Vancouver

Coupland to oversee new Fox memorial

“A new memorial honouring Terry Fox will be created by well-known Vancouver-based artist and author Douglas Coupland.” The Province, October 20, 2010

Passion for unique idea helped fuel dream

“Alex Beim is the 38-year-old founder of Tangible Interaction, a small Vancouver company that creates interactive installations, mainly for the entertainment and advertising industries, but also as public art.” Ottawa Citizen, October 19, 2010

Toronto

Two top stars of AGO team to leave

“Two top employees of the Art Gallery of Ontario have added their names to the growing list of leadership team members who will no longer be with the gallery. Kristin Ferguson, executive director of corporate services and operations, will make her exit on Dec. 10. And Michael Parke-Taylor, a greatly admired senior curator of modern art — whose impressive Henry Moore exhibit is about to open — will leave the building for good on Jan.7, after 23 years… Is it mere coincidence that this dash for the exit comes at a time when employees are under enormous stress, facing a major financial challenge while falling far short of revenue targets?” Toronto Star, October 20, 2010

Edward Burtynsky wins MOCCA award

“Photographer Edward Burtynsky has won the $20,000 MOCCA Award in Contemporary Art from the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in Toronto.” CBC News, October 19, 2010

Ottawa

New show raises questions about the place of aboriginal art in National Gallery

Twenty-four years after the acquisition of works by Carl Beam, the National Gallery is set to launch an internationally touring solo exhibition of 50 works by the artist in various media, including paintings, photography and ceramics. “The show, Carl Beam: The Poetics of Being, comes five years after the artist's death. The North American Iceberg, Columbus Chronicles, Burying the Ruler and some other less famous works are included. So, how should we view Iceberg today? Is it a symbol of the end of art apartheid at the National Gallery or merely the starting point for a new form of art apartheid?” Calgary Herald, October 20, 2010

Montreal

City gives art-loving tourists the unilingual brush-off

“The city deserves credit for transforming shabby, down-market Dorchester Square into an urban oasis, a soothing green space in the heart of downtown. But the TLC lavished on beautifying the park accentuates the petty and small-minded provincialism (no pun intended) of unilingual information signs.” Montreal Gazette, October 20, 2010

Long Beach, California

Award to Artist Who Gives Slums a Human Face

The TED prize for 2011 will go to J R, who plasters colossal photos in downtrodden neighborhoods around the world.  New York Times, October 20, 2010

New York

Old Lower East Side Synagogue Gets New Kiki Smith Window

"Earlier this month the Museum at Eldridge Street unveiled a new stained-glass window designed by the artist Kiki Smith and the architect Deborah Gans for its 1887 synagogue, which re-opened in 2007 after a 20-year restoration." New York Times, October 18, 2010  (includes video)

Great Architecture In Slums

"Though the displayed projects are tiny forays into massive problems, they raise sticky questions. Do they bandage slums rather than eliminate them? Do such projects work in the long term, and are they replicable?" – Exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.  Bloomberg, October 19, 2010

London

Gerrit Rietveld, Black Sheep of Modernist Design

 Other Modernist pioneers "came from similar [humble] backgrounds, including Le Corbusier, whose father was a watch enameler, yet Rietveld was the only one to be defined by his roots, so much so that he is often dismissed as a carpenter who drifted into design by accident." International Herald Tribune, October 18, 2010

Ax Falls On UK Government Arts Funding - Cut 30 Percent
"The 29.6% cut will see ACE's current government grant of £449m drop to £349m by 2014. National museums will take a cut of 15% and will remain free to enter. The Arts Council is also being asked to make a 50% cut in its administrative costs." BBC, October 20, 2010

Tel Aviv

Israelis Riled by Sculpture of Comatose Ariel Sharon

"Ariel Sharon, one of Israel's most controversial and long-standing political and military leaders, has been depicted in a life-size sculpture as he is - more than four years after being felled by a massive stroke - comatose in a hospital bed." The Independent (UK), October 19, 2010