How Canadian Literature Blew Up
In an attention economy, controversy has value. It’s no exaggeration to say these political battles within CanLit now dominate the discussion of Canadian writers and writing. The “appropriation prize” controversy, for example, blew up in a journal that few people had ever heard of much less read, and yet it garnered an enormous amount of national media coverage. And, while Joseph Boyden is a bestselling, award-winning novelist, he is probably better known today for questions raised about whether or not he qualifies as an Indigenous author. … Read More
The Difference Between Bullshitters And Liars
Although most of us would agree that both bullshit and the outright lie are modes of misrepresentation, there exists a key difference between the two. Neither the bullshitter nor the liar can be relied upon to tell the truth. But in order to lie, the liar must first believe that she knows the truth; only then can she persuade her audience of what she knows to be untrue. The bullshitter, on the other hand, maintains no relationship at all with the truth: it is irrelevant to the bullshitter whether what she says is true or false, and what she is guilty of misrepresenting is precisely her concern for the distinction between the two. … Read More
How The Internet Shut Down The Best Burger Place In America
Apparently, after my story came out, crowds of people started coming in the restaurant, people in from out of town, or from the suburbs, basically just non-regulars. And as the lines started to build up, his employees -- who were mainly family members -- got stressed out, and the stress would cause them to not be as friendly as they should be, or to shout out crazy long wait times for burgers in an attempt to maybe convince people to leave, and as this started happening, things fell by the wayside. … Read More
Study: It’s Distressingly Easy To Believe Your Own Lies
After they finished lying to her, researcher Danielle Polage asked the students to again rate their certainty that each of these events had or had not happened. Fascinatingly (and a little creepily), subjects showed a statistically significant change in their beliefs, indicating that they became less sure that untrue events hadn’t happened to them after saying that they had. Conversely, when subjects were later asked to deny events that had happened to them, they became less sure that those events did take place. … Read More
Star Russian Director’s Trial Seen As A Threat To Artistic Freedom
Kirill Serebrennikov has been charged with embezzlement and faces 10 years in prison. Supporters have compared his trial to the purge of directors during the Soviet Union and the censorship of leading writers under the Tsars. “People of culture have always held the most dangerous position in Russia,” Liya Akhedzhakova, a celebrated actor who starred in Soviet classics like Office Romance, told the Guardian in court on Tuesday. “They are the first to be targeted.” … Read More
The Answer To Chaos And Threat In The Modern World? The Values Of Our Great Institutions
"We allow our great cultural institutions to fall into disrepair and disrepute because, as we strip them of their reverential traditions and their arduous canon, we also strip them of our reasons to cherish them. We call them before the tribunal of public opinion to justify their very existence, as if we can no longer see through the smog to the heights of Parnassus, lonelier than ever because we have forgotten that it is even there. We attempt to chain the Muses to the machinery of our modern malaise, as if we do not remember that they exist to show us the way to transcend that malaise, to find our way home again, by way of that steep and difficult climb, to the bosom of art and learning." … Read More
How The Idea Of World History Became Possible In The Year 1000 AD
Even Herodotus never considered how to integrate the historic timelines of the Greeks, Egyptians, and Persians. The problem was the lack of any fixed common calendar, any agreed-upon way of determining which year was which and what happened when, since each civilization had its own notional Year One. Then, because he got tired of having to consult many different books, the ruler of a kingdom on the Caspian Sea asked a Persian scholar to develop a timeline that could cover all peoples and their histories. (It was only happenstance that this happened in a year that carried a big round number in the European calendar.) … Read More
Once Great Works Of Art Are Sold, They’re Gone. Disappeared.
Should there be some legislation against the risk that a buyer will effectively or literally destroy a work of art? Particularly one which could be designated a “world treasure”, on a list of the sort that Unesco releases on protected monuments? One that would oblige private owners to make the works accessible within reasonable terms and require them to maintain the work, which could be considered a matter of international interest? … Read More
Could This Be The Next Big Art Market Scandal?
