ArtsJournal (text by date)

MOST RECENT

• Arts Pay Survey: Wanna Be Depressed? Here’s The Story For You March 20, 2019
  The personal stories tell of unpaid hours; unsustainable workloads; limited prospects for progression; poor pension provision; exploitation – and self-exploitation; undervalued qualifications; volunteers taking formerly paid positions; the need for financial support from family members; second jobs in other sectors; huge differentials between senior and junior staff; freelance rates that have been stagnant for a […]
  Arts Professional
• Yo Yo Ma And Deborah Borda: Music As A Force For Social Justice March 20, 2019
  Ma: “It’s never art for art’s sake, because even if I do it for myself in my head, I have an ideal. I’m actually trying to take something — a construct, a concept, a theory — and then I want to make it visible, I want to make it audible, I want to make it […]
  Harvard Gazette
• Socially Conscious: New Broadway Oklahoma! Production Will Donate Money For Every Gun It Uses On Stage March 20, 2019
  For each gun prop used on stage and in decorations, the production will donate money to help destroy illegal guns circulating on the streets.In all, the show will donate $10,000 for the more than 100 gun props used, said “OKLAHOMA!” producer Eva Price. – CNN
  CNN
• Magic Flute, The Video Game? It’s Coming To A Console Near You March 20, 2019
  Created by gaming company Opus Ludus, The Flute challenges players to take on the role of Prince Tamino and move through a series of adventure scenes, combat and puzzles as he embarks on his quest to rescue Princess Pamina, the daughter of the Queen of the Night. – ClassicFM
  ClassicFM
• Hudson Yards Owners Modify Policy After Claiming They Owned Any Pictures You Take March 20, 2019
  Now visitors “retain ownership of any photographs, text, audio recordings or video footage depicting or relating to the Vessel” that they create. But if you want to send that photo out to your Instagram fans, you still “hereby grant to Company and its affiliates the right to repost, share, publish, promote and distribute the Vessel […]
  The New York Times
• Pioneers Of Post-Modern Dance Reflect On What Happened, 60 Years Later March 20, 2019
  Part of postmodern dance’s power lay in the fact that, for all of its foreignness, it was also familiar. Here were movements taken from the street or home and performed by able but merely human bodies in intimate settings — namely at downtown galleries, lofts or the freewheeling Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village, either […]
  The New York Times
• New Yorkers Have Named The Vessel-Stairwell-Thingy At Hudson Yards March 20, 2019
  The developer of Hudson Yards temporarily christened Thomas Heatherwick’s big bronze stack of stairways The Vessel, but — just as 30 St Mary Axe in London is “the Gherkin” and Cloud Gate in Chicago’s Millennium Park is “the Bean” (whether Norman Foster and Anish Kapoor like it or not) — New York’s new selfie-attraction is […]
  Slate
• Where Chicago’s Candidates For Mayor Stand On The Arts March 20, 2019
  Both candidates exist on the progressive spectrum. Both candidates have problematic pasts and positive potential. Both appear to be arts-knowledgeable, but at February’s Mayoral Arts Forum, sponsored by Arts Alliance Illinois and the League of Chicago Theatres, they sat shoulder-to-shoulder with their fellow candidates in terms of their uncertainty around Chicago’s current arts policies. – Clyde […]
  Clyde Fitch Report
• ‘Affect Theory’ And How It Explains Living In 2019 America March 20, 2019
  So what is “affect theory”? “Under its influence, critics attended to affective charge [in society]. They saw our world as shaped not simply by narratives and arguments but also by nonlinguistic effects — by mood, by atmosphere, by feelings.” Writer Hua Hsu looks at the work of one of affect theory’s main proponents today: Lauren […]
  The New Yorker
• Striking Chicago Symphony Musicians Talk About What’s At Stake March 20, 2019
  We do not easily fit into the capitalistic system. And this is a good thing. The best things in life — education, medical care, love, nurturance —also do not fit neatly into economic life. – Jacobin
  Jacobin
• Shen Yun: Chinese Classical Dance Extravaganza Or Anti-Communist Cult? Well, … March 20, 2019
