Grand news agency

Court Ruling Vindicates Willed-Body Program at U. of California at Irvine

The California Supreme Court has ruled in favor of a willed-body program at the University of California at Irvine that was accused of losing track of a donor’s body, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The court ruled unanimously on Monday that the plaintiff, Evelyn Conroy, had failed to prove that the university had violated its donation agreement with her husband, James Conroy, when his body went missing.

The court found that state law “does not impose a duty” on the university “to conduct its teaching and research in such a way as to safeguard the sensibilities of the surviving family members” when a person wills his or her body. The also found that there was no evidence “that James Conroy’s body was used in a clandestine private tutoring class, transported or dismembered for profit, or used in any manner other than that specified in the donation agreement.”

The University of California system has settled with plaintiffs in numerous lawsuits over alleged abuses in the willed-body programs at its Los Angeles campus and at Irvine. The system announced in January 2005 new safeguards for the management of the programs.

The decision, which ends litigation over Irvine’s willed-body program, is also expected to influence the outcome of several pending lawsuits against the University of California at Los Angeles’s willed-body program.

Ms. Conroy’s lawyer, Paul M. Mahoney, said people considering donating their bodies for science should be careful. “People in this state now know that before they donate their bodies to research, they should get a lawyer and negotiate very clearly the terms of the donation,” he said. —Katherine Mangan

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First Boards Awards Winners

First Boards Awards Winners

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PSST!3

The first six films from PSST!3 are online to watch

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Walter Robot - Death Cab for Cutie

Walter Robot has directed a new music promo for Death Cab for Cutie.

“I have been an admirer of the beautiful art of Walter Robot from afar for a while, ” says Death Cab bassist Nick Harmer. “Working with them on this video is an amazing dream come true and I am in awe of the stunning video they have made for us.”

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Rhett on Twitter

Ok, i don’t know why, but Twitter has been getting some massive exposure over here in Australia for the last few months. I put it down to the incestuous whoring of information between research lacking media channels (That’s an example of a Twitter rant right there). So when I hear it mentioned on breakfast TV it makes me feel like it has jumped the shark but I guess the average person would just see it as hitting the mainstream.

I’ve been on it for over a year now and it’s still a difficult question to answer when someone asks, “So what is Twitter”. There are many sites and videos dedicated to that sole question. But I think, “Twitter in plain english” is by far the best video explanation if you want to know what it is basically about.

Here is my Twitter page if you are interested in following my rants: http://twitter.com/rhett

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Renascent on Cargo

Renascent updates his portfolio. Along with many other talented artist getting onto the Cargo Platform (still in beta)

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100 Free Useful Apps for Mac

100 Free Useful Apps for Mac. You might find something you find useful.

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Stem Agency

The Stem Agency have some solid talent on their roster.

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Folio updates

Designer Rob Cordiner updates his folio, Photographer Pawel Fabjanski updates his portfolio, and also McFaul Studio updates

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The Internet and Running an Art Gallery

Below is a comment by gallery owner Carrie Horejs from an earlier post called Running an Art Gallery. She talks about some of the challenges that the Internet is creating for the old artist/art gallery relationship. She raises some interesting questions..

My husband and I have owned and operated Xanadu Gallery in Scottsdale, AZ, and online since 2001. In fact, we opened September, 10, 2001. The next day, with the horrific events of 9/11, we thought we were goners. Of course, the economy of then was nothing compared to the difficult times of today. However, our sales are up from last year by 40 percent (2008 being our worst year yet).

My point in writing this comment is to say we have noticed a dramatic shift since opening in 2001. Back then very few collectors thought to look on the Internet for art or artists. Now, it is second nature to go to google for everything, including researching artists. A collector walks through our doors, falls in love with the artist, goes home and Googles the artist and then commissions directly from the artist. I'm not saying this happens all the time, but several months ago we, by accident, found out about a 0,000 commission that went directly to the artist after the purchaser had discovered his artwork in our gallery. Rather than become bitter, we got smarter. Why shouldn't the internet work for both artists and galleries.

Now, before we represent artists in our Scottsdale gallery, we require they join Xanadu Studios where they show their work online through our site. Every studio artist shows in our bricks-and-mortar gallery on a rotating basis, but only top-selling artists show on an on-going basis and get shows devoted to them. We're not sure it's a perfect system yet, but we're evolving with the times. We're requiring more from our artists who promote themselves through personal websites and blogs (which, is like all of them).

I often wonder how other galleries are dealing with artists who have gallery representation but continue to self-promote. I have been known to secret shop gallery represented artists. I contact them through their emails on their personal websites and inquire as to whether they have any studio pieces available. Not once has an artist directed me to his or her galleries for purchases. I fear galleries will dry up if they don't smarten up. Then where will collectors go to see art in person?

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