Today’s Stories
In The Wake Of Apparent Hostility Toward Black Guest Curator, The Guggenheim Hires Its First Full-Time Black Woman Curator
Art historian Chaédria LaBouvier, who was the first solo Black woman curator in the museum’s 80-year history, said that she was cut out of her own show, “Basquiat’s ‘Defacement’: The Untold Story.” Now the Guggenheim, without directly addressing LaBouvier’s claims, has hired the Brooklyn Museum’s Ashley James. James’s work “‘complements the Guggenheim’s mission to present the art of today,’ Nancy Spector, the Guggenheim’s artistic director and chief curator, said.” – The New York Times
The 1920s Secret Society Of Women Writers At Oxford
Spearheaded, and named, by Dorothy L. Sayers, the name of Mutual Admiration Society “both captures the spirit of the group and misrepresents it. They supported each other boldly and emphatically: no false modesty or feminine shame here. They were willing to be relentless and did not insist on being liked. … They were critical, and they were at odds. They fell apart and came together again, over the course of decades and remarkable careers that ranged from birth control advocacy to genre fiction, from classrooms to the stage.” – Literary Hub
GoFundMe Isn’t Just For Health Care Or Funerals In The U.S., But Also For Ballet Costumes
That’s right, the Colorado Ballet has turned to crowdfunding to get new Nutcracker costumes; the old ones were created for the San Francisco Ballet in 1986, and Colorado Ballet bought them in 2005. “For years, the team has done what it can to try to maintain the set and costumes, using vodka to try to extract the sweat from the costumes and glue and tape to keep some of the props together.” – Denver7
Egypt Officially Criminalizes Climbing The Pyramids
The new laws also criminalize all kinds of antiquities theft. “Earlier this year, an Egyptian man climbed to the top of the Great Pyramid of Giza, removing parts of a 19th-century wooden mast that was installed to measure the height of the pyramid, and throwing stones at security forces.” Then there was the Danish couple that claimed to have, er, peaked on one of the peaks. – Hyperallergic
Laid-Off Marciano Foundation Target LAXart Board Member
A small art nonprofit, LAXart’s mission includes social consciousness. The protesting workers were laid off after they unionized and the Marciano Art Foundation abruptly closed. They asked LAXart to tell board member Olivia Marciano, who had been the artistic director at the Marciano Art Foundation, either to explain or get off the board. – Los Angeles Times
Hong Kong Music Festival Canceled Because Of Protests
The Clockenflap festival was supposed to run Nov. 22-24, but after yet another death in the protests (and no signs of that stopping), the organizers canceled one of the most high-profile music festivals in Asia. – The Guardian (UK)
Music For The Birds
Or actually, from the birds. Composer Diane Moser: “My goal was to become a member of their band, so to speak. I listened deeply to their singing, and carefully infiltrated their ensemble.” – New Music Box
Baltimore Art Museum Will Only Buy Art By Women In 2020
Baltimore Museum of Art Christopher Bedford: “This how you raise awareness and shift the identity of an institution. …You don’t just purchase one painting by a female artist of color and hang it on the wall next to a painting by Mark Rothko. To rectify centuries of imbalance, you have to do something radical.” – The Baltimore Sun
The Effort It Takes To Appear Real And Effortless On The Stage
Mary-Louise Parker, of Fried Green Tomatoes, Weeds, and Angels in America fame, has returned to Broadway in a play that requires her to be onstage (and speaking) for the entire 90-minute span. How does that work? “‘It requires a lot of technique,’ she said. ‘It most requires it because I don’t want you to see the technique. I want you to feel like there’s a person standing there talking — just talking.'” – NPR
Boston Children’s Theatre Dumps Its Executive Director, Says It’s Time To Clean House
This comes after its longtime artistic director, Burgess Clark, resigned and was then accused of sexual misconduct by many former students. The theatre has canceled its holiday production and said its financial situation is “even more precarious than usual.” – The Boston Globe
The Secret Life Of The Audiobook Star
Sore throat? All the time. Bored with what you’re reading? No doubt. Even when it’s your own work. And let’s not talk about the difference between words authors know how to write and words authors know how to read. – The Guardian (UK)
In The UK, Money Means Co-Productions, And That Means Regional Theatres Will Lose Their Identities
Or at least that’s the warning right now. Bristol Old Vic’s artistic director Tom Morris: “It is harder to make shows that are specific to your audience, though it doesn’t mean it’s impossible, and it’s harder to make shows specific to your region. Not impossible again, but I think we’re at an interesting tipping point.” – The Stage (UK)
How To Follow Up A Number One Bestseller: Throw Away Your Internet
Erin Morgenstern’s second book debuted at number three on the bestseller list after she spent years working on her sophomore venture. How did she work, especially after the events of 2016? She didn’t have internet for a couple of years, and also, well, video games. – The New York Times
