“We must recognise the value of the esoteric knowledge, technical vocabulary and expert histories that academics produce.”
Portrait Of The Great Impressario
““This business I’m in is very deceptive, in part because people don’t realize what it takes to do this. The body of knowledge that’s involved. Just as I have no idea what it takes to be an astronaut; I’m certainly not applying. But people have no qualms about applying to run a theater, and sometimes these are people who have never been to the theater.”
South Korea’s Art Community Demands Wholesale Reform Following Controversial Museum Appointment
“The appointment of a new director to South Korea’s National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) last week has extenuated the concerns of the country’s art community over issues of government and institutional censorship, with hundreds of arts professionals signing a statement pressuring the museum to publicly declare internal policy reforms.”
Pitched Battles On The Board Of Irvine, California Arts Center
“For the Irvine Barclay Theatre, 2015 was supposed to have been a year of celebration – a 25th anniversary season spotlighting the company’s reputation as one of Orange County’s premier presenters of dance, music and theater. Instead, at least four prominent donors have said they are withdrawing financial support following a clash between board chairman Robert Farnsworth and former president Douglas Rankin.”
We Pretty Much All Engage In Doublethink – It Makes Reality Manageable
“The economist who still insists that people really are economically rational agents displays a familiar contemporary version of that blindness. But since we all have to get along in a world that doesn’t work quite as our idealised misdescriptions say it ought to, we will somehow manage both to see things and not to see them.”
We Need New Operas On Demand, On Our Screens, Now
“It could create new audiences for live opera, give long-term life to contemporary works, and enable young and emerging composers, librettists, and performers to become more aware of the state of the art.”
What’s Up With All Of The Arthur Miller Revivals?
“This is Miller’s legacy, finally: the hope that, against all odds, human beings will somehow still strive for that perfectibility in our troubled world. ‘It’s not enough to feel guilty and to weep,’ said Wilson. ‘Miller is saying we must step forward and do whatever is in our power to do.'”
The Shakespeare Flood That Crests In 2016
“The Bard will be everywhere. Theater companies, orchestras, cinemas and opera houses are presenting his works—and works inspired by him—in venues ranging from London and Duluth, Minn., to Tehran and South Sudan. A New Orleans jazz funeral will mark his death. The hashtag #Shakespeare400 will beckon Shakespeare-lovers on Twitter. And a publishing frenzy has already begun.”
Billy Elliot Musical To Close London Run After 11 Years
The musical has been seen by more than 5.25 million people in London and nearly 11 million people around the globe in worldwide productions.
Happy Birthday Is Finally Free
“Terms of the deal were not disclosed in court papers announcing the settlement, but it puts an end to the class-action lawsuit filed in 2013 by a group of artists and filmmakers who had sought a return of the millions of dollars in fees the company had collected over the years for use of the song.”
Cincinnati International Piano Competition Canceled For 2016
The piano competition is undergoing a “a top to bottom evaluation” of its operations and is temporarily putting on hold all activities, even outreach programs such as “Hammers, Strings & Keys.” The reason, is to “have time to seriously consider the most appropriate sustainable artistic and economic model going forward.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 12.10.15
Place, process and making your own reservation
When we asked Chief Executive Program: Community and Culture leaders what they saw as the most pressing issues in their field, many told us that they’d like to address the siloization of arts in communities … read more
AJBlog: Field Notes Published 2015-12-10
Beyond Financials
How might we, as leaders in the cultural sector, be critical, formative drivers of building the vision for a new economy? … read more
AJBlog: Field Notes Published 2015-12-10
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Mattiwilda Dobbs, 90, Pathbreaking African-American Opera Star
“Like many African American opera singers … she was first fully recognized for her talent not in the United States, but rather in Europe – an ocean away from the Jim Crow South where she had grown up.” In 1953, she became the first black singer in a principal role at La Scala; in 1956, she was the first African-American cast as a romantic lead – Gilda in Rigoletto, which she sang in whiteface – at the Met.
A Pop-Up Ballet On Denver Airport’s Moving Walkways
“The State Street Ballet, from Santa Barbara, California, was traveling from Spokane, Washington to Durango for their performance of The Nutcracker when they found themselves with a five-hour layover with nothing to do.” When they posted the video on Facebook, it got 1.8 million views in under an hour.”
