“Though he has been front-and-center in public life for more than four decades in the country’s cultural capital, Mr. Trump has left a meager trail to suggest what positions he might take on public arts funding and arts education, along with issues like censorship and economic policies that would affect creative industries, not to mention how he and the first lady, Melania Trump, might decorate the White House.”
Author: Douglas McLennan
Uh-Oh – As Cities Replace Bridge Lighting With LEDs, They’re Adding Sparkle
“As cities, counties, and states update outdated bridges, upgrading their lighting systems to LEDs is inevitable. With that move comes the opportunity to throw in some low-cost civic razzle-dazzle.”
Post-Election Is There Still An Art Market? Duh – Of Course…
“When the election happened we didn’t know what to expect. But the week has ended on a high with the Monet and Phillips moving up a level and now this. There is still a market.”
So Maybe The Future Of Books Is Not The Printed Page?
“The number of audiobook titles increased by nearly 400 percent between 2011 and 2015. E-books, by comparison, are down in 2016, as are adult hardcovers (i.e., printed books from commercial publishers, not including religious or university press titles). Which prompts the question: Do these statistics herald audio as the preferred reading format of the future?”
China Starts Exporting Orchestras To The Rest Of The World
“Once, classical music generally travelled from the West to the rest. Now China is reversing the exchange, not merely performing Western classical music in China, but exporting it.”
A Cleveland-Area Funder Of Artists Changes Its Criteria And Artists Wonder Why
Why switch from a program that emphasized the quality of the artist’s work to one that emphasizes the degree to which the artist “makes change” in his or her community?
We’re Classical Musicians. Where Do We Fit In The Trump Era?
“We might wish for music to be universal and transcendent on its own. But this wish can backfire, trapping us in apolitical grooves that serve the powers that be. We want to avoid using music as only a means of escapism, to go beyond catharsis and towards a way of engaging, as artists, in the discussion about where we go from here.”
Subsidizing Arts Tickets Hasn’t Succeeded In Broadening The Arts Audience. So Maybe Something Different?
“The uncanny similarities between this year’s Culture White Paper and its 1965 ancestor (along with the Warwick Commission and much other research) show that this hasn’t really produced an arts sector that enfranchises everyone, despite the best intentions of policymakers. Countless initiatives (and millions of pounds) have been spent trying to shift the demographic profile of arts audiences and workers in the sector. They have remained stubbornly white and well-off.”
OMG – All These Famous Actors On Broadway! So Why Are The Shows So Profoundly Lacking In Creativity?
“Everywhere you turn there’s a stage luminary. (Look, there’s Robert Morse!) All these familiar faces provide a welcome distraction from the reality that this three-act farce (performed with two intermissions) is a big snore.”
Anti-Establishment Outsiderism? Our Popular Culture Gives Us A Steady Stream Of It
“They are dark and bleak and often end in death. Some double as articulations of the political exceptionalism of ordinariness itself. Most, though, do something more basic, and more pessimistic: They assume the fundamental dirtiness of politics, and the related idea that any hope we’ll have of purifying the system must come from outside of it. They leave very little room for optimism about the hulking beast that is “the establishment,” very little room for hope that the system in place—one populated by career politicians—can take compassion and make it scale.”