An update from last week's newsflash about Venice's plans for a new "Palazzo del Cinema," this one from Variety.com: "New nest for Venice fest"!
I understand better now the motivations... Although the lack of national funding may continue to plague their plans, considering that the city likewise spent millions (at least some of which was privately raised) to reconstruct the eighteenth-century La Fenice (meaning "The Phoenix") opera house, burned to the ground in 1996 because of a really stupid case of arson (recounted in the new bestseller by John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
, called The City of Falling Angels... not to mention the catastrophic urban planning which drained most if not all of the canals nearby for dredging, effectively cutting the structure off from emergency services, as you can see here in this incredible photo!)
But the current lack of Italian national government funding for the arts has caused the opera company there to cancel two productions scheduled for the upcoming season, so you have a splendidly-reconstructed building which is often standing unused! A protest banner hanging from the front of the Fenice puts it something like this: "From the ashes you can arise. From ignorance, no."
I understand better now the motivations... Although the lack of national funding may continue to plague their plans, considering that the city likewise spent millions (at least some of which was privately raised) to reconstruct the eighteenth-century La Fenice (meaning "The Phoenix") opera house, burned to the ground in 1996 because of a really stupid case of arson (recounted in the new bestseller by John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
, called The City of Falling Angels... not to mention the catastrophic urban planning which drained most if not all of the canals nearby for dredging, effectively cutting the structure off from emergency services, as you can see here in this incredible photo!)But the current lack of Italian national government funding for the arts has caused the opera company there to cancel two productions scheduled for the upcoming season, so you have a splendidly-reconstructed building which is often standing unused! A protest banner hanging from the front of the Fenice puts it something like this: "From the ashes you can arise. From ignorance, no."
Considering that the arts and culture are practically like ubiquitous "natural resources" for Italy, we can only hope that the national government realizes that any economic recovery should include considered maintenance of the country's ancient belle arti, before they fall into oblivion!
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