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Dance
‘125th And Freedom’: A Marathon Dance Piece Stretching Across Harlem’s Main Thoroughfare
“Stopping at sites including the Harriet Tubman Memorial and the former Lenox Lounge — now a Wells Fargo — the 16-part ritual tells the story of a tribe fighting for its freedom with the help of Libra, a time-traveling descendant of Tubman who flies in from the future. As it progresses, the work grows more interactive; at Amsterdam Avenue, for instance, audience members write their hopes on slips of fabric and attach them to a sprawling ‘dream net.'” – The New York Times
Without Warning, Britain’s NHS Closes Its Sole Dance Injury Clinic
“The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in north London, where it was based, … said it had planned to close the centre in 2020 as part of a wider plan to concentrate specialist services in fewer centres, but had accelerated the process following the resignation of the centre’s sole consultant.” – The Stage
Meet America’s Leading Trans Choreographer
“[Sean Dorsey] is an openly transgender choreographer and activist with a professional dance company that has been thriving for 15 years. His company is more in demand than ever. … His mission has always been to honor the lives and stories of the forgotten and censored LGBTQ and transgender elders before him.” – Forbes
Want To See A Ballet Company That’s Serious About Programming Female Choreographers? Go To Cincinnati
“56 percent of the works Cincinnati Ballet commissioned for the 2019-2020 season are created by women. Female choreographers will be featured in 71 percent of Cincinnati Ballet’s programs. [And] among the nation’s top 50 ballet companies, only 13 of the most prestigious full-length works are by women. Of those 13, two were commissioned by Cincinnati Ballet.” – The Cincinnati Enquirer
San Francisco Ballet Recruits Two Stars
“Longtime Boston Ballet star Misa Kuranaga will be joining the company as a principal dancer for the 2019-20 season, while Dutch National Ballet principal Sasha Mukhamedov will join as a soloist. They join a slew of newly promoted SFB principals and soloists, announced earlier this year.” – Pointe Magazine
Ideas
The Pointlessness Of Discussing Things Today?
“When I talk with Brexiteers, I certainly do not assume that what Habermas calls the “power of the better argument” will be irresistible. And I am certainly very far from assuming that an indefinite discussion conducted under ideal circumstances would eventually free them from the cognitive and moral distortions from which they suffer, and in the end lead to a consensus between them and me.” – The Point
Work Is Like Water – It Can Fill Up Your Life
The 18th-century poet and philosopher Friedrich Schiller warned against being driven purely by work in his “On the Aesthetic Education of Man.” He wrote, “Man only plays when he is in the fullest sense of the word a human being, and he is only fully a human being when he plays.” – The New York Times
How Can Anyone Afford Quitting A Job To Become A Full-time Artist?
That seems a little impractical, no? Well, marry someone who makes a good income, stop taking massive holiday trips, and focus on small things in the present, says one artist. – The Guardian (UK)
New Berkeley Study: Our Brains Crave Information, Reward Us With Dopamine Shots
“To the brain, information is its own reward, above and beyond whether it’s useful,” says Assoc. Prof. Ming Hsu, a neuroeconomist whose research employs functional magnetic imaging (fMRI), psychological theory, economic modeling, and machine learning. “And just as our brains like empty calories from junk food, they can overvalue information that makes us feel good but may not be useful—what some may call idle curiosity.” – University of California Berkeley
Why Too Much Choice Leads To All Sorts Of Bad
It’s easier to pick one out of two meals than one out of 50. With more options, we spend more time analyzing and tend to get stuck. Often, we’ll choose to do nothing at all for a long time, and dragging your heels never feels good. – Good Company
Issues
That Google-Docs Arts Workers Salary Spreadsheet: A Seattle Analysis
“There’s often a claim that there’s simply not enough to provide its most essential staff a living wage, and I think because people love working for these institutions they’ve been willing to take on that weight for long periods of time, sometimes years, but at this point folks just aren’t buying it anymore.” – Crosscut
UK Arts Orgs Get Together To Reduce Their Carbon Footprints
Baseline carbon emissions measurements are now being produced at major institutions including the National Theatre, Royal Opera House and Serpentine Galleries with an eye to creating “ambitious but achievable” targets and more sustainable infrastructures by 2023. – Arts Professional
Harlem Is Being Radically Remade And History Is Being Wiped Away
The gentrification of Harlem has been blamed on the disregard and greed of white people. The truth is much more complex. – The Guardian
Freedom Of The Press Is Under Attack In Most Places, Making Everyone Less Secure
And it’s not only reporters. “A cohort of countries is moving toward digital authoritarianism by embracing the Chinese model of extensive censorship and automated surveillance systems.” This, needless to say, is bad. – Los Angeles Review of Books
Another Woman Accuses President Donald Trump Of Assault (And The NYT Puts That News In Its Book Section)
Though much of the online discussion featured some questions for how the paper decides what’s front-page news, it quickly shifted to the content, and, well, this became front-page news. – The New York Times
Media
Elizabeth Banks: Making Money In Hollywood Is Getting Tougher
“There’s a lot more work, but it’s a lot harder to make money on anything. It’s one of the reasons the unions are up in arms right now. For low-end workers, the people on the tail of those big productions, it’s a lot harder to get by. And that’s true for middle-class actors and writers, too.” – The New York Times
Report: Radio Still Rules As Most Ubiquitous Medium, Millennials Listen To The Most Music
Across the board, the Ipsos-iHeartRadio survey found that radio reaches more consumers than any other audio channel, with 85 percent of consumers listening to a radio broadcast at least once per week, outpacing social media at 68 percent and live television at 56 percent. On a daily basis, radio has more than twice the listenership of audio streaming services, with 69 percent of consumers tuning in to the radio at least once a day compared to streaming’s 34 percent. – Ad Age
Animators On The Popular Netflix Series ‘Bojack Horseman’ Join A Union
Now it’s rare for animated shows on Netflix not to be unionized. “The last few months have seen the show’s team organize protests, a 10-minute walk-out, and solicitation of support from both fans, and the show’s cast, in order to have their desire for a union contract recognized. ” – A.V. Club
Near-Future Shock
Given virtual reality, Snapchat filters, and so much more, is it any surprise to think that we might all walk around looking like heart-eyed puppies soon? All but those being placed in concentration camps, of course. (This is about a TV show. Just a show. Right?) – The Atlantic
Box Office Is Dead This Summer; Long Live Netflix?
