“Want a peek at the buzzy new sci-fi novel? Swipe right. Curious if its movie rights have sold? Swipe again. Publishing upstart Inkshares is launching an app, dubbed Properties, to promote its content to Hollywood. It curates selections for each user, offers sample chapters and provides updates on theatrical, TV, audiobook and foreign rights.”
Author: Douglas McLennan
Practical Explanation: Why There Are So Few Women Ballet Choreographers
“Male dancers simply aren’t as busy as their female counterparts, who, on top of everything else, are trained from a young age to be obedient and to not step out of line. In modern dance, composition is part of the training, but in ballet there is a lack of structured choreographic training. Most ballet choreographers emerge from companies, and most — including today’s pre-eminent ballet-makers Alexei Ratmansky, Christopher Wheeldon and Justin Peck — begin creating works while still performing.”
In Female-Dominated Ballet, Where Are The Women Choreographers?
“A question for the future is whether there are enough opportunities for women to become ballet choreographers — a position for which there is no one career path.”
The Literary Subversives Who Boosted America’s National Parks
“Sadly, the parks rarely get much attention on the national stage unless some knucklehead displaces a cute little baby bison or tries to feed a grizzly bear. But in this year when the Park Service is celebrating its centennial with all sorts of hand-wringing about the future, it’s instructive to remember how language can save landscape. Powerful prose has been put to good use in the cause of America’s Best Idea.”
So Barnes & Noble Might Close… And That’s A Very Bad Thing
“There’s more than a little irony to the impending collapse of Barnes & Noble. The mega-retailer that drove many small, independent booksellers out of business is now being done in by the rise of Amazon. But while many book lovers may be tempted to gloat, the death of Barnes & Noble would be catastrophic—not just for publishing houses and the writers they publish, but for American culture as a whole.”
Poetry As Failure (And That’s A Good Thing)
In Ben Lerner’s account, poetry is the perfect medium for failure. Even great poems, he claims, perform this failure by suggesting the transcendent in their absence. “You can only compose poems that, when read with perfect contempt, clear a place for the genuine Poem that never appears.”
Social Media Can Power Art – But There Are Landmines Everywhere
“The relationship between art and social media is a tricky one. The former is about pushing boundaries; the latter, enforcing them — in the case of Instagram, in a literal square.”
Public Radio’s Big New Opportunities
“One person’s existential crisis is another’s opportunity; a period of expanding audiences, creative disruption, and greeting the future. From where I sit, at the helm of New York Public Radio, the news is overwhelmingly positive and the terrain is open for anyone bold enough to embrace what is undoubtedly radio’s next incarnation.”
Will Brexit Isolate UK Artists?
“The ability for the UK to access the €1.3 billion Creative Europe programme could now be in jeopardy, while arts figures have warned of the effects Brexit will have on access to and movement of talent.”
Brexit Fears About The Arts
“There is obviously now great financial uncertainty — the effect on European funding streams for the arts, for example — but quite as important is the potential effect on the spirit that drives a myriad of international partnerships in the arts.”