This line of thought was taken up by Universal, the largest of four major record companies. They believe that perhaps there is room in the Western audiences’ auditory palate for more of the spice of South Asian music. Teaming with Desi Hits!, a New York-based company promoting South Asian entertainment on its website DesiHits.com, Universal plans to create a label for musicians with South Asian roots. Through this label, the record company’s ultimate goal is to give South Asian music and its artists global exposure.

“It’s far from a vanity project for us,” said David Joseph, chief executive of Universal Music U.K. For him, South Asian pop music holds great potential as a relatively untapped art, presenting a huge amount of opportunity.

The new label, called Desi Hits! Universal, would give the music genre a “home,” a way for the music to be shared with Western audiences. According to Anjula Acharia-Bath, chief executive of Desi Hits!, after the success of the 2008 hit, “everyone saw that with some resources some of these songs really popped.”

Although mainstream western acts and Indian music have shown some mingling, the success of Desi Hits! Universal could be an excellent untapped resource for those looking for the next new sound. And, modernizing some of the more traditional South Asian music with elements from pop music can bring it to a wider audience, even within its country of origin. “Jai Ho” showed the ability of good music to transcend cultural affinities. I look forward to more endeavors that get the music of a rich culture reach out to more of the world.

The news couldn’t have been timelier as, over the last weekend, Rome celebrated the 400th anniversary of Caravaggio’s death. Attributed as one of the forefathers of the Baroque school of painting, only 80 of his works have supposedly survived into the 21st century. News of discovering a lost Caravaggio painting is hardly far-fetched. During his lifetime, he was well sought after for his distinctly emotive style of painting. It was a notorious reputation and lack of an established workshop for protégées that caused his legacy to wane almost immediately after his death. It was only in the 20th century that his significance in the development of Western art was rediscovered.

The newly discovered painting, entitled ‘The Martyrdom of St. Lawrence,’ was recently found among the possessions of the Jesuits in Rome. It depicts an almost naked man leaning over flames, one hand stretched out and carrying an expression of apparent desperation.

Further analyses and in-depth, critical examination are still needed to verify the authenticity of the artwork. What is certain, however, is that the painting is stylistically impeccable. It appears to have all the characteristics of a Caravaggio painting, including stark contrasts and dramatic lighting effects.

Earlier this year, Italy started marking the artist’s anniversary with a variety of events. This weekend, several churches and an art gallery were kept open all night to showcase some of Caravaggio’s greatest masterpieces. Major art exhibitions have also been held to honor the influential artist. The kick-off event, which was held at the Scuderie Del Quirinale in Rome, drew more than half a million people from around the world to view his paintings.

This is an extremely important discovery for Italian art. It’s almost giving new life to an artist who is long gone. The crowd that it attracted just goes to show that great art and their artists can achieve a timeless appeal.

Among these efforts is the Hong Kong Contemporary Art Biennial Awards Exhibition, which runs from August 1 at the Hong Kong Museum of Art, where local artists will be given a platform to showcase their works.

The local government has also planned other projects to encourage the blossoming of Hong Kong art culture, such as the creation of a projected $2 billion West Kowloon Cultural District and the development of an empty police station into “a self-sustaining, non-profit site that will be home to designers, art studios and exhibition spaces,” according to a government press release.

Perhaps as a result, though underrepresentation of Hong Kong art seems like common knowledge among influential names in the art scene, some acknowledge that, slowly but surely, Hong Kong’s own local talents have begun to rise up. “Arguably, it is this freedom from market pressure that has seen the emergence of a group of artists in Hong Kong whose works are conceptually very strong. You won’t find any grinning faces staring back at you,” says Claire Hsu, founder of the Hong Kong-based Asia Art Archive.

Hong Kong style art is strikingly different from Mainland Chinese art but with the global art community already flocking to Hong Kong for its art galleries, the gap won’t be very hard to bridge. Hong Kong culture may rise in the wake of China’s recent cultural success and attention gained in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.

