Organizers of Kulture Klash 2 say that about 1,300 people attended the April 19 art party. But last night, I learned that organizers were worried about violating fire codes and were restricting the number of people who were in 10 Storehouse Row at any one time. So that means, maybe, that far more than 1,300 people were on the premises that night (the line as I was leaving was long). So what might that mean? That lots and lots and lots of people were hungry for art, dance, music, and other forms of creativity. That creativity is chic. And so on.
The 9 p.m. performance by the Carolina Chocolate Drops on June 4-5 will be relocated to the Cistern at the College of Charleston in order to accommodate increased demand to see the popular trio specializing in traditional African-American string music from the Piedmont.
The 6 p.m. performances will still be at the Recital Hall at the Simons Center for the Arts.
The trio was recently featured in Denzel Washington’s movie, The Great Debaters.
Tickets are $20.
For tickets, call (843) 579-3100 or go to www.spoletousa.org.
The city of North Charleston is about to embark on the first phase of plan to renovate the Power House building.
Located on the Old Navy Yard, the building will be made into a facility that “accomodates cultural and civic functions,” said Marty Besancon, director of the city’s Cultural Arts Department.
In other words, it’s going to be an arts center. Besancon’s office doesn’t want to call it an arts center yet, because plans have not gone through the approval process. But indications are in place for building that will be arts-oriented. Bottom-line: It’s going to be a multi-use facility, likely with a focus on the arts.
That first phase will take about a year. It will involve cleaning and removing old equipment from the interior and exterior.
The next stage involves plans for restoration and remodeling. Besancon did not provide information about the cost of the project or a time table for its completion.
“It’s a remarkable building with a lot of potential,” Besancon said.
More than 1,300 people attended Kulture Klash 2, according to Olivia Pool, editor of ART Magazine and co-organizer of the event. A number of works of art were sold. And already another Kulture Klash is in the works.
“People are really hungry for new things,” Pool says. “Younger people are bringing new things whether the conventional part of Charleston likes it or not.”
Kulture Klash was first conceived as a small art party that quickly grew beyond expection. The first one, in November, drew about 800 people. Organizers anticipated about twice that many for the second one.
The success of the Kulture Klash model — bringing together a lot of artists, performers, and lovers of of the allure of Bohemia — has already inspired other savvy art impresarios to emulate it.
Chucktown Heads, for instance, presented Homegrown Art Gathering on March 21. It was a kind of psychedelic version of Kulture Klash, featuring live music, graffiti artists, and, of course, breakdancing and hoop dancers of the night.
It’s too early to say, but a rivalry between competing art parties could have interesting ramifications for Charleston’s arts scene.
“It would make Charleston so interesting,” Pool says.
Just as we reported yesterday, Spoleto Festival USA officially announced today that it would be talking with the Festival of Two Worlds Foundation, in Spoleto, Italy, to “establish similar ties to those discontinued in 1993″ and “explore opera and theater productions that can be shared by the two festivals beginning in the 2009 season,” according to a press release.
The Post and Courier also reported the news this morning, but most of the article is lifted right from the press release (you can read the whole thing here). As you can see, the press release uses language that is far less confident-sounding than you’d think from reading the P&C’s account.
It doesn’t say that they are sharing operas. It says that they “agreed to explore” the idea. It doesn’t say that the American festival will reunite with its Italian sister. The press release says that they “announced plans for the structure of a partnership [italics mine] between the two festivals.”
There’s a difference between a partnership and the structure of a partnership.
Nigel Redden, director of Spoleto Festival USA, was equally cagey in an interview yesterday with City Paper: “We are going to announce some kind of plan, if that’s the word, some kind of framework, for collaboration in the 2009 festival.”
So it seems a bit of caution is to be used until we know for sure what this news means. Bottomline: They will not share money, organizational structure, and many other resources. The “reunification” still appears to be largely symbolic, something, to be sure, that has value unto itself, but something that’s shouldn’t over- or understated.
Tim Page, the much-respected and award-winning classical music critic for the Washington Post, will be the Spoleto overview critic for The Post and Courier this year.
Steve Mullins, managing editor of the P&C, issued a press release to area media today with details about the daily newspaper’s hiring of the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and author. The news was also featured in Sunday’s newspaper in the Arts & Travel section.