New York’s Latest Hip Classical Venue? A Crypt In Harlem
“If Le Poisson Rouge is cool and Roulette is edgy among New York’s alternative venues, where does that put the crypt at the Church of the Intercession at 155th Street and Broadway? Slightly underground, with a performance area framed by discreet stained glass, dramatically vaulted ceiling and intimate seating capacity for 100, in the inaugural season of The Crypt Sessions.”
Here Are The Opera News Award Winners For 2016
The honorees include three singers now at the peak of their careers – Anna Netrebko, Joseph Calleja, Elīna Garanča – and two revered veterans, Waltraud Meier and José van Dam.
How Karl Ove Knausgaard Writes Like A Woman
“We, all of us, men and women, encode masculinity and femininity in implicit metaphorical schemas that divide the world in half. Science and mathematics are hard, rational, real, serious, and masculine. Literature and art are soft, emotional, unreal, frivolous, and feminine.” Siri Hustvedt, who is both a novelist and a science writer, looks at that division, the ways Knausgaard’s My Struggle crosses it, and how that affects the way he is seen as a writer.
Helvetica Man: How The Universal Symbols For Escalators, Restrooms, And Airports Were Designed
“Today, travelers rushing through an airport or pausing at a roadside rest stop barely notice the standard symbols that direct the flow of human traffic. The little rounded man indicating the restroom and his female partner with her triangular dress are too familiar to think twice about. The same goes for the ubiquitous No Smoking logo and the knife and fork symbol that point towards dinner.” Their origin goes back to the U.S. Bicentennial celebrations in 1976.
How Are England’s Theatres Doing After Years Of Funding Cuts? Here’s A Dig Into The Data (And An Amazing Surprise)
Comparing Arts Council England data from the seasons 2009-10 and 2014-15, the drop in government funding, especially from local authorities, has been even worse than you think – and the way theatres have coped is even better than you think.
Peter Sellars To Direct 2016 Ojai Festival
Kaija Saariaho will be the featured composer: Sellars will stage Only the Sound Remains, her setting of Ezra Pound’s adaptation of two Noh plays, and the chamber version of La Passion de Simone. Also planned are works by Caroline Shaw and Tania León, Tyshawn Sorey’s new Josephine Baker: A Personal Portrait, performances by Egyptian and South Indian classical vocalists, and – for the first time at Ojai – free concerts for families.
Rijksmuseum Removing Racially Charged Terms From Artworks’ Titles And Descriptions
“Words that Europeans once routinely used to describe other cultures or peoples, like ‘negro,’ ‘Indian’ or ‘dwarf’ will be replaced with less racially charged terminology.” Says the Amsterdam museum’s director of history, “We Dutch are called kaas kops, or cheeseheads, sometimes, and we wouldn’t like it if we went to a museum in another country and saw descriptions of images of us as kaas kop woman with kaas kop child’.”
Beware Of Sticklers Who (Noisily) Follow All The Rules
“A new Harvard Business School study on ‘toxic workers’ finds that the people who say they love following the rules are also the ones who are most likely to be fired for breaking them.” (Maybe this is why nobody trusts people who end their texts with periods.)
Architect Chosen To Redesign NY Philharmonic’s Lincoln Center Home
“Thomas Heatherwick, 45, is a British designer of sculpture, furniture and architecture who is best known for fanciful, often experimental projects including the British pavilion for Shanghai’s 2010 World Expo; a flaming caldron for the 2012 Olympic Games; and the new hybrid double-decker bus for London. But he has limited experience in major public buildings.”
Decline In UK Public Libraries Last Year Corresponds With Funding Cuts
“Wales saw the biggest loss in the last year, with a fall from 308 to 274. In England, the number of libraries fell from 3,142 to 3,076, while Scotland saw a drop from 573 to 567. The closures coincide with government funding cuts of £50m to UK library services in the past year.”
The Big Golden Globes Story? Streaming
Overall, Netflix dominated the TV network list with eight nominations, surpassing HBO and Starz, thanks to series “Narcos” and “Orange is the New Black.” That’s a significant elevation in rank from last year, when Netflix came in fourth with seven nominations.