Tech has sold us on the idea of making things easier, of reducing the friction in our lives. But friction is how we sharpen up, get better, figure things out. It turns out that making things easier can make the bigger picture more difficult. – Medium
Report: Rural Communities Do Better When They Develop Creative Industries
Rural counties that are home to performing arts organizations experienced population growth three times faster and higher household incomes (up to $6,000 higher) than rural counties lacking performing arts organizations. – Medium
The Death Of García Lorca
Aaron Shulman revisits the weeks that led up to that early morning in the summer of 1937 when the poet, dressed in pajamas and a blazer, was murdered by paramilitaries just off a dirt road in the hills above Granada. – Literary Hub
Tony Kushner And Heidi Schreck Talk About ‘What The Constitution Means To Me’
TK: “I’ve always been a little skeptical of the notion that there’s something sort of shamanistic or medicinal or restorative about theater in a kind of mysterious way, but I really felt that [the play] was that. And every time I went back, I left feeling more hope about the survival of our democracy.” New York magazine theater critic Sara Holdren does a Q&A with the two playwrights about Schreck’s hit, which Kushner has seen three times (so far). – New York Magazine
New York City’s Hospitals Launch New Arts In Medicine Program
“NYC Health + Hospitals leadership will be expanding its use of the arts in clinical and staff care thanks to a $1.5 million grant. The grant, from philanthropist Laurie M. Tisch via the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, will launch the system’s own Arts in Medicine program, which will implement new initiatives benefiting staff and patients at hospitals, community health centers, and long-term care facilities, as well as expand initiatives already working at a single site.” – Healthcare Finance
Is Michael Jackson Inc. Too Big To Cancel?
The recent phenomenon of so-called cancel culture — the notion of withholding moral, financial and other support for prominent figures deemed problematic — has grown to become the default reaction in circumstances of troubling allegations or unacceptable behaviour. But is the King of Pop too big to cancel? – CBC
Broadway Hit: “Network” Makes Back Its Investment In Just 15 Weeks
One of this Broadway season’s clearest successes, the play, directed by Ivo van Hove and also starring Tony Goldwyn and Tatiana Maslany, routinely posts weekly box office of $1 million or more, playing to sell-out or near-sell-out houses. For the week ending March 3, Network grossed $1,024,594, with 99% of seats filled. – Deadline
Buddy Guy – The Last Of His Kind?
Buddy Guy is eighty-two and a master of the blues. What weighs on him is the idea that he may be the last. Several years ago, after the funeral of B. B. King, he was overcome not only with grief for a friend but also with a suffocating sense of responsibility. – The New Yorker
UK’s Society Of Authors Threatens To Sue Internet Archive Over Digital Lending Library
The Internet Archive began digitising books in 2005, because “not everyone has access to a public or academic library with a good collection, so to provide universal access we need to provide digital versions of books”. Today the archive scans 1,000 books a day in 28 locations around the world, through its book scanning and book drive programmes – with the “ultimate goal of [making] all the published works of humankind available to everyone in the world”. Users can borrow up to five books at a time, with each loan expiring after two weeks. – The Guardian
Leaders Of Europe’s First Pro Orchestra For Non-White Musicians Talk About Diversity And Inclusion In Classical Music
WQXR editor-in-chief Jacqui Cheng interviews Chi-chi Nwanoku, one of London’s leading double bassists and founder of the Chineke! Orchestra, and Chineke! bassoonist Linton Stephens. – WQXR (New York City)
Artists Accuse Tehran Museum Of Selling Their Work Without Permission
A growing number of artists claim that their works in the collection of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMoCA) have gone “missing” and may have ended up on the market without their knowledge. – The Art Newspaper
‘How Dance Helped Me Work Through My Autism And Open Up To Others’
Isaac Iskra, a person with high-functioning autism, writes about his difficult adjustment to his college’s dance department (he had a panic attack the first day), his subsequent breakthroughs, and how serious study of dance helped him with all areas of communications. – Dance Magazine
Joseph Flummerfelt, Greatest American Choral Conductor Of His Generation, Dead At 82
“Mr. Flummerfelt played an outsize, if not always highly visible, role in American classical music. He prepared choruses for hundreds of concerts by the New York Philharmonic and a host of other famous orchestras and maestros, and he trained generations of singers and conductors at Westminster Choir College in Princeton N.J.” – The New York Times
Steppenwolf Begins Construction Of $54 Million Theatre And Education Center
“The long-in-gestation building, which has been designed by the Chicago architectural firm of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill and the British theater design company known as Charcoalblue, is expected to open in the summer of 2021.” It will include, as an addition to its three existing performance spaces, a 400-seat theatre-in-the-round as well as education facilities. – Chicago Tribune
Arata Isozaki Wins 2019 Pritzker Prize
“The announcement on Tuesday of architecture’s highest award was seen by many as a long overdue honor for this 87-year-old architect, urban designer and theorist … Mr. Isozaki’s more than 100 buildings include the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona and the Qatar National Convention Center in Doha.” – The New York Times
MacArthur Foundation Appoints New President
“John Palfrey, an educator, author and scholar with a focus on digital technology … [who is] currently Head of School at the old-line Massachusetts prep school Phillips Academy Andover, … will take the reins in September from President Julia Stasch.” – Chicago Tribune
Gender-Switched ‘Company’ And ‘Come From Away’ Lead Olivier Award Noms
Come From Away, a Broadway transfer about the Newfoundlanders who welcomed grounded airlines on 9/11, and director Marianne Elliott’s revival of the Sondheim musical Company with the commitment-shy lead Bobby changed to Bobbie, each received nine nods. Leading the play category with eight nods is The Inheritance, a seven-hour epic about a group of gay men in New York. Among the many notable acting nominees is Ian McKellen, who could receive a record sixth Olivier for his King Lear. – The Guardian
Wroth Over Rothko: SFMOMA’s Distasteful Disposal
What museum director would choose to sell from his institution “an important work completed at the apex of Rothko’s artistic powers, … one of just 19 paintings completed by the artist in 1960” — a year that marked “a critical juncture in the iconic Abstract Expressionist’s career”? – Lee Rosenbaum
Michael Tilson Thomas And The Vienna Philharmonic — Weird Mismatch Or Genius Combo?
Orchestral music’s Mr. Maverick and the very avatar of Austro-German symphonic tradition are touring together, playing Mahler (on which they each have longstanding opinions and practices) and Charles Ives (which MTT says the Viennese players are really picking up). David Patrick Stearns talks with the conductor about how he and the Philharmoniker are getting on. – WQXR (New York City)
It’s Official: There Will Be Two Nobel Prizes In Literature Given This Year
The Swedish Academy has confirmed that a second prize will be awarded this fall to make up for the postponement caused by last year’s messy scandal. (This had been announced at the time, but some doubt had subsequently arisen.) – The Guardian
Is The Strand Bookstore A City Landmark?
Since last summer, Wyden has been locked in a battle with local officials who want to name the Strand’s eleven-story building, which Wyden’s family owns, a city landmark. They argue that, in addition to its literary significance, the 1902 building—designed by William H. Birkmire, a pioneer of early steel-frame high-rises—represents “a particularly robust expression of the Renaissance Revival style.” Wyden disagrees. “It’s not the Taj Mahal,” she said. “It’s a warehouse.” – The New Yorker