“We don’t have to remain in our Brady Bunch squares. It was great to walk by and see the dancers sweating and breathing. We still do that. We are all choreographers now. People are starting to think more spatially.” – Dance Magazine
The 2,300-Year-Old Character Sketches That Have Influenced Western Literature Ever Since
“The ‘Theophrastan character’ is not often mentioned today, perhaps because it is so little known as a genre. Yet for centuries this was what ‘character’ meant in literature. A list of familiar social types compiled in the fourth century B.C. that chronicled human traits and foibles — from bore to boaster, cynic to coward — influenced the development of later fiction and drama, and remains sharply pertinent in psychology, journalism, cartoon art, and popular culture.” – The Paris Review
The Revisionist Andy Warhol
Over the last half-century, Warhol has been merchandised into the trite, plastic banality he supposedly critiqued, but as Blake Gopnik reminds us, the artist is much harsher, and more cynical, than we sometimes credit. – The New Republic
Can British Theatre Survive Coronavirus In Any Recognizable Form?
A huge number of Britain’s theatres are in serious trouble:”Julian Bird, chief executive of UK Theatre and the Society of London Theatre, said 70 percent of theatres and production companies risked going bust before the end of the year” – Yahoo News (AFP)
Scientists Plan Concert Experiment To Test COVID Spread
German scientists are planning to equip 4,000 pop music fans with tracking gadgets and bottles of fluorescent disinfectant to get a clearer picture of how Covid-19 could be prevented from spreading at large indoor concerts. – The Guardian
UK Arts Bailout For Arts Institutions. But What About Artists?
After months of monotone condolences and a vague “five-step roadmap” from culture secretary Oliver Dowden, the British government Beyoncéd the arts community on 5 July by announcing a surprise £1.57bn emergency support package. Dowden said he would begin by bailing out the “crown jewels of our national life – you know, the Royal Albert Halls and so on”. It should come as no surprise that this government is prioritising bedazzled institutions. The “crown jewels” of theatre, however, are not the brick-and-mortar, however fine, of London landmarks, but the creative workforce that set the stage alight – 70% of whom are freelancers. – The Guardian
How I Got Audiences To Pay More For Streamed Performances Than I Would Have Asked Them To
Kahlil Ashanti began his performing career as part of an elite U.S. Air Force unit that did shows for servicepeople at military bases and in battle zones all over the globe. One thing he heard over and over from audience members, both soldiers and civilians (in his post-Air Force life), was “I would have gladly paid more for that.” Here’s how he got them to actually do it. – Arts Professional
Spread-Out And Sanitized: The Future Of Dance In The Age Of COVID
“In conversations about the future with 14 dance professionals, feelings of anguish, hope, fear and resolve emerged, along with ideas about adaptation and innovation. … Here are some glimpses of what might lie ahead.” – San Francisco Chronicle
Trump Books Have Changed The Publishing Industry
There was a time, not that long ago, when—like most of America—publishers thought that this Trump boom would end when the president left office. It increasingly seems like it could outlast Trump’s own political career. – The New Republic
Every Artwork At The Whitney Is Being Covered With Plywood
Online, that is. “Every day at sunset, Artist — an anonymous conceptualist who legally changed their name to question the biases built into the phrase ‘American Artist’ — will replace every image of an artwork on the Whitney Museum’s website with a picture of plywood, effectively boarding up the pages. The site’s unassuming white background will be turned black, obscuring all text in the process. Titled Looted, the work calls into question what is being stolen and through what means.” – Artnet
Marciano Foundation Settles With Laid-off Union-Organizing Workers
The workers — public-facing staffers who watched over galleries and answered questions about art — had announced plans to unionize with AFSCME in early November over concerns related to wages and working conditions. Days later, they were all laid off via email. The Marciano also announced it would shut down its galleries due to low attendance. A month later, the museum made the closure permanent. – Los Angeles Times
What NBC’s ‘World Of Dance’ Gets Right
Sarah Kaufman: “The throughline of WOD is: Show us something we’ve never seen before. As a dance critic, I want to see that, too, whenever I’m in the theater. What new revelation jumps out in a premiere, or in a reinterpretation of a classic work? What fresh response is there to the music, the setting, the story? Part of ‘new’ involves sheer novelty, but part of it is also framing — how the choreographer and the dancer set up a moment for the best impact.” – The Washington Post
Stop Calling This Composer And Polymath ‘The Black Mozart’
His name is Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. “Presumably intended as a compliment, this erasure of Boulogne’s name not only subjugates him to an arbitrary white standard, but also diminishes his truly unique place in Western classical music history.” – The New York Times
The Brain Science Of Being In Love
“We put over 100 people who were madly in love into a brain scanner using fMRI. We noticed those who had fallen in love in the first eight months had a lot of activity in brain regions linked with intense feelings of romantic love. Those who had been madly in love for a longer period of time—from eight to 17 months—showed additional activity in a brain region linked with feelings of deep attachment. That vividly showed us the brain can easily fall happily and madly in love rapidly, but feelings of deep attachment take time.” – Nautilus
Which Roles Can The Arts Fill Beyond COVID?
