Greenbrier residents really love the ArtInPlace sculpture at the corner of Dairy and 250, the 28-foot-wide wooden whale tail, so it’s not surprising that they got pretty upset when its sculptor was entertaining an offer to move to move the work to a Vienna botanical garden. Seth Rosen reports in today’s Progress that the whale tale isn’t going anywhere — the city has bought it. They’ll lease it for $3,000/year for the next five years, so long as the sculpture holds up.
Archive for the 'Art' Category
The Virginia Film Festival announced this year’s theme a few days ago, when I wasn’t looking: “kin flicks.” Film Fest director Richard Herskowitz made it known on his blog, and Jeremy Borden provides details in the Progress. It seems anything pertaining to family is up for grabs, which Herskowitz says was motivated both by a desire to get more families to attend and continue the discussion that began with last year’s gay marriage amendment. If you’ve got suggestions for films, Herskowitz is soliciting them as comments to his blog entry.
A Daily Progress article describes how Music Today is monitoring eBay and other avenues for after-market sales of tickets. This is in accordance with their terms of service, which states:
Tickets purchased through this site are intended for personal use by the buyer. We strictly prohibit the resale of any tickets obtained through this site for more than the purchase price. If you are found to be or we in good faith believe you are reselling, trading or brokering tickets for profit that you purchased through this site, we may at our sole discretion cancel all or part of your ticket order and all or part of other pending orders in your name and/or put all or part of your orders and all or part of your other pending orders in your name at will-call for pick-up only by you.
This peculiar restriction naturally will upset people who discover the policy when they are turned away at the door. One viewpoint holds that scalpers fulfill a market need for people who don’t, for a variety of reasons, purchase tickets through the official venue. The other viewpoint maintains that Music Today is welcome to set its own policies and the purchaser agreed to them when the ticket was sold.
What do you think?
Man, I’ve wanted to use that headline for years.
The couple who ran that ill-fated Thomas Kinkade gallery on the Downtown Mall have won $860,000 in their lawsuit against Kinkade, with the court having agreed that they, along with many other gallery owners, were defrauded, Kate Andrews reports in today’s Progress. That sum may well rise to $3.5M. There are 21 other dealers that have filed similar suits across the nation, all charging that Kinkade forced dealers to buy prints (”paintings”) at vastly inflated rates, undercut them at area discount stores, and then refused to let the dealers lower their prices.
These things run nearly a grand apiece, but Tuesday Morning might sell them for under a hundred bucks, leaving nobody to buy the stuff at the downtown gallery. The couple have now realized that the “I’m just a humble Christian businessman” schtick of Kinkade’s is B.S. Here’s hoping they’ve realized that his work is garbage, too.
03/05 Update: The L.A. Times has a big-big story about this. Turns out Kinkade is a drunk, fondles women, and engages in public urination as “ritual territory marking,” as he calls it.
Twenty-four year-old Erin Crowe has gained national fame in the past couple of days as word has spread about her oil paintings of Alan Greenspan. Cable news networks and major newspapers have been profiling the UVa grad and the surprising popularity of the works, which she created for a local art show a couple of years ago. She told the Post “He has a great face for portraiture. Each painting I did, I wanted to do more…. It’s fascinating, his hands, the wrinkles in his face, his forehead, his combover.” CNN’s got the skinny, or you could just turn on your TV.
City Manager Gary O’Connell’s budget recommended ending the Percent for Art fund, but that’s not keeping Council from continuing to fund the Art in Place program. Several members of Council want to provide the $5,000 annual allocation by way of their $85,000 reserve fund, rather than going through the traditional funding process, John Yellig reports in the Progress. There are no shortage of folks in this town who are seriously opposed to Art in Place getting either public funding or public space, though there are also many people (myself included) who believe that public art is important in a “world class” city. (We’ve had debates about Art in Place before.)
Rob Schilling is, of course, opposed to this allocation, but he’s refusing to say whether or not he supports Art in Place. In fact, he’s generally opposed to the use of the reserve fund, telling the Progress: “It became very clear to me that this is something the city manager sets aside so the council can pay off their friends. It was like handing out candy on Halloween.”
Remember the offbeat sculpture that used to stand in Fashion Square Mall — the bronze, life-sized sculpture of the commuting, suit-wearing businessman, traveling via pogo stick? The smile-inducing piece always seemed more suited for the Downtown Mall than the sterile environs of Fashion Square, and when Simon Properties started on the remodeling of the mall a few years ago, they apparently agreed, and got rid of it. Friday afternoon, Bud Hambleton’s “The Commuter” will be unveiled at its new, old home — the Nantucket waterfront, where it stood in front of a gallery in the late 70s. Nantucket’s Inquirer and Mirror has the story.
fdr writes: Driving along on Rt. 250 this morning, near the fire station between Meadowbrook and Hydraulic, I saw the sun glinting off a scupture. It wasn’t the Art in Place lions, a quarter mile further down the road — it was a piece, apparently built as commentary on the “Art in Place” art, made from (as best I could tell at 50 mph) shiny pieces of trash. Anyone else see it? Bets on how long it will remain up, if it hasn’t already been removed?
“Man in Motion,” the ArtInPlace sculpture on Emmett Street near the Barracks intersection, was vandalized recently with spray-painted smiley faces, but ArtInPlace and the artist’s only complaint is that the vandals weren’t sufficiently creative. “My biggest issue is, I didn’t think it was done very well,” said creator Edward Pelton. “When someone first said there was graffiti on it, I was hoping it would be something like you see on the coal tower.” Pelton went on to explain that he’s planning a mobile sculpture for the purpose of attracting graffiti, such that the art could be modified by anybody that saw fit to do so. Elizabeth Nelson has the story in today’s Progress.
The worst-kept secret in town has been announced: Live Arts, Second Street Gallery and Lighthouse have teamed up to build the City Center for Contemporary Arts, a new structure on Second and Water to house all three organizations. The four-story, 27,000 square foot building is mostly used by Live Arts, with gallery space and classroom space for the other two organizations on the bottom floor. You’ll have to read Jane Dunlap Norris’ article in today’s Progress to get all of the detils on this impressive new building.
Council decided 5-0 on Monday evening to continue funding for Art in Place for a second year. The public art program has placed seven sculptures around Charlottesville in locations where they would receive the most exposure from passers-by, in an effort to make art accessible to the general public. Two of those sculptures didn’t last more than a few months prior to being removed due to vandalism. The city will be spending $10,000 to support the program for FY2002, expanding the number of installments to ten. WVIR had the story on this evening’s broadcast.
The Bayly Art Museum has a new name: University of Virginia Art Museum. It seems that it became known as the Bayly Art Museum because it’s in the Thomas H. Bayly Museum. More important, this is the first step in their plan to build a $30M, 41k-square-foot museum next door. The museum director points out that “the name of the museum could change again to reflect a major gift.” Dave Matthews Band Art Museum, anyone? Erin Montgomery has the story in today’s Cav. Daily.
Charlottesville’s most productive artist left town a few years ago, but now you can find him on-line. Yup, Steve Keene is now selling on-line. What’s especially cool is that you don’t get to pick out your painting — you can buy a small painting for $8, or a large one for $12. Some things never change.
munk writes: So, it seems the Live Arts Gala has been set for June 21. $250 per person may be a pretty penny for the years biggest party, but it’s (probably) worth it.
I hope so. The last Nine Lives of the Arts cost just as much, and that was miserable.
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