Star power – even stars like Thor and Valkyrie, er, Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thomson; even Emma Thompson and Mindy Kaling, for heck’s sake – is crashing and burning on the big screen this summer. But movie stars on Netflix are doing just fine (or so Netflix says). Can Netflix save the movie star? – The Guardian (UK)
Music
New York City Opera Scales Back Plans, With Do A 10-Performance Season
General director Michael Capasso’s original plan when the company emerged from bankruptcy in January 2016 called for 72 performances of 13 operas in 2018-19 to mark the company’s 75th anniversary. – Washington Post (AP)
Why The Audio Quality Of Your Music Player Sucks
Leaving people’s personal abilities to distinguish high sonic quality from low sonic quality out of this conversation, there is a virtually insurmountable issue with mass adoption of hi-res audio: acoustic environment. – Shelly Palmer
Sviatoslav Richter Was One Of The World’s Great Pianists. But Then He Met A Lobster
“I’ve known periods of chronic depression, the most serious of which was in 1974. It was impossible for me to live without a plastic lobster that I took with me everywhere, leaving it behind only at the very moment I went on stage.” – The New York Times
In 2008, A Fire Destroyed Master Recordings – The News Finally Leaked Last Week, And Now Musicians Are Suing
And what was Universal Music Group doing in the 11 years between the fire and the news of the fire? Hmmmm. The lawsuits claim UMG was reaping hundreds of millions of insurance damages in confidential settlements.- at least half of which money is due to the musicians, they say. – Los Angeles Times
Did Singing Evolve As A Way To Bond Human Groups Together?
Possibly! Studies certainly show that singing in groups forms cohesion quickly and increases warm feelings toward strangers both quickly and strongly. Even group singing across hundreds or thousands of people can increase in-group bonding. – Aeon Magazine
People
Historian And Curator Peter Selz, 100, Founder Of Berkeley Art Museum
“Over the course of his tenure as our founding director, Peter transformed BAMPFA from a modest university art collection into the internationally renowned art and film institution it is today. Generations of Bay Area art lovers have benefited from his insight, knowledge, independence, and boundless energy, and his legacy will reverberate across and beyond our museum for decades to come.” – ARTnews
Sviatoslav Richter Was One Of The World’s Great Pianists. But Then He Met A Lobster
“I’ve known periods of chronic depression, the most serious of which was in 1974. It was impossible for me to live without a plastic lobster that I took with me everywhere, leaving it behind only at the very moment I went on stage.” – The New York Times
Michael Jaffee, Co-founder Of The Waverly Consort, Has Died At 81
Jaffee and his wife Kay founded the group after taking a graduate class in early choral and instrumental music, and the Waverly Consort sparked interest in early music all over the world – and encouraged many competitor groups to form as well. – The New York Times
Peter Selz, Curator And Art Historian Who Shaped The Berkeley Museum And MoMA, Has Died At 100
Selz’s views strongly shaped MoMA’s take on European and non-Abstract Expressionist art during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and his time at Berkeley made the museum “a locus of activity in the California scene.” – ArtNews
Suzan Pitt, Wildly Inventive Filmmaker, Has Died At 75
Pitt “created phantasmagorical worlds in ingenious animated films that dealt with miracles, mortality, depression and women’s sexuality.” – The New York Times
Theatre
How “Hamilton” Changed The Broadway Touring Business
The 2018-19 touring season that just ended set records in box office ($1.6 billion) and attendance (18.5 million). “Hamilton” had a clear hand: There are now four productions beyond New York, up from three the previous season. The total number of “Hamilton” weeks on the road sprang from 121 to 177, according to Charlotte St. Martin, president of the Broadway League. – Washington Post
A Theatre Critic Reviews Presidential Candidates’ Performances
Peter Marks: “Political campaigns are all about seducing audiences. So why shouldn’t someone like me be out here, reviewing the art — or artlessness — of the seduction? Presidential contenders do not win merely by trumpeting their achievements and policies. No, their instrument has to resound with some other, ineffable qualities.” – Washington Post
Britain Gets Its First Play About Vietnamese Immigrants By A Second-Generation Writer
The stereotypes of “boat people” and “nail girls” persist in Britain, but playwright and actor Tyumen Do wants British people to think about the new generation and its concerns, and if she has to use the family coming together over food, heck, she’ll do it to make sure people see the play. – BBC
Will Omaha Become A Center For Children’s Theatre Development?
