Audiobooks Are Booming… And Likely To Continue Thriving
This decade’s double-digit annual growth — with total sales doubling to $2.5 billon over the past five years — has a clear analog in the e-book boom that preceded it, and the same company has driven it: Audible.com owner Amazon. … Read More
Social Media New? Nope – We’ve Had A Sharing Culture Forever
Long before mobile phones or even photography, diaries were kept as a way to understand oneself and the world one inhabits. In the 18th and 19th centuries, as secular diaries became more popular, middle-class New Englanders, particularly white women, wrote about their everyday lives and the world around them. These diaries were not a place into which they poured their innermost thoughts and desires, but rather a place to chronicle the social world around them – what’s going on around the house, what they did today, who came to visit, who was born or who died. … Read More
The Atlanta Symphony’s Turnaround
"I would describe us now as being in a relatively stable space but also a very creative space, where we have good relationships, a good contract in place, good operations and we’re in the midst of a strategic planning process that will help us drive the direction for the next five years." … Read More
Meet The LA Philharmonic’s New Chief
“The challenge is to find an integrated approach that enlarges the number of people who are in our orbit,” he says. “As demographics change and people become more distracted, the notion of how you create compelling experiences on stage and how you build vast community around them is, I think, the next frontier. I don’t think we fully know how to do that yet.” … Read More
Almost $10 Billion In New Cultural Facilities Opened Worldwide Last Year
New buildings including Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town and the Guardian Art Center in Beijing, for example, incorporate hotels, event spaces, and other uses, a reflection of the fact that arts infrastructure “has come to play an important part in the experiential economy.” … Read More
Check Out The Weird And Wonderful Tradition Of Albanian Polyphonic Singing
"Set against a backdrop of the dreamy mountains of Labëria in southern Albania, Washed by the Moon, British/German filmmaker Dan Shutt's directorial debut, is a rich journey through the region's musical history. ... We invited the director to compile a mix that encapsulates the ancient Albanian tradition of isopolyphonic singing." … Read More
Has The Podcast Bubble Burst?
So if one of the benefits of podcasting was that they made good money, why are companies like BuzzFeed shutting down or downsizing their operations? One obvious answer is a glut of supply—in 2015, a list of the “must listen” podcasts was 200 items long. At some point, even podcasting aficionados started to wonder who had time to to listen to all those podcasts. A similar thing happened with video, after everyone pivoted to short-form video because Facebook said it wanted as much as possible. … Read More
Documentarian Breaks Still-Strong Taboo: Filming The Moment Of Death
Steven Eastwood shot his feature film Island in a hospice on England's Isle of Wight, where four patients allowed him to capture their final days and (actual) final breaths. "What's interesting is there isn't an image. You can't see the dying. I think that's fascinating, because to talk about how the film shows you the moment of death, I don't know when that moment is. I've watched it over and over." … Read More
IQ Scores Are Dropping? (It’s Complicated)
“We are becoming stupider. This is happening. It’s not going to go away, and we have to try to think about what we’re going to do about it.” … Read More
Spokane Tries For Its First Professional Dance Company In 25 Years
Since the Ballet Company of Spokane shut down in 1993, only amateur and student dance performances have been available in the city. Vincas Greene is trying to fill that gap with his Vytal Movement Dance Company. … Read More
The New EU Law That Would Fundamentally Break The Internet
Copying just a few words might be a copyright breach, and merely putting TV sets in hotel rooms or spas requires a license. That is true also with regard to rights holders’ ability to object to or control certain acts of linking to their content. The law already requires any business that links to copyrighted content, including the website of a newspaper, to make sure the content linked to is and remains legal, in order to not be exposed to liability. However, the new article might require businesses to secure a license before displaying titles of news articles and relevant snippets. … Read More
Breaking: Met Museum To Vacate Breuer Building
In an unusual game of musical chairs, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Frick Collection announced today (21 September) that the Met will vacate the Brutalist Breuer building on Madison Avenue in 2020. Its departure will make way for the Frick to move in late that year while its mansion undergoes a renovation and expansion five blocks away. … Read More
‘That Rare Thing, A Publishing (B)Romance’ — Tennessee Williams And James Laughlin
Writer and actor Simon Callow looks at the relationship between the playwright and publisher, two wildly different men who were each other's benefactors — financially, professionally, personally — for forty years. … Read More
NYT Dance Critic Alastair Macaulay To Retire
