“Essentially, the report reveals good news and bad for arts-related fundraising, but even the good news feels weighed down by more work and cost. Some of the report’s big takeaways are indicative of the challenges fundraisers in all fields face working at both small and large organizations.”
Edinburgh Plans Its First Newly-Built Concert Hall In Over A Century
“The [£10 million] fundraising drive for the £45m New Town project, which will be known as The Impact Centre, has been triggered ahead of the first plans being unveiled next month. The 1,000-capacity venue, earmarked for a site behind the Royal Bank of Scotland’s historic head office on St Andrew Square, will become home to the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, but will also be available for performances of all kinds of music.”
Where Are Native American Voices In Contemporary Art?
“Native voices in the conversation are often put aside, and a lot of times the folks that get the spotlight or the final say are those that are in the higher positions within the field. So it feels like, collectively, what everyone is talking about is this idea of not being heard regularly, not being recognized regularly within larger historical narratives, within the art field in general, and then even within this conversation. So, thank you all.”
Bewildering – The Inexplicable Re-Popularity Of Vinyl Records
“Plenty of technological advancements have followed the modern LP record, which debuted in 1948: audio cassettes, compact discs, MP3 files, and now streaming services. Yet vinyl sales skyrocketed by nearly 4,000 percent between 1993 and 2016. And while CDs still vastly outpace vinyl in total units sold—99.4 million to 17.2 million in 2016—CD sales have plummeted some 91 percent since their peak in 2000. Lest you think the vinyl phenomenon is contained to this side of the Atlantic, vinyl surpassed digital music in sales in England (about $3 million to $2.7 million) at one point last year.”
Why Study Humanities? Job Pathways
“The skills you learn in the humanities are exactly the skills you use in a job search. The humanities teach students to understand the different rules and expectations that govern different genres, to examine social cues and rituals, to think about the audience for and reception of different kinds of communications. In short, they teach students how to apply for the kinds of jobs students will be looking for after college.”
Surely A War On Knowledge Must Not Be Won So Easily
“We must trust that the intelligence that has allowed humanity to stave off death, make medical and engineering breakthroughs, reach the stars, build wondrous temples, and write complex tales will save us again. We must nurse the conviction that we can use the gentle graces of science and reason to prove that the truth cannot be vanquished so easily. To those who would repudiate intelligence, we must say: you will not conquer and we will find a way to convince.”
Metropolitan Museum Protests US Withdrawal From UNESCO
“President Trump’s decision to withdraw from UNESCO undermines the historic role of the United States as a leader in this effort and weakens our position as a strong advocate for cultural preservation.”
What Happens When Governments, Or Revolutionaries, Declare War On Intelligence
Ariel Dorfman, who knows a thing or two about what happens when anti-intellectualism overwhelms a country: “The resurgence of nationalism in our time has not yet reached the homicidal extremes it did when Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco misruled their lands, but the United States still faces an assault on rational discourse, scientific knowledge, and objective truth. And this war on intelligence, too, despite the edulcorated pieties that come from those who carry it out, will lead to many deaths.”
The Opera World’s Sexual Abuse Problem
“It’s time for the opera world to also look at its own epidemic of sexual harassment and assault. As much as there is to say about what women go through, I’m starting from the gay perspective because it’s what I know.”
Kennedy Center Extends Mason Bates’ Term As Composer In Residence (He’s Reinvented The Role)
Many composer in residence posts involve a behind-the-scenes presence, helping read through submitted scores, writing new work, and emerging to do some community events. Bates, however, has become a key part of the Kennedy Center’s programming team. His KC Jukebox is one of the center’s marquee new series, spotlighting contemporary music and a wide range of performers, from Chanticleer to the Thievery Corporation, in always-unexpected combinations.
Dozens Of Prominent Writers Defend Author Accused Of Plagiarism
More than 70 authors, including Pulitzer prize winners Jennifer Egan and Louise Glück, have come to the defence of the editor and poet Jill Bialosky after she was accused of plagiarism, saying that Bialosky’s “inadvertent repetition of biographical boilerplate was not an egregious theft intentionally performed”.
Fifty Years Ago A Magazine Published A Casting Couch Expose. It Didn’t Really Change Things
If there was any fallout from Picturegoer series, it didn’t make the papers. Nobody got fired, nobody was disgraced, nobody followed up. Nearly 20 years later, on May 21, 1975—so around the time producer Sam Spiegel was allegedly trying to force himself on Theresa Russell, but a few years before Roman Polanski was arrested for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old—Variety, reporting on a new committee the Screen Actors Guild was establishing to investigate what were euphemistically called “morality complaints,” asked, “ ‘Casting Couch’: Fiction or Fact?”
At 88, André Previn Is Composing More Than Ever
Well, as he explains, his arthritis won’t let him conduct, so what’s he going to do? With Renée Fleming about to premiere his new song cycle, and with a monodrama written for her in the works, Previn talks to David Patrick Stearns on his career as he heads toward 90.
