ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

Stories

Concerns About Four Programs At Smithsonian’s Asian-American Literary Festival Were Flagged Hours Before It Was Canceled

The flagging was part of a routine procedure before Smithsonian events. The institution insists that the festival was called off because the organizers were too far behind schedule on logistical planning, but some participants and observers are skeptical. - The Washington Post

Philadelphia Orchestra Cancels Next Spring’s Tour To California

Concerts in early March in Los Angeles, Orange County, Santa Barbara, and Palm Desert were found "no longer financially viable" due to "significant increases in cargo and travel costs." April concerts in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and Ann Arbor are unaffected. - MSN (The Philadelphia Inquirer)

An Encouraging Weekend At The Movie Box Office

“Barbie” ended up with $162 million in its first weekend of release, above Sunday’s already record-breaking estimate of $155 million. "Oppenheimer,” too, beat expectations with $82.4 million, slightly higher than Sunday’s huge $80.5 million projection. - Variety

A Crisis In The Avant Garde (Or, Where Are The Provocateurs?)

What’s to blame for the lack of a coherent movement? If the avant-garde is dead, what killed it — and what’s been lost along the way? - The Drift

Why (Despite Repeated Attempts) Books Can’t Be Disrupted By Technology

One reason books haven’t been particularly disruptable might be that many of the people looking to “fix” things couldn’t actually articulate what was broken—whether through their failure to see the real problems facing the industry (namely, Amazon’s stranglehold), or their insistence that books are not particularly enjoyable as a medium. - Wired

Odesa Cathedral Hit By Russian Missiles

This was the second time that the vast, sand-yellow Transfiguration Cathedral, which sits in the heart of Odesa’s Unesco-listed historic centre, had been attacked: in the 1930s, it was torn down during Joseph Stalin’s atheism drive. On Sunday morning, the rebuilt version was hit during a Russian airstrike on the city. - The Guardian

End Of An Era: Yoko Ono Moves Out Of The Dakota And NYC

After a half century Ms. Ono has moved out of New York City to the sprawling Catskills farm she bought with Mr. Lennon in 1978. For many, it signals that yet another link to old New York — the one filled with grit and glamour, run by artists and musicians — is missing. - The New York Times

“Sustainability” Festival Canceled After Being Unmasked As Conspiracy Theories Event

The Think Local Festival, which promised attendees the chance to “discover the roots and taste of tradition,” was due to be held on Wednesday and Thursday near Mullingar, Ireland, this week, with tickets selling for €150 (£130) for the two-day programme. - Vice

Master Of The Universe: An Epic NYer Profile Of Larry Gagosian

Traditionally, the model for dealers has been to bet on raw talents, and support these artists until work by some of them sells well enough to cover the bets made on all the others. Under the mega-gallery model that Gagosian pioneered, the top dealers don’t even bother with nascent artists. - The New Yorker

Why Presidents In The Movies Always Look Young

On screen we want our romantic leads flawless, our sitcom families lower middle-class but quirky, and our presidents capable of single-handedly killing terrorists and jumping out of crashing jumbo jets. - Vox

Comic-Con Without The Actors Was Quite Different This Year

But, some whispered, was it better? At least for regular cosplayers? "All the excitement that we’re not getting from the panels and stuff, we’re putting it towards each other. ... It’s not that there’s nobody here to talk to and see. It’s really the fans."- Los Angeles Times

New Building Material: Fungus?

A new piece was "built using a paste of mycelium and sawdust that’s pumped inside a fabric formwork. ... hardened into a moderately strong experimental pavilion that looks like a mix between a gazebo and a moldy piece of bread." - Fast Company

There’s A New Guerrilla Artist Residency In IKEA

Which IKEA? Well, that depends on where the residency applicants live. In Burbank, one artist "pulled out a tub of IKEA’s MÅLA modeling dough and pressed it into the hole, then carefully removed the cast and stored it safely in a cardboard box like an archaeological specimen." - Hyperallergic

The Deep Crisis In The United States’s Regional Theatres

"'It’s impossible not to be distraught about the state of the field,' said Christopher Moses, an artistic director of the Alliance Theater in Atlanta. 'It’s clear this is the hardest time to be producing nonprofit theater, maybe in the history of the nonprofit movement.'" - The New York Times

How A Grammy-Winning Jazz Composer Learned To Trust Her Creative Instincts

Maria Schneider says that "the pressures in your life, good and bad, just affect music so much. ... When you look back, it's almost like a diving rod, it's telling me more about my life than I knew at the time." - Slate

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');