“The outrage [at Kapoor] was based on a slew of misconceptions: one, that Kapoor had exclusive rights to the material, period – he doesn’t, only to one version of it and only in the field of art – two, that it’s a pigment – it isn’t – and three, that the material was ready to be used, which Kapoor himself has raised doubts about.” And now it’s not even the blackest black anymore.
Six Tips For Arts Crowdfunding
It’s getting to be an ever more important method for raising money, and nonprofit funding consultants Peter Baeck and Sam Mitchell offer half a dozen points for development folks to keep in mind as they plan a campaign.
‘They Fold Their Bodies Like Origami’ – Flexing, Brooklyn’s Latest Form Of Street Dance
“Reggie Gray stood in the wings at BRIC House ballroom in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, one recent Sunday evening and watched, along with a full audience, as waves of dancers took the stage to do battle. Their moves were at turns staggering contortions and graceful glides, sweeping artistry and fleeting chronicles of everyday life.”
Is Benjamin Millepied About To Dance Onstage For The Last Time?
The L.A. Times buries the lede in a story about a collaboration between Millepied’s L.A. Dance Project and Rufus Wainwright: “Both men, too, are at a crossroads between their present and past. Millepied said this performance will likely be his last time dancing.”
Emma Rice Says Gender Parity In Theatre Shouldn’t Be Hard At All (Of Course, She Said That Before The Globe Let Her Go Early)
The British director says the most American of slogans: “Just do it! You don’t need to agonize about how or why. … It doesn’t need to be a big deal. I think it was Geena Davis who said, ‘How do you get more women in films? Cross out the cast list and make half the names women.'”
Congress Makes A Law Banning Online Ticket Bots – Will It Help?
But let’s get serious here: The secondary market for tickets is worth something like $8 billion, so what do the scalpers care about a little bill banning their bots?
Claim: Small Presses Are Doing The Heavy Lifting In the Publishing Business
“Are big publishers unwilling to take risks any more? Increasingly, ‘risky’ authors, those who’ve been rejected over and over again by traditional publishers or dozens of agents, are being picked up by small presses whose modus operandi is to take risks on literature that is exciting, innovative, or that they deem important either stylistically or politically. Then the big publishers swoop in and profit from the hard work and risk-taking of the small presses.”
Why It Took Scorsese Three Decades To Make ‘Silence’
In a story that begins with the director’s near-death from drugs and asthma in 1978, Stephen Galloway follows the project through legal troubles (complicated), money troubles (recurring), and weather troubles (terrifying) – with the happy ending of a screening for Pope Francis and 200 teary-eyed Jesuits.
Eight Misconceptions About Raising Money For The Arts In The UK
In the UK there’s a perception that US-style fundraising won’t work there. But as government and corporate funding for the arts gets scarcer, trying to get private philanthropists to give more is getting energy. Here are eight myths about fundraising in the UK.
How Your Brain Deciphers A Pun
The interaction between the right and left hemispheres “enables us to ‘get’ the joke because puns, as a form of word play, complete humor’s basic formula: expectation plus incongruity equals laughter.”
Big Data Companies Are Trying To Bring Investor Confidence To The Market
Each company has different aims, but one thing is clear: data will play a key role in how they—and the art market—move forward.
Why Are So Many Scientists So Resistant To The Idea Of Animals’ Consciousness And Emotions?
Zoologist Antone Martinho: “Were I not an animal behaviour researcher, I would hardly notice; but because I am, I constantly ask myself: why do I treat my pets like thinking, conscious companions, and the ducklings in my lab like feathered robots? The reluctance of my field to engage seriously with animal consciousness is, I believe, holding back our efforts to truly understand their behaviour.”
Faculty At Notre Dame Demand Inclusion On Conservatives’ Professor Watchlist
Last month the conservative youth group Turning Point USA launched this website to identify academics who (in the opinion of Turning Pointers) “advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.” (Last week George Yancy wrote an Op-Ed for the New York Times about finding his name on it.) Now, saying “this is the sort of company we wish to keep,” more than 100 professors at Notre Dame have signed an open letter asking to be included.
Dmitri Hvorostovsky Cancels All Future Opera Performances
While he says he can still do concert performances, that brain tumor continues to wreak its damage.