"Third-party guarantees at auction — the art market's hybrid of a risk hedge and a speculative gamble — are on track to hit an all-time high of around $2.5bn in 2018. ... Such deals are now the norm for high-value Impressionist, Modern and contemporary works. But experts warn that third-party guarantees, if misused, may precipitate a crisis." … Read More
Why We Need A Better Way To Study The Arts
There have been many studies that take advantage of this process, and they bulk out much of the academic literature on the impact and value of the arts. The build-up to this new centre has revealed a critical mass of scholars and artists who have an appetite (and now the opportunity) to do things a bit smarter, with nuance and sensitivity to the richness of cultural experience, that doesn’t simply reduce cultural experiences to mathematical equations. … Read More
There’s Just No End — Narrative Closure Is Becoming A Thing Of The Past
Amanda Hess: "The age of the sequel is over. Now it's the age of the sequel to the sequel. Also the prequel, the reboot, the reunion, the revival, the remake, the spinoff and the stand-alone franchise-adjacent film. Canceled television shows are reinstated. Killed-off characters are resuscitated. Movies do not begin and end so much as they loiter onscreen. And social media is built for infinite scrolling. Nothing ends anymore, and it's driving me insane." … Read More
The State Of Illinois Needs A New Arts Policy. Really.
The economic-development arguments for the arts are as well-worn as they are indisputably accurate, but it is high time arts advocates in Chicago admit that they have not made an effective statewide case. It also is high time for arts advocates in Chicago to admit that so much state arts funding should not be swallowed up by relatively rich institutions in downtown Chicago. It should be for everyone. … Read More
American Theatre Criticism Is Finally Beginning To Bounce Back, And To Get More Diverse
Howard Sherman surveys the current landscape, where experienced critics discarded by legacy publications are now turning up at high-quality websites, and, though an imbalance remains, a few of those legacy outlets have hired younger female and nonwhite writers. (Sherman seems to have forgotten about Hilton Als, though.) … Read More
We’re Spending More On Scientific Research But Are We Getting Less For It?
Over the past century we’ve vastly increased the time and money invested in science, but in scientists’ own judgement we’re producing the most important breakthroughs at a near-constant rate. On a per-dollar or per-person basis, this suggests that science is becoming far less efficient. … Read More
Ai Weiwei Says He’s Done With Museum Shows — And China May Be Done With Him
"Q: But are you allowed to go back? A: You never really know ... they told me I'm free, I'm allowed to go back. Q: But you're not sure that they're telling you the truth? A: I don't know if they even know the truth." … Read More
Premium Classifieds
Professor of Art History, SCAD
SCAD seeks Professor of Art History to conduct classes for enrolled students in the area of art history. Master's degree or foreign equivalent in art history or related. Resume to Erin Powell, … [Read More]
Shape your Creative Sector Career with Classes in Finance, Marketing + Entrepreneurship
Northwestern University’s MS in Leadership for Creative Enterprises program develops leaders in business, innovation, and entrepreneurship across Entertainment, Media and the Arts. Earn your Master’s … [Read More]
Full-Time Faculty in Creative Technology, College of Performing Arts, The New School
The College of Performing Arts (CoPA) at The New School (consisting of the Mannes School of Music, The School of Jazz and Contemporary Music, and The School of Drama) invites applications for a … [Read More]
Global Arts Management Fellowship – DeVos Institute at the University of Maryland
The DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the University of Maryland is currently accepting applications for its 2019-2021 Fellowship Cohort. Led by Institute Founder, Michael M. Kaiser, and … [Read More]
Executive Director- Dance/NYC
Dance/NYC invites applications and nominations for this important leadership position. The next Executive Director of Dance/NYC will work in support of all dance makers across all dance disciplines in … [Read More]
New Internationally-situated MFA in Dance
Internationally-situated MFA in Dance Year, Low Residency, and Flex Cohorts Summer 2019: Residencies in Paris and Montpellier, France Application Deadline: January 14, 2019 University of the Arts, … [Read More]
Vice President of Marketing and External Affairs, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra
The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra seeks a Vice President, Marketing and External Affairs to lead all aspects of planning, implementing, and evaluating the marketing, public relations, communications, … [Read More]
