You Know What We Need? Militant Optimism!
Good thing breakthroughs in the human condition happen outside of politics. History is the record of political failure. Progress is the march of science and technology. Just think of the past 100 years: mass communication, penicillin, refrigerators, computing, commercial air travel, cheap birth control, PCs, the internet, smartphones, gene sequencing, fracking—altogether producing more human freedom and wealth than wars or laws. … Read More
The Rehabilitation Of Mel Gibson
"The Hollywood redemption machine is always ripe for satire, since its formula is so depressingly simple. Take one once-beloved artist, add a bottled statement of apology, give them just long enough for their worst misdeeds to fade somewhat from public memory, and combine with the industry's never-ending desire to use great artistry as an antidote to past sins." … Read More
When I Danced With Arthur Mitchell In Moscow At The Height Of The Cold War: Allegra Kent
"Arthur and I were dancing in Balanchine's Agon, with music by Igor Stravinsky, the last ballet on the program. Balanchine was nervous. The cast was nervous. But not Arthur. (Arthur was never nervous.) In the wings before our pas de deux, he could see I was jumping out of my skin. He said, 'This is just a small town, Allegra'” What he said was so ludicrous that it calmed me down." … Read More
Getty Institute Launches New African American Art History Initiative
"The initiative, which launched with a $5-million endowment, aims to establish the Getty as a primary center of scholarship, research and education for African American art and as a model for like-minded endeavors in the field." … Read More
‘Lion King’ Puppet Specialist Arrested For 3D-Printing Gun At Broadway Theater
Ilya Vett, who has worked fabricating and maintaining the masks and puppets for the hit show for at least a decade, was found by New York police in the Minskoff Theatre prop room, producing a gun using the company's 3D printer and plans he had downloaded from the internet. … Read More
Pittsburgh Symphony Hangs On To Manfred Honeck For Two More Seasons
"Mr. Honeck's contract [as music director] was to expire in 2020. He has been with the orchestra since 2008 and has led the PSO to its first Grammy win since 1992. The contract extension" — through the 2021-22 season — covers the orchestra's 125th anniversary season (the PSO was founded in 1896) and the 50th anniversary of its tenure in Heinz Hall." … Read More
Video Game Maker That Laid Off Staff En Masse Hit With Class-Action Lawsuit
Last week, after a series of unfortunate events, Telltale Games — the studio behind the Walking Dead series and Minecraft: Story Mode — abruptly laid off 90% of its employees. Now a lawsuit alleges that Telltale "failed to pay its laid off workers their respective wages, salary, commissions, bonuses, accrued holiday pay, and accrued vacation for 60 working days following their terminations," as required by California law. … Read More
Sculptor Isa Genzken Wins $100,000 Nasher Prize
"For four decades, Ms. Genzken has drawn praise for her exploration of many aesthetics and mediums, including video, photography and collages. Her perceptive architectural installations and their historical themes, including reconstruction in Germany and the War on Terror, have made her one of the leading artists of the postwar era." … Read More
Why Did The Australian Broadcasting Corp. Abruptly Fire Its Managing Director?
The board's announcement that Michelle Guthrie was out said only "The decision follows discussions over several months that concluded when directors resolved that it was not in the best interests of the ABC for Ms Guthrie to continue to lead the organisation." Media journalist David Tiley "make[s] an op-ed stab at the issues behind this." … Read More
Australian State Arts Minister Under Fire For Secretly Redirecting Funds
"[New South Wales] Minister for the Arts, Don Harwin, rejected independent recommendations to distribute $660,000 across 17 projects in a recent Create NSW funding round. [Create NSW is the state's arts funding body.] Harwin instead signed off on funding for only six of the 16 applications, reallocating $404,000 towards a single project, which the ABC identified as the Sydney Symphony Orchestra." … Read More
Akron Symphony Extends With Music Director Christopher Wilkins Through 2021
"Wilkins has been music director for the 65-year-old orchestra since 2006, and is the sixth conductor." … Read More
A Ringing Defense Of The Printed Page
As for my attempts to express the impact of the screen on the page, on the actual pages of literary novels, I now understand that these were altogether irrelevant to the requirement of the age that everything be easier, faster, and slicker in order to compel the attention of screen viewers. It strikes me that we’re now suffering collectively from a “tyranny of the virtual,” since we find ourselves unable to look away from the screens that mediate not just print but, increasingly, reality itself. … Read More
Too Many Biennales?
The unstoppable takeover of the art world by the biennial form is evidenced by the nearly 250 biennials operating globally, listed by the Biennial Foundation’s Directory of Biennials. More than this number, it is the five-fold increase over the last ten years that warrants a certain slack-jawed response. … Read More
Do All-Women Exhibitions Help Or Hurt The Cause?
Whether all-women’s shows are an effective long-term strategy for achieving gender equity in the art world at large remains a subject of heated debate. At a panel discussion that accompanied the Studio School exhibit, some artists and curators argued that gender-based shows encourage tokenism and relegate women to the sidelines, while others argued that, after centuries of art shows that featured only men, all-women shows are a necessary corrective. … Read More
As Mainstream Museums Diversify What Happens To Culturally-Specific Institutions?