Eli Broad, The Medici Of Los Angeles, Is Retiring From His Philanthropy
“I am retiring. Now. Right now. I am just tired,” said the 84-year-old billionaire, who has done more than any other single person to shape L.A.’s current cultural scene. Even so, report Adam Nagourney and Adam Popescu, “the practical ramifications of Mr. Broad’s decision may be limited; the announcement in many ways marks the end of what has been a slow-motion fade.”
Now That Atlanta’s New Ballet Company Has Gotten Off The Ground, What Next?
Terminus Modern Ballet Theatre, launched this past spring by five dancers who left Atlanta Ballet following the arrival of a new artistic director last year, has its organizational structure and early donors lined up, its first performances this month and next, and home venues secured in downtown Atlanta and the suburbs. Where to now? “As the group coalesces,” reports Candice Thompson, “[de facto leader John] Welker expects it will remain a company of five core dancers, performing in-house choreography. But there are plans for growth.”
Venezuelan Gov’t Cancels Dudamel’s Asian Tour
Only a week before departure, Nicolás Maduro’s regime has called off the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra’s tour to Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Taipei under conductor Gustavo Dudamel. This is the second time an overseas tour by Dudamel and a Venezuelan ensemble has been cancelled since the conductor, one of the country’s biggest international celebrities, began criticizing the Maduro government’s violent crackdowns on protesters earlier this year.
London Venue Cancels Opera Production Accused Of ‘Yellowface’
Music Theatre Wales has been catching fire for its current touring production of Peter Eötvös’s opera The Golden Dragon, which uses an all-white cast in a work set in a Chinese restaurant and featuring Chinese characters. Now the London venue for the tour, the Hackney Empire, has cancelled its scheduled performance (October 31) and disavowed all connection with the production.
Vincent La Selva, Who Staged Operas In Central Park For 38 Years, Dead At 88
“[He] exuberantly weathered thunderstorms, flimsy sets, crackling audio, frayed costumes and sometimes inexpert performers so that his spare but enormously popular company, the New York Grand Opera, might live up to its lofty name.”
Scotland’s Arts Funder Says Its Income Is Down, So Cuts Are Coming
“A reduction in National Lottery money, as well as an expected standstill or reduced grant from the Scottish Government, has led to Iain Munro, deputy chief executive of Creative Scotland, to warn arts, theatre, dance, literature and music companies that some will lose out in looming spending round.”
Expanded Tate Gallery St. Ives Says It Will Add Millions To Cornwall’s Economy
“The newly refurbished Tate St Ives – which reopens this week (14 October) following an ambitious four-year building project – should draw an extra 50,000 visitors and raise an extra £10.5m annually for the local economy, says the executive director, Mark Osterfield. The waterfront venue, nestled into the rock face, has enlarged its exhibition spaces, adding almost 600 sq. m of new galleries. Tate St Ives opened in 1993 and draws around 250,000 visitors each year.”
Trump Pulls US Out Of UNESCO
“UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization known for its designation of world heritage sites, is a global development agency with missions that include promoting sex education, literacy, clean water and equality for women. In a lengthy written statement, Irina Bokova, UNESCO’s director-general, expressed regret at the American withdrawal and said that the American people shared the organization’s goals.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 10.12.17
Sovereignty or service
We often talk about an organization having a mission, as if the organization exists as some separate entity with its own individual will. But increasingly I’m wondering if that attribution hasn’t always been upside-down. … read more
AJBlog: The Artful Manager Published 2017-10-12
A Shroom With a View
“Sex” in a headline could once skew a reader’s attention, but I risk vanilla using it here. Grade-schoolers of all nations do porn homework online. That coy teen you meet at your niece’s bat mitzvah … read more
AJBlog: Out There Published 2017-10-12
Who Cares If Languages Become Extinct?
“Tales of language extinction are invariably tragic. But why, exactly? Aka-Bo, like many other extinct languages, did not make a difference to the lives of the vast majority of people. Yet the sense that we lose something valuable when languages die is familiar. Just as familiar, though, is the view that preserving minority languages is a waste of time and resources. I want to attempt to make sense of these conflicting attitudes.”
The Bilbao Effect – 20 Years Later
“For all its fame, there are many who ask if so-called the “Bilbao effect” is real, and if so, if it is easily repeatable. Was the Guggenheim Bilbao a unique combination of a project at the right time and in the right place—a great architect and daring museum combined with an unusually forward-looking regional government willing to invest? Have the reasons for its transformative effect been misunderstood, explaining why its model has been frequently imitated but its extraordinary success rarely replicated?”
How The Big Auction Houses Are Mutating To Survive
“Though the hammer’s coming down on a major price in front of a crowd is good for headlines, auction houses have dealt with the pressures of the business by branching out. Private sales are increasingly important to the bottom line, as are advisory businesses — the auction houses help a collector manage her treasures, for instance, or broker acquisitions for museums.”