A spokesman for the museum says that the “visitor is OK [and] almost ready to return home”. He added that “security protocol was followed” and there are warning signs as well as a member of gallery staff inside the installation. It has been temporarily closed while the institution assesses what happened but it hopes to reopen it “in a few days”.
So There’s A Word You Use Countless Times A Day That Stems From The African Slave Trade? Mmhmm.
Wait, so mmhmm counts as a word, even though it’s not in the dictionary? That’s what some academics are arguing – and they say that the word’s origin among enslaved Africans in the U.S. is the reason it never was recognized by dictionaries (and thereby had its spelling standardized).
UK Arts Orgs Report On Their Experiences With Crowdfunding
“The majority of respondents indicated that the hard work involved in running a crowdfunding campaign was ultimately worth the rewards and that the matched funding element would significantly increase their likelihood of undertaking further crowdfunding”.
LA’s Mark Taper Forum To Offer Free Tickets To 25-And-Unders
In a new program called FreePlay, “Center Theatre Group … will start giving people 25 and younger free tickets to the first preview of productions at the Mark Taper Forum and the Kirk Douglas Theatre.”
‘Chris, Let’s Talk About Your Performance Issues’ Turns Out To Be Ad For Ballet Company
“Earlier this summer, strange billboards and bus-stop ads started popping up around Louisville, Kentucky. A woman, Jessica, was sending public messages — that seemed really personal — to a guy named Chris. Things like, ‘Chris, maybe we should try role playing’ or ‘Chris, let’s talk about your performance issues.'” After a few weeks of letting folks in the city toss around theories (and they did), Louisville Ballet fessed up. And, says the company’s marketing director, the campaign worked in more than one way. (She also says that Chris and Jessica are real.)
Theatre Study In Danger Of Disappearing From UK Schools
According to a survey of 420 members of the Association of School and College Leaders, 28% said they had cut back lesson time, staff or facilities for drama in the past two years. Drama has already weathered substantial decline over recent years, with entry figures tumbling year-on-year. The ASCL’s research comes as this year’s A-level results are announced in England. Final figures show that entries for drama fell by a further 6% on last year, to a total of 11,239 students.
Visits To London Museums Down Last Year
Visits to museums and art galleries fell for the second year in a row, dropping by 1% both last year and in 2016. Visit England said that “this was largely driven by those based in London, who saw a 4% drop in visitor numbers in 2017″. The number of overseas tourists visiting museums and art galleries (which Visit England says is “by far the largest attraction type for overseas visitors”) also fell significantly last year, dropping by 11%.
Everyone Seems To Hate The “Popular Movie” Oscar. Just Wait, Says An Academy Board Member
“I think it’s been very much in the DNA of Hollywood motion-picture making that there’s somewhere where entertainment and art meet and co-mingle,” he told THR. “And I think, once [the details of the new award are] explained, people will understand better.”
Goucher College Kills Music, Art And Theatre Programs
Goucher College is the latest institution to announce a series of program cuts following an academic prioritization process. Majors and minors in math, music, physics, religion, Russian and elementary and special education are being phased out, as are majors in studio art and theater, the college said this week. Book studies, German and Judaic studies will also be eliminated as stand-alone majors.
After Months Of Bargaining, MoMA Workers Finally Secure A Contract They Can (Literally) Live With
The union overwhelmingly ratified the contract, which pushed back against many of the museum’s proposed takeaways – and even improved some things for the workers. “The museum initially fought against seniority step raises, but the union fought for its inclusion and eventually won.”
Aretha Franklin’s ‘Respect’ Became A Rallying Cry For Musicians Seeking Royalties
It’s been played more than 70 million times, and Franklin saw exactly none of the royalties because it was written by Otis Redding. “Every time the song is played on the radio, Mr. Redding’s estate — he died in a 1967 plane crash — has been paid.” That’s a rallying cry to make copyright law work both for writers and for artists.