That’s the hope as Rose Theater gets a large new building and plans to open one of the country’s biggest theatre academies – a “game-changer” for Omaha, but perhaps for the wider theatre world of the Midwest as well. – Omaha World-Herald
Mark Rylance Resigns 30-Year Association With Royal Shakespeare Company Over BP Sponsorship
Though the Wolf Hall actor last appeared on stage in an RSC production in 1989, his very public resignation as a longstanding “associate artist” is, at the least, a public relations blow to the prestigious company. – Deadline
Visual
The Long Life And Artistic Legacy Of An Indonesian Art Collective
Taring Padi have been inspiring change in Indonesia since the late 1990, and they’re not stopping yet. Why? Well, governmental corruption turns out to be not only the province of one overthrown general, but of much of the new governments as well. – Hyperallergic
Trying To Make It From Poverty In Congo To The Catwalks Of New York And Milan
The fashion industry in Africa is on the rise, especially in cities like Kinshasa and Capetown. But while fashion designers might get noticed in Paris and New York, models have a different story. As Naomi Campbell noted in 2013, “Top designers often shun black models completely or opted to include just one in their shows.” – Der Spiegel
Students At The Suddenly Shuttered Phoenix Art Institute Are Stranded, With Insurmountable Debt
When the parent company for 18 different Art Institutes closed without warning earlier in 2019, students were supposed to get their loans discharged under the Closed School Discharge program. But wait: “Students at the Art Institute of Phoenix have received denial letters from their loan companies, which state that they cannot discharge the loans because the Art Institute of Las Vegas is still open.” – Hyperallergic
Making Sculpture A Force For Change In Yorkshire
In 1977, artists fought for a sculpture park in Yorkshire – but it was a very, very uphill climb. “More than 40 years later the stubbornness appears to have paid off. The YSP is at the heart of Yorkshire Sculpture International (YSI), a new festival” that is changing the area. But it started with an idea that politicians, residents, and local businesses didn’t want. – The Guardian (UK)
The Massive Mistakes Of Art History Include Missing The Reality Of Joan Mitchell
We can’t say it better than this: “The career of Joan Mitchell, who once likened Clement Greenberg to a ‘toilet seat,’ ought to remind us of how tribal the art world continues to be. There are those who want to belong to clubs and acquire the proper affiliations, and there are others who don’t or can’t belong to anything of the sort, even the cliques that would gladly welcome them. Academics are fond of repeating that Mitchell was ‘a second generation’ Abstract Expressionist, as if that were the clubhouse she wanted to enter, and got stuck in.” But there’s a lot more. – Hyperallergic
Words
The Decline Of New York City’s Iconic Newsstands (Once There Were 1500 Of Them)
Today, the city has a little more than three hundred newsstands. They are required by law to sell printed material. But Max Bookman, a lawyer who represents the New York City Newsstand Operators Association, told me, “I talk to newsstand operators who feel lucky if they sell fifty newspapers a day.” – The New Yorker
What Happens When Amazon Dominates A Market Or A Consumer Good? Check Out Its Bookstore
Uh, not good: “Amazon takes a hands-off approach to what goes on in its bookstore, never checking the authenticity, much less the quality, of what it sells. It does not oversee the sellers who have flocked to its site in any organized way. That has resulted in a kind of lawlessness. Publishers, writers and groups such as the Authors Guild said counterfeiting of books on Amazon had surged.” – The New York Times
The Deal With MFA Groupthink
Author Mona Awad: “Iwas definitely interested in leaning into that and the horror of it, the scariness of that kind of groupthink. It is scary. I guess it’s one of the risks you take when you go into one of these programs: that fear that you’ll start all speaking the same language, and then you’re not an individual artist anymore with your own imagination.” – LitHub
Reviving Northern Ireland’s Poetry Scene [VIDEO]
As in other countries, poetry sales rose by double-digit amounts last year in Northern Ireland, with the bulk of that purchasing coming from people under 34. Why? Let a poet explain. – BBC
Book Banning Is Becoming A Prison Epidemic
It’s for security, officials say, as they ban books about coding and cybersecurity off of lists of books prisoners can receive. But some on the lists date back to the 1990s – and no one’s hacking into AOL anymore. – Vice