You might wonder how people who seem so good by occupation could be so bad in private. The theory of moral licensing could help explain why: When humans are good, it says, we give ourselves license to be bad. – Nautilus
GuideStar And Foundation Center, Two Key Parts Of US Nonprofit Ecosystem, Will Merge
“In this case, neither organization’s name will survive, and both CEOs will be incorporated into the structure of the new organization, which now goes by the inspired name of ‘Candid.’ (As in, ‘a Candid Assessment of this’ or ‘a Candid Report on that.’)” — Nonprofit Quarterly
Charles Busch, Theatre’s Drag Diva, Moves Into Cabaret — As Himself, In Men’s Clothes
“As an actor and writer, Busch is among the most prolific and influential drag artists of his generation, giving us memorable women (and men) in solo performance, and in plays and films such as Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, Psycho Beach Party, Die Mommie Die and The Divine Sister. … But in cabaret, a form Busch has dipped into at various points with his musical director Tom Judson, he began to question his approach.” — The New York Times
Why The Academy’s Attempt To Shorten The Oscars Telecast Is Wrongheaded (And Probably Futile)
“The Academy’s thinking is that awards for Sound Editing and Documentary Short eat up minutes and help push the show’s barnstorming conclusion — winners in the lead acting, directing, and Best Picture categories — later into the night. But that was also the case when the Oscars’ ratings were high. The Academy Awards are meant to be about more than giving airtime to famous people; they’re fundamentally about recognizing the hard work and magic that goes into every level of filmmaking, from development to postproduction. Instead, the 2019 show is being optimized for a more casual viewing audience that’s been slowly diminishing anyway.” — The Atlantic
How’s MoMA Paying For Its Big Overhaul? $200 Million From David Rockefeller Sure Helps
The gift from Rockefeller’s estate is the largest in the museum’s history. “[His] mother, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, was one of the founders of MoMA in 1929, and he carried on her legacy, serving as the institution’s chairman and one of its foremost supporters. He was on the museum board from 1948 until his death [in 2017 at age 101].” — Artnet
Izzy Young, Godfather Of Early ’60s Folk Revival, Dead At 90
Young’s Greenwich Village music store, the Folklore Center, “was also equal parts hiring hall; Schwab’s Pharmacy, where young hopefuls awaited discovery; matchbox recital space for organized performances and impromptu jam sessions; nerve center for gossip on a par with any small-town barbershop; and forum for continuing, crackling debate on the all-consuming subject of folk music, which thanks in no small part to Mr. Young was enjoying wide, renewed attention.” — The New York Times
Swiss Museum Says Facebook Disallowed Images Of Nude Statues To Promote Exhibition
The museum instead put the images on Twitter on Friday with the French word for “censored” over the statues’ presumably private parts, adding: “Maybe it’s time that this platform changes its policy for museums and cultural institutions?” – Time
USC Study: Percentage Of Women In The Music Business Hasn’t Improved
The study conducted by Dr. Stacy L. Smith found that the number of women working as artists remained stagnant at 17%. Of songwriters, women represented 12.3% of the credits affiliated with the test group of 100 songs — over half did not feature a single female writer. Among producers, women numbered only 2 percent, in line with the previous year. On a brighter note, representation by people of color was up. – Variety
The New Skinny Super Towers Of Manhattan
Poking up above the Manhattan skyline like etiolated beanpoles, they seem to defy the laws of both gravity and commercial sense. They stand like naked elevator shafts awaiting their floors, raw extrusions of capital piled up until it hits the clouds. These towers are not only the product of advances in construction technology – and a global surfeit of super-rich buyers – but a zoning policy that allows a developer to acquire unused airspace nearby, add it to their own lot, and erect a vast structure without any kind of public review process taking place. – The Guardian
Rules Of The Road For Copy Editors
“There’s nobody I know who does words for a living who doesn’t adhere to certain either odd or essentially irrational preferences or distastes. I think you simply need to sort of contain yourself. Like, pick six things you want to be ridiculously stubborn about, not dozens and dozens and dozens of them. You have to choose your irrational battles.” – NPR
What A Nation’s Story Does For The Nation
“Nation-states, when they form, imagine a past. That, at least in part, accounts for why modern historical writing arose with the nation-state. For more than a century, the nation-state was the central object of historical inquiry. But in the 1970s, studying the nation fell out of favor in the American historical profession.” – Foreign Affairs
Report: Some Ways We Should Support The Arts
Business models for virtually every industry are changing – and many industries are seeing their foundations rocked. So how to find new ways to support the arts? In the UK the Cultural Cities Enquiry makes a series of suggestions, including a tax on tourism. – The Stage (UK)
DC’s Hot New Performance Art Installation: ‘Ivanka Vacuuming’
The piece by conceptual artist Jennifer Rubell is simple enough to describe: an Ivanka-look-alike performer, immaculately dressed in pink, repeatedly vacuums a pink carpet as visitors toss crumbs onto the rug for her machine to suck up. (And it’s all streamed live.) Yet, points out Philip Kennicott, Ivanka Vacuuming is really not so simple at all. — The Washington Post
Met Museum, MIT, And Microsoft Unveil Joint AI Project
