“Chicago courtroom sketch artist Lou ‘L.D.’ Chukman has drawn some of the biggest names to ever pass through Chicago’s unfathomably large court system. He’s been working as an artist since 1975, in courtrooms and doing caricatures and commissions.”
Ralph Nader’s American Museum of Tort Law Opens Its Doors
“Quiet confusion was in the air around the entrance to the museum – ‘What the heck is a tort?’ a man whispered to his wife as they walked in. She wasn’t sure. … Tort law is essentially the law of personal injury, and the museum’s mission is to restore the idea that personal-injury law is not a way to line the pockets of a few lucky lawyers but rather a way to hold the powerful to account. (The most popular exhibit was dedicated to explaining the McDonald’s hot-coffee lawsuit.)”
Pascal’s Wager 2.0
“Pascal’s famous wager requires a choice between believing and not believing in God. But there’s more than one way not to believe.”
‘The Lady Gaga Of The 1920s’
“Eddie Redmayne is already being Oscar-tipped for his latest role in Tom Hooper’s biopic, The Danish Girl – the story of the painter Einar Wegener, who underwent the world’s first gender-reassignment operation to become Lili Elbe. But there was another woman behind Einar and Lili.”
How Do Artists Make An Impact In Communities? (Some Ideas)
“If we are looking for artists to help make change in our communities, there needs to be an infrastructure that supports them: intermediaries to make connections and develop programs, training to assure artists feel secure and safe in what may be a new environment, and the sharing of knowledge and resources for artists to learn from one another and from other-sector experts.”
Report: UK Theatre Is Less Diverse Than Other Arts Sectors
“The Creative Diversity report, penned by the Creative Industries Federation in partnership with Music of Black Origin, suggests that only 6% of those in working in the performing arts are from black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds, compared with 11% of those employed in the creative sector as a whole.”
How The Internet Is Killing The Art Of Book Collecting
As the art of pricing books rapidly dissipates, so does that of describing them evanesce.
American Military Turns To Hollywood For Propaganda Help In Waging War In Middle East
Sunnylands was in charge of pulling together the roster of talent, and invited the State Department to participate. One of the goals was to connect Middle Eastern filmmakers with influential Hollywood figures to start plotting “how to engage and empower storytellers [to] create alternative and positive narratives, and how to talk about youth empowerment,” according to the official, who works on these initiatives.
New York Philharmonic Opens New Season With Big Challenges, Many Unanswered Questions
“Somewhere in the chasm ahead lies a massive fund-raising campaign (just $375 million to go to pay for the actual renovation!), a redesigned hall, a new music director, financial stability, and an artistic vision, all of which will need to materialize at roughly the same time.”
Can Art Dissuade Young Saudis From Radical Islamism? This Artist Is Trying
“We need to invest in these young people before ISIS does,’ says Abdulnasser Gharem, a former lieutenant colonel in the Saudi Arabian army, sipping a glass of water in the Tate during a flying visit to London. ‘They have energy and have little to do in their own country – so what would you expect them to do?'”
Chicago’s Goodman Theatre Names First All-Female Playwrights Unit
“The Playwrights Unit offers Chicago playwrights a year-long residency to foster new work with the Goodman’s artistic team. The group will meet twice a month and their work will culminate in public staged readings held in summer 2016.”
When Experimental Theatre Companies Take On Shakespeare
Complicité’s Simon McBurney, Improbable’s Phelim McDermott, Kneehigh’s Emma Rice (who takes over Shakespeare’s Globe next April), and Told by an Idiot’s Paul Hunter talk about the unusual approaches they use – and which Shakespeare plays they do and don’t get encouraged to stage.
Sale Of Harmonia Mundi Record Label Finalized
The acquisition by the Brussels-based indie rock label group PIAS, effective Oct. 1, includes all of Harmonia Mundi’s subsidiary labels, catalogues, inventory and other assets in classical, jazz, and world music, but not HM’s book publishing business or retail outlets.
Cincinnati Symphony Takes On A Three-Year Experiment
The orchestra is presenting a multimedia, three-year “Pelleas and Melisande” project that will combine live music, a site-specific installation and – in the third year – the performance of a full opera.
Gustavo Dudamel: Why I Won’t Take Sides In Venezuelan Politics
Dudamel’s editorial, headlined “Why I Don’t Talk Venezuelan Politics,” is a 650-word essay in which he describes himself as “neither a politician nor an activist.” He says, “I will not publicly take a political position or align myself with one point of view or one party in Venezuela or in the United States.”
What We Can Learn From The Art In Eli Broad’s Vault
“Listen to Eli Broad, and it’s a great sin for museums to have art in storage. That’s why he built his own museum (with 1700+ works in storage). Storage is a fact of life with a contemporary collection, where tastes change quickly. Nobody buys 11 Taaffes thinking they’re all going to be on permanent display or constantly on loan. And nobody knows what art-of-our-time will resonate 50 or 100 years hence. A few of today’s artists and works will survive the winnowing of history. Everything else will be in storage.”
