Image: Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

Robert Rauschenberg, Titan of American Art, Is Dead at 82 Michael Kimmelman NYT 5/14/08

The Mayor’s Community Arts Grants Program has been designed to support the community by providing financial, marketing and technical assistance for arts and cultural related programs, projects and events which occur in New Haven neighborhoods.

Individuals who are presenting, teaching or practicing artists and non-profit arts organizations working with neighborhood-based community and/or youth or senior groups in the City of New Haven. Eligible activities include: festivals, parades, exhibitions, murals/public art, children’s activities, inter-generational programs, arts education, film, public performances, neighborhood collaborations and apprenticeships.

The application deadline is June 4, 2008. A total of $25,000 will be awarded through grants up to $2,000. The grant application package is available for download on the City’s website, visit this website. For more information about the program, please contact Kim Futrell at (203) 946-7172 or kfutrell@newhavenct.net.

Press release here.

Guest Blogger: Why You Should Avoid Slavish Devotion to a Single Style Chronicle of Higher Education Lawrence Biemiller | Tuesday May 6, 2008

“…I am dismayed by what seems like a current trend among many universities to establish a style for buildings on their campuses and to slavishly replicate buildings in that style. This, I presume, is seen as a means to gain the order, cohesiveness, and harmony that is so desirable. But, in fact, it often produces campuses that are like army camps—lifeless, repetitive, and banal.

“Many of the great old American campuses—like those at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton Universities—have revered cores that are wonderfully coherent, but also rich and diverse architecturally….”

Posted by: Tanya

Above: Five Franklin Place, New York

Check out more new architecture and design at Kanye West’s Blog.

Posted by Chris

The Library Café is a weekly program of table talk with scholars, artists, publishers and librarians about books, ideas, and the formation and circulation of knowledge. It is hosted by Thomas Hill, and can be heard on WVKR FM 91.3 Tuesday afternoons between 12:00 Noon and 1:00 p.m. ET (16.00-17.00 GMT) during the academic year.

Posted by Chris

“What a pity it would be if the many big touring exhibitions at Yale managed to deflect attention from ‘Master Drawings,’ a new, quieter show at the Yale University Art Gallery. The European old master drawings shown here are from the 15th to 19th centuries. They are part of the permanent collection, but together form an exhibition no less compelling than the imported works.”

Works by the Masters in a Celebration of Drawing BENJAMIN GENOCCHIO New York Times May 4, 2008

Posted by: Tanya

Carlotta Festival showcases work of graduating playwrights

“Female characters struggle against — or embrace — the family ties that bind them in the works featured in this year’s Carlotta Festival of New Plays, taking place May 9-18.”

Yale Bulletin May 2, 2008|Volume 36, Number 28

Purchase tickets at the Yale School of Drama web page

Posted by: Tanya

Via SCSU: Join us Wednesday, May 14, 2008 , 1:00 p.m, to discuss and share ideas about green libraries and campuses.

Conveners:

Mary Carr, Dean Instructional Services, Spokane Community College

Dr. Debra Rowe, President of the US Partnership for a Sustainable Future

From a library/librarians’ perspective, how are our library resources when it comes to sustainability? Are we supporting the college’s curricular efforts? What about the “greening” of the library and the campus? Can we practice sustainability? Can we promote it by speakers, presentations, etc.? What can we do within our library associations, and other professional groups?

Suggested background readings:

-Inside Higher Ed blog “getting to green” http://insidehighered.com/views/blogs/getting_to_green

-Do Colleges Need Green Czars?” Inside HigherEd. April 15, 2008. http://insidehighered.com/news/2008/04/15/sustainability

-Greening your library blog http://greeningyourlibrary.wordpress.com/

NOTE: All ACRL OnPoint chats are free and open to the public. Sessions are unmoderated, 30 to 45 minutes long, and take place in a Meebo chat room. While no registration is necessary to participate, ACRL recommends creating a quick and easy Meebo account for the best experience while participating in ACRL OnPoint discussions. Full details are available on the ACRL Web site at www.acrl.org/ala/acrl/acrlproftools/OnPoint/onpoint.cfm.

Posted by Chris

Photos from the Undergraduate Senior Projects are now up at the Art School Gallery web page.

Find photos of archived exhibitions (MFA Painting, MFA Sculpture, etc.) here.

