This week, a groundbreaking deal for Broadway actors and dancers, James Levine finally decides to retire from the Met Opera, a debacle at the National Ballet of Romania that quickly escalated to involve the country's Prime Minister, a warning about fetishizing "creativity" as the key to success, and a cautionary question about what machine intelligence might look like. James Levine finally … [Read more...]

What business success in theatre looks like, our over-obsession with creativity as a catch-all answer to success, how the art markets really work, how taste gets confused with pretension, and machines' inroads to art. Theatre is a big gamble but when it hits it REALLY hits: We're used to being dazzled by the huge budgets and box office of movies. Theatre not so much. Mostly, theatre is a risky … [Read more...]

A number of stories this week tackled the meaning of greatness in art (even if they didn't explicitly frame it that way). A changing culture requires changing definitions of greatness, but defining "great" has often been problematic. Wealthy patrons have funded great art throughout history. And of course the wealthy have had many different reasons for their patronage. One of the strongest was … [Read more...]

This week's best reads hover around existential questions. What arts organizations should exist? Does truth exist? Can theatre really change anything, and should it even try? Canada's new government makes an existential bet on culture. And do our tools define art? Arts Organizations At The Existential Crossroads: Some have argued that when arts organizations have outlived their missions, they … [Read more...]

My picks for the five most interesting stories we gathered this week. The Arts' Existential Challenge Arts organizations, along with every business sector trying to cope with sweeping changes wrought by the internet, are struggling with how to reinvent for the future while not alienating its past or present. "What's the answer? Some would say that reinvention invariably is brutal — in the … [Read more...]

Researchers find links between what you watch and how you behave, how women are changing classical music, fascinating fights over who owns Picasso, a Golden Age for New York theatre, and concerns about the integrity of museums. You are what you eat, right? So are you also what you watch? Listen? Read? Makes sense. In that case, studies are quite suspicious of watching television. Researchers … [Read more...]

New York gets its first new major museum in decades. English National Opera continues its slow-motion implosion. The relationship between art and critics frays. Some counter-intuitive findings about creativity from scientists. And some cultural industries that are booming. The Met's new Breuer Building (the former Whitney Museum) opens to massive expectations. This new building will … [Read more...]

Arguably, the dominant cultural issue of our time is the changes in how people are finding and getting culture.  In response, business models supporting culture and the kinds of culture being made are also changing.  It also underpins debates about diversity, engagement and power. Some broad themes this week: 1. How we want the culture we want Record Profits As Concert Business Booms The … [Read more...]

1. Is Funding Really The Top Issue In The Arts?  Doug Borwick says no. "Insufficiency of funds will never go away. It’s a state of being in the nonprofit sector. Overfocus on this as an issue can get in the way of addressing the causes that might be contributing to it." Michael Lind writes that taxpayer shouldn't be funding the arts. "Why should writers get $25,000 for ‘travel, and general … [Read more...]