“The arts need their space. For the roughly 2,000 arts organizations in Philadelphia, whether fledgling or established, space is typically one of the greatest expenses and most critical needs, second only to personnel. At the same time, some two-thirds of Center City Philadelphia sacred places report having space that could potentially be available for sharing with the community.”
Are ‘Big’ Truths Better Than ‘Small’ Truths?
“Humans, with our finite lives, are naturally drawn to grand questions about time, space and the cosmos. But, astrophysicist Adam Frank asks, where does that leave life’s little truths?”
Bill Watterson Speaks! “Calvin And Hobbes” Creator Gives Rare Interview
“Although I’m certainly glad cartoons are finally getting some respect as an art, I’m fairly ambivalent to see cartooning as a legitimate academic offering. If comics need to be deconstructed and explained, something is really wrong with them.”
If There’s A Crisis At English National Opera, It Certainly Isn’t Artistic
“Let’s be absolutely clear about this … there has been no crisis in ENO’s run of productions over the past year and two months, indeed in the bigger picture of the last 10 years. … So where’s the problem? Clearly, as usual, in the management, not in the artistic team.”
When A Career Cunningham Dancer Gets His Own Company
“After the Merce Cunningham Dance Company disbanded in 2011, Robert Swinston, who was with the troupe for more than 30 years, did just that. He began again” – in France,”where he now directs the National Contemporary Dance Center in Angers and is also the artistic director of Compagnie CNDC-Angers.”
A 19th-Century Japanese View Of London, By An Artist Who’d Never Been There
“Utagawa Yoshitora’s 1866 prints Igirisukoku Rondon no zu form a triptych view of London. Together, the three images depict a street scene near the River Thames, complete with thronging English pedestrians, two sailing ships, horses, oxen, and carriages.”
17 Things We Know About Forgiveness
First of all, “The scientific literature on forgiveness only dates back to 1989, amazingly.”
Warning: Theatre Is Losing An Entire Generation
“Now, there are fewer young companies and there has been an incredible drop in the number of drama teachers working. And that seems to me to be a fairly urgent thing that theatres need to be talking and lobbying about.”
UK Arts Funding Is In Crisis Says Museum Director
Most museum directors are wary about criticising government, which funds them, but David Anderson, the director general of National Museum Wales (funded by the Welsh government) and the outgoing president of the Museums Association, says it is time to speak out.
UK Museums Struggle With What To Do With Wealth Of Archaeological Artifacts
“We have archival material in museums that are becoming increasingly inaccessible because of the lack of specialist archaeology curators and we have museums that are ceasing to collect this material which has created a backlog that has nowhere to go.”
Is School Failing Dancers? (It Depends On What You Think School Is For)
“In a world of slash careers, where we easily understand the lawyer/journalist or physician/entrepreneur, why are we dancers or something else? Why would someone be thought of as a failure if they are a dancer/college professor or a strategic planner/choreographer? If they are happy, who is anyone to judge? Our foremothers and forefathers in the field were teachers/dancers/choreographers. Why are we trying to make excuses for the very inner-workings of the field?”
What’s The Purpose Of Dance School Again?
“The purpose of the university dance program is to offer students the opportunity to participate in a deep and profound process of creating, performing, responding to, and connecting from the practice of an art form. Dance takes them into the life of arts-informed human beings; people who live not at the margins of the world, but lead the way, by example, to full, proactive, creative, disciplined, empathic, and imaginative lives.”
Pritzker Prize Goes To Architect Frei Otto One Day After He Dies
“The German architect and engineer best known for his tent-like structures for the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich … died Monday in Germany at age 89. … Otto’s death forced Pritzker officials to scramble to prepare an announcement that is typically carefully choreographed.”
Metropolitan Museum Names New President
“The Metropolitan Museum of Art has appointed Daniel H. Weiss, the president of Haverford College in Pennsylvania, to succeed its outgoing president, Emily Rafferty, who is stepping down later this month after a decade in the post and nearly 40 years at the museum.”
Conducting’s Next Big Question: Who Will Bag The Berlin Phil?
“Here’s the situation as I see it, based solely on subjective rune-reading, along with a pinch of happenstance and hearsay.” Tom Service handicaps the possible candidates.
Evelyn Glennie And Emmylou Harris Win 2015 Polar Music Prize
“Dame Evelyn, who played at the opening of the London 2012 Olympics, was the first person in history to have a full-time career as a solo percussionist. … Harris, from Birmingham, Alabama, has recorded more than 25 albums over four decades and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2008.”
Why Does Hunger Shape So Much Behavior That Has So Little To Do With Food?
“Hunger makes Belgians less charitable, Israeli judges more draconian, and Ohioans likelier to stick pins into voodoo dolls that represent their spouses. And, according to a paper published last month … it turns Canadians into hoarders.” Why? “Part of the answer can be gathered from observations of other animals.”
He Changed The Face Of The Art Form In Britain: The Verdict On Nicholas Hytner At The National Theatre
Michael Billington: “I’d say Hytner has done more than anyone since Peter Brook and Peter Hall in the 1960s and 70s to change the face of British theatre. His advocacy of cheap seats and of live broadcasts will, I believe, be viewed by future historians as a major cultural turning point.”
In Unprecedented Move, UK Equity Expels Member
“The union has expelled Craig Joseph, a member of Motown tribute band the Gillettes, after he lied in court during a case in which he was being supported by Equity, resulting in a costs liability for the union of more than £600,000.”
Hilary Mantel Wants To Try Playwriting
“The British author whose best-selling novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies have been adapted for a stage production soon to open on Broadway … said, ‘The process of working with this team has changed my vision of what I might want to do in the future.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 03.10.15
It’s My Bag
AJBlog: Out There Published 2015-03-06
Why I Love BJ’s, Part 2 – “Basket Case”
AJBlog: Out There Published 2015-03-10
Breaking: Met Names New President
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2015-03-10
He got game
AJBlog: Performance Monkey Published 2015-03-10
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British Government Accepts Churchill’s Paintings To Pay Tax Bill
“The paintings, created between 1915 and the late 1950s, were offered last year after the death of Mary Soames, Churchill’s youngest and last surviving child, who died at the age of 91 in May.”