At the museum on Monday, “[the three partners] present[ed] five digital prototypes that harness artificial intelligence to make use of images of objects in the Met’s collection. … Visitors could sample applications like Storyteller, which uses voice recognition AI to conjure Met images illustrating whatever words a user utters aloud … [or] My Life, My Met, which uses AI to analyze a user’s Instagram’s posts and replaces the images with the closest matches to works in the Met’s collection.” — The Art Newspaper
Reimagining Shakespeare’s ‘Dark Lady’ For Ballet
First, who was the Dark Lady? Most likely, it was a black brothel owner in London known as Lucy Negro — whom actress and poet Caroline Randall Williams took as the inspiration for her 2015 book Lucy Negro, Redux. That book in turn inspired choreographer Paul Vasterling’s new work, Attitude: Lucy Negro Redux, which he created for dancer Kayla Rowser and Nashville Ballet, with music by MacArthur fellow Rhiannon Giddens and text from the book performed by Williams herself. — Dance Magazine
For 100 Years Of Women’s Suffrage, New York Philharmonic Commissions Music (Lots Of It) By Women
“To mark the centennial of the 19th Amendment, which barred states from denying voting rights based on gender, the Philharmonic has commissioned new works by 19 female composers, eight of which will be performed next season. Besides celebrating what Deborah Borda, the orchestra’s president and chief executive officer, called a ‘tectonic shift in American culture,’ the project sends a statement to the classical music field at a moment when female composers still struggle to be heard.” — The New York Times
Philadelphia History Museum, The Former Atwater Kent, May Be Acquired By Drexel University
“According to Drexel, museum, and city officials, the university would oversee pruning the vast number of objects — there are more than 100,000 items in the collection — to a ‘manageable’ size, digitizing the whole kit and kaboodle, and making it all available online, suitable for searching by institutions in need of loans or those seeking to mount new exhibitions.” The museum’s historic building will be closed and possibly sold. — The Philadelphia Inquirer
Theodore Rabb, Innovative Historian Of Renaissance And Champion Of Western Civilization, Dead At 81
“During an era in which scholars developed increasingly specialized interests, Dr. Rabb adopted a sweeping academic approach, ranging from economic history to politics to painting, emphasizing the broad scope and lasting influence of ideas that flowered during the Renaissance. … [He] taught that the values of Western culture are an inescapable, invaluable fountainhead of modern life.” — The Washington Post
Opening Of GES-2, Moscow’s Big New Contemporary Art Museum, Postponed To 2020
“[Oligarch Leonid] Mikhelson is spending around $300m to transform a former power plant near the Kremlin into a 20,000 sq. m museum designed by Renzo Piano. … GES-2 will be part of a Museum Mile in Moscow that links it to Dasha Zhukova’s Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, the State Tretyakov Gallery and the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.” — The Art Newspaper
The Posters For Science Talks That Look Like They’re Advertising Cool Bands
Bob Goldstein’s posters are visually varied, ranging from psychedelic print negatives, to sharp infographic visualizations, to turn-of-the-century scientific etchings, to understated watercolors. They really are like gig posters for scientists, because the design is born from fandom of the research itself. – Fast Company
How Richard White Became A Professional Tuba Player
Only 1.8 percent of U.S. symphony members are African-American. When he was at Peabody, White met with the then-Dean to mull ways to make the institution more diverse and accepting, “because it was weird walking around and not seeing anyone who looks like me. I learned that when you communicate to people what is going on, they will pay attention. They didn’t care that I was only black person in school. I was Richard the tuba player, which is ultimately crazy, because that’s what you want. I’m not sure I want to be Richard the black tuba player. I wanted to be Richard the tuba player.” – The Daily Beast
Trees, Arts, and Communities
For many of us, a free tree sounds like an unequivocally good thing. Why would anyone not want one? It turns out, as a nonprofit in Detroit learned the hard way, that there are a number of reasons. — Doug Borwick
MoMA To Close For Four Months This Summer, And Will Reopen Completely Reconfigured
“[The goal is] to reconfigure its galleries, rehang the entire collection and rethink the way that the story of modern and contemporary art is presented to the public. The Picassos and van Goghs will still be there, but the 40,000 square feet of additional space will allow MoMA to focus new attention on works by women, Latinos, Asians, African-Americans and other overlooked artists.” — The New York Times
UK’s Last Record Store Chain, HMV, Saved From Bankruptcy By New Buyer
“Doug Putman, who runs the Canadian retailer Sunrise Records, has bought the UK music and film retailer, … [which] collapsed into administration just after Christmas, blaming tough conditions on UK high streets and competition from streaming sites such as Netflix and Spotify.” Two years ago, Putman and Sunrise bought Canada’s HMV stores, rescuing them from closure. — The Guardian
And So It Begins: English-Language Theatre In Germany Won’t Audition British Actors Because Of Brexit
Due to uncertainty over what visa and employment regulations will be in place after March 29, “the English Theatre of Hamburg said it was only interested in seeing actors who held a passport for a European Union member state, and that UK performers must also have an EU passport to be seen for a part.” — The Stage