Tonight’s discussion with Elenira Mendes, Vivienne Westwood, Paul Heritage, Charlie Kronick and Jonthan Dove can be heard live here @ 6pm.
htttp://www.thersa.org/events/listen-live
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news
New 42nd Street Hosts Hearing on Green Initiatives
Excerpted from Lighting & Sound America Online, October 30, 2008:
New York City Councilman Domenic M. Recchia, Jr., chairman of the New York City Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries, and International Intergroup Relations, hosted a hearing this week at The New Victory Theater on 42nd Street to examine the green initiatives of cultural organizations. Cora Cahan, president of The New 42nd Street, the independent, nonprofit organization charged with long-term responsibility for The New Victory Theatre as well as six other historic theatres on 42nd Street, greeted Councilman Recchia and guests.
On why his office chose The New Victory Theatre as the location for the hearing, Recchia replied, “The New Victory Theatre is a prime example of how to go green. It’s the oldest theatre in New York, and it’s landmarked, but they worked within those confines to instate various energy-saving programs, including an overhaul of the lighting and HVAC systems.â€
Recchia provided a proclamation from the City of New York to The New 42nd Street for its “extraordinary contributions to New York City,†and Ms. Cahan accepted the honor on the organization’s behalf. “The New 42nd Street is committed to environmental conservation and has already reduced its carbon footprint considerably, making the organization a leader in green efforts in the theatre industry. The New 42 is continually finding new ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle and is currently working toward LEED EB Silver certification,†Ms. Cahan said.
According to Benno van Noort, director of facilities at The New 42nd Street, the organization has already implemented many of the measures that some nonprofit cultural institutions are now just discussing. “We’re in a good position to provide guidance to our friends in the theater,†van Noort added.
In his testimony, van Noort suggested that organizations just beginning to undertake green efforts should address low-hanging fruit first: Upgrade light bulbs to compact fluorescents or LEDs, implement a green cleaning program, use low VOC paints, and start a comprehensive recycling program. Then, organizations should conduct a building audit, a LEED assessment, obtain a LEED reference guide to identify specific measures to implement, and lastly, create an internal group that develops and engenders support for green activities within the organization and sustains all internal and external efforts.
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Go to the Green Theater Initiative
What you can do with the city
Ta to Eco Art Blog for pointing the way to website for this Canadian Centre for Exhibition, Actions: What You Can Do With the City. consisting of “99 actions that instigate positive change in contemporary cities around the world.” Pictured above is #52 Clever Tent Keeps Campers in City.
That’s right, it’s not a parked car, it’s a tent.
Not sure how happy I’d feel camping on it on Hackney Road, mind.
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APInews: CLUI’s Arts Residency in Texas Oil Country
The Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI) spent 2008 as the first artist-in-residence at the University of Houston’s Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center. The CLUI is a California research organization involved in exploring, examining and understanding land and landscape issues.
via APInews: CLUI’s Arts Residency in Texas Oil Country .
When trash is art: “I view the garbage on the streets as sculptures†| green LA girl
When trash is art: “I view the garbage on the streets as sculpturesâ€
posted by siel in art/lit/music, environment monday january 12, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Trash can inspire eco-art — as evidenced by etsyTrashion and many artists who use trash as their medium — but apparently, trash can be art in itself. In New York City alone, there’s not just one, but two photoblogs inspired by urban trash-as-art
via When trash is art: “I view the garbage on the streets as sculptures†| green LA girl.
Welcome Eco Art Blog
Our news feed here now includes the work of Matthias Merkel Hess from his Eco Art Blog. Matthias is also responsible for Mammut. Mammut is a biannual magazine dedicated to exploring all forms of creative production that have a relationship with nature, landscape and environmentalism——or what they call ecological aesthetics. Featuring scholarly investigations, reports on current discussions and debates, and artist’s projects, Mammut is a sourcebook for readers seeking to understand the intersection of art and nature. It is edited by Matthias Merkel Hess and Roman Jaster and designed by Roman Jaster. You can order Mammut or download a pdf at their website: http://www.mammutmagazine.org/
Blogging Gallerists
I noticed recently that Frank Lloyd of the Frank Lloyd Gallery in Santa Monica started a blog last fall. So far, the posts focus mainly on the art and artists that fill his roster, but it’s nice to get an inside view into a gallery and what its director thinks about.