There’s A Lot More Going On Between The Minnesota Orchestra And South African Musicians Than A ‘Tour’
A member of the Minnesota Chorale notes that the important parts involve an exchange, and that the Orchestra and Chorale are working with “750-800 local musicians and 20 music ensembles. At least 11 South African composers will have their works performed.”
A German Gallery Cuts Ties With One Of Its Artists Over His Views On Immigration
Artist Axel Klause expressed some quite conservative views on Facebook – and his gallery of 13 years said that it couldn’t continue the relationship. One of the Leipzig gallery’s partners: “I’m not a public institution or an institution of public interest. I have a commercial gallery where I organize and sell exhibitions, and I don’t have to represent every viewpoint that exists in society.”
Bernstein at Brevard — Take Two: The Artist and Politics
The backlash against Bernstein’s politics was huge – and “his activities became an insane obsession of J. Edgar Hoover.”
Remember The Members
The Metropolitan Museum’s new director writes a letter to members – and appears to want an exchange of ideas, so here are a few.
In A Europe Disturbed By Anti-Muslim Sentiment, This Exhibit Makes A Statement
The Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, is acknowledging the way the Italian Renaissance depended on – and exchanged ideas and goods with – Muslim countries. The exhibit is a “scholarly riposte” to a world in which, “today, Italians have little exposure to the Islamic world beyond the Muslims living in their midst — many of them recent immigrants — and media reports of Mideast wars and Islamist-inspired terrorism. That tense context has led some to associate Islam with violence and spawned anti-Muslim sentiments.”
Why Don’t More Boys – And Girls, For That Matter – Read ‘Little Women’ In School?
Teaching Huck Finn is near universal, but Little Women? What if the boys don’t like it? “As far as I can tell, no one is concerned about whether 12-year-old girls are engaged by Tom Sawyer. But their reaction is not what concerns educators. It’s the boys’ responses they are worried about.”
Do Actors With Southern Accents Get A Fair Shake In Hollywood?
Does anyone in charge in Hollywood even know what “a Southern accent” is? “I’ve had people ask, ‘Can you teach me a Southern accent?’ I’m like, ‘O.K. What state? What part of the state? What culture?'”
The Virgin Mary, Says One Artist, Is Getting Evicted By Gentrification
The artist, Nico Avina, is trying to alert Los Angeles’ Boyle Heights to what it’s losing as rising rents drive out its Latinx population – people, murals, and especially paintings of la Virgen de Guadalupe. That’s why he brings a foldable, 7-1/2-foot tall Virgin Mary with him all over the neighborhood.
In Praise Of Aretha Franklin’s Album ‘Amazing Grace’
Wesley Morris breaks the album down, and says it was made for a time when albums meant something. This album still does. “Her going for the max maxes you out. This is what virtuosity should do — leave you knock-kneed, perform the unthinkable.”
One Powerful Family Creates Dance Spectacles In Spain
The family isn’t new to the club or dance game. “They are the Medicis of raving, with a dynasty spanning back to 1870. Six generations of Arnaus have worked in entertainment, from a 19th-century ancestor who opened Café Josepet, the first social club in Fraga, 95 miles west of Barcelona, through to 50s-era music halls and 80s electro clubs.” And they want to keep expanding.
Netflix Deletes Ten Years Of User Reviews
Netflix is like, oh, people aren’t using the reviews! But actually … there were a lot of reviews, including a lot of negative reviews, of its original content. Oh.
Can we call someone “pretty”?
Controversial: Where Our Speech Patterns Come From
Tracing the linguistic path of mmhmm, and many other words commonly used today, from West Africa to the U.S. South is difficult, is riddled with controversy — and experts say it has lingering effects on how the speech of African-Americans is perceived.
Time For Asian-Americans To Forgive ‘The Joy Luck Club’?
“If you want to see a community turn against an artwork that depicts them, make it the only one. If that artwork is by a woman, about women, and openly feminist, half the job’s already done. … [The Joy Luck Club‘s] greatest achievement — becoming the most prominent example of Asian-American representation on screen for a quarter century — is also what has relegated it to being a relic and, for many Asians, an embarrassment.” Well, argues Inkoo Kang, it’s time to get over all that.