo Tangos of Astor Piazzolla,’ Austin Chamber Music Center
Choral Concert ‘Crossing the Divide’ Closing Gala Concert, Conspirare, et al.
Opera ‘Waiting for the Barbarians,’ Austin Lyric Opera
Singer Phillip Hill, ‘Plump Jack’/’Fall of the House of Usher’ Richard Salter, ‘Waiting for the Barbarians’
Original Composition/Score “DSCH” & Symphony No. 5, Graham Reynolds
Instrumentalist Marianne Gedigian, Liebermann: Flute Concerto, UT Symphony
Classical Ensemble Tosca String Quartet, Dialogues 2006/Dialogues 2007
Body of Work/Season Austin Chamber Music Center
ART:
Museum Exhibition ‘The Geometry of Hope,’ Blanton Museum of Art, Gabriel Perez-Barreiro curator
Solo Gallery Exhibition ‘Michael Seiben: Smile Forever,’ Art Palace
Group Gallery Exhibition ‘Celebrated Skin,’ Butridge Gallery, DAC, Christina Heitt, curator ‘Take Me to Bed Or Lose Me Forever,’ Volitant Gallery, Leona Scull-Hons curator
Independent Project ‘The ‘I’ of Texas,’ Luke Savisky (First Night Austin) ‘Texas Biennial 2007,’ Butridge Gallery, Okay Mountain, Site 1808, Bolm Studios
Work of Art ‘Outside In’ installation, Elaine Bradford (Okay Mountain)
Gallery, Body of Work Okay Mountain
Artist Candace Briceno
Touring Show, Art “e-Flux Video Rental,” Arthouse
SPECIAL CITATIONS
John Bustin Award for Conspicuous Versatility Bernadette Nason
W.H. “Deacon” Crain Award for Outstanding Student Work Feliz Dia McDonald, Austin Community College Daniel Adams, St. Edward’s University Corey Atkins, UT Theatre & Dance Corey Jones, UT Theatre & Dance
Addition of Note Award Ed Kliman, for his musical participation in ‘As You Like It’, ‘The Glass Menagerie,’ ‘Katrina: The Girl Who Wanted Her Name Back’ and ‘Big River’
Good Us Award All of Austin for its involvement in the ‘365 Days/365 Plays’ project
Didn’t I Blow Your Mind This Time Award Ron Berry and Refraction Arts for the newly expanded Fuse Box Festival
All Hands on Deck Award Susan Threadgill and Vince Herrod, for calling ‘Waiting for the Barbarians’
Nothing Up My Sleeve Award Austin Lyric Opera for ‘The Barber of Seville’
UN Award for Achievement in Cooperative Musicmaking St. Cecilia Music series for the Bach Christmas Oratorio
Takin’ It to the Streets Award Meredith Powell and the Austin Fine Arts Festival
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Zach Scott Theatre hires new managing director
Zachary Scott Theatre Center has hired a new managing director.
Elisbeth Challener will serve as the organization’s chief operating officer, lead the development of a new theater, and oversee production, education, fundraising, marketing and financial management.
A search committee composed of Zach Scott board members hired her last week following a national search.
As executive director of Montalvo Center for the Arts, Challener helped transform a California estate into a major concert producer and artists residency program with international stature. She moved to Austin in 2005 and has served as a nonprofit arts consultant and part-time executive director of One World Theatre.
Challener graduated from the Boston Conservatory of Music with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts in drama and musical theater. She attended the Harvard Business School Executive Education Program for nonprofits and the Center for Excellence in Nonprofit Management in San Jose, Calif. Challener did many years of summer stock, dinner theater and semi-professional theater on the east coast and in California.
Challener succeeds longtime managing director Ann Ciccolella who announced her resignation in January. Challener’s first day on the job will be July 9.
Zach Scott is in the first stages of a capital campaign to raise $25 million to support a new, 500-seat theater and education facility. Last November, Austin voters approved Proposition Four allocating $10 million in bond money for a new theater. Coupled with private capital campaign contributions, to date, Zach Scott is about halfway toward its goal of $25 million for funding the project.
Elisabeth Challener
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