So often, gallery sites just have photos and bios and nothing really interactive. I’ve also enjoyed reading Edward Winkleman’s blog, but I’m really not aware of other gallerist bloggers out there. I think it’s a good thing and I hope to see more.
> More at franklloyd.wordpress.com and edwardwinkleman.blogspot.com
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Goods ideas from Ken Davenport
Ken Davenport writes a blog called producer’s perspective at http://www.theproducersperspective.com. He is also involved in BroadwaySpace.com, a social networking site for theater in NYC, with a focus on the commercial (as opposed to BigCheapTheater.com, a social networking site for small theater, primarily in Los Angeles).
We’d like to direct you to two posts he made this week. One is on the ever present New York Playbill, the half sheet folded programs that people collect to fill bookcases. They aren’t solely a NYC thing, the Alley Theatre and other Regional Houses use them as well and there is a company in LA that produce’s a similar publication called a Stagebill. Whatever you want to call it, a lot of them get printed (in advance) and a lot get trashed without much thought.Â
His ideas:
– Could we allow customers to leave their Playbills for the next patron (we could put a sleeve on the back of the seat in front of the customer, and the Playbill could be like an airline magazine. Take it if you want, leave it if you don’t.)Â
– Could we charge $1 for the Playbills and use the money to plant trees to offset the paper we’re burning through (in the same way that trucking companies like Clark Transfer dedicate monies to offsetting carbon emissions
– What about removing the casting information from the Playbills altogether so they don’t have to be reprinted as often, and using new inserts each week or each day (London doesn’t even have Playbills)
– Issue one Playbill for every two people or have the ushers add “share your playbills” messages to their “be seated” speeches.
The first and third ideas are my favorites, but you can take a look at the original post by clicking here.Â
I also want to direct some attention to his writing on the impact of the economy on theater:
Those of us here working on the Big Broadway tend not to worry about what’s happening in the hinterlands, but we should, because it affects us all.
Actors’ Equity Association just lost three major employers, and our investors and writers just lost three major distribution houses that generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties every year. That means it just got a little harder to recoup shows and for writers to earn money post-Broadway.
This is in referrence to the troubles faced by The Magic Theatre in San Francisco, North Shore Music Theatre (running HSM2 of all things and on the losing end), and Carousel Dinner Theatre in Ohio.Â
Art and protest
Interesting. An organisation called Artport – an offshoot of suffragette-inspired Climate Rush – are issuing a “call for submissions” for artists to to take part in events on January 12th at Heathrow Airport:
ARTPORT INVITES SUBMISSIONS FOR EXHIBITION AT HEATHROW AIRPORT. WE WANT YOU TO HELP US REDEFINE THE SPACE.Â
CLIMATE RUSH 12TH JAN 2009
ARTPORT is working in collaboration with the Climate Rush for a Dinner
at Domestic Departures, Heathrow, at 7pm on the 12th January 2009
A project set up to harness the power of art and imagination to help stabilise the climate. We
are looking to find individuals and artists who are passionate about
producing ideas and actions focused on and directed at treating the
enormous challenges of climate change...
They are hoping for events/installations that will appear “at 7pm sharp.” Read more on Artport’s Facebook page here. Note particularly the line that says: “IF TROUBLED BY THE POLICE, ARTPORT STRONGLY RECOMMENDS THAT YOU COMPLY WITH THEIR DEMANDS.”
I don’ t think they mean troubled by the police in a philosophical way, but after the Plane Stupid protest at Stansted earlier in the week, it would be foolish to assume the police would react as an enlightened contemporary art audience.
Photo: Heather and Ivan Morison: I am so sorry. Goodbye (Escape Vehicle No 4) Tatton Park Biennial 2008, one of the Best of 2008
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Superflex
From January 16, Superflex will be showing their new work Flooded McDonalds at The South London Gallery. Superflex are the radical Danish threesome who create a wide range of interventions they describe as “tools”; with Rirkrit Tiravanija a few years ago they created Social Pudding – in which communities or gallery-goers “manufacture” and then eat a pudding together.Â
This is low-res version of their last film, Burning Car:
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