Just recently, several delegates at the Council Meeting of the 2011 Southeast Asian Games in Indonesia presented the proposal in order to help reduce the costs involved in fielding their teams. Among delegates were representatives from Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Indonesia had hoped to hold the Games in four different cities (Semarang and Bandung, Jakarta and Palembang), emulating the 23rd SEA Games in 2005, hosted by the Philippines. Competition venues during the 23rd SEA Games were spread throughout several cities within Metro Manila, as well as in Bacolod City, Cebu City, Tagaytay City, Laguna, Angeles City, and in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone in Zambales. The event allowed participants and spectators to visit more of the Philippines instead of being confined to the congested Metro Manila area. However, participating countries did not have the same economic considerations to make at the time.

In response, Olympic Council of Indonesia chief, Rita Subowo, said she would talk to the government about it.

Unfortunately, if Indonesia agrees, it won’t be able to take full advantage of the tourist potential of the SEA Games. However, I wouldn’t consider it a loss. It would show a true adhesion to the spirit of camaraderie among nations that the Games aim to promote in the first place.

The gallery, which recently made room for a site-specific exhibition of Richard Wilson’s 20:50, first opened in 1985. It has always provided free admission to the general public, and plays host to various special events and exhibitions. Aligned with School of Saatchi, a television program that showcases young aspiring artists, the gallery even includes a dedicated space for Saatchi Online artists to exhibit and sell their work, for which Saatchi does not accept commission.

The Saatchi Gallery was one of the launch pads for the Young British Artists movement of the ’90s, which brought about the creation of “The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living.” The 14-foot (4.3 m) tiger shark preserved in a tank of formaldehyde was commissioned by Saatchi and was later sold for $8 million.

To ensure that the government won’t drop the ball, the collection includes other works that can be sold to make new acquisitions.

Saatchi “wants to give London and the country something it wouldn’t have otherwise, which is a very agile collection that can respond quickly to developments in contemporary art from all over the world,” said Rebecca Wilson, associate director of the Saatchi Gallery.

The donation could not have come in a timelier manner. Countries in recovery around the world have been experiencing record budget deficits and, though all sectors are feeling the crush, many governments seem to cut heavily on arts, culture and public attractions. I am hopeful that Saatchi’s vision will set an example for others.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about Arts and Culture.

All across America, libraries are expanding their selections digitally by scanning actual books and compiling them for lending. Library users have found that ebooks are easier to carry around when they’re already carrying a laptop or ebook reader, they can be used for the vision impaired, and they prevent users from having to go back to the library to return a stack of borrowed books.

In response, a group of brick-and-mortar libraries lead by a nonprofit digital library called the Internet Archives, joined forces late last month to create a website that will allow users to check out ebooks as they would from a local library. Among others, the Boston Public Library and the Marine Biological Laboratory will contribute scans of hundreds of books that are still in copyright but no longer sold commercially. These will be added to the more than one million scanned public domain books that the website will make available.

In true library essence, the website, OpenLibrary.org, will not simply allow borrowers to keep digital copies of their books indefinitely. Instead, these ebooks come with an expiry date. When the lending period is over, users will no longer be able to open the file and there will be nothing left to do but to delete it. Copyright laws are not exactly clear on digital copies but the plan is to only lease out the digital copy to one user at a time. While the digital copy is being borrowed, the physical copy will not be allowed to leave the library where the scan came from.

In my opinion, this is just the library’s way of changing with the times, and adapting new technologies in order to better deliver enhanced services. If the library has the right to lend out a physical copy, it should also be allowed to lend out digital copies as long as these copies are controlled. Even if detractors claim that this adversely affects the market for books, it could also spark a new interest in books for the younger generations.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about the Arts and Culture.

However, recent news from New Zealand is giving silent film fans something new to look forward to. The country’s government has recently gotten in touch with the Foundation to announce the discovery and return of 75 silent movies to the US.

These movies are considered extremely rare, partly because early film was very volatile and would degrade quickly. In fact, the 75 films from New Zealand’s national archive are only part of 150 American titles that were found there. However, only half of that number was deemed in good enough shape to be returned.

But how did these artistic treasures get to New Zealand in the first place? Frank Stark, chief executive of the New Zealand Film Archive, explains: “When you look at a map, we were at the end of a distribution network. By the time the nitrate films had been shipped to Asia, Australia then on to New Zealand, or whatever the sequence was for a particular film, it was considered largely to have finished its commercial life. The people in the States didn’t want to spend the money to ship it all the way back… and I believe they [were] probably in the main issued instructions that the reels should be destroyed or thrown away.”

