Author: Douglas McLennan

Broadway Worries About Coronavirus

“Of course, I’m worried as a producer about tickets not being sold and people canceling their trips to New York City,” the Broadway producer told The Daily Beast. “But my main concern is for anyone involved in the industry being affected directly, and if people are affected, how does Broadway sustain itself? Theaters are petri dishes for three hours.” – The Daily Beast

How Creativity Opens Up When Not Tied To Pre-planned Outcomes

“We didn’t start with an end in mind and this meant we could use the collective creativity of the people we have worked with, whether local participants, artists or partner organisations. This has provided solutions and outcomes that could not have been predicted in advance by bureaucratic strategies. More than this, it has helped to give some ownership to communities who often feel they are ‘done to’, rather than ‘done with’.” – Arts Professional

Annals Of Self-Plagiarism – Hey, Originality Is Tough!

It’s surely axiomatic that the greater the prolificacy of the writer, the greater his or her capacity for self-plagiarism. This has to be one of the principal reasons why we admire such productivity rather less than classical economics implies we should; another is embodied in Mark Twain’s witty cynicism: “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead”. – Times Literary Supplement

Think NEA Funding Is Safe? It Still Needs Defending

The Heritage Foundation is still promoting its 1997 report authored by “distinguished fellow” Laurence Jarvik, titled “Ten Good Reasons to Eliminate Funding for the National Endowment for the Arts,” as the definitive source on “why there is no need for the federal government to be spending your money on these programs.” It remains a go-to reference in debates today, and its language has sunk into the ground water of conservative argument about the NEA—which is, after all, the job of a conservative think tank. – Artnet

Simon & Schuster Up For Sale

It is unclear how much ViacomCBS, which has owned the publisher for more than 25 years, might fetch from the sale. Book publishing is no longer a growth business but its revenue has been relatively stable in recent years. Simon & Schuster has some of the world’s most recognizable authors, including Mary Higgins Clark, Doris Kearns Goodwin and David McCullough. – Los Angeles Times

Calls To Cancel SXSW; Concert Industry Shudders

This was going to be one of the busiest summers ever for festivals and stadium shows, so any disruption is going to have an impact,” said Dave Brooks, senior director of live and touring for Billboard. “If there are cancellations, and if it’s a down year for the industry, [top concert promoters] Live Nation and AEG could probably weather it, but it could be a death knell for some independent promoters.” – Los Angeles Times

A Plague Of Curators

“It’s used because it sounds fashionable. It sounds like it’s for … the aesthetically conscious.” As zeitgeisty as other oddly specific and much hashtagged words like “wanderlust” or “journey” or “empower,” “curate” is spreading. The word’s overuse has left it almost devoid of meaning, and curators themselves — the traditional, museum-dwelling kind — are up in arms. – The New York Times

How Quickly Rome Collapsed Under Coronavirus

“I had not noticed anything strange, but then I walked through the historic center, and it hit me: in the past few weeks, as the virus spread, the city emptied out. The crowds lining up to enter the Colosseum or visit the Forum have thinned; the mobs throwing coins in the Trevi Fountain or climbing the Spanish Steps have all but vanished; restaurants and bars usually overflowing with patrons are almost vacant. It is customary, of course, to lament the phenomenon of mass tourism in Italy; even the tourists themselves grumble and dream (as I do) of how nice it would be to visit the Sistine Chapel in solitary splendor. But the actual effect of the emptying out, at least for the current reason, is terrifying.” – The New Yorker