  If you live in an American city with a sizeable performing arts center, at some point you’ve probably seen ads or flyers for this touring company. Writer Jia Tolentino had never paid them much mind until her parents took her to see them as a Christmas surprise. She had to go a second time to […]
  The New Yorker
• NY’s Antiquarian Book Fair: A Marketplace Of Fascinating Stories March 20, 2019
  For people with modest bank accounts, a tour of the fair amounts to a trip to an exhibit or museum, with dealers happily telling the often fascinating stories behind their wares, even if a potential sale is nowhere in sight. The 59th edition of the fair took place March 7 to 10 at the Park […]
  The New York Times
• Developing New And Diverse Theatre Critics In A Town Without A Culture Of Criticism March 20, 2019
  The English city of Hull has a lively theatre scene for a town its size, but the local newspaper published only two theatre reviews in the whole of 2018, and the national critics rarely make it to Hull. Jamie Potter of the city’s Middle Child Theatre writes about how his company developed and launched a […]
  HowlRound
• Why Elvis Is A Cultural Force 42 Years After His Death March 20, 2019
  A few rare individuals in every period integrate, express and add to the values of their time and place in a unique way and become symbols of that time. More than any other national figure of the 1950s, Elvis Presley represented American youthfulness and became a generation’s symbol. – Quadrant
  Quadrant
• Is Music Strictly A Human Ability? Or Do Other Animals Have Musicality? March 20, 2019
  “Do we share musicality with other animals on account of the ‘common physiological nature of [our] nervous systems,’ as Darwin suspected? To understand the evolution of music and musicality, we have to establish what the components of music are and how they demonstrate their presence in animals and humans.” Music cognition researcher Henkjan Honing takes […]
  Nautilus
• The Hard-Working Little Publisher Keeping Local History Books Alive March 20, 2019
  “Arcadia’s business turns the traditional publishing model on its head. Big New York publishers are looking for the next blockbuster to sell 2 million copies across the English-speaking world in a month. Arcadia wants to find a book that will sell 1,000 copies this year in, say, McMullen Valley, Ariz.” Says the company’s CEO, “The […]
  Washington Post
• What Exactly Constitutes ‘Cultural Democracy’? And Should State Arts Funding Be Paying For It? March 20, 2019
  Nan van Houte: “This is not an attempt to discredit cultural democracy; I am convinced that access to the arts and the stimulus towards personal creativity are basic human rights and needs. This is, instead, an attempt to analyze my growing uneasiness when I read yet another arts fund, council, or ministry in Western Europe […]
  HowlRound
• ‘Theater That Gets In The Way’ — A Company Puts Itself On The Front Lines Of Poland’s Culture Wars March 20, 2019
  Two years ago, the actors of the Powszechny Theater in Warsaw had to barricade themselves inside their building against conservative Catholic protesters angry about their production The Curse, about the suxual abuse of children by priests. This year, the company is following up with a staging of Mein Kampf. No wonder its slogan is “Theater […]
  New York Times
• Big Money Is Now Flowing Into Podcasting— Is It Inflating A Bubble? March 20, 2019
  Just since the beginning of this year, Spotify has bought podcast producer-distributor Gimlet Media for $230 million and a $100 million startup called Luminary is developing a paid-subscription-only lineup of 40 new podcasts. As one exec said, “The capitalists are here!” Yet, asks Boris Kachka, “What distinguishes a boom from a blip — the beginning […]
  New York Magazine
• How Podcasts Went From Like-Radio-But-More-Amateurish To The Hot New Medium March 20, 2019
  Adam Sternbergh: “When you first heard about podcasts, do you remember how excited you weren’t? Do you recall the first person who said, ‘Did you know you can now download audio files of people talking?’ … They’ve spent a decade in a state of perpetual arrival, [but] they’re here. What’s more, these humble chunks of […]
  New York Magazine