“I could not be more cynical, more jaded on this subject,” said historian David J. Garrow, who won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for his book “Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.” “Given the family’s behavior this last 20 years, they’re unlikely to have any interest in sharing without a large upfront payment.”
Author: Douglas McLennan
We’re Asking Artificial Intelligence To Do Some Serious Stuff. Are We Ready?
“The core issue here isn’t that AI is worse than the existing human-led processes that serve to make predictions and assign rankings. Indeed, there’s much hope that AI can be used to provide more objective assessments than humans, reducing bias and leading to better outcomes. The key concern is that AI systems are being integrated into key social institutions, even though their accuracy, and their social and economic effects, have not been rigorously studied or validated.”
The Man Who Wants To Fix Barnes & Noble
Some of that decline was attributed to a lack of new big hits to compete with a string of blockbusters last year, and to a cooling off of the sale of adult coloring books. A poor retail environment that cut into store traffic was another factor hurting sales, but B&N founder Len Riggio, who has returned as CEO following the dismissal of Ron Boire in August, acknowledged that B&N “[shot] ourselves in the foot somewhat by making unprecedented inventory reductions,” as well as “cutting expenses in the worst areas, mainly retail floor personnel.”
Jerry Saltz: The Lost Generations Of Critics
“I think we lost three generations of critics to academicism, writers made skittish about their own opinions, afraid, only following a party-line of preapproved taste, deluded into believing that there is such a thing as objectivity, and only writing for a tiny audience of employed institutionalists who might dole out a job. Or maybe I’m just trying to rationalize never being offered tenure or even a full time teaching job.”
The Detroit Symphony’s New “Cube”
“Arts institutions are fragile. There are always lots of competing needs. But the Cube needs to be a regular place for provocative, out-of-the-box and grassroots entertainment that reflects the personality of the city.”
Is The Balance Of Power Between Popular Artists And Galleries Shifting?
“Mega-dealers” have wielded increasing cultural clout since the term was coined in 2010, but now the balance of power is tipping in favour of artists who are playing the field by exhibiting with galleries that do not represent them, or calling the shots in their long-term relationships.
This Weekend’s Top AJBlog Posts 09.11.16
This Week In Understanding Audience Stories: America’s Creative Divide Isn’t Where You Think This Week: There’s a creative divide in America but it’s not where you think… Rethinking the modern concert hall in favor of the audience… Is glamour an ineffective sell for pop music?… A link … read more
AJBlog: AJ Arts AudiencePublished 2016-09-11
Weekend Extra: Alex Riel Meets Bill Evans Listeners rarely have the opportunity to witness world-class musicians prepare for a performance. In the autumn of1966, pianist Bill Evans toured Europe with his regular bassist, Eddie Gomez. Danish drummer Alex Riel joined them for … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2016-09-10
In Case Facebook Is Watching Nick Ut / Associated Press [1972]AP Photographer Nick Ut’s famous Pulitzer Prize-winning Vietnam War photo illustrating the terror of war wascensored for nudity by Mark Zukerberg’s minions. Facebook deigned to restore the image to … read more
AJBlog: Straight|UpPublished 2016-09-10
Gard Foundation Symposium–Our Communities: Day 3 Today was the final day of The Robert E. Gard Foundation’s Our Communities: A Symposium on the Arts at The Johnson Foundation at Wingspread’s conference center. New Ideas for a World in Transition: A Next … read more
AJBlog: Engaging MattersPublished 2016-09-09
We’ll have a real good time I rarely meet a revival I don’t like.Classic plays are good for thinking: they re-reveal themselves in each new production, and choices in text and staging function as a conversation between a past … read more
AJBlog: Performance MonkeyPublished 2016-09-09
This Week In Understanding Audience Stories: America’s Creative Divide Isn’t Where You Think
This Week: There’s a creative divide in America but it’s not where you think… Rethinking the modern concert hall in favor of the audience… Is glamour an ineffective sell for pop music?… A link between audience attendance and donations (not what you think)… Why has reading of literature declined?
This Week’s AJ Arts Highlights: Has Entertainment Made Art Irrelevant?
This Week: Major shakeup in London’s museum world… Nobel laureate says entertainment has killed art… Latest study of Hollywood reaffirms cultural inequality… Why did Wells Fargo disparage artists?… Did the Glenn Gould Foundation get ahead of itself in announcing arts Nobel prizes?
Are West End Productions Choosing Smaller Theatres To Raise Ticket Prices?
Andrew Lloyd Webber: “It’s really important that theatre is accessible and that is one of the reasons we went into a rather bigger theatre on Broadway than perhaps some people would have suggested. There is a school of thought that what you do is keep the show really, really tight and then force ticket prices up,” he said. He added: “Several producers have been doing that but I am not one of them.”