ArtsJournal

Archives for January 27, 2014

Top Posts From AJBlogs 01.27.14

AJBlogs Posted:

Cultural Sites: Taking Stock In Syria
Source: Real Clear Arts | Published on 2014-01-27

Real Lesson From The Grammys – Musicians Have To Sell Other Stuff

MUSIC Posted:

“Nobody’s buying recorded music anymore, and musicians still need to eat. So why get ruffled when a favorite rapper or beloved rock band resorts to licensing their songs to the corporations holding the cash? We don’t sweat it anymore. We don’t even blink.”

Libraries As Museums (We’ve Got To Preserve Printed Books)

WORDS Posted:

“The role of libraries is essential here, as secure repositories for the written word. And here I must admit a fear. In their rush to digitisation – an enthusiasm I find in most librarians I meet – there is the danger that libraries may too quickly abandon their crucial historical role.”

Don’t Expect MOOCs To Replace College, But So What?

ISSUES Posted:

“In the end of the day, a lot of us are really in it for innovation, for really changing the access that people have. Most of our students right now would never ever be able to go to a physical campus, and now we can reach them with education at home, and also the ability to be very contemporary.”

Arts Council England Appeals To The BBC To Make More Arts Partnerships

MEDIA Posted:

“Even the largest arts organisations cannot hope to achieve this exposure on their own. The potential to link up individual artists and arts organisations with the BBC’s multiple platforms is huge, driving place-based and digital engagement, and thought should be given as to how this can be better enabled.”

Research Suggests Artists’ Eccentricity Boosts Perceptions Of Quality

ISSUES Posted:

At least to an extent, judgments about art “depend on the displayed eccentricity of the artist,” the researchers write, “so long as the art is unconventional, and the displayed eccentricity seems authentic.”

Has The MFA Been Killing Art?

ISSUES Posted:

“The fact that artists are now minted by universities (and degree-granting art schools modeled on the university) may have done wonders for their social standing, but it’s also been a source of worry to many critics and artists, who think something of great value might be lost by the professionalization of the artist.”

Exploring The Line That Doesn’t Exist Between Ballet And Modern

DANCE Posted:

“Whenever you start counting, there is broad agreement that from the later decades of the 20th century forward, no proverbial line between modern and ballet has been drawn on the marley flooring of a dance stage.”

The Art Of Food (You Are What You Don’t Eat, Too)

ISSUES Posted:

“Though we don’t yet completely understand nutrition, most people now have some idea what a healthy diet is. Even the quality of writing about food has improved, and the history of food is on the verge of becoming a subject of academic study.”

Why Are American Theatre Critics So Besotted By “Original Practices” Shakespeare?

THEATRE Posted:

My guess is that “original practices” – which, when done in London or at Stratford, is part of a larger conversation about the classics – is a bigger sell on Broadway due to the increasingly elite nature of its audiences.