“A similar but different criticism occurs when a writer is told that her portrayal of minority characters isn’t different enough. A woman in my program has been told that her stories need to be more ethnic, that readers should be able to smell the food.”
“If canonical philosophers were blacklisted based on their prejudices and political engagements, then there wouldn’t be all that many left in the Western tradition.”
“I don’t think many people see arts and cultural as economic engines, but they are. As the ward has become more vibrant, that has not only energized the residents but attracted new businesses, homeowners.”
With Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the conflict along its Ukrainian border, Estonia’s Laulupidu festival of traditional song and dance took on even more national import than usual (and that’s a lot.
“Clubs for ugly people, ear trumpets designed for mourners, mesmerism as a cure – disability in the 19th century reflected all of the Victorian era’s oddities and societal changes.”
Laughter has been a key marker of what we feel about other cultures, about our own past and our views of the “progress of civilization.”
“As the music critics disappear, so too does the public’s awareness of what we make, why we make it, and who we are. So as the bad reviews roll in, I try to seek a modicum of Zen, grateful that — at least for the time being — when my tree falls in the forest, it doesn’t fall on deaf ears.”
“Over time, the concept of cultural appropriation has morphed into a parody of the original idea. We are now to get angry simply when whites happily imitate something that minorities do. We now use the word steal in an abstract sense, separated from any kind of material value. It used to be that we said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But now there is new way to see the matter: Imitation is a kind of dismissal.”
“The practice of using corporate largess to finance restoration projects for public antiquities was once fairly rare here. But with the nation struggling with a stagnant economy and crushing public debt – Rome is flirting off and on with bankruptcy – politicians are now looking to private companies and international sources to help preserve Italy’s cultural heritage.”
“Theatres and arts organisations currently funded as part of Arts Council England’s national portfolio now raise more than half of their income from ticket sales, educational work and catering.”
“Amazon looks so good because it has the rest of publishing to compete against. But if those publishers wither, maybe that would not be true.”
“It’s a place that appalls preservationists, reformers and intellectuals — anyone who gets social rewards by decrying noise and garish commercialism. On the other hand, Bourbon Street is incredibly influential. It’s the most recognized place name in the city – and for better or worse, it has exported a vision of New Orleans culture around the world.”
“Enraged by a report that, as well as occupying Gramsci’s old home in Piazza Carlina, the hotel would bear his name, the academics, historians and architects have mobilised against the plan.”
“Just a couple of years after Detroit slid into what the national news media incessantly called a ‘post-apocalyptic’ collapse, the city now teems with a post-post-apocalyptic optimism.”
“Venues funded by Arts Council England are failing to attract new theatregoers and are instead relying on a core regular audience, the findings of a new report have shown.” Who is pulling in new people? The West End.
Today in Los Angeles where businesses, developers, museums, and city governance are changing the reception and application of community grown initiatives, I’ve found a similar question worth asking, “Is creative practice gentrifying creative practice?”
“That art and culture are falling off the organized news media’s map certainly is an affront to those who know and cherish their value, because it translates to a judgment from publishers and content providers that the arts are less worthy of public attention than what else sadly passes for news. Worse, though, in time it has potential to become victim to a self-fulfilling prophecy if everyday people have less access to art and culture, and eventually less incentive to find it.”
“As the arts funding puzzle shifts dramatically under the rubric of creative placemaking—from symphony orchestras to dance companies, and from museums to arts councils—the programs, services, and fundamental kind of art being made will necessarily change to enhance an organization’s competitiveness. This is not a situation that new music stakeholders should take lightly.”
“A group of performers, myself included, left our portakabins to make for the stage within the main building, but shockingly the entire area had suddenly been occupied by about 40 protesters who were blowing klaxons, chanting and yelling, banging metal pans with metal spoons and jostling with police and the theatre’s large security men.”
“The Martians make a visit to Earth. When they get there, everyone on the planet is in a huge meeting. ‘What are they doing’ say the Martians. ‘They’re discussing Peace in the Middle East,’ says one of the Three Wise Persons. … ‘How can it be,’ say the Martians to the Three Wise Persons, ‘that nobody can figure out how to accomplish a thing that everyone seems to want?’”
The DC title Injustice depicts a Superman who has become a global dictator. (He sends the Green Lantern to Congress to break the debt ceiling deadlock.) And the Godzilla spin-off Monstrous looks at what happens after one giant radioactive monster defeats and kills another: the corpse is now toxic waste.
“Russia’s parliament passed a law on Friday to force Internet sites that store the personal data of Russian citizens to do so inside the country, a move the Kremlin says is for data protection but which critics see an attack on social networks. The law will mean that from 2016, all Internet companies will have to move Russian data onto servers based in Russia or face being blocked from the web.”
“In their fight against feared closure, more than 300 residents, according to campaign group Save Braunton Library, borrowed several books each on Saturday.”
“The prosecution alleges film-makers had ‘unlawfully and without authority’ entered onto the railway tracks ‘after receiving, prior to that entry, notice from the owner thereof that such entry was denied’.”
“Whenever Amazon sells a Bonnier e-book, it collects 30 percent of the retail price. But now Amazon wants its share hiked to 50 percent. So far, Bonnier is refusing to budge.”
“The ACE have the arrogance to declare that London vs the rest of the UK is an equal match worth fighting, and one in which funds can be distributed equally between the two. The extensive nature of their report proves that despite their attempts to disguise the vicious nature of the cuts with a garish pink font, the ACE cannot claim ignorance about the existence of a 14:1 imbalance of London’s arts budget compared to the rest of England.”
“New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña announced on Tuesday their plan to put $23 million toward hiring 120 new arts teachers and boosting arts resources in public schools across the city. The plan uses additional money from this year’s budget to guarantee the growth of arts programs in 2015.”
“The new, spectacular opera house, the third largest in the world, with state-of-the-art acoustic design, seating for 1250, three stages, and a vast backstage area as big as an aircraft hangar (to enable the creation of the most elaborate possible sets, no expense spared), is in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.”
Wolf Trap will announce Tuesday that it will use new supertitle technology that allows audiences to follow the French narrative of the opera in English from their smartphones, tablets or Google Glass eyewear. The technology from Figaro Systems debuts during the July 25 performance of “Carmen.”
“Overall, 33 organisations have been removed from the Arts Council’s roster and three quarters of the 670 organisations have had their funding frozen. The ENO has had its annual grant cut from £17.2m in 2014/15 to £12.4m in the next financial year.”