ArtsJournal

Archives for November 2015

Why Theatre Critics Need To Stick To A Code Of Ethics

THEATRE Posted:

“Once upon a time, the rules were clear. The critic, employed full-time at a major newspaper, attended a show on opening night with tickets paid for by the publications, then ran into a smoky, booze-soaked writing room to pound out an analysis before a 10:30pm deadline, dictating copy over the telephone to a waiting stenographer.”

The Gentrification Of D.C. Is Killing A Longtime Go-Go Tradition

MUSIC Posted:

“For almost 40 years, go-go has musically defined the nation’s capital. The beat has provided a proud cultural and musical tradition attracting generations of fans. But in recent years, gentrification has threatened the musical genre’s hold over the city. ‘The state of D.C. is not D.C. anymore, it’s not Chocolate City,’ says Anwan ‘Big G’ Glover of Backyard Band.”

The Man Who Makes ‘Hamilton’ Sound Good

PEOPLE Posted:

“You would never expect to find a banjo in a hip-hop band, but ‘The Room Where it Happens’ just cried for it. That to me is probably my single greatest idea in the whole show, only because it’s so quirky and is so of the style of the music. It’s so Kander and Ebb-y, Dixieland, so I just sat down to orchestrate it, and I’m thinking to myself, ‘What can the guitar do?’ And literally in a flash of light, I’m like, ‘Oh my god, it could be a banjo!'”

What It Costs To Run A (New York) Gallery

VISUAL Posted:

“Veteran art dealers report that some big things have changed to make it more difficult, and less profitable, to run an art gallery—even in what’s been, at least for the past few years, a booming market for Contemporary art. Basic expenses are way up, from the proliferation of far-flung art fairs (a slew begin this week in Miami) and rising rent, to climbing insurance and storage costs. A lot else is different, too.”

How Freeways Destroyed American Cities

IDEAS Posted:

Urban freeways displaced communities and created air and noise pollution in downtown areas. They made it easier for suburban commuters to “zip to their suburban homes at the end of the work day, encouraging those with means to abandon the urban core.”

Lack Of Diversity: Women Playwrights

THEATRE Posted:

In San Diego last summer, at the national conference of the Dramatists Guild, the results of a major research project called “The Count” found that of some 2,500 productions sampled nationwide, only about 22 percent were of works by female writers.

The Precarious Lot Of Museum Education Workers

VISUAL Posted:

“Perhaps the most glaring incongruity to educators’ employment is that while they are crucial to the museums’ long-term public engagement, these are freelancers, hourly waged workers-for-hire who lack the job security of a full-time, salaried position.”

When Will TV Get Terrorism Right?

MEDIA Posted:

“There’s been no shortage of writers and actors who have been willing to go to difficult places and wrestle with moral quandaries in the past decade or two, but when will TV begin to robustly confront the evils that ideological struggles have brought us in recent months and years?”

Why Are People Paying For Adele’s New Album?

AUDIENCE, MUSIC Posted:

“Album sales are profitable, but they are not the future of the music business—streaming is. Could it be possible that the record business, pursuing a strategy of inflating sales by keeping an album off Spotify, Apple Music, or Deezer, is choosing short-term profits over long-term growth?”

Hating On Holiday Music? Why? (A Defense)

MUSIC Posted:

“Unlike December’s retail madness, the music is divorced from commercial machinations and chaos; it’s about slowing down and homing in on what matters. In this way, seasonal tunes have an almost childlike outlook.”

Do Arts Workers Need A Union?

ISSUES Posted:

“When the choice comes down to sacrificing the quality of a product, or sacrificing the physical and mental well-being of the laborers who make that product, there needs to be someone looking out for the workers.”

Feeling Complacent? Here’s Why

IDEAS Posted:

Information is now prized more than wisdom; journalistic punditry has ousted authentic thought. And today “nothing, it seems, is more conducive to the love of one’s neighbor than the sharing of identically branded products.”

Reinventing A Venerable Venue For Musicals

THEATRE Posted:

Although the organization is financially stable (thanks in no small part to a $23 million endowment, one of the largest for a regional theater in America), the size of the main theater (398 seats) severely limits how much the theater can generate in ticket sales, even though it has the largest subscription base in the state at 15,000. So it has to depend on other revenue streams.

Privacy On The Internet? What’s The Reasonable Expectation?

IDEAS Posted:

“In reality, the internet is more like a bustling city than a hydra. There are glitzy neighbourhoods: safe, family-friendly and with well-lit streets. But there also are seedy underbellies to be navigated only by those in the know, as well as plenty of dark alleys, forgotten corners and hidden haunts.”