Lauders Give Portland (Maine) Museum Of Art Largest Matching Gift In Its History
Cosmetic mogul Leonard and his wife, Judy, are giving the museum $5 million (contingent on the raising of a matching amount) toward its $15 million endowment drive.
Dominic Dromgoole Launches A New Classical Theatre Company
“Former Shakespeare’s Globe artistic director Dominic Dromgoole has teamed up with producer Nica Burns to launch a theatre company focused on classic playwrights. Called Classic Spring, it will celebrate the work of proscenium playwrights, including Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw, staging their plays in the theatres they wrote for.”
Composer Elliott Schwarz, 80
A mid-century modernist who loved puzzles and puns, Schwartz wrote one piece called By George that spliced together snippets by Georges Gershwin and Handel and another called Elevator Music that had the audience riding in the titular conveyance while musicians played portions of the score on various floors.
Anonymous Donor Saved The Season At Fort Worth Symphony
“[The $700,000 gift] allowed the two sides to agree on a new four-year contract, which was ratified by the musicians on Wednesday, without the cuts that management had sought.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 12.08.16
Past Hits and a New Dance from Abroad
The Alvin Ailey America Dance Theater at New York City Center, November 30-December 31. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2016-12-08
Study Puts Some Numbers On How Silo-ized Theatre-Goers Are
We like to talk about an “arts community” as if it’s really a thing, but in fact, art is a very personal experience, and people tend to be fans of who they like rather than the art form generally. They go to specific artists or plays or museums. New music fans aren’t necessarily interested in baroque music or opera or Mozart. The audience that shows up for the ballet is completely different from the one that goes to fringe theatre.
A study by TRG Arts of Washington DC theatre puts some numbers to the silo-ization of the city’s theatre audience. Though the number of people going to theatre generally in DC is up significantly over a decade…
The results pointed to a 13 percent increase in theatergoing households and a 25 percent increase in households buying single tickets. It even showed that D.C. theater outpaces the national rate of getting audiences to buy subscriptions — the companies realized a 20 percent increase during the decade in question.
… about 85 percent of the theatre audience goes only to a single theatre. In other words, they’re loyal to the place or company they like rather than the art form writ general. Each of the seven theatres TRG tracked has a specific profile:
Even beyond the core seven troupes that TRG studied, Washington theaters make it their business to be different — in style, in size and in price. Finding the portals to smoothly propel audiences from one stage to another is the ongoing challenge.
So when we talk about “the arts community” what is it we actually mean?
Is The Immediacy Of Music At Odds With Its Enduring Qualities?
“Is music meant to be ephemeral or enduring? And indeed, are those two goals consonant with one another, or at odds? For those who take as their mentors, our sources of inspiration, and our measures of quality long-dead Germans like Bach, Brahms, and Beethoven, perhaps the ultimate goal would be to write, like they did, something of value that transcends our era. But can one write a piece with the goal that it become ‘an important part of the repertoire’?”
A Fuller Picture Of The Toronto Symphony’s Money Problems
“In the two years of Jeff Melanson’s tenure, total expenses at the orchestra increased by almost a third, administration costs by 80 per cent. In previous years, the TSO’s expenses had either stayed flat or declined. The TSO did not see an accompanying increase in revenues in the last fiscal year. Ticket sales declined slightly in fiscal 2015-16, as did government support. Thus the organization’s surplus was created, in the first instance, by having the Toronto Symphony Foundation, the organization’s long-term funding support, make a contribution to the orchestra of almost $5-million in fiscal 2015-16, more than double its usual contribution.”
After Ten Years Toronto’s Luminato Festival Starts To Evolve To A New Business Model
“Under the new business model, Luminato would start planning events three years in advance so that it could work with other festivals as partners in commissioning shows and work out the best possible deals with venues and artists. Meanwhile the festival would rely less on government funding.”
You’ll Recognize Pantone’s 2017 Color Of The Year From Your Old Crayola Crayon Box
Remember “spring green”? That’s not what Pantone’s calling it, of course, but even so …
David Hallberg’s Recovery Down Under Hasn’t Been Easy
“I came to Australia with a shaved head and a swollen foot. … It’s been extreme hard work, extreme dedication, and also extreme loneliness. This isn’t my home. But it feels so comfortable and I’ve been made to feel so welcome.”