Yearly Archives: 2023
Misadventures In Museum Marketing: Van Gogh Museum Drops Its Pokémon Cards, Victims Of Their...
"Pokémon-hungry crowds descended upon the museum for the van Gogh–inspired merchandise that placed the brand’s most popular creatures in the context of van Gogh’s...
Arabic, Even Classical Arabic, Has A Rich Vocabulary Of The Erotic. It’s Been Erased...
Ahmed Naji, the only writer in Egypt ever to be sent to prison for the crime of offending public morality: "These words haven’t vanished...
At 89, What Keeps Wole Soyinka Going Strong? Being A “Closet Masochist”
“I should be slowing down, I know, but each time I try to slow down something happens, and I have to get on the...
British Museum Will Digitize Everything It Has (That’ll Fix The Theft Problem!)
The project will require 2.4 million records to upload or upgrade and is estimated to take five years to complete. - ARTnews
The Nine-Year, £240 Million Journey To Opening Manchester’s Big New Arts Center
"When the venture was first announced in December 2014 ... the building was due to be called the Factory." Now the organization running it...
Houston Ballet Tries Co-Artistic Directors
In July, Julie Kent joined Stanton Welch as co-director of the company, bringing with her the wealth of experience from her 30-year dance career at American Ballet Theatre...
Thomas Heatherwick: We Need A Campaign For More Interesting Buildings
Calling for “a national conversation” about halting the spread of depressing architecture, he said: “We need to fearlessly demand interestingness. We need to rebel...
The Power Of 100 Black Orchestral Musicians On One Stage: The Gateways Festival At...
The event began in 1993 as a three-day symposium in North Carolina: "Gateways: Classical Music and the Black Musician." Now based in Rochester, the...
The Guardian Fires A Longtime Cartoonist For An Ill-Considered Panel About The Gaza War
This isn't the first of Steve Bell's cartoons to draw accusations of anti-Semitic imagery in 40 years with The Guardian, but it could be...
Another Prominent New York Dealer Charged With Trafficking Stolen Antiquities
"A recent announcement by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of the return of 19 antiquities to Italy disclosed charges against veteran New York antiquities...
Italy’s Ruling Party Is Doing To RAI What The Tories Are Trying To Do...
Deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini announced that the annual license fee that supports the country's national broadcaster (as with the BBC) will be cut...
Netflix’s Password-Sharing Crackdown Really Is Working
"Netflix on Wednesday disclosed summertime subscriber gains that surpassed industry analysts’ projections, signaling the video streaming service’s crackdown on password sharing is converting former...
The Most Produced Playwrights of America’s 2023-24 Season (Excepting Shakespeare)
For the second year running, Lynn Nottage tops the list, which includes nine women out of 20. (Lauren Gunderson, once the perennial leader, is...
America’s Ten (Really Twelve) Most Produced Plays Of The 2023-24 Season
For those who keep count, works by female creators make up almost half the list (definitely half if you count Carole King), and three...
Theatre In America Is In Crisis – We Need To Listen To One Another
"The way we work together is as crucial as what we make, and that means acknowledging how badly we need each other’s ideas and...
Hugely Consequential LA Museum Director Retires
The decision to retire was the product of a year’s worth of rumination, Ann Philbin explained, and now, at 71, she is ready to...
Survey: Americans Say Live Entertainment Tickets Have Gotten Too Expensive
Nearly 60% of Americans say they have had to cut back on spending on live entertainment this year because of rising costs, according to...
Is English National Opera “Managing Decline”?
“This is a plan of managed decline, rather than an attempt to rebuild the company and maintain the world-class artistic output for which ENO...
Remembering Editor Steve Rubin
“Steve Rubin did more for music criticism than anybody — first, in the searching articles he wrote as a young man; later, as a...
Hillary And Malala Are Co-Producing A Broadway Musical About Suffragettes
Shaina Taub's show Suffs, which had a sold-out but critically-mixed premiere run Off-Broadway last year, will open on Broadway next April with a largely...
The Music Industry Has Become “Always On” For Musicians
There is a "very real fear that the algorithm will ‘forget’ artists if they do not keep up a steady flow of social posts...
La Scala Opens Its New 17-Story Tower, Designed By Mario Botta
There are new rehearsal spaces for the ballet and orchestra (the latter equipped for studio recording), a big space for unloading and assembling sets,...
NEA Report: Significantly Fewer Americans Are Attending Arts Events
That number represents a six-point drop from the most recent survey in 2017, amplifying alarm bells that the arts community is struggling to regain...
Can This New Director Stabilize Germany’s Biggest, And Most Beleaguered, Ballet Company?
The Staatsballett Berlin, an amalgamation of three pre-1989 companies, went through three artistic directorships in less than a decade while also dealing with recalcitrant...
Simon Woods: We Need To Rethink Orchestra Governance
"We can’t hide from uncomfortable questions about to what extent we should be connecting capacity and generosity with power and influence in a world...