Steve McQueen And Viola Davis On Hollywood, Race And Power
"MCQUEEN: What's happening with #MeToo and Time's Up is amazing — these are huge, giant steps. But I just feel sometimes, as a black filmmaker, that it's still going around in circles. DAVIS: It can't just be 'This is a time for female rage, so this is a time for female-centric movies and maybe some black artists.' It should've been time years ago. This is what it always should be." … [Read More]
Hit Flamenco Singer Finds Herself At Front Of Cultural-Appropriation Wars
"Throughout her rise to fame, Rosalía has been mired in a debate over her supposed appropriation of an art form with gitano origins. The 25-year-old star is not gitana, nor is she from Andalusia, the birthplace of flamenco. She's from Catalonia, the northern Spanish region now famous for its independence bid last year. She's been accused of capitalizing on southern, gitano culture — for adopting an Andalusian accent, sprinkling Caló (the Spanish Romani language) into her songs, dressing like a gitana and using Roma imagery in her music videos." … [Read More]
82-Year-Old Dance Professor Stars In Her First Head-Bangin’ Hard Rock Video
Dance anthropologist Judith Lynne Hanna, who (on top of her scholarly work) has served as an expert witness in legal proceedings against exotic dancers, "has spent her career getting us to think about dance's relationship to society. ... She hadn't performed since college when she got a call from a music video producer, who caught a video of her dancing with her 13-year-old grandson. The rockers of Egg Drop Soup loved her energy and flew her out to Los Angeles for a day-long video shoot. We spoke to Hanna about the experience." … [Read More]
H. Peter Stern, Co-Founder Of Storm King Art Center, Dead At 90
"He and his father-in-law, Ralph Ogden, owners of a business that manufactured metal fasteners for construction and home use ..., co-founded [the center] in Mountainville, N.Y., and developed it into a prestigious outdoor sculpture museum with modern and contemporary works arrayed over a vast pastoral landscape." … [Read More]
Rare Ancient Image Of Jesus Discovered In Negev Desert
The painting of Jesus of Nazareth with John the Baptist — badly deteriorated but perceptible with high-tech photography and potentially restorable — is on the wall of the baptistery in a ruined 5th- or 6th-century Byzantine church. "In contrast to the Western image of Jesus as someone with flowing long hair and, sometimes, a beard, the Shivta painting shows him in the Eastern style with short curly hair, a long face and an elongated nose." … [Read More]
Roy Clark, 85, Country Guitar Wizard And Co-Host Of ‘Hee Haw’
"While Mr. Clark's musicianship and technical abilities were sometimes overlooked by critics who saw only the hayseed star of Hee Haw, he said he had few regrets about his career path. ... "I've seen too many great guitar players sitting unnoticed on a stool in an orchestra. I said, do I want to be there, playing great and nobody knows it, or do I want to be out front with the lights on me, giggling and laughing, playing guitar and rolling my eyes and they say 'Golly, this guy's great?'" … [Read More]
Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, Longtime New York Times Book Critic, Dead At 84
"In one of journalism's most challenging jobs, Mr. Lehmann-Haupt was The Times's senior daily book critic from 1969 to 1995 ... Readers and colleagues called him a judicious, authoritative voice on fiction and a seemingly boundless array of history, biography, current events and other topics, with forays into Persian archaeology and fly fishing." … [Read More]
David Hockney Smashes Record For Most Expensive Work By Living Artist
With a total price of $90.3 million at Christie's last night, Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) (1972) became the most expensive piece by a living artist ever sold at auction. Even more unusually, "the Hockney painting went to the block without any type of guarantee — almost unheard of in this day and age, when consignors know how to play the big auction houses off against one another." … [Read More]
Main Funder Of National Theatre Wales Gives Warning In Debate About Company’s Level Of Welshness
With more than 200 Welsh actors having joined 40 of its playwrights in making public complaints about how little actual theatre the company is making and how few Welsh artists are being employed to make it, the chief executive of the Arts Council of Wales — which gives NTW £1.6 million each year — has issued a statement observing pointedly that "to be 'national' is a privilege, not a right." … [Read More]
London’s Old Vic Theatre Tries Crowdfunding More Women’s Lavatories
The £100,000 public fundraising campaign to double the number of ladies' loos in the building is fronted by a video featuring actresses Joanna Lumley, Bertie Carvel, and a ferocious-looking Glenda Jackson reading tweets from audience members on the subject. … [Read More]