Congrats!

To Philadelphia-born artist Barbara Steinberg, whose solo shows opens with a private view 19th February 6 - 9pm and an opening on 20th February, 2009 at London's Signal Gallery.

Barbara was born in Philadelphia and she studied at Smith College in Massachusetts, where she won a scholarship to study at Yale University summer school. On graduating from Smith, she received a grant to study sculpture in England, first with Ralph Brown at the West of England College of Art, then privately with Michael Ayrton in London. She returned briefly to America, to teach sculpture and take a Master of Fine Arts Degree at California State University at Long Beach, before settling permanently in London. She has exhibited across the UK in group and solo shows, most notably her solo exhibition at the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh. This is her first solo show at Signal Gallery.

Brandeis

Most likely some of you are aware of this news about the decision to close the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis, and to sell off their extensive collection.

If you haven't already seen this, and are so inclined, here is a petition circulating in opposition to the decision.

Before you sign the petition, read why Mike Licht doesn't see why everybody else has missed the positive side of the Rose Art Museum closure at Brandeis.

Opportunity for artists with disabilities

Deadline: April 30, 2009

VSA arts, is seeking artwork by artists with disabilities for display at the Smithsonian Institution’s International Gallery in the S. Dillon Ripley Center in Washington, D.C. from June through September 2010. Artists are asked to consider the theme “Revealing Culture” as it relates to their work. Accepted mediums include two- and three-dimensional art, craft, digital art, installation, and time-based media. Work that is not selected for this exhibition will be considered for alternative spaces throughout Washington, D.C. during the 2010 International VSA arts Festival.

VSA arts’ International Festival is the largest arts and disability event in the world attracting thousands of participants. The festival will take place in Washington, D.C., June 6–12, 2010. Venues across the city will play host to artists from all media—visual arts, performing arts, literary arts, and media arts. This signature event features the achievements of people with disabilities, as well as the diversity of the arts and cultures of the participants.

Visit their website for additional information.

Another look at Soderbergh's Che

Ernesto “Che” Guevara, the Cuban revolution’s grim executioner, put people to death and wrecked Cuba’s economy. Steven Soderbergh’s two-part epic puts people to sleep and wastes their time.

In an interview given to the London Daily Worker in 1962, Che Guevara said that "if the nuclear missiles had remained we would have used them against the very heart of America, including New York City... we will march the path of victory, even if it costs millions of atomic victims... we keep our hatred alive and fan it to paroxysm."

All of the dark side of the man who once urged "atomic extermination" for American "hyenas" is missing from the two current films about his life. I've got another review of the Che movies here.

Museum troubles

After splurging on new facilities, expanded staffs and blockbuster exhibitions that drew millions of new visitors, museums are now confronted by shrunken endowments, less-wealthy benefactors and cuts in government funding, experts say.

The roughly 17,500 museums in the United States receive 850 million visitors annually.

Read Andrew Stern on Reuters here.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: February 1, 2009

Therese A. Maloney Art Gallery/College of Saint Elizabeth. For an exhibition opening on March 15, 2009, The Maloney Art Gallery is interested in receiving digital (jpg) submissions of art in any medium that constitutes a response to Cuba, its art and culture, people, history, landscape, geography etc. Please send up to 5 jpgs labeled with last name and title of work, a one-page resume, an artist's statement about the submitted work, and an object list with title of work, date, size (h x w x d"), weight (if over 10 lbs), owner, location. Please send to Dr. Ginny Butera, Director, by email to: artgallery@cse.edu.

An Old, Bad Idea for the Arts

Many will say (often in a testy voice) that the arts deserve a cabinet-level presence because they are just as important to the country as the Defense Department. While that's something of an apples and oranges comparison, the deeper problem is that it assumes that the country's defense and its arts can be furthered via the same sort of bureaucratic means. But while our nation's defense would collapse in the absence of the centralized power of our Defense Department, having a Department of Culture -- or even a "Cultural Czar," to use that awful label we've apparently become so fond of -- would be neither an effective nor necessary way to guarantee the health of cultural expression in America.

Read David Smith in the WSJ here.