NEW MUSEUM FOR CHINA; “RING FESTIVAL” FOR LOS ANGELES
China has announced it will build its largest museum of contemporary art yet at the Beijing Yihaodi International Artbase in the first half of 2009, according to the Ministry of Culture. Xinhua reports that the museum with will cover an area of over seven hundred thousand square feet. The Center of International Cultural Exchange, which is affiliated with the ministry, initiated the project. “Contemporary artworks, such as huge statues and action art, don’t fit in with the existing art museums,” said Lu Jun, head of the center. The museum will also be a stage for exhibitions of modern artworks from China and abroad. Construction work is expected to be completed by the end of 2010. “The museum will look like an unfinished piece of work, rather than a landmark or an architectural monument,” architect Zhu Pei said. “Artists can convert it to whatever form they like, such as installations and statues,” he said. “And the trucks carrying art pieces can reach any hall of the building.”
On an unrelated note, the Los Angeles Opera will join forces with more than fifty Southern California arts and educational institutions to stage a ten-week festival in spring 2010 inspired by the opera company’s upcoming production of Richard Wagner’s epic “Ring” cycle, reports Reed Johnson in the Los Angeles Times_. The launch of Ring Festival LA, which will include a variety of performances, symposia, concerts, special exhibitions, and film screenings, will be formally announced this morning by LA Opera general director Plácido Domingo. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, county supervisors Gloria Molina and Zev Yaroslavsky, and philanthropist Eli Broad, whose foundation’s six-million-dollar gift is underwriting the initiative, as well as a number of local arts representatives, are expected to attend. The idea for the festival, Domingo said, first took shape in March during a roundtable discussion of local arts leaders attended by Domingo, Los Angeles County Museum of Art director Michael Govan, Getty Trust chief executive James Wood, Los Angeles Philharmonic president Deborah Borda, and Michael Ritchie of Center Theater Group. Those institutions will participate, along with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Colburn School, the Griffith Observatory, the Latino Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art, UCLA, USC, and many others.
In a phone interview, LACMA’s Govan, also mentioning the Getty Foundation’s recent grant-giving initiative supporting exhibitions on LA’s art scene, said the festival’s creation indicated a burgeoning spirit of cooperation among many of the region’s cultural institutions. “There is a kind of coming of age in Los Angeles in terms of the cultural institutions,” Govan said. “I think there is a general feeling that we’re now speaking in a more international way, at a different level.”
