Georg Friedrich Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia — the current head of the Hohenzollern family, which ruled in Berlin for two centuries, until Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated at the end of World War I — “says that his family has, since the collapse of the Soviet bloc, insisted on getting back what it had been granted in the immediate post-WWI agreement. At stake are the right to reside at Cecilienhof [palace in Berlin] and many other properties, as well as the restitution of thousands of paintings, sculptures, furniture, books and coins.” (The German public is not amused.) – Yahoo! (AFP)
Month: September 2019
When Joshua Met Michael
Joshua Robison and Michael Tilson Thomas met in their junior high orchestra in North Hollywood when they were 11 and 12 years old (Robison is a year and a half younger). “I played cello, and across the room playing the oboe was this Jewish, nerdy looking guy,” says Robison of his first memory of Thomas. “I really remember him because at recess I’d hang around and he’d play piano. I never heard piano playing like that.” – San Francisco Chronicle
New York’s Last Single-Screen Cinema, The Elegant Old Paris Theater, Has Closed. Does It Matter?
As noted cinéaste John Waters put it, “Oh no! Where will old art movie fans go to see rarefied foreign films in the safety of a rich neighborhood?” And Film at Lincoln Center program director Dennis Lim said, “All these people lamenting the loss of the Paris, I would be curious about the last time they set foot there.” – The New York Times
Christian Marclay Turns Snapchat Into Sound Into (Fleeting) Images
“What’s surprising is the similarity and the banality,” he says. “And the fact that people around the world do the same things with their phone. … It’s a new form of language — a very visual language.” – Los Angeles Times
Staff At Science Museums Across England Declare One-Day Strike Over Low Pay
“The action comes after [Science Museum Group’s] directors refused to increase a below-inflation 1.5% pay rise offered to more than 75% of staff this year. … Prospect, the union representing striking Science Museum Group staff, said a series a of below-inflation pay rises had left workers with a 13% real-terms pay cut since 2010” and that SMG had a profit of more than £4 million last year. – The Guardian
Is A Market Correction Coming To Humanities Studies?
“There is a certain truth to this recent narrative of humanistic decline as it plays out in liberal arts schools, but it is not that of obsolescence or expense. Nor is it reducible to the liberal arts school itself, even as such schools often stand in for the fate of humanities in recent academic debates. Rather, this moment reveals shifts in the coalition among the humanities, government budgets, and institutional finance as each has assumed new dimensions since the 1970s.” – Los Angeles Review of Books
Actors In UK’s Publicly Subsidised Theatres To Get Pay Raise Of 2% Over Three Years
“[After] negotiations described by union Equity as the toughest in recent times, … performers’ weekly minimum pay will increase from £450 currently to £459.05 over three years – leaving actors concerned that, after tax and agent fees, they will not be earning much more than the minimum wage, currently £8.21 an hour.” – The Stage
National Museum Of Brazil, Destroyed By Fire Last Year, Sets Date For Partial Reopening (And There’s Good News About The Collection)
“Our intention is to inaugurate a part of the reconstructed palace in 2022 with expositions that let us celebrate the bicentennial of Brazil’s independence,” said an official. And while early reports last year said that 90% of the museum’s collection had been lost in the fire, that figure turns out to be only 46%. – Artnet
$8 Billion Was Spent On New Cultural Venues Worldwide In 2018: Report
That figure, high as it seems, is down from $9.9 billion in 2017, the year that saw the completion of the Louvre Abu Dhabi. There were 148 such buildings — museums, performing arts centers, and other cultural hubs — completed in 2018, with the largest number of projects in North America but the three most expensive all in China. – Hyperallergic
Chattanooga Symphony Sued By Its Concertmaster For Breach Of Contract
Holly Mulcahy, who has been the orchestra’s concertmaster since the fall of 2013 (and who takes up a second concertmaster position at the Wichita Symphony this month), is seeking damages “for breach of contract, misrepresentation, tortious interference with business relationship and intentional reckless acts related to the same … related to Plaintiff’s confirmed solo performance contract on October 6, 2019.” (The orchestra’s printed season brochure had listed the program for that date as music of Haydn and Philip Glass’s Violin Concerto No. 2, with Mulcahy as soloist; the orchestra’s website now lists it as an all-Haydn program.) – WTVC NewsChannel 9 (Chattanooga, Tenn.)