In many ways, fundraising for theatre faces the same patterns and pressures as other nonprofits. But in recent years, numbers have emerged indicating that theatre may be in considerably better shape than other kinds of organizations chasing the same dollars. Zannie Giraud Voss, director of the National Center for Arts Research(NCAR) at Southern Methodist University, gives a sanguine report.
‘Sculpture That Goes ‘Vroom”
“For the past few years, [Eric van Hove] has been working in Morocco on a project called the Mahjouba Initiative, which involves building a series of motorbikes using only traditional craft materials. Eric calls this work ‘a socio-economic sculpture’, the idea being that the pieces can be exhibited as artworks but also used as the prototype for a new vehicle. Anna McNamee meets Eric and his team as he works on the latest model – the Mahjouba III.” (audio)
How Live Music Shaped Silent Movies
The soundtrack for any given showing depended, in large part, on the setting. At deluxe movie palaces, films were often accompanied by entire symphony orchestras. “A medium-sized neighborhood theater might carry between five and ten musicians,” writes Scott Eyman in The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution, 1926–1930. “Even the meanest fleapit in the sticks had a piano player.”
Increasingly, Artistic Directors Have To Fund Raise. Is This A Problem?
“Artistic directors are our stars. What has changed is that they also need to be civic leaders. This is a new profile for the next generation. We have moved away from the period where it was enough to do great work which would ensure funding. The artistic director is the personality who personifies the mission and makes it feel vibrant to the community.”
What If The Met Museum Did Less With More?
Serious attention to these areas alone would negate the need for a $25 admission charge, which incidentally is more than three times America’s minimum hourly wage. Given that the trustees didn’t put the brakes on the spending spree long ago, isn’t a penitential boost in their annual giving appropriate?
The Unknown, Gorgeous, Endangered Frescoes Of Rajasthan
“India’s Shekhawati province is in the northeastern Rajasthani desert and more than seven hours by car from Delhi. The region covers almost 5,000 square miles and hosts an estimated 2,000 frescoed buildings built from the 17th to the early 20th century. Many of them are abandoned and most are breathtakingly beautiful. Arguably the world’s largest collection of outdoor painting, Shekhawati is a treasure trove of startling architecture and adornment.”
Sex In The Middle Ages – There Was More Of It, And More Sophistication About It, Than You’d Think
Which is not to say that all the ideas they had about sex in medieval Europe were scientifically or medically sound, mind you. But they weren’t exactly prudes.
How Technology Is Creating Voices For Those Who No Longer Have Them
VocaliD’s technology works by capturing a few seconds of vowel sound (the source) from the recipient, and applying it to the filter provided by a donor. The combination allows the production of a voice that’s largely “of” the recipient.
How A 16th-Century Legal Document Ended Up In A Copy Of ‘Alice In Wonderland’ In Rural Australia
“Lorraine Smith’s detective story began at her second-hand bookshop in Warrnambool, Australia, when a customer came to her with what looked like a piece of paper. It had been hiding in an old copy of Alice in Wonderland, the customer said, that she had paged through while browsing in the back of the store. … Smith grew determined to discover what this manuscript was and where it had come from. What was that obscure writing? Who was the document’s original owner? And how did it end up in Australia?”
Opera About Tabasco Sauce (From 1894!) Revived In New Orleans
Tabasco: a Burlesque Opera, composed by George Whitefield Chadwick, was the most popular American opera of the late 19th century: it toured to almost 50 cities before Chadwick pulled it because he wasn’t getting royalties. Now New Orleans Opera is reviving this tale of the original Louisiana hot sauce for the city’s 300th anniversary and the company’s 75th.
Orientalism And The Depiction Of Arabs In America
To Arabs, whose experience of imperialism and colonialism is brutal and direct, talking about their land as delectable bits of food, sweets to be consumed, can feel like more than mere caricature. It’s the way that the West has perceived the lands of the Middle East—something for our consumption. “It’s our oil, after all. It’s our Holy Land, after all.”
LA County Museum of Art Looks To Expand Off-Site In South LA
The City Council vote on Friday would give Lacma a 35-year lease for an 80,000 square-foot building in a recreation area known as South Los Angeles Wetlands Park. The lease will be first discussed on Wednesday during the council’s “arts, recreation and river committee” meeting, which is open to the public.