Dora Maar, Long Known As Picasso’s Muse, Gets Her Own Billing Now
When Maar died at 89, Le Monde forgot to give her an obit until 10 days later, and The Independent said she’d be remembered forever as Picasso’s muse and his Weeping Woman. Now the photographer is getting her own shows, and they’re big – and meaningful: “The sense is of a curtain being pulled back. Forget those Picasso portraits: here is how Dora Maar actually wanted to be seen.” – The Guardian (UK)
Carol Brightman, The Chronicler Of The Dead, Has Died At 80
Brightman first published an acclaimed biography of Mary McCarthy, and edited the letters between Hannah Arendt and McCarthy, before she started to become fascinated by the world of the Grateful Dead and the band’s fans. “‘Deadheads are everywhere and nowhere,’ she wrote, ‘so much a part of American life as to appear almost invisible.'” – The New York Times
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Nan Goldin Leads A Die-In At London’s V&A Over The Sackler Courtyard’s Name
Goldin joined another group at the protest: “About 30 protesters arrived at the recently redesigned £2m entrance in Kensington, London, and placed bottles of pills and ‘Oxy dollar’ bills stained red on the handmade porcelain tile flooring. … To a steady drum beat, the campaigners called out the slogans ‘Sackler money, blood money’ and ‘Abandon the Sackler name.'” – The Observer (UK)
Disney Spent A Lot Of Money And A Quarter-Century Getting The Internet Wrong
Kara Swisher has been writing about companies and the internet for even longer than Disney has been trying to figure out how to deal with the contemporary world. Swisher: “Forget the dashing Mandalorian. Do you remember Starwave? Infoseek? Go? Daily Blast? Spoonful.com? Club Penguin? Tapulous? Maker Studios? I’d like to say I don’t either, but I know them very well. They were among the many failed efforts by Disney that I have covered as a reporter since the mid-1990s, when it became clear to Disney that this internet thing just might be a big deal.” – The New York Times
The Neurological Connections Between Gorgeous Landscapes And Our Relentless Desire To Photograph Them
There’s a bit of a problem: At least one study has shown that we remember less about the places and things we photograph. Going outside can combat our phone addictions and calm our brains … but there’s an issue. “Your cortisol levels may decrease when traveling in Banff National Park, but they’ll still increase every time you pick up your phone to take a picture. It’s the great paradox of our globally connected world.” – The Smart Set
George Takei Says He Spent Way Too Much Money On The Broadway Musical ‘Allegiance’
But, he says, it was worth getting the info about the U.S’s WWII Japanese American camps into wider view. And he explains he’d invite all of his colleagues from Star Trek to dinner with him … “with one exception.” – The Guardian (UK)
The Trash Pirates Of Art (And Music Festivals)
There are festivals just about all of the time now, and that means there’s waste. “Garbage has long been the uncomfortable fallout of the festival world, and as these gatherings multiply like glow sticks at a Phish concert, stretching the season into a year-round party (hola, Costa Rica), its impact has roused young artists and activists.” – The New York Times
The Dismal Art: Economics Seems To Have Detached From Reality. So Why Does Anyone Listen?
Mainstream economists nowadays might not be particularly good at predicting financial crashes, facilitating general prosperity, or coming up with models for preventing climate change, but when it comes to establishing themselves in positions of intellectual authority, unaffected by such failings, their success is unparalleled. – New York Review of Books
Michael Kaiser’s Prescription For Saving The Baltimore Symphony
“I do not believe in board retreats,” Kaiser said. “I believe we make a mistake by trying to engage everyone equally in developing a quality plan. Good plans are not written by committees. Good plans are vetted by committees. – Baltimore Sun
Will The New Streaming Landscape Help Or Hurt The Movies?
“Abundance can be its own kind of scarcity. Without a sense of occasion, without the idea that a given experience is special, even rare, all experiences become equivalent, and our attention follows the path of least resistance.” – The New York Times
City Of Seattle Is Reorganizing Support For A “Creative Cluster.” Movie And Music Unions Aren’t Happy
Seattle is losing music and movie production. The City is “reorganizing” its film and music office into a a larger office that broadens the definition of creative industries to software and gaming. Workers in the film and music industries say they fear support for their work will diminish. – Crosscut
Fans And The False Intimacy Of Podcasts
All across the podcast realm, from the heights of self-help to the depths of true crime, imagined relationships are blossoming. Listeners may press play for the content, but many of them eventually come to nurture something like a one-way friendship with the hosts. – New York Times Magazine