ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

Stories

Syracuse Opera Files For Liquidation Bankruptcy

The company, which canceled all performances and laid off staff last last year, filed earlier this month for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the legal step toward liquidating its assets and closing itself down. - BroadwayWorld

That Time William S. Burroughs Made A Claymation Christmas Movie

Yep, it's true. The 21-minute film, The Junky's Christmas (1993), was written and narrated by Burroughs and produced by no less than Francis Ford Coppola. And it's right there on YouTube. - Open Culture

Research: How Walmart Impoverishes Communities

On net, they conclude, Walmart makes the places it operates in poorer than they would be if it had never shown up at all. Sometimes consumer prices are an incomplete, even misleading, signal of economic well-being. - The Atlantic

The Year Peter Gelb Declared War On Critics

Believing that you possess a perfect understanding of what the people want is a poor way to run an opera company—or any organization, up to and including a nation. What we call the “audience” is an ever-shifting assemblage of tastes, expectations, experiences, levels of knowledge, degrees of passion. - The New Yorker

When Thieves Made Off With The Corpse Of St. Nicholas

In 1087, a group of three grain ships from Bari, the port on the heel of the Italian boot, decided to steal the relics of the patron saint of sailors and bring them back home. So off they went to the tomb in Myra in what's now Turkey. From there the story gets literally and figuratively messy (not to...

Spotify Doesn’t Care About Music As Long As It’s Content

Unlike a record label, a tech company doesn’t care whether we’re hooked on the same hit on repeat or lost in a three-hour ambient loop, so long as we’re listening to something. - The New Yorker

Berlin Cuts €130 Million From Its Arts Budget

The budget cut is a departure from Berlin’s previous plan to inject the city’s cultural spaces with new capital.  In 2021, Germany approved a record €2.1 billion federal culture; a €155 million increase from 2020. - ARTnews

K-Pop Has Been Fueling South Korean Protests

The sight of young people moving to K-pop’s electrifying beat has become part of the drama of this protest movement. Protest organisers are blasting out K-pop hits, and demonstrators are waving K-pop light sticks (portable devices associated with specific artists or groups), turning the protests into multicoloured musical rallies. - The Conversation

Why We Keep Returning To The Same Pieces Of Christmas Pop Culture, Even When They’re Dreck

Nostalgia is a powerful lure, even when it comes to songs like "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas" and movies like "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians." And retailers and radio stations and TV networks know it. - Tedium

Handel’s “Messiah’s” Rocky Start

When the librettist obtained a copy of the score, in early 1743, he didn’t like it. “His Messiah has disappointed me,” he wrote to a friend, “being set in great haste … . I shall put no more Sacred Words into his hands, to be thus abus’d.” - The Wall Street Journal

How UK Theatre Got To This Point (20 Years That Defined A Crisis)

Twenty years ago marked a turning point for the arts in the UK. And not a good one. - The Stage

Florence Open’s Vasari’s 16th Century Corridor Built For Medicis

The corridor, designed by the Renaissance-era architect Giorgio Vasari, was commissioned in 1565 by Cosimo I de’ Medici, the second duke of Florence, and completed in just five months. - The Guardian

A New York Times Editor On What 2024’s Broadway Plays Got Wrong And Right About Journalism

Sarah Bahr: "For me, watching fictional journalists scheme their way to scoops is akin to what I imagine it must feel like for doctors to watch Grey’s Anatomy. … So, let me share how some stage scenarios would most likely unfold in a real newsroom." - The New York Times

Canada Proposes Resale Royalties For Visual Artists

Monday’s fall economic statement included the proposed update to the copyright act, which will give Canadian visual artists a slice of the proceeds if their work is resold at galleries or auction houses. - The Globe & Mail

Is San Francisco’s Arts Scene Dying or Thriving

“There’s been a lot of conversation about a false doom narrative … surrounding our city’s art scene. I counter that assertion. I want to point out that our scene is, in fact, thriving.” - ARTnews

Our Free Newsletter

Join our 30,000 subscribers

Latest

Don't Miss

function my_excerpt_length($length){ return 200; } add_filter('excerpt_length', 'my_excerpt_length');