Juilliard To Open New School In China
The Tianjin Juilliard School is expected to open in 2018 and will offer U.S.-accredited master of music degrees in orchestral studies, chamber music and collaborative piano. The school will have its own permanent faculty; guest artists from the New York campus will also teach there.
Fall For Dance Is A Hit In New York. So Now It’s Moving North
In Ilter Ibrahimof’s mind, this year’s Fall for Dance North is only the beginning of what he thinks the festival can do. In future years, he’s hoping to commission longer pieces and to add a second stage, allowing for more intimate performances. “Toronto is a great place for Fall for Dance because of its extreme diversity, its openness. In a way, it’s almost better-suited to this festival than New York.”
Dallas Museum Of Art Director Resigns For New Job In New York
“Maxwell Anderson, director of the Dallas Museum of Art since 2012, made public Monday what he told the board of directors last week: He is resigning, effective immediately, to take an executive position with the New Cities Foundation in New York City.”
What American TV Tells Us About Our Jobs
“One might expect TV to say about work what The Office says: that what you are obliged to do all day is pointless. … Although associated with the freedom to mute, surf, and binge-watch, TV pays attention not only to what we do when we’re on the clock, it also asks philosophical questions about work and the meaning of life, urging us to demand more meaning (whatever that might be) from what we do for a living.”
Sara Mearns Of New York City Ballet On Being ‘In The Prime Of Her Career’ (She’s 29)
“A ballerina’s career is so short and it’s kind of hard for me to think that these are going to be the best years of my career and after that it’s just going to suck. You know? I don’t want to think about it like that.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 09.28.15
Sudden Departure: Max Anderson Precipitously Leaves Dallas Museum Directorship
This is not how amicable resignations usually happen: The Dallas Museum of Art today announced that its director of less than four years, Maxwell Anderson, “has stepped down as director of the DMA … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2015-09-28
A Good Show Spoiled
With the weather in New York still fine – and warmish – on Saturday, I ventured up to the New York Botanical Garden for FRIDA: Art, Garden, Life, one of the Garden’s hybrid exhibitions that combines plants and paintings … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2015-09-27
Not the fast car
How do you dance a midlife crisis? Hofesh Shechter is one of Britain’s most popular choreographers – someone who tugs non-dance fans into the theatre, drawn by the meaty savour of whomping percussion and … read more
AJBlog: Performance Monkey Published 2015-09-28
Bud Powell At 91
Here it is nearly the close of Bud Powell’s birthday and I’ve had my nose too close to the grindstone to take note of it. He would have been 91 today. If I had to … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2015-09-27
Shostakovich and S & M in the Provinces: Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk
Stalin walked out of a performance of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, saying the music was a muddle. This shows only that he … read more
AJBlog: Plain English Published 2015-09-28
Unpacking your piano
My colleagues and I taught a seminar on writing for piano last Friday. Referencing a wide range of thinking going all the way back to Cristofori, we focused mainly on innovations of High Modernism to … read more
AJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2015-09-28
Darkest Depths of the Soul?
The inconceivable advocacy of a large percentage of Americans for Donald Trump to be the Republican Presidential nominee in 2016 began to make a little more sense upon reading the New York Times critic’s ode to political correctness in his September 25th review of the Metropolitan Opera’s seasonal premiere of Puccini’s Turandot. … read more
AJBlog: OperaSleuth Published 2015-09-28
Enough seen
Mrs. T and I are in Pittsburgh to see a play. Our last visit here took place four years ago, when we flew out to catch a rare revival of Alan Ayckbourn’s House and Garden, … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2015-09-28
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Opera Turned Inside Out
” Lost in Thought is an opera, but its plot is simpler than The Marriage of Figaro. The card reads: ‘Sit. Walk. Sit. Eat. Wash up. Sit Rest. Waking up. Sit. Play. Walk. Chant. Sit. Breaking the silence.’ It is suggested we meditate in the next four hours on what it is to sit, what it is to walk, what it is to eat.”
The Collaboration Fad Is Hurting Introverts
“Just last week the University of Chicago library announced that in response to ‘increased demand,’ librarians are working with architects to transform a presumably quiet reading room into a ‘vibrant laboratory of interactive learning.’ One writer on Top Hat, a popular online resource for educators, argued in a post last month that ‘cooperative learning strategies harness the greatest part of human evolutionary behavior: sociality.'”
Banned Books Week Is No Longer Necessary
“Once upon a time, if your local library and bookstores didn’t carry a book, it would have been very difficult to procure it elsewhere. But of course we’re now living in an era of unprecedented access to reading material. If your local library declines to carry what you want to read these days, there has been no time in history where it’s easier for you to read it anyway.”