“Last year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was in crisis. On June 28, it announced that more people visited the museum, across its three campuses … than ever before. So whether the Met is ‘a great institution in decline,’ as one former curator described it, or whether its problems are merely temporary is debatable.” Sebastian Smee talks to president and COO Daniel Weiss about the state of the Met.
Month: July 2018
Jazz Trombonist Bill Watrous Dead At 79
“Sometimes billed as ‘the world’s greatest trombonist,’ Watrous was universally admired among jazz musicians for the beauty and fluency of his playing, as well as both his speed and lyricism. Over a 55-year career he developed a long and spectacular résumé that included work with such luminaries as Kai Winding, Maynard Ferguson, Quincy Jones, Ella Fitzgerald, and Chick Corea, as well as the jazz-rock band Ten Wheel Drive and his own Wildlife Refuge Orchestra.”
Ghanaian Orchestra Gives European Classical Music An African Beat
“The Accra Symphony Orchestra is hoping to make a new generation in Ghana fall in love with classical music. The BBC went to see them in action and to hear how they’re winning over audiences with their fusion of African and Western classical art forms.” (video)
Mumbai’s Victorian And Art Deco Buildings Get UNESCO World Heritage Status
“The two vastly different architectural traditions face off against each other across the popular Oval Maidan playing field, where enthusiastic young cricketers hone their skills. On one side lie imposing and rather austere 19th century buildings housing the Bombay High Court and Mumbai University, with their spires and lancet windows. On the other side stand sleeker buildings boasting curved corners and balconies, vertical lines and exotic motifs.”
This Dance Presenter Lost Government Funding – And Found Itself Afterward
“From 2005 to 2014, Dance Manchester held a biennial festival, Urban Moves International Dance Festival, that presented professional dance performances outdoors and in unusual spaces … However, funding changes over the past six years have disrupted that vision and trajectory and … the subsequent loss of [Arts Council England] funding announced in 2017, though devastating at first, has liberated us to pursue our own path. The future may remain insecure, but it allows excitement to build as we return to our vision to develop home-grown artists and audiences through a dance for placemaking approach.”
President Macron Orders Complete Review Of France’s Artist-Residency System
“The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has asked a senior civil servant to conduct a review of artist residencies funded by the French state, which could lead to the abolition of some culture programmes. … [His] main aim is to make France more attractive ‘to great artistic talents from all over the world’, underlining that the government spends more than €7m annually on around 500 residencies in the fields of visual and performance arts.”
Highlights From Today’s AJBlogs 07/05/18
- Guest Columnist: A Break in the Performance Regular CultureCrash guest columnist Lawrence Christon has a new piece about an incident in St. Louis that brings together a number of tendencies in the arts. Of course, the situation he writes about echoes … read more
- NNOI Festival = 90% Water Living organisms are gathering near the old water mill in Groswaltersdorf, 70 kilometers north of Berlin. NNOI Festival 2018 … read more
- So you want to see a show? Here’s my list of recommended Broadway, off-Broadway, and out-of-town shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews (if sometimes qualifiedly so) in The Wall Street Journal when they opened. For more … read more
Arts Council England Releases New Audience-Insights Tool
Nicholas Serota: “This is not about limiting risk or stopping organisations from putting on work that may be difficult and may tackle questions in unfamiliar ways. Rather, we want to understand what the impact of the work is. The best and most pioneering work often polarises opinion, and a positive response to risky work could strengthen an organisation, helping the leaders to shape the artistic direction confidently.”
Our Notions Of Privacy Boundaries Are Changing, A Historical View
This gap between the imagined and actual boundaries around our private lives has been the leitmotif of modern privacy debates. Indeed, the most consistent thread in that history has been the concept’s fundamental instability in the face of social and technological change.
Does Classical Music Have An Excess Social Baggage Problem?
“If you’re looking for virtuoso virtue-signallers, then classical music is the place to start. But right-on competitions are merely the gruesome fruit of something more deeply rooted: an intellectual culture poisoned by late 20th-century identity politics and postmodern verbiage. That’s a problem in other disciplines, of course, but at least artistic and literary pseuds attract mockery. It flourishes in university music departments because no one gives a toss what happens there.”