Yearly Archives: 2021
Australia’s Big Festivals Have Thrived With International Stars. Can They Work With Local Artists?
Tasmania’s MONA FOMA festival last month saw a 'hyperlocal' approach to programming. Unable to draw headliners from around the world, local artists were front...
Our Strained Conceptual Relationship With Squirrels
"It’s almost as though the existence of animals, and their various similarities to humans, constituted insults. Like a squirrel, I have eyes and ears,...
Remember The Concert Companion? (It’s Worth Remembering Why It Didn’t Catch On)
Roland Valliere described the Concert Companion as similar to audio guides in art museums. “I was trying to do for symphony orchestras what audio...
NYC Culture Jobs Down By Astonishing Two-Thirds In 2020
Jobs in arts, entertainment and recreation fell by 66% last year from 2019, the largest decline among the city’s economic sectors, erasing a decade...
The Nobel Winner Who’s Not All That Crazy About Writing
Kazuo Ishiguro: "In some ways, I suppose, I'm just not that dedicated to my vocation. I expect it's because writing wasn’t my first choice...
Watch This AI Play Almost Any Piece Of Music On The Piano After Hearing...
Created by Canadian-based Massive Technologies, the AI pianist is trained to listen to musical compositions and recreate them with virtual hands—and the results are...
Gov’t Shuts Down Hungary’s Last Independent Radio Station
"When the faithful listeners to Klubrádió, a talk radio station that has been a beacon of free speech in Hungary, tuned in last Monday,...
160 Public Confederate Symbols Were Taken Down In 2020
In the group’s “Whose Heritage?” report, the Southern Poverty Law Center said that last year had been transformative, but that more than 2,100 symbols...
Whatever The Pandemic May Have Thrown At You, There’s A German Word For It
"Over the past year, German has coined some 1,000-plus new terms endemic to the Now Times. … And that's thanks to the language's rules...
Claim: Once-Proud Glasgow School Of Art Now A Toxic Mess
First there was the fire. "Since then, tragedy has turned to travesty and toxicity as a wall of silence coupled with multiple sackings has...
Daughter Of Israel’s Most Famous Author Accuses Him Of ‘Sadistic Abuse’
In the opening lines of her new memoir, the second daughter of Amos Oz, Galia, wrote, "In my childhood, my father beat me, swore...
16-Year-Old Dance Student Becomes First To Reach 100 Million TikTok Followers
Charli D’Amelio, the 16 year-old dance student and TikTok sensation was awarded $100,000 from TikTok when she reached 100 million followers in November of...
As They Stream Their Work, Theater Companies Find A New, Far-Flung Public
"Across the country, and beyond its borders, many theaters say new audiences for their streaming offerings has been an unexpected silver lining — one...
Silas Farley, 26, Will Be Dean Of Dance At Colburn School In L.A.
Farley raised eyebrows last June when he retired from New York City Ballet at such a young age, but he had already been choreographing...
Collection Worth $400 Million Donated To Seattle Art Museum
" 19 20th-century abstract expressionist and European masterworks — including those by Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning — from the Lang Collection, once...
Union Is Actively Campaigning Against Donations To Met Opera
As the pandemic and the consequent furlough of Met employees drag on, and as negotiations over a new contract have broken down (the old...
COVID Killed Two-Thirds Of All Arts And Recreation Jobs In NYC
"Employment in New York City's arts, entertainment and recreation sector plummeted by 66 percent from December 2019 to December 2020, according to a report...
Brexit Is Far More Damaging Than COVID, Say British Theatre And Dance Companies
Says the executive producer at one major troupe, "Brexit will have the bigger impact because it's a long-term restriction. We're a flexible, dynamic sector...
Van Gogh Painting Unseen For More Than 130 Years Now On View
"A Street Scene In Montmartre has been owned by a French family for most of the time since it was painted in 1887. Sotheby's...
When The Masses First Started To Read Widely…
"It has recently been argued that reading novels, especially epistolary novels, helped people in the 18th century to put themselves in other people’s shoes,...
Big Publishing’s New Editors
"By the time that America’s reckoning on race reached a fever pitch last year, publishing was months into a messy upheaval of its own....
How The Indianapolis Museum Went Wrong (By The Guy Who Used To Run It)
"Every decision made by Charles Venable over the past decade seemed to be in service of remaking a museum founded in the 19th century...
English National Opera Announces Return To Live Performances With A Bang
Some might say tackling Richard Wagner’s four-part Ring Cycle during a pandemic is folly. English National Opera, announcing the plan on Wednesday, believes the...
A Time Of Reckoning For Cultural Organizations
"For institutions that have historically enjoyed a certain level of prestige, these calls for reexamination of (and accountability for) their charitable purposes may be...
Why Should We Trust Smiles When They’re So Easy To Fake?
"The trouble is that smiling is easy to do. If flashing a smile can so easily convey good intent, it could be ‘hacked’ by...
