Dudamel, Gergiev: Should they leave politics to the experts?
AJBlog: Condemned to Music | Published 2014-03-18
On the Judgment of Appropriators
AJBlog: New Beans | Published 2014-03-18
Dave Eggers on Artists in the Digital Age
AJBlog: CultureCrash | Published 2014-03-17
Inside tips: How to pass an orchestra audition
AJBlog: Slipped Disc | Published 2014-03-17
Friendship Outs: Giant Gift Of Marin Watercolors Goes To…
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-03-18
“The decision to sell off public assets invested with such historic significance has not only angered anti-austerity leftists. It has raised howls of protest from reform-minded conservatives with many wondering whether Greece is finally enacting what Germany’s tabloid press has long taunted it to do: sell off its cultural heritage to pay off its monumental debt.”
“The balance of Shakespeare to non-Shakespeare, and of “traditional” to contemporary staging, will always be a matter of conflict in Ashland, because the interested parties, from directors and actors to the audiences who keep the place alive, have such differing likes and dislikes and opinions about what’s important and what is ultimately fleeting and trivial.”
“Now, just a few years after he was little known outside of piano circles, offers are pouring in. On Tuesday the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra will name him an artistic partner, beginning next season.”
“Do any of Shakespeare’s lovers actually, you know, talk to each other? If Romeo and Juliet don’t, what hope do the rest of them have?”
“So why don’t these people consider themselves professional artists? No doubt some only do their creative work as a side venture, and make little or no money from it. But it appears that some have trouble wrapping their heads around the idea that their work makes them, by definition, professional artists.”
“While other shows also employ this so-called dynamic pricing system to raise seat prices during tourist-heavy holiday weeks, only Disney has reached the level of sophistication achieved in the airline and hotel industries by continually using its algorithm to calibrate prices based on demand and ticket purchasing patterns.”
“Shanghai’s impulse to build so many museums is the direct result of a governmental five-year plan for the city to become an artistic center on par with London, Paris, and New York.”
“The Affordable Care Act made some of its most sweeping reforms in the arenas of health care for women and health care for the self-employed. This means that female freelance musicians are among the Americans whose lives have been most deeply affected by this policy.”
Pity the poor artist who assumes a connection between price and the quality of her work. It is nothing of the sort; more often it is a case of “taking positions, using leverage, and weighing risk and reward more aggressively,” as one art world insider interpreted Daniel Loeb’s plan for holding Sotheby’s feet to the fire.
“If other people like our dancing then that’s nice, but the real impetus to keep dancing has to be internal and be motivated from within.”
“Within ten to fifteen years, the typical U.S. mall, unless it is completely reinvented, will be a historical anachronism—a sixty-year aberration that no longer meets the public’s needs, the retailers’ needs, or the community’s needs.”
In book form, the illustrations are all “lumped together.” With the web catalogue, users can search via almost any keyword that relates to a painting’s content, colors, exhibition history, owner, or many other attributes. This can lead to surprisingly specific explorations.
“Artists and commentators are decrying the move by leaders of the 555 Nonprofit Gallery and Studios to profit from the work by the anonymous British graffiti artist. The 555 artists excavated the 1,500-pound piece from the crumbling Packard Plant four years ago in the name of preserving it and putting it on public display. They pledged they had no interest in selling it.”