“It is undeniable that “Floating Piers” has tapped into the public imagination, drawing 270,000 visitors within the first three days of opening and over 500,000 to date. But if we are to take the work as a purely artistic statement (and a very popular one), it is nonetheless one that connects the private villa of an arms manufacturer to the mainland, drawing the parched masses to the Beretta family’s closed doors. I came, I saw, and I left feeling that a beautiful lake had been mired by a large-scale reinforcement of the social fabric: a paean to neo-feudalism, no less.”
Author: Douglas McLennan
What’s Ailing The Met Opera? We Need To Change The Way We Talk About It
“The arts world has to let go of these popular, though incorrect clichés. First, paid capacity is a terrible way to gauge success—it does not provide real numbers that are actually tied to the budget. That four-year old study from the NEA needs to be put to rest, and we need a more updated, nuanced study of arts attendance in this country. And “Baumol’s cost disease” is an idea that has been vastly overplayed when talking about the arts… to the degree that Baumol himself is pushing back on how it’s being used.”
That Time Igor Stravinsky And The Boston Symphony Caused A National Scandal
“He did compose a weird arrangement of the national anthem, and the Boston police really did ban him from performing it — sparking a national uproar and a tense showdown that played out live on the radio. Depending on how you read it, it’s a story of ego and hubris, or patriotism and generosity.”
Joshua Kosman Assesses David Gockley’s Ten Years Running San Francisco Opera
“Gockley has stayed true to that maxim throughout his career, making sure never to let one aspect of the art form outshine another. But at the same time, Gockley’s omnivorous stance, along with the compromises it entails, has made it that much trickier for him to stake a claim to overarching excellence in any single arena.”
NPR’s Podcast Strategy To Grow Its Audience
“The demographic that went up the most in the first quarter of 2016 was the 18 to 24 year-olds [average quarter hour listening was up 20% according to Nielsen]. To be fair, it’s not a huge audience. But I point it out because it’s the direction we want to go. It didn’t come at the expense of any of our journalism either.”
Five Highlights From Last Week’s AJ You Shouldn’t Miss
This week: Alas, hard work probably doesn’t trump innate ability… It’s tempting to believe extravagant claims for technology, but there are limits… Yes, by all means let’s talk about equity, but be sure you know what it means… A real-world experiment in ticket pricing (and some surprising results)… The death of the mid-budget Hollywood movie.
The Art Critic’s Mythic Longrunning July 4th Party, Killed Off By Social Media
“In the 1980s, Peter Schjeldahl and his wife purchased many acres of mountainous land in the town of Bovina, a little more than three hours north of Midtown Manhattan. For more than a quarter-century, the property served as the site of a Fourth of July celebration that has maintained a singular place in New York’s social history, drawing friends, and friends of friends, from the city — artists, writers, musicians, academics, gallery owners, movie stars — and a considerable segment of the surrounding population of Delaware County.”
Consultant Reports On What’s Ailing The Philadelphia Orchestra
Michael Kaiser “conducted more than 100 interviews with orchestra staff, board, donors, musicians, and interested others, and offers observations and advice on a shrinking audience and a funding base that has not kept pace with expenses. Kaiser’s report also paints a picture of an organization that is not very good at communication – with donors, musicians, the community, or the media. Among other ideas, the report suggests an annual town-hall meeting on the state of the orchestra.”
Richard Avedon Paid His Printer With Prints… And That Is A Problem
The prints were Mr. Hofmann’s reward for his labor, he said, explaining that he struck a deal with Avedon in the fall of 1984: instead of money, he would be paid with a signed print of everything he produced for the project. “Dick had no conception of what people lived on, and asking him for money was difficult,” he explained. “Being paid in prints seemed the path of least resistance.” But there is a snag. None of Mr. Hofmann’s prints from the series is signed.
Rome Celebrates An Extensively-Cleaned Colosseum
“Buoyed by the brighter look of the Colosseum’s restoration, which was officially unveiled on Friday, Italy’s culture minister, Dario Franceschini, announced that 18 million euros ($20 million) have been found to replace, by the end of 2018, the arena’s long vanished floor with one that could support modern-day entertainment, although monument-rocking rock concerts have been ruled out.”