wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

The Baryshnikov Arts Center has (finally!) officially purchased the 299-seat Jerome Robbins Theater adjacent to the three floors that it owns in the 37 Arts building. The closing was yesterday - thanks in part to $2.5 mil from the Jerome Robbins Foundation, matched by Baryshnikov, the BAC paid in cash! The renovated theater will open next year, featuring a mix of rentals and BAC presentations, with the Wooster Group for a resident company and lots of other creative residencies. We’re talking multidisciplinary experimentation: theater, dance, music, film and more. Hooray!

Photo by Ryan Dunn

The sale was long delayed because of a conflict between the seller and the building’s general contractor. It was then erroneously reported that the BAC was itself in financial disarray – a major PR headache for the center, obviously, but the delay led to a neat development: the Orchestra of St. Luke’s became interested in buying the two theaters that constitute the remainder of 37 Arts. The orchestra and the center arranged to buy simultaneously: the Jerome Robbins Theater will have for its neighbor the DiMenna Center for Classical Music.

I spoke with the BAC’s executive director, Stanford Makishi, last week in anticipation of the closing. What’s it like conducting a $14 million capital campaign ($4.5 million to go) during an economic meltdown, I wondered. Granted, an institution built around the most (only?) famous man in dance might not be the best test case. The center’s benefit, held last night, sold out. I got a sneak peek on Tuesday (I’m not allowed to write about it, but suffice it to say that Baryshnikov still has the best hands in the business - even when giving the finger to a fellow performer):

Read more »

Can Lincoln Center save public television? Can public television make the Lincoln Center campus “more transparent and welcoming”?

Can anything save City Opera? Can we at least have a public television reality show about its demise if not?

Here come the cuts.

“The Art of Participation,” installation view at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; photo: Ian Reeves, courtesy SFMOMA

Museums, as we’ve discussed, are eager to engage with their public in ways that move beyond handing out headphones. It’s all about interactivity and live art, from the Whitney’s mostly unsuccessful foray into participatory art during the last biennial (You can hear my radio spot on that here) to the Guggenheim’s current relational aesthetics show, “theanyspacewhatever.”

Now, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has upped the ante with “The Art of Participation,” a survey of interactive art that spans almost six decades. It’s the art world’s answer to Choose Your Own Adventure books:

Download Video Videographer: Tammy Fortin, courtesy SFMOMA

I spoke with the museum’s curator of media arts, Rudolf Frieling, about the new exhibit, including the pitfalls and possibilities of participatory art:

Read more »

The rumors were true: Gerard Mortier ain’t coming.

Sadness.

Who will do the “Brokeback Mountain” opera now???

A press release arrived in my inbox this morning announcing the launch of “The Contenders,” a new annual film series at MoMA “that offers filmgoers the opportunity to see a wide spectrum of films made in the last 12 months that are contenders for the upcoming awards season, “cult classic” status, and/or lasting historical significance, as determined by curators in the Museum’s Department of Film.”

Oh great, so now even MoMA has joined the award season hype? On paper, this sounds like a totally unnecessary and misplaced use of MoMA’s deep pockets and institutional muscle. But maybe they’ve come up with a good program?

No. They’ve picked the most obvious of recent Hollywood blockbusters, none of which, good as they may be, has any legitimate reason to clog up a screen at MoMA (”The Dark Knight,” “Iron Man,” “Wall-E”). On the serious side, they have elected to revive some equally predictable documentaries (”Encounters at the End of the World,” “Man on Wire,” “Trouble the Water,” “Standard Operating Procedure”), a few well-publicized indies and foreign films (”Frozen River,” “Happy-Go-Lucky”), and a tiny smattering of titles you might legitimately call overlooked (”The Pool,” “The Silence Before Bach”). Rounding out the program will be screenings of movies that will probably still be in theaters at the time of their MoMA showing (”Milk,” “Slumdog Millionaire”).

All in all, it’s the least imaginative, most irrelevant program I’ve seen in some time.

“Les sept planches de la ruse.” Photos by Richard Termine.

I write fortified with Riesling.

I have just been to see Compagnie 111 and Scenes de la Terre’s “Les sept planches de la ruse” (The Seven Boards of Skill) at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where it had its U.S. premiere as part of the Next Wave Festival. Call it theater, call it dance, call it cirque nouveau, whatever: no matter the genre(s), this was pure, enragingly empty, well-financed international spectacle, the kind BAM specializes in all too often these days.

Read more »

Even the undead are obsessed with this election. Photo by Andrea Silenzi

I don’t know about you all, but I’ve officially given up trying to get anything accomplished until after the election is over. I’m throwing in the towel.

But I’m also trying to avoid spending the entire day obsessing over exit polls. Instead, I am making lists - lists for you, dear reader. Below you will find lots of little clickable tidbits, always handy when your boss, sick of obsessing over polls, wanders over and wonders why your computer screen is blank.

Read more »

The Pioneer Theater is no more. Tonight’s midnight screening of “Night of the Living Dead” will be its last.

Rosas. Photos by Jack Vartoogian

So, ok, I have, maybe, from time to time, been a little bit snarky about the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival, which might better be known these days as the “Greatest Hits from the Avant-Old-Garde.” Or maybe the Icons Festival. Take the title of last night’s show, for example: “Steve Reich Evening.” Come on, people.

But. This show. Is. Amazing.

It celebrates the choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s relationship with Reich’s music. Lots (way too many) choreographers use Reich. It’s hard to take most of them seriously after you get a taste of the work De Keersmaeker has done. She is a masterful artist, and the response Reich elicits in her is breathtaking. The show runs through Saturday: get thee to the Icons Festival.