For some time now, Alastair — who celebrated 40 years of reviewing this May — has wanted to spend more time in Britain, his home country; scale back on his daily reviewing responsibilities; and work on a variety of projects, including teaching and lecturing at Juilliard, the 92 Street Y and City Center, and a research fellowship with the Center for Ballet and the Arts. … Read More
I’m Not Wearing Pink Tights Again, Says Black Dancer At English National Ballet
Says Precious Adams about her decision to wear brown tights henceforth, "It changes the aesthetic, you want there to be continuation between your upper and lower body and there's a big disconnect if I put pink tights on. ... I'm not colourblind and I think it ruins the line of my body." She's getting pushback from traditionalists, but her colleagues are entirely supportive. … Read More
Premium Classifieds
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]
Webinar – Wed, Sept 26 – Take a Closer Look at LiveNote®
Join us for a special tour of LiveNote® - the interactive performance guide for delivering commentary, translations, program notes, and images to audiences in real-time via mobile devices. Earlier … [Read More]
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]
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]
Cultural Theorist Paul Virilio Dead At 86
"In many ways [he was] the last of the generation of French intellectuals that emerged from the new possibilities opened up after the events of May '68. While not as famous (or infamous) as Foucault, Deleuze, Baudrillard and Derrida, Virilio leaves us with a body of work that seems to grow in importance in the 21st century as we deal with the 'pace of change' in technology and international politics." … [Read More]
China Bans Foreign TV During Prime Time
"According to a new set of draft rules released Thursday, Beijing regulators will outlaw the broadcast of foreign TV shows during prime time and limit the volume of imported content that streams on China's fast-growing video platforms. As justification for the rules, regulators cited the 'protection of social stability' and the need to guard against content that 'deviates from core socialist values.'" … [Read More]
Choreographer Ralph Lemon Wins $250,000 Heinz Award
The dance-theater-visual artist won the prize in the Arts and Humanities category, one of six. "During more than four decades of performance-making, Lemon has explored race and memory, as well as experiences of grief and spirituality, through nonhierarchical movement and language." … [Read More]
What Are America’s Ten Most-Produced Plays Of The Coming Season?
Lucas Hnath's A Doll's House, Part 2 leads the list, well ahead of the runner-up, Lynn Nottage's Sweat. Female playwrights lead males on the list by three to one, and, with Shakespeare and A Christmas Carol not included (by design), all of the titles are by living writers (though two are adapted from Pride and Prejudice). … [Read More]
America’s 20 Most-Produced Playwrights In 2018-19
With his A Doll's House, Part 2 the most-produced play, Lucas Hnath leads the list (excluding Shakespeare, of course) with 33 productions, edging out last season's leader, Lauren Gunderson, who has 29. This year's list is the most diverse in its 25-year history, with 11 female playwrights and six nonwhite ones. 17 of the 20 are American (including one immigrant), and all but three (August Wilson, Tennessee Williams, and Sam Shepard) are living. … [Read More]
Details Emerge Of Harassment Lawsuit Against Baltimore Symphony
Tim Smith reports on the lawsuit filed by principal oboist Katherine Needleman against the orchestra and concertmaster Jonathan Carney and on an attorney's investigation into sexual harassment and the workenvironment at the BSO. "The two documents brim with details of unprofessional behavior inside the orchestra, onstage and off – propositioning in a hotel room and a women’s restroom, discussion of 'pesones' (Spanish for nipples), making faces and mocking gestures during rehearsals or concerts." … [Read More]
New York Times Book Critics Dish About The Nobel Lit Prize That’s Not Being Given This Year
Times daily books editor John Williams: "To help fill the void of conversation around the prize itself, I recently spoke with The New York Times's staff book critics — Dwight Garner, Parul Sehgal and Jennifer Szalai — about what the prize has meant (or not meant) to their own reading habits; their opinions of past winners (and past snubs); and whom they would bestow the honor upon this year if they could." … [Read More]
At Long Last, MOCA Toronto Is Opening In A New Home
"It's been a roller-coaster three years for [the Museum of Contemporary Art], amid setbacks, leaps ahead and everything in between. But the long-mothballed museum is finally, actually, happening this weekend. ... What do the final few days before opening look like? Let's let five of [MOCA's key figures] talk about persisting through a long, sometimes messy journey." … [Read More]
MOCA Toronto’s Long, Twisted, 25-Year Journey To Its New HQ
"MOCA — or the Art Gallery of North York, or MOCCA, all of which figure into the plucky museum's patchwork history — has covered miles and years from Mel Lastman Square all the way, finally, to its stately, spanking new home on Sterling Road. ... Here it is, [that history,] step by step." … [Read More]
Glenn Gould Is Going To Be Turned Into A Hologram And Sent On Tour With Live Orchestra
"Eyellusion, the hologram entertainment company behind tours for Frank Zappa and Ronnie James Dio, is working with Gould's rights holder, Primary Wave Music Publishing, on a Glenn Gould Hologram Tour with dates expected to be announced in late 2019. " … [Read More]