“One expects change when a new artistic director takes over, as Kent did half a year ago. But in Thursday’s opening-night performance at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater, marking the start of the company’s spring season, it was clear that Kent’s touch is a subtle and sensitive one, apparent in such artistic intangibles as musicality, an apt quality of airiness and an overall attention to detail.”
Author: Douglas McLennan
Art, Politics And The Met Museum
The timing of Tuesday’s announcement felt pointed, landing, as it did, during the kickoff to a week in which no less than a dozen art fairs open in New York City, trailing the power players of the international art world in their wake. (It’s known to insiders as “Armory Week,” not for the A.D.A.A.’s event at the actual Armory but for another fair, held at the western edge of Manhattan, on Piers 92 and 94, and named after the 1913 Armory Show, which famously scandalized viewers with Marcel Duchamp’s painting “Nude Descending a Staircase.”)
We Think We Know Consciousness? (We Don’t)
“The spectacular progress of the physical sciences since the seventeenth century was made possible by the exclusion of the mental from their purview. To say that there is more to reality than physics can account for is not a piece of mysticism: it is an acknowledgment that we are nowhere near a theory of everything, and that science will have to expand to accommodate facts of a kind fundamentally different from those that physics is designed to explain.”
Theatre Research Turned Into A Play
“Conducted with coresearcher (and Collaboraction intern) Mariah Schultz, the study is a look at female representation in various theater-industry job categories at theaters nominated for Jeff Awards for the 2015-2016 season. The data, which does not include musicals, covers 52 theaters and 250 plays. The results are sobering but not surprising.”
Report: Five Things You Should Know About Classical Music Audiences
The Audience Agency’s new report on national classical music audiences is based on an analysis of data from Audience Finder, the national cultural audience insight programme, covering classical music events from 2014 to 2016.
Really? SxSW Threatens Visiting Artists With Deportation If They “Misbehave”
“If SXSW determines, in its sole discretion, that Artist or its representatives have acted in ways that adversely affect the viability of Artist’s official SXSW showcase,” the contract states, then one of several actions can occur, including “SXSW [notifying] the appropriate U.S. immigration authorities of the above actions.”
John Zorn Moves The Stone Inside The New School
“Showcasing a broad array of styles, from avant-jazz to contemporary classical, the Stone has operated as a nonprofit and is largely run by volunteers. Its vibe is informal but focused and a bit austere: No food or drink is served, and there is hardly room inside for socializing before or after performances. Artists, who have generally appeared in weeklong residencies, have been given wide programming latitude and receive all of the ticket revenue from their shows.”
Our Historical Narratives Have Been Framed By Nation States. But In The Era Of Globalism?
“Until very recently, the practice of modern history centred on, and was dominated by, the nation state. Most history was the history of the nation. If you wander through the history and biography aisles of either brick-and-mortar or virtual bookstores, the characters and heroes of patriotism dominate. In the United States, authors such as Walter Isaacson, David McCullough and Doris Kearns Goodwin have helped to give millions of readers their understanding of the past and the present. Inevitably, they wrote page-turning profiles of heroic nation-builders. Every nation cherishes its national history, and every country has a cadre of flame-keepers. Then, along came globalisation and the shake-up of old, bordered imaginations.”
The Library As Community-Maker
“A healthy library, like a healthy habitat, is diverse and dynamic. Like species in a rainforest or fishes on a reef, the books on the shelves shift and change, with time and season, so that every week there is something new to discover. A healthy library invites the eye and mind to wander round. This book habitat does not happen on its own – it is created by librarians.”
Even Architecture Prizes Are Political These Days
It’s not the job of the Pritzker Prize jury to make identity politics out of the award. But right now, it’s hard not to.