“Lucas’ personal collection of fine and popular art, including ephemera related to his “Star Wars” franchise, will fill a futuristic-looking new museum planned for L.A.’s Exposition Park, which beat out a competing design for Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay. The rivalry had pitted the two cities in the competition not only for Lucas’ collection and the tourism it will bring, but also for the thousands of jobs that backers said the project will create.”
Author: Douglas McLennan
A Story Of Opera And Passion And Personality And The Drive To Create An “Empire”
Producing art is a personal thing. Producing inspired art is a very personal thing. So meet Beth Morrison, who has a passion for contemporary opera and is doing something about it. As in producing it.
Morrison is not your typical moneyed patron. “I didn’t come from money and I didn’t have money and I wanted to live in New York!” she says. She runs her empire from a two-bedroom walk-up apartment in Flatbush, Brooklyn.
One bedroom in the apartment is for sleeping. The other is a workspace for her eight employees. “I’ve always run the business from my home, maybe much to the chagrin of my board,” she says. “For me, the decision is always really clear: I could spend $30 to $40,000 on an office space every year, or I could put that into a commission.”
She’s got the essential impresario gene:
Morrison says she follows her guts and her ears in her work. “I won’t do anything unless I’m mad crazy about the music and the composer and really feeling like they’re contributing something to the field that is different,” she says.
In a way, she’s the antithesis of institutional art. She works on a shoestring, makes things happen in makeshift ways, and relies on her gut for essential artistic judgments. There’s something authentic about her productions in a way that institutional art sometimes lacks.
As an aside – I love the NPR headline about the Morrison profile: “Meet The Producer Who Runs Her Opera Empire From A 2-Bedroom Apartment.” Empire? Seriously? It’s lovely to think that there could actually be something like an opera empire in this day and age.
Norway Becomes First Country To Switch Off FM Radio
Many countries have toyed with the idea of parting company with FM, but a combination of ageing equipment and geography mean Norway is particularly keen to replace its analogue FM system with digital audio broadcasting (DAB).
UK Culture Secretary Says Creative Industries Will Be At The “Heart” Of UK Business Policy
“The creative industries are and will be at the heart of this government’s work on industrial strategy. It’s one of the major growth areas in the country and I want to assure you that I, Greg, the prime minister and others understand just how important our industries are to the UK economy.” She emphasised the 1.9 million jobs in the creative sectors and the £87.4 billion the industries generate.
Book Sales Rose In 2016, Led By A Familiar Character
“Led by Harry Potter’s newest incarnation in a West End play, Rowling’s first screenplay and titles by diet and fitness guru Joe Wicks, annual book sales in the UK rose to just over £1.59bn in 2016, from £1.51bn in the previous year, according to the annual sales roundup from data specialist Nielsen BookScan. The number of physical books sold also rose, from 190m in 2015 to 195m, in the 12 months to December 2016.”
El Sistema Has Been Transformative Worldwide. So Why Is There No El Sistema Of Theatre?
“There are now almost one million young people investing their free time to make art, and then better art with their friends. There are programs in Afghanistan, Palestine, and refugee camps in Europe; in slums of Manila, Rio and Nairobi; in a Maori community of New Zealand, and an Inuit community of Greenland. Wealthy cities like Los Angeles, New York, Paris, London, Stockholm, Vienna, and Hong Kong even have programs for children living in poverty. There are over 130 different programs in the US alone. Though the research is still scarce, it affirms the enthusiastic claims—intensive ensemble learning in the arts can, and does change the trajectory of kids’ lives.”
Texting At The Movies? Let’s Be Realistic…
“It pays to remember that moviegoing is a social activity for vastly more people than it is a kind of religious experience, and that the respect you and I may feel ought to be accorded to the art on screen is by no means the same for most. If you think of a movie as nothing more than a diversion, why should you mind if your attention is diverted for a moment somewhere else?”
SoundCloud Is The Go-To Music Storage Streamer. But Now There Are Warnings It May Go Bankrupt
There are reports that “Google showed interest in purchasing the company. SoundCloud currently boasts more than 175 million users around the world. While Spotify may have purchased the company for its 2014 $1 billion price, Google may spend just $500 million. The Big 3 labels – Universal, Sony, and Warner – own stakes in SoundCloud Ltd. If Google purchases the music streamer, the Big 3 will get a windfall.”
Mobile Booksellers Are Promoting A Reading Revolution In Ethiopia
“The people credited for expanding the readership of books in Addis are the mobile vendors. They walk around with books in their hands stacked all the way up to their neck, approaching any and everyone to buy a book of them. There are close to 1000 mobile vendors roaming the streets of Addis.”
How Philosophical Ideas Become Fashionable
“When thinking about fashion in philosophy, there are four basic categories under which texts, thinkers and ideas can be grouped. By considering the interrelation of these groups, we can begin to glean how an idea becomes fashionable. The four categories are the fashionable, the foundational, the prohibited, and the unfashionable.”