The True Power Of Theater: It’s Where We Come Together To Hear Stories
“The storytelling one encounters in the theater is found nowhere else in life. … These stories are how we come to an agreement about just what is this world is. To experience them together is to renew our shared understanding, and to give ourselves a common point around which to debate life’s big questions.”
In Finland, The Foundation Of Learning Is Music
“Finland has one of the best education systems in the world, where teaching music and learning to play an instrument are the foundation of children’s schooling; it should be the model for us to follow. The principle is that a child is never too young to start a relationship with music; creative play is the key and it should never be a chore; musical exploration will feed into other disciplines; children should be allowed to develop at their own pace and go into music as deeply as they wish. It is fantastically successful, and Finland has produced a stream of extraordinary musicians over the past 30 years – making it surely per capita the most productive country for churning out great classical conductors and soloists.”
Scientists Show How To Measure Reality (No Kidding)
Australian scientists have recreated a famous experiment and confirmed quantum physics’s bizarre predictions about the nature of reality, by proving that reality doesn’t actually exist until we measure it – at least, not on the very small scale.
The Original Cat Video (It Was Made In 1894)
“Thomas Edison might be best known for the electric lightbulb, but he was also a connoisseur of strange short films.” And one of those odd little movies was Boxing Cats. (includes video)
What It’s Like To Be Sofia Coppola
To be Sofia Coppola is to have grown up with certain advantages. The Coppola family tree is a verdant one: Sofia’s grandfather was composer Carmine Coppola; actors Jason Schwartzman and Nicolas Cage are her cousins; and her brother Roman produces her films through the family-run production company American Zoetrope. But lineage alone doesn’t determine who we grow up to become. At 46, Coppola, who has made six delicately distinctive feature films over the past 18 years, has built something of a stealth career.
The Ones They Missed In The List Of ‘The Most Influential People In Dance Today’
When Dance Magazine published its list last week, the editors asked readers to tell them whom they unjustly left out. And readers definitely did.
Remaking School Libraries Into Hotbeds Of High Tech
“[There’s] a national movement to turn K-12 librarians into indispensable digital mavens who can help classroom teachers craft tech-savvy lesson plans, teach kids to think critically about online research, and remake libraries into lively, high-tech hubs of collaborative learning – while still helping kids get books.”
Librarians On Horseback, The Bookmobiles Of The Great Depression
Eliza McGraw tells the story of the Pack Horse Library, a WPA program that served the isolated, book-starved towns of the eastern Kentucky mountains.
Diverse Casting In Movies Pays Off At The Box Office: Study
“While women, people of color, LGBTQ folk and other historically marginalized communities in Hollywood continue to insist ‘diversity pays,’ the box office success of films with diverse casts such as Hidden Figures ($230.1 million worldwide) and Get Out ($251.2 million worldwide) is inevitably deemed a ‘surprise.’ A new study and database crafted by Creative Artists Agency, however, is aiming to take some of the surprise out of box office performance, noting that across every budget level a film with a diverse cast outperforms a release not so diversified.”
‘A Shimmering African Canopy’: A First Look At The 2017 Serpentine Pavilion In London
Says Francis Kéré, the first African architect to design the annually built structure, “I was inspired by the big tree in my native village of Gando [in Burkina Faso]. The community always gathers in its shade. I wanted to create a place that would encourage people to come together, with spaces where you feel enclosed and protected, or choose to look out to the park.”
$166.3 Billion – That’s How Much U.S. Arts Nonprofits Outside LA And NYC Generated In 2015
“The average culture vulture in the US spends an additional $31.47 whenever she attends an arts event: almost $17 on food, about $4.50 on souvenirs and gifts, over $3 on local transportation – it all adds up. This is the micro level of the $166.3 billion in economic activity that the nonprofit arts sector contributed to the US economy in 2015, according to a study released on Saturday by Americans for the Arts.”
Why Wayne McGregor Is Giving Away Time And Space In His Brand-New Studios
“‘It’s easy to talk about the issues facing the dance sector, but I thought we had to do something,’ McGregor says, citing the cost (“around £2,000 per week,” or over $2,500) of renting a studio in London. As part of [his] FreeSpace [program], 5,000 hours of studio time will be gifted to 25 artists over one year. In exchange, for each week spent in the Studio they are asked to devote one day to outreach projects.
‘We Are Not Going For The Bilbao Effect!” Insists New Spanish Museum (Even Though They Hired A Starchitect)
“The idea was not to create an icon,” avers the director of the Centro Botín in Santander. “The building is not trying to show off or give the impression that Santander is more than it is.” “I suppose our strategy was the opposite of the Guggenheim,” says architect Renzo Piano, who designed the building not to be visible from the city center. “How many Bilbao effects can you have after all?”