“While we never mind insisting that art can change the world, we get fuzzy when pressed on the details of how. In pursuing “usefulness,” the past decades have witnessed an increasing instrumentalization of art, one which, in most instances, falls short of our transformative aspirations. Perhaps, in an age of “utility” and “impacts,” the more radical vision is not the instrumentalization of art, but the aestheticization of the world.” – The Philanthropist
Quebec Government To Investigate Firing Of Museum Director
Her departure has unleashed a tempest in the art circles of Canada, where the Montreal museum is viewed as something of a national treasure; the debate over why Nathalie Bondil was let go has led to such confusion and rancor that the government has stepped in to investigate. – The New York Times
Kick The Cars Off 7th Avenue And Turn It Into An Outdoor Arts Center, Says Carnegie Hall Chief
Clive Gillinson: “What would it mean to close Seventh Avenue from 47th to 57th streets to vehicular traffic, creating a pedestrian mall for the arts, anchored by Carnegie Hall to the north and the TKTS Broadway ticket booth to the South. This space could be lined with restaurants, sidewalk cafes, jazz clubs, art galleries and the like, serving as a central area for people to gather — not only those headed to performances in the theater district and concert venues such as Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall and Jazz at Lincoln Center, but city visitors staying in the many hotels close by.” – Gothamist
‘Serial’ Bought By New York Times, Which Signs Partnership Deal With ‘This American Life’
“As part of the Times, Serial Productions will independently commission and edit its own stories, which ‘will now be amplified by the Times,’ the company said.” (The price was reportedly $25 million.) “In addition, the Times said it had entered into an ‘ongoing creative and strategic alliance’ … that will let This American Life continue to collaborate on long-form audio stories with Serial Productions as well as partner with the Times on marketing and ad sales.” – Variety
Twelve Ways The Pandemic Will (Okay, Might) Change The Classical Music Business
“1. The old song ‘Rip it up and start again’ applies to sardine-seating business models not only for airlines but also theatres. …
5. International touring productions will be reimagined via boots-on-the-ground co-productions with locally sourced talent.
6. Audience sizes will be between 50-70% smaller, and multi-day performance runs will become the norm.” – Ludwig Van
A Third Of U.S. Museum Directors Fear That COVID Could Shut Down Their Institutions For Good
“In a survey released Wednesday of 760 museum directors, 33% of them said there was either a ‘significant risk’ of closing permanently by next fall or that they didn’t know if their institutions would survive. … The institutions surveyed ranged from aquariums to botanical gardens to science centers. More than 40% of them were history museums, historic houses and historical societies, while art museums represented less than 25%.” – NPR
There Are Plenty Of Black Plays Ready For Broadway When It Reopens. Will Broadway Take Them?
“Interviews with artists and producers suggest that there are more than a dozen plays and musicals with Black writers circling Broadway — meaning, in most cases, that the shows have been written, have had promising productions elsewhere, and have support from commercial producers or nonprofit presenters. But bringing these shows to Broadway would mean making room for producers and artists who often have less experience in commercial theater than the powerful industry regulars who most often get theaters.” – The New York Times
Notre-Dame Reconstruction: Where Things Stand Now
Now that the matter of a contemporary spire or roof for the medieval landmark has been settled, here’s an update on removing the (partially melted) scaffolding around the outside of the cathedral (a delicate and difficult process), clearing out the debris inside, restoring the vaults and gables and rebuilding the roof. – The Art Newspaper
SFMoMA’s Self-Examination After Resignation of Curator
Garry Garrels is perhaps the most prominent figure to tumble so far as art museums around the country, including the Guggenheim Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art grapple with cultural tumult amid nationwide unrest after the death of George Floyd. In addition to Mr. Garrels’s 19 years at SFMOMA, he had also been a curator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. – The New York Times
Adventures In Choral Singing From A Safe Distance
Over the last few months, over 270,000 choirs nationwide have been trying to figure out how to move forward. While making a high quality musical product is the common call for any music ensemble, the pandemic has made it clear that it is just as much the MEANS rather as it is the ENDS that is the raison d’être for many choirs that makes the choral experience so widely popular. The question becomes not only, ‘how do we make a quality musical product?’ But, ‘how can we continue to have meaningful musical and social experiences?’. For music educators, there are existential questions about what the intended learning outcomes are for the choral classroom and if they can be achieved without singing in the same room at all. – NewMusicBox
Gunman Frees Hostages After Ukraine’s President Endorses ‘Earthlings’
A 44-year-old “animal rights activist” named Maksim Krivosh, who recently finished a prison term for fraud and weapons charges, ended a 12-hour standoff and released 13 hostages in the city of Lutsk after President Volodymyr Zelensky publicly endorsed a documentary about industry’s use and abuse of animals titled Earthlings and narrated by Joaquin Phoenix. – BBC
RIP Annie Ross: Her last stand with Jon Hendricks
I reported on her last stand with fellow vocalese icon Jon Hendricks, at the Blue Note in Manhattan for the newspaper City Arts. – Howard Mandel