Constructing Dessert: A New Wave Of Pastry Chefs Trained As Architects
“Why [make] such a radical career shift? In interviews, several said they realized while working in architecture that pastry required a similar skill set, and they found baking a cake a lot more interesting – and immediately gratifying – than designing a building.”
Foreign Galleries Are Expanding To Italy
The move makes some sense. Despite a fluctuating economy, Italy has a strong collecting tradition. François Chantala, a partner at Thomas Dane, says: “The scene in Italy has always been discreet, established and savvy—not dissimilar to Germany, Holland and Belgium in the 1960s and 70s.” But with little evidence the domestic market is expanding, does Italy have the critical mass of high-level collectors required to sustain these galleries, or is their arrival merely a symptom of the enduring appeal of la dolce vita?
State And Local Governments Take Up Efforts To Preserve Net Neutrality
Montana is the first state to take action to encourage broadband providers to follow the principles of net neutrality, but others, including California, New York, Rhode Island, and Washington are considering legislative action. Meanwhile, New York City officials published a request for information about how the city can best monitor the connection speeds and network performance of broadband providers. Mayor Bill de Blasio promised the city would do “everything within our power to keep the internet open and accessible for all” after the FCC voted to repeal its rules.
A Tech Backlash Is Building. But Let’s Be Careful…
“The smartphone is today’s emblem of whether one believes in progress or decline. It is a powerful tool, and any such tool has the capacity to do harm as well as great good. Finding balance has never been a human strong suit, but it has never been more needed.”
Male Dancers Are Body-Shamed Too
“My entire career, I stood out too much to fit in. And that whole time, I was the one who couldn’t accept that short, fat and bald could be the next best thing on the block. I had to change how I saw myself. All of my accomplishments were not in spite of my short, fat, bald body, but because of it.”
If Houston’s Alley Theatre’s Longtime Artistic Director “Retired” Why Was He Paid $383,000 Severance?
More than 20 current and former Alley employees have told the Houston Chronicle that Gregory Boyd’s 28-year, Tony-winning tenure at the theater was tainted by abusive behavior, particularly toward young actresses. Boyd, who abruptly retired with two days’ notice on Jan. 11, did not respond to requests for comment.
How Randy Rainbow Became An Internet Sensation Using Show Tunes To Mock Trump
Comedy is a great unifier. I hear from people every day from both sides saying, “We don’t have the same beliefs, and, you know, I hate gay people and I hate white people and I hate black people and I’m an awful person—but I laughed at your video!”
The Technology Revolution That Enabled The World’s First Novel
“The book was written about 1,000 years ago, at a time when a lot of literature was still produced by scribes, collected from various sources and cobbled together by editors. The foundational epics and religious texts in circulation then were very different from the reading material we’re used to. In that context, Murasaki’s diary felt to me like a turning point in the history of literature—it sounds so recognizable, so intimate, so modern.”
Agnès Varda Is The Oldest Oscar Nominee In History, News She Greets With A Shrug
“Reached in Paris hours after receiving the Academy nod, [the 89-year-old] Varda, for her part, seemed cheery but basically unconcerned. She brushed off the notion the Oscar nomination is any kind of crowning achievement – even if [the documentary] Faces Places will stand as her final film.”
Robert Spano To Depart From Atlanta Symphony After 20 Years As Music Director
Spano, only the fourth music director of the ASO in its 73-year history, will step down at the end of the 2020-21 season.
What Did Garrison Keillor Really Do? Minnesota Public Radio Does Deep-Dive Report On Misconduct Allegations
“An investigation by MPR News” – which included interviews with more than 60 people who had dealt professionally with Keillor – “has learned of a years-long pattern of behavior that left several women who worked for Keillor feeling mistreated, sexualized or belittled.”
Long Wharf Theatre Fires Artistic Director One Day After Report Of Sexual Misconduct Accusations
The New Haven theatre’s board of trustees voted to fire Gordon Edelstein, effective immediately, after The New York Times reported detailed allegations of sexual harassment, and even assault, of staffers by the director.
San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theatre Has Found Its Next Artistic Director
Pam MacKinnon, who has been nominated for three Tony Awards and won one (for the 2013 revival of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), will take over from departing artistic director Carey Perloff on July 1.