Syrian Refugees To Be Trained To Rebuild Palmyra
“The World Monuments Fund is launching a £500,000 scheme to train Syrian refugees living in and around the Zaatari camp on the Jordanian border in traditional stone masonry. The aim is to develop skills so that cultural heritage sites that have been caught in crossfire or destroyed by [ISIS] can be rebuilt once peace is restored to Syria.”
Derek Walcott Museum, On His Home Island, Shut Down, Allegedly Due To Unrelated Political Fight
“A museum on the site of the boyhood home of the [Nobel-winning] poet and playwright Derek Walcott has closed amid a funding shortfall that has been linked to disputes over controversial tourist developments on St Lucia.”
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Executive Director, Pennsylvania Ballet, Philadelphia, PA
Pennsylvania Ballet is requesting applications for the position of Executive Director. Under the leadership of Artistic Director, Angel Corella the company has risen to a new level of artistic … [Read More...]
Artistic Director, Denver Center Theatre Company
Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) invites applications and nominations for the position of Artistic Director of the Theatre Company. DCPA is the largest nonprofit theatre organization in … [Read More...]
Angolan Author Wins €100K International Prize Chosen By Libraries
José Eduardo Agualusa and translator Daniel Hahn share the International Dublin Literary Award 2017 for A General Theory of Oblivion, which was a finalist for this year’s Man Booker International Prize. Candidates for the IDLA are nominated by librarians and library readers all over the world.
Washington National Opera Parts Ways With Its Music Director
Philippe Auguin, 56, will have completed eight seasons with WNO by the time he steps down from his post. Having made his company debut in 2009 as an 11th-hour replacement for his ailing predecessor, Heinz Fricke, in a concert version of Wagner’s “Twilight of the Gods,” he has particularly excelled in Wagner, leading “Tristan and Isolde” in 2013 and Francesca Zambello’s “Ring” cycle in 2016, which counts as one of the company’s great triumphs.
Study: How Adults And Children Look Differently At Art
“In a small-scale study, a research team led by Francesco Walker of Vrije University presents evidence that children and adults look at works of art quite differently, with kids focusing first on visually stimulating elements. Adults, in contrast, try to make sense of the thing from the get-go.”
Four Smart People Warn Of The Threats Of Artificial Intelligence
“People who enjoy a lot of respect — like Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk — warn of a coming artificial intelligence apocalypse. Others say the conversation has become alarmist — either that general AI is unlikely, or that even if it arrives, it will be here to help, not harm us.”
Defending Chicago Theatre Critic Hedy Weiss
“As far as I know, Weiss has never bothered with political correctness. If a chorus line breaks with tradition by incorporating a variety of body types, she notices—as does everyone in the audience. If a play for young audiences glorifies vandalism in the form of graffiti, she objects. I’d argue that’s her greatest strength as a critic: she’s taking on the subject matter of the work, as any critic worth his or her salt should, and she’s not afraid to go out on a limb. You might not share her perspective, and that can make her a lightning rod, but it doesn’t automatically make her a bigot.”
The Importance Of Historical Fiction In Times Of Historical Turmoil
“Reading historical fiction not only puts our current events into a historical context, but also helps us understand and imagine and empathize with what people lived through in other times and places. It reminds us that other people, ordinary people, real people, have lived and survived and fallen in love, but also, died in these times of political turmoil before us.”
Is FOMO The Essential Ingredient In Art For The Instagram Age?
“The fact that some folks have managed to make the scene while others get left out in the cold is integral to the excitement of participatory art. The thrill is akin to exotic travel, or getting to see Hamilton. Because not everyone who wants the experience actually gets the experience, these works, even if their intentions and messages are democratic, tend to become exclusive affairs.”
Portrait Of An Arts Economy By The Numbers: Sarasota
According to the “Arts & Economic Prosperity Report V,” a data-intense survey released during the weekend by the nonprofit Americans for the Arts, Sarasota County’s arts and cultural organizations and audiences pumped $295 million into the economy in 2015, up 64 percent from $180 million in 2010, when the previous survey was taken.
When Secondary Characters Get Novels Of Their Own
Anjum Hasan looks at the phenomenon of “minor-character elaboration” – from Jean Rhys’s The Wide Sargasso Sea (the story of Jane Eyre‘s madwoman in the attic) to Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad (how Ulysses’s wife and queen passed the twenty years waiting for his return) and onward. (Hasan also includes Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, though we think that wasn’t the same thing.)
Was There A “Golden Age” Of Local TV? And If There Was, Was Boston The Center Of It?
“What makes that era seem if not golden then at least more sophisticated is that by comparison, local television today, Boston included, is in the doldrums. For the declining influence of local television, and for the withering influence upon younger viewers, executives blame the internet and the profusion of cable options. A reason they do not acknowledge is that it was made easier by the decline in quality since the era.”