Posted by: Tanya

“Whether a monstrosity or a dishonest provocation, Shvarts’s ‘project’ was the reductio ad absurdum — or ad nauseam — of ideology and pedagogy that have been standard fare in the humanities at Yale and on many other campuses for years. Her supervisors — Yale’s fall guys — probably didn’t tell her no for the same reason that, in 2003, a New York University professor initially approved a student’s proposal to record two students having sex in front of the class. (The NYU administration later nixed it.)

“The politicized obsession with race, gender and sexuality; the denigration of canonical works by ‘dead white males’; the callow mocking of convention; the notion that truth itself is merely a construct of power and self-interest — all characterize the study of art and literature in America’s colleges and universities. All were reflected in Shvarts’s rationale for her ‘installation.’”

The Art of Folly at Yale By Charles Lane, May 3, 2008 Washington Post

Posted by: Tanya

“I dated Cindy Sherman … And all I got was this documentary. Paul H-O on his film about the iconic photographer and the perils of being an art world sidekick.” Salon.com May 2, 2008 By Joy Press

“It sounds like a highbrow fairy tale: an unsuccessful artist turned cable TV host snags an interview with one of the world’s most reclusive and glamorous art stars, Cindy Sherman — and the two fall in love. This is what actually happened to Paul Hasegawa-Overacker, aka Paul H-O, who uses it as the premise for the documentary he co-directed, ‘Guest of Cindy Sherman.’ But to cling too tightly to that romantic story line is to seriously misrepresent this movie, which is screening this week at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York and is slated to run eventually on the Sundance Channel.”

Posted by: Tanya

Above: CCTV Headquarters in Beijing

“New York has the Empire State Building and the Guggenheim, Paris has the Louvre and the Pompidou Center, now Beijing is determined to build its own architectural icons. Thirty years after economic reforms began, this country has built a series of superstructures that almost seem intended more for the Guinness Book of World Records than cityscapes.

“‘I’m completely against this big architecture. It’s a total waste,’ said Yin Zhi, president of the urban planning and design institute at Tsinghua University in Beijing. ‘The government wants to grab the Olympic opportunity to remake Beijing, spending so much money on these stupid projects. Why not use the budget to improve Beijing’s traffic system? Why not improve the quality of people’s lives?’”

China builds its large-scale future David Barboza IHT 5/1/08

Some significant projects:

Terminal 3 at Beijing Capital International Airport

Qingzang railway

Hangzhou Bay Bridge

Three Gorges Dam

South China Mall

CCTV Headquarters

Another good article from the Observer here.

And more at this old post about architecture courses at the Yale-in-Peking program.

Posted by Chris

“A German artist wants to install a terminally ill patient in a gallery as an exhibit. In Nicaragua last year, an artist displayed a starving dog, tethered just out of reach of food, as conceptual art. In New Haven, Conn., an artist claims to have made multiple attempts to impregnate herself and then induce miscarriages as a work of art. All these artists say their projects are intended to start conversations. But apart from all the shouting about indecency and insensitivity, are any ideas actually being exchanged?”

Art Aimed to Shock: Yale’s abortion artist is the latest to try—and fail—to start a conversation. Newsweek Jennie Yabroff 5/5/08

Also:

“Shvarts submits alternate project:
While new exhibit prevents senior from failing, veracity of original project remains uncertain” Yale Daily News May 1, 2008 Thomas Kaplan

Posted by: Tanya

Kieran Timberlake Associates

The “Yale University Sculpture Building and Gallery in New Haven, Conn., which boasts a green roof, 8-foot operable windows and a skin that admits natural light,” has been named one of the top 10 Green Building Projects by AIA.

AIA Names Top 10 Green Building Projects -By GreenerBuildings Staff- April 25, 2008 -Greener Buildings

Posted by: Tanya

“Midcentury modern has reached that unloved age that all architectural styles pass through — and midcentury modern will pass through it too. Let’s not forget that when Modernist buildings were going up, all of those antique architectural styles that are so beloved now were considered by many to be outdated and overly ornate. In the era of urban renewal and at other points in our history, we tore them down, and now we regret it. Will the same thing happen to modern architecture?”

Don’t Be So Quick to Knock Down Modernist Architecture Chronicle of Higher Education blog, Scott Carlson 4/29/08

Posted by: Tanya