Page currently teaches journalism at the University of Southern California. He succeeds Josh Rosenblum, the musician, writer, and creator of Bush Is Bad: The Musical, as the P&C’s critic, after two years in the position.
In response to City Paper’s report last week that the newspaper dropped Rosenblum — i.e., that the newspaper had dismissed the option of hiring him back for another year — Mullins contacted City Paper to assure us that we’d be thrilled by news of the next overview critic.
From Steve Mullins (April 16, 2008 3:40:55 PM EDT):
[. . .]
The important thing really is, when readers find out whose doing the daily Spoleto reviews for us THIS YEAR, I believe they will be thrilled.
Thrilled, I tell you!
Thrilled!
I told you that I would call you with the name (the person has asked us to hold off for some very good contractual reasons) and I will keep my word.
But given the tone of your inaccurate story, I probably better go for accuracy and announce it first in The Post and Courier.
Stay tuned!
Thrilled, I tell you!
Thrilled!
[. . .]
The press release is below. Careful readers will notice that it contains much of the material, word for word, of Stephanie Harvin’s piece in Sunday newspaper. The bottom half of the press release does not appear in the newspaper. The bottom half contains mostly quotes from Steve Mullins, the managing editor.
Some fact checking of that bottom half.
1. Mullins says he tried to get City Paper to correct the story for the sakes of Josh and Blair Tindall, another former overview critic. He did. But Tindall was not referenced in last week’s City Paper story.
2. Mullins says City Paper made “unfounded claims.” The report makes no claim beyond the fact that Rosenblum would not be the P&C’s overview critic.
3. He also says City Paper “misreported” the P&C’s “relationship” with previous critics. Again, the article merely reports that Rosenblum isn’t coming back.
4. He goes on to say that Rosenblum was hired for a year. In fact, he was hired for two consecutive years.
5. And he says City Paper reported that P&C’s dropped Rosenblum and Tindall “in order to get Tim.” The report does not mention Tindall or Page.
From Mullins (April 22, 2008 10:29:41 AM EDT)
The Post and Courier has announced that Tim Page, one of the world’s most respected critics in classical music, will be overview writer for this year’s Spoleto Festival USA.
Page, former music critic for The Washington Post and a Pulitzer Prize winner, will write a combination of arts criticism, impressions and musings of the festival each day.
A music producer, teacher and critic, he brings the best of arts journalism experience to the job. He was cited as one of the most influential people in the world of U.S. opera by Opera News in 2006, not only for his writings but for his support of other critics.
He won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism as the chief music critic for The Washington Post from 1995 to 2008. As part of his job with the Post, he was responsible for all aspects of classical music coverage.
Page has had his brushes with controversy. His over-the-top response to a mass mailing from an aide to D.C. Councilman and former Washington Mayor Marion Barry drew criticism when he called Barry a “crack addict.” Page later apologized for his outburst.
Page just joined the faculty of the University of Southern California, where he is teaching arts journalism and criticism.
In 2007, he wrote candidly in The New Yorker about his life with Asperger’s syndrome, offering a poignant profile of a lifelong struggle with his own thinking process. He is working on a book on the subject scheduled to be published by Doubleday in 2009. Asperger’s syndrome is an autismlike disorder often characterized by difficulties with social interactions and a preoccupation with a single interest.
Prior to his experience with the Post, Page served as the chief music critic for Newsday and as a critic and cultural correspondent for The New York Times.
From 1981 until 1992, he was the host of a program devoted to new and unusual music on WNYC-FM in New York. He is the author or editor of more than a dozen books, including “The Glenn Gould Reader,” “Tim Page on Music” and “Dawn Powell: A Biography.”
As a producer, he founded BMG Catalyst, a record label for new music. Its widely and favorably reviewed recordings include “Spiked,” an album of music by Spike Jones; “Memento Bittersweet,” an album of music by Chris DeBlasio, Kevin Oldham, Lee Gannon and other HIV-positive composers; and “Night of the Mayas,” the first CD devoted entirely to orchestral works by Silvestre Revueltas, Mexico’s leading composer. Page has been a contributor to National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” and “Morning Edition,” American Public Media’s “Performance Today,” BBC, Canadian Broadcasting Corp. and Voice of America. He has appeared on “ABC World News Tonight” and “ABC Nightline,” “NBC Nightly News” “CBS Sunday Morning” and PBS’ “Firing Line.”
