“Italy and France are set to sign an agreement to exchange works by Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael, burying a spat triggered by Italy’s former populist government. The deal … will result in Italian museums lending works by Leonardo to the Louvre, in Paris, for an exhibition in October to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the artist’s death. In return, France will lend Italy paintings by Raphael for events marking 500 years since his death next year.” – The Guardian
Month: September 2019
NPR Is Pulling In Serious Money From Podcasts
“NPR is projecting that podcast sponsorship revenues will surpass revenues from broadcast sponsorships next year for the first time. … The network has budgeted about $55 million in corporate sponsorship revenues from podcasts in fiscal year 2020.” NPR CFO Deborah Cowan described podcasts as “[a] huge return on investment for us and a major growth engine for our business.” – Current
Can Ira Glass Convince Public Radio Non-Pledgers To Pledge $1 A Month?
The host and creator of This American Life has recorded five spots urging people to become donors to their public radio stations at about the lowest possible rate. Why? Basically, for the same reason that iTunes priced tracks at 99 cents. – Current
Finally, The Met Will Stage An Opera By A Black Composer
The chosen work is Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, with a libretto by Kasi Lemmons based on the memoir by New York Times columnist Charles Blow, premiered this past summer at Opera Theater of St. Louis. When will it arrive in New York? That hasn’t been worked out yet. – The New York Times
This Orchestra Is Not Going To Announce Its Season. It Will Tell Its Audience What’s Coming Program By Program
“We want to announce little nuggets at a time and build as much excitement as we can,” says Arkansas Philharmonic executive director Jason Miller. This is one of several new initiatives — another is “APOx Small Bites,” a, early-evening 30-40-minute chamber concert with food and drink aimed at working families — undertaken by the orchestra for its 10th season. – Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
UK Performers Union Calls For Radical Overhaul Of The Country’s Arts Infrastructure
Equity describes the policy as one that aims to “promote sustainable, optimistic and fulfilling careers” for its members and other arts workers. To achieve this, it claims a “radical overhaul of UK arts and culture is needed”. – The Stage
A Brief History Of Being Famous
There are two ways of telling the story of celebrity, and both are true. The first narrative holds celebrity to be a modern invention. There were always famous people, but they made their names through great deeds and works and with an eye to posterity. – Times Literary Supplement
Rise Of The Anti-Meritocracy
“An attack on meritocracy is invariably an attack on higher education, where meritocrats get sorted and credentialed. So the turn against meritocracy prompts big questions. Has meritocracy in fact failed?” – Chronicle of Higher Education
Should England’s Cathedrals Be The New Cultural Centers?
“We look at cathedrals returning to being the cultural hubs that they once were. Each cathedral around the country is desperately looking for a cultural agenda for their own sustainability.” He added: “It’s okay; they’re not that religious these days,” noting that cathedrals now run “everything from art exhibitions to beer festivals”. – Arts Professional
Walter Gropius, The Great Survivor/Modernist
“It was a balancing act of extraordinary deftness that only someone with strong self-discipline and steely ambition could pull off. Yet history has not dealt kindly with Gropius, especially after Tom Wolfe’s ignorant anti-Modernist diatribe From Bauhaus to Our House (1981), which mercilessly lampooned him as the chief perpetrator of a hopelessly inhumane mode of architecture and an insufferable prig to boot.” – New York Review of Books