“The main points of the contract are financial. There will be pay increases averaging 2.8 percent annually, for an increase in the minimum scale from $86,053 in fiscal 2017 to $98,304 in fiscal 2022, and a half-percent increase in the pension contribution rate starting in the contract’s third year. Work rules will also be adjusted, permitting more flexibility in scheduling and in how the orchestra is used, more efficiency in rehearsals, adding personal days for the first time, and increasing flexibility in touring rules.”
Author: Douglas McLennan
Today’s AJBlog Highlights 01.27.17
eighth blackbird
AJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2017-01-27
My new play
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2017-01-27
How Would You Sell An Artwork That’s Built Into The Ground?
“The original earthworks were never meant to be sold like paintings or statues. That was partly in keeping with the hippie, yippie tenor of the times. They have never come up for auction, although one sculpture fetched as high as $4 million in 2008. How would you even sell an earthwork?”
Critical Consensus: Here’s The Best Movie At This Year’s Sundance Festival
“It’s easy to caricature the festival — earnest docs, white-people-problem ensemble dramedies and the like — yet Sundance often proves itself capable not just of launching interesting careers, but also of nudging the needle forward when it comes to onscreen diversity and representation.”
LA’s Hammer Museum To Build A Major Expansion
“This transformation will provide 60 percent more exhibition space including collection galleries and a works on paper gallery to highlight our growing collection of photographs and drawings,” Ann Philbin, the Hammer’s director, said in a statement.
Why Isn’t The White House Petition To Save The NEA Collecting Signatures?
“The petition, entitled ‘Preserve the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities’ has received hundreds of tweets from proud signees but the official count (at the time of writing) reads: ’27 signed’.”
NY Times Pares Back Its Bestseller Lists And Comics People Aren’t Happy
“The Times abruptly announced that it’s gutting its best-seller lists, doing away with a host of existing lists in both the print and online editions of the paper as of February 5. Among the casualties are the Graphic Hardcover, Graphic Paperback, and Manga categories. The comics world is, understandably, quite unhappy with the development.”
This Year’s Oscar Nominations Owe Much To The Theatre
“The sheer reach of film when compared with theatre is certainly the reason why when the two appear to together in a story, it is Hollywood that secures the dominant position over Broadway or the West End. But on Oscar night, when big-budget glamour is all the rage (even for intimate and independently made films), theatre can hold its head high knowing that Academy Award glory owes a debt to the stage, directly or indirectly, even if we have to remind people that this the case.”
How Darwin’s Book Changed The World
“If evolution (a word Darwin used sparingly in the book) occurs randomly, without the intervention of divine will and protection—natural selection, after all—then change itself can occur not just for the better, but for the worse. The world, so wonderfully capable of evolution, is just as capable of the opposite. It was a troubling idea; it was also, potentially, a liberating one.”
Ghoulish Art On The Side Of A Brussels Building Has Residents Asking How Far Is Too Far
“The two murals that appeared last weekend have made their anonymous artist the talk of the European capital, posing a familiar question about art expressly created to provoke: how far can it go before the outrage becomes unacceptable?”