“We are extremely fortunate to have Tim joining our staff for Spoleto this year. His observations will really complement our coverage,” says Post and Courier Managing Editor Steve Mullins. “Tim is no stranger to controversy, but I don’t know anyone who could question his qualifications. He is respected worldwide as one of the most brilliant and distinguished critics on the planet. The entire arts staff is eager to work with him.”
“We had tried to get Page on our Spoleto team before, but he was unavailable. The Post and Courier has been fortunate since the untimely death of the popular Spoleto critic Robert Jones. We’ve had Blair Tindal and Josh Rosenblum - two very distinguished critics - working with us until Tim was free to come to Charleston.
“Those who knew Jones will recall that he came to Charleston for Spoleto and discovered that he couldn’t leave. His name was closely associated with the festival but we were fortunate to have him write for us year-round,” Mullins said.
“At least one local publication, the Charleston City Paper, has misreported The Post and Courier’s relationship with its previous Spoleto critics, and I’m told that resulted in unfortunate embarrassment for at least one,” Mullins said. “None since Jones has been a regular part of our annual festival coverage. We offered Blair and Josh the opportunities to come to Charleston for Spoleto and they accepted, each for a year, but we certainly did not “dismiss” or “drop” either of them, as the City Paper reported, in order to get Tim.
“This has been a needless and unfortunate controversy in the arts community drummed up by the City Paper, which refused my personal request to correct the record for Josh and Blair.
“Some in the media may relish controversy, but to set the record straight, none exists here. Neither Josh nor Blair were ‘dropped’ and ‘dismissed,’ as the City Paper reported. There were contractual obligations elsewhere that prevented us from releasing news about Tim coming to Charleston before the City Paper made these unfounded claims. I know Josh and Blair understand all of this by now and wish Tim all the best.”
Spoleto Festival USA is set to announce a “strategic alliance” with the Festival of Two Worlds Foundation in Spoleto, Italy.
“We are going to announce some kind of plan, if that’s the word, some kind of framework, for collaboration in the 2009 festival,” Nigel Redden, executive director, said this morning.
The announcement could happen as early as later today, Redden said.
Giorgio Ferrara, the head of the Festival of Two Worlds Foundation, called Redden to address comments Redden made in an April 3 interview with Charleston City Paper about the potential for reunification between the festival after the 2007 death of their founder, Gian Carlo Menotti.
The whole notion of reunification is something of a misnomer, Redden said at the time. The festivals have always been separate organizations, with different administrators, boards, fund-raising strategies, and so on. In the past, they did indeed share artists — chamber musicians, the Westminster Choir, and even some operas. That may recommence, but a merging of the two organizations has never been a part of their history.
“They have always been quite different organizations,” he said.
This morning, Redden said that conversation with Ferrara centered on his comments.
“He wanted me to be less negative,” Redden said.
UPDATE (7 p.m. 04.22.08)
Paula Edwards, director of public relations at Spoleto Festival USA, told me to look for an announcement about the above move tomorrow morning. Till then -JS)
Yep, Hollywood is increasingly cutting critics off from advanced screenings of movies. Such is the case with Iron Man, much-anticipated among those of us who love Stan Lee’s Tony Stark. Critics have been told all over the country that there will be no pre-screenings of the movie (you can guess with some measure of confidence that this does not apply to the biggest of media outlets). It’s the new reality of movie criticism and maybe it’s not such a bad thing. All the advance hype and hoopla long ago got out of hand thanks to the Guy with the Big Thumbs. And maybe this new reality suggests something else, something that has thus far escaped observers who have been busy commenting the stark new realities of movie criticism: If critics have, as many have said, lost their credibility, why is Hollywood cutting them off?
There's more to art than you think. It's not just theater, paintings, books and dance. It's the enterprise of human creativity and it takes vastly different shapes and forms. Here you'll find my thoughts about the arts in Charleston and beyond. Neither of us knows what to expect.
