Author: Douglas McLennan

Cal Arts Alums Launch Program To Reduce Cal Arts $50k Tuition

Launching this month, 50+50: A Creative Century from Chