The head of the Recording Academy, perhaps even downplaying the disastrous pandemic for most musicians: "This has been an extraordinarily challenging year for everyone and the music world in particular." - Los Angeles Times
The details: "Actress Corinne Masiero took the stage in a donkey costume covered in fake blood, before stripping down to a faux gore-soaked gown and, finally, fully undressing altogether, while presenter Marina Fois looked on in shock and (eventually) the audience applauded." The message? Arts workers need a lot more support. - Vulture
Nick Cornwell, the son of both people who created John Le Carré: "It was easy to misunderstand her as just a typist – and many did – not only because she also typed everything, as he never learned how, but also because her interventions were made in private, before the text was ever seen by anyone else. I was...
Yes, we need food and water, air and health care. And we're desperate for cultural nourishment as well. For one family at an outdoor event, "After weeks of seeing very little but the inside of our house, it felt almost impossibly bright and colourful. When we reached a magical glade hung with giant, sparkling thistledown, my eight-year-old tugged on...
Every time a Black-led film makes tons of money - say Girls Trip or heck, even Black Panther - the same stories pop up. Black-led films can make money! There will soon be more! But, a new report says, if Hollywood chose to address racial inequities, "the industry could generate an added $10 billion in revenues a year." -...
When museum staff are preparing for a show, they need maquettes, like an actor's stand-in, to represent the works themselves. But they can't be replicas. They're "'really just trying to evoke the salient features, the sculptural qualities' of the original pieces. Their utility stems from their simplicity." - The New York Times
One reason we tolerate an even more frayed social safety net for artists than we do for everyone else: “The allure of artistic work often obscures — from arts workers themselves and the public at large — the working conditions that arts workers face,” according to the report, noting that organizations frequently ask arts workers to work for nominal...
It is an investment in the future. We have been stepping up our education programs for kids and youth quite a lot. We continued doing that throughout the lockdown and I think that this differentiates us from many other museums that cut down on those departments, and especially on educational freelancers who were supposed to be giving seminars and...
The Real Music Wages Database is an anonymous, crowd-sourced list of real wage transactions reported by musicians. We track how much someone has been paid, who paid them, and how many hours of work it involved. The more entries are added to the spreadsheet, the more discernable a true economic snapshot of the new music industry is visible. -...
Why would anyone buy a piece of art just to burn it? Understanding the answer requires us to delve into the tricky world of blockchain or “NFT” art. It blends the niche subculture of cryptocurrencies with long running philosophical questions about the nature of art. No wonder people have difficulty explaining it all. - The Conversation
At first glance, the notion that controversial statues should be explained and contextualised seems like a step in the right direction. However, for many activists and museum workers, this new law might feel like a step backwards. The emphasis of this law is clearly on the museum’s “duty to the nation to conserve and preserve our heritage,” but with...
Parents at elite private schools sometimes grumble about taking nothing from public schools yet having to support them via their tax dollars. But the reverse proposition is a more compelling argument. Why should public-school parents—why should anyone—be expected to support private schools? Exeter has 1,100 students and a $1.3 billion endowment. Andover, which has 1,150 students, is on track...
A hard-R-rated primer to what gets said in the language of Molière when one is really f***ing p****d off, what you can use to affectionately tease your buddy in Bordeaux and what not to say unless you want to make an enemy for life. (And gosh, you can click here for a guide to what it's safe to say...
Verdi’s 1871 tragedy, a love story set in a time of war between ancient Egypt and Ethiopia, is often given the treatment of a “Cleopatra”-like costume drama. But de Beer, who will become the director of the Vienna Volksoper next year, has offered a version so unusual that its Aida, the soprano Sondra Radvanovsky, pleaded on Instagram before opening...