Luckily, they weren’t. Projectionists held on to them, collectors sought them out, and eventually many of them found their way to the New Zealand national archive’s vaults, where they were kept safely as they awaited their return to the US. Thanks to the cooperation of cineastes and governments, today’s generation can now enjoy the unique and timeless beauty of the art form known as silent movies. As Stark declares, “What’s really, really satisfying is to have that impulse (to store silent films safely) reinforced by these kinds of discoveries, to feel that we’re doing the right thing – and that there is more treasure to be found.”

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about arts and culture.

The South African National Arts Council’s budget has plunged from $3.7 million to $1.8M for the fiscal year of 2010 – 2011 in the months leading up to the most widely viewed sporting event in the world. This call was made by the culture ministry, of which the National Arts Council is a department.
Among the speed bumps that have lead to this rough road is the failed promise of 19.7 million dollars of funds that were supposed to be dedicated to World Cup arts initiatives. The money went missing and an investigation was launched last March by culture minister, Lulu Xingwana. However, the results of this investigation have yet to be made public.

The event is not detrimental to all other government departments, of course. Preparations for the games has triggered the improvement of football stadiums, as well as public transportation, and the tourist industry is sure to boom as hotels, restaurants and establishments are sure to have the busiest month they’ve had collectively, yet. The approximate GDP to be generated by the 2010 FIFA World Cup is $21.3 billion. But until that money can get filtered back into the system, arts and artists around the country will have to wait.

“Artists have had to shelve their plans and feel let down at a crucial time when we should be highlighting the uniqueness of our culture,” says Riason Naidoo, director of Cape Town’s Iziko South African National Gallery.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about Arts and Culture.

Towards the end of his life, the author left written instructions that his memoirs should not be published until now, 100 years after his death, which was on April 21, 1910. Because of this, the 5,000 pages of his unedited memoirs were kept in a vault in the University of California, Berkeley until recently. The university is scheduled to release the first volume of his this manuscript in November of this year. The planned trilogy will consist of about two million words.
Some scholars attribute the delay to the author not wanting to offend any of his friends that might still be alive. Others say that Clemens wanted to talk freely about issues such as religion and politics, and the peace of mind of not having his reputation tarnished for a century to come may have allowed him the courage to do so. Yet others say that his opinions may have tarnished his reputation as a great American.

Indeed, Michael Shelden, who gave an account of Mark Twain’s final years in the biographical Man In White, said that Clemens was critical of president Theodore Roosevelt. He also mentioned that in the autobiography, “… [Clemens] questions the imperial mission of the US in Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines.”

Whatever the case, these are exciting times for all who have had their imaginations captured by the author of classics known as Mark Twain. These memoirs will undoubtedly be able to shed some light on the witty and candid American novelist.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about arts and culture.

Montalembert was born in Normandy, into an affluent family that expected him to follow tradition and become a banker or join the military. But young Hugues had other ideas and decided to leave home and live abroad, making documentaries and occasionally selling his paintings. He trudged through the world, living in more countries than most people visit in their lifetime.

While living in New York, in 1978, Montalembert’s home was broken into by two robbers who were looking for money. Apparently not content with what they found, the robbers stripped him, beat him, and threatened to stab him before throwing what felt like hot liquid on his face, which turned out to be base paint remover. The solution burned his retinas so that he could never see again. Doctors sealed his fate by stitching his eyelids closed. The attackers were never found.

Eighteen months after the incident, Montalembert decided to roam the world once more, alone. He couldn’t let anyone in on his plans, lest they try to stop him. Along the way, he would force his mind to see great visions such as the fjord of Ilulissat in Greenland. “Of course I didn’t see it,” wrote Montalembert in his diaries, “but the image is so strong that it is very difficult for me to believe that I did not… On the bank of the fjord of Ilulissat, I created my own vision.”
The painter has since been filling canvasses with paintings from memory. He has also written his memoirs in a book called Invisible, and starred in a documentary by Gary Tarn called Black Sun, which he also wrote.

“My ability to create images absolutely must not atrophy. I must remain capable of bringing back the world I looked at intensely for 35 years,” says Montalembert in his memoirs.

Many people live through adversity, but few are able to thrive and even be inspired by it. Hugues de Montalembert is one of those few.
View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about the Arts and Culture.