With mainstream institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum diversifying to engage wider and more representative publics, what becomes the role of so-called culturally specific institutions—like El Museo, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art—that were born out of efforts to compensate for such museums’ deficiencies? … Read More
Premium Classifieds
Master’s in Arts Management in NYC – for Active Performing Artists
The New School's MA in Arts Management & Entrepreneurship is designed for active performing artists seeking the business skills, strategies & inspiration to drive new careers in arts … [Read More]
Executive Director, Assn. of Arts Administration Educators
AAAE seeks a dynamic, self-motivated Executive Director to lead the organization. AAAE consists of more than 150 member programs, all training and equipping students in arts leadership, management, … [Read More]
Executive Director, Onassis Foundation USA
Onassis Foundation USA, dedicated to promoting cross-cultural relations through the lens of Greek tradition, seeks a sophisticated and intellectual arts and cultural impresario to serve as Executive … [Read More]
Publicity Manager, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center seeks a creative, high energy Public Relations Manager, with proven success achieving consistent high visibility for a classical arts or other … [Read More]
Has Arts Council England Misunderstood Cultural Democracy?
Many experts on cultural democracy have suggested that the Arts Council has misunderstood the idea. Community arts specialist François Matarasso made a distinction between the democratisation of culture and cultural democracy. He told AP that the former is a policy – “an initiative as a cultural organisation or as a national body to promote access to culture”. By contrast, he said cultural democracy “is a process, not a state, like democracy itself, in which we negotiate what we believe to be valuable. I don’t think it’s something that you can achieve through policy or initiatives at a national level or at an institutional level.” … [Read More]
New Research: Two Members Of Gainsborough’s Family Were Murdered
The murder victims were the artist’s uncle (1678-1739), who lived in a neighbouring street in Sudbury, and his cousin (1709-39), who then worked in London. Both were also named Thomas. Biographers of the artist since the mid-19th century had failed to note these murders in the family. … [Read More]
How I Maintained My Dance Career After Becoming Paralyzed
Marc Brew, an Australian Ballet alumnus who is now artistic director of the Oakland-based AXIS Dance Company, writes about the spinal-cord injury that left him in a wheelchair and how he continued to work as a performer and choreographer afterward. … [Read More]
Tax Advice: How The New Tax Law Affects The Arts
In my opinion as an artist, an accountant, and a citizen, the effects I outline below make a strong case for traditional protocols including a longer period for deliberation and public comment, befitting massive legislation. Tax changes can have serious ripple effects, which must be fully understood by institutions and the public before they are put into effect. This benefits everyone, regardless of political leanings; whether you’re donating to the Southern Baptist Convention or MoMA, nonprofits can’t function without your contributions. … [Read More]
Can ‘Insta Novels’ Get Young People Excited About Literature?
"[The New York Public Library] will be releasing digitized versions of classic novels, novellas, and short stories on their Instagram account, @nypl, through the 'Stories' and 'Highlights' features. ... The campaign started with Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, which released with 200 pages distributed over the course of two days. Forthcoming titles include The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka." … [Read More]
Is AI Fueling A New Art Movement?
In order to get their algorithm to produce a legitimately classical-looking portrait, Obvious’s members say they fed it a training data set of more than 15,000 portraits created between the 14th and 20th centuries. Using these images, the algorithm was able to “generate” new images similar to the ones it had been fed. These new portraits were then presented to another algorithm (the “adversarial” part of the GAN acronym) that was trained to distinguish between images produced by humans versus those by machines—a Turing-like test for artworks—until the generated portraits could fool this discriminator into thinking they were “real,” too. Since the announcement, many in the traditional art world have been losing their minds over this new movement, which Obvious has christened “GAN-ism.” But … [Read More]
English National Ballet Star Leaves Because She’s Bored There — Does She Have A Point?
"Laurretta Summerscales, a leading dancer with the English National Ballet, left last season for the Bavarian State Ballet in Munich, telling Dancing Times magazine that she yearned for a broader repertoire than the smaller British company could provide." David Jays considers the merits of her complaint. … [Read More]
Why We Need Older Dancers
I wanted to work with dancers I didn't have to explain myself to as I might have to with younger performers. At the same time, I sensed this might provide a reflection of the "aging" general audience and public at large. I've received feedback that what I'm doing is "political," that I'm "influencing perception, changing bias, working outside the norm." Personally, I'm just working. And intend to keep doing so. … [Read More]
The Three Genres Of Post-Ringling Bros. Circus
"Circus using performing animals, now restricted in 43 different countries, is dying out. It has been replaced by three different sub-genres, according to Brisbane Festival artistic director David Berthold. First, is the Cirque Du Soleil approach: big, ballsy, and cinematic (essentially traditional circus without the tigers). Second, is blockbuster cabaret that contains high circus skills (think the down n' dirty Blanc de Blanc). The third is what Berthold calls 'art circus'." … [Read More]
Unprecedented: Big Media Companies In Leadership Turmoil
While executives come and go regularly, no one can remember a time when there was so much change and turmoil at the top of all of the networks. … [Read More]