ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

Stories

The Growing Importance Of Being Idle

Exhortations toward work as the path to truth, meaning, virtue, and salvation suggest the contemporary valuation of work is—although not universal—more than the legacy of a single cultural tradition. - The Walrus

How MTV’s “The Real World” Pioneered Today’s Reality TV

In many ways, “The Real World” was a great leap forward from the proto-reality ventures of the past. These attempts had ranged from culture-rattling “audience-participation” formats such as “Candid Camera,” which began in the late forties, to the smutty Chuck Barris game shows of the sixties and seventies. - The New Yorker

Why Does The UK Conservative Party Not Want To Talk Arts And Culture?

The Conservatives state that culture and sport lie “at the core of our national and local identities” and pledge to “support our world-leading creative industries”. Yet, arts and culture are squeezed into one short page, alongside sport, media and the nighttime economy. - The Conversation

In Praise Of Ambivalence

Ambivalence can be quicksand, slowly swallowing us whole. But some ambivalence, as lyric poetry taught me, is essential to a life. - Poetry Foundation

Of Balanchine And Graham: Important Lessons About Legacy

If the intertwined fates of Balanchine and Graham tell us anything, it should be that trajectories of dance styles and legacies of choreographers are just as much the products of money and institutional support as of artistic talent. - The Drift

Debating How Babies Learn Language

First, is language acquired by specialized mental processes that are dedicated to this task or learned by general-purpose processes used for a variety of learning tasks? Second, can we project the processes of language acquisition/learning that we observe in the present into the prehistoric past to gain insights about the evolution of language? - LitHub

Were Or Were Not Berthe Morisot And Edouard Manet Lovers?

"(The question) is a matter of wide speculation. New Criterion says they burned their correspondence when she wed. However, Morisot’s letters with her sister show their flirtation was not always a delight. …Morisot rebuffed her mother’s persistent matchmaking, but she obliged Manet’s eventual suggestion that she marry his brother." - Artnet

Boston MFA Director To Step Down

His tenure at the MFA was marked by both successes and challenges, from the overhaul of many galleries, conservation facilities and education programmes, to a racial incident involving a visiting school group and contract negotiations with (and a brief strike by) unionised workers. - The Art Newspaper

Your Off-Broadway Show Is A Hit. Should You Move It To Broadway?

With production costs soaring, is it even worth moving a hit off-Broadway show to Broadway anymore? - TheatreMania

Virginia Opera Owes $270,000 In Unpaid Rent, Says City of Norfolk

"The city, which leases Harrison Opera House to Virginia Opera, says the organization owes $270,000 … for (2019-2024). … Virginia Opera leaders dispute those claims, said Peggy Kriha Miller, general director. … When asked why opera leaders do not believe the organization is behind on rent, Miller declined to comment." - The Virginian-Pilot

Scottish Arts Leaders Brace For Big Funding Cuts, Exodus Of Talent

The possibility of wide-ranging cuts has emerged as industry leaders warned of growing evidence of an exodus of talent from performers and arts workers seeking more stable careers due to Scotland’s “extremely precarious” arts funding environment. - The Scotsman

Sophocles In A Maximum-Security Greek Prison

A photo essay on a production of Antigone, with a cast almost entirely of inmates, at the Korydallos prison in Athens. - Reuters

Why Evolving Our Morality Is Really Hard

When we’re told that something we see as ordinary – like eating meat – is actually wrong, our first reaction is to get irritated and dismissive. If it’s not about bacon, it’s about plastic straws. Or a phrase we’ve been using for years but is now considered offensive. Or having to share your pronouns. - Aeon

The First Post-Pandemic Carbuncle Cup, For Britain’s Worst New Building, Goes To —

"A bunch of developers have been allowed to knock down a happy, eclectic row of buildings ... and (have) replaced it with such nothingness, such banality that their only option is to cover it with a screen. Upon which, they have drawn portraits of those same old demolished buildings." - The Fence

The Online News Media Is About To Try Another “Pivot To Video”

True, the last one didn't work out so well. Yet "aggregate data from 47 countries shows all the growth in platform news use coming from video or video-led networks such as YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram while legacy networks such as Facebook are becoming less important." - Nieman Lab

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');