HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!

Visual Arts News is taking a break and will return on January 4, 2011

Holiday Special

A Visit from the Loan Officer

The folks at the Center for the Future of Museums compose a poem each year for the holidays. This year it is a rather black, but humorous, look at the plight of museums.  They look at a potential future in which St. Nick has transitioned into a higher paying profession, and pays a visit to our fictional museum in his new capacity. May it not come to pass....Center for the Future of Museums, December 7, 2010

Vancouver

Davida Kidd examines the value of art to a society obsessed with consumerism

“For local artist Davida Kidd, the inspiration—and provocation—for her new body of work took the form of a condominium ad, which she first saw on a billboard while driving across the Cambie Street Bridge 18 months ago. “Who Needs Art,” it demanded, “When You Have a View Like This?”” Georgia Straight, December 20, 2010

Christy Clark promises hike in Community Gaming Grants if elected

“B.C. Liberal leadership candidate Christy Clark promised today to boost Community Gaming Grants by $15 million if she were to be elected premier. That would be a 12.5 percent increase over the current $120 million set aside for the program from gambling revenues.” Georgia Straight, December 22, 2010

Edmonton

Alberta art gallery lifts breastfeeding ban

“The Art Gallery of Alberta reversed a policy that disallowed breastfeeding in the public galleries after an Edmonton woman complained about how she was treated while she was nursing her daughter last week.”  CBC News, December 22, 2010

Ottawa

National Gallery steers clear of cross-border censorship fight

“The National Gallery of Canada is caught between censure and censorship and will take no further part in a controversy around the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., says director Marc Mayer.” Ottawa Citizen, December 23, 2010

Dallas

Philip Johnson's Final Building, Now a Gay Church

"The Interfaith Peace Chapel was the last building Johnson designed before his death. Originally intended as a smaller piece of an enormous but still unbuilt cathedral, the freestanding chapel looks more like a biomorphic sculpture or a cave." As of November, the Chapel is home to the largest gay church congregation in the US. Wall Street Journal, December 22, 2010

New York

An Artist and His Friends Take on Bin Laden

James Esber’s show at Pierogi in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is a gallery of Osama bin Ladens.  New York Times, December 23, 2010

Europe

EU Rules That Light Installations Are Not Art, And Thus Not Tax-Exempt

"Brussels has ruled that the work of the American artist [Dan Flavin] … should be classified for tax purposes as simple light fixtures. His work, they said, has 'the characteristics of lighting fittings … and is therefore to be classified … as wall lighting fittings'." Similarly affected is video artist Bill Viola. The Guardian (UK), December 20, 2010

Hobart, Tasmania

Tasmania's Devilish New Museum

Tycoon David Walsh is "building a new museum in the bowels of the earth to house his considerable personal art collection. Billed as a 'subversive Disneyland', the A$76m Museum of Old And New Art (Mona) will open to the public on 21 January just after Mofo, a [new rock] music festival." The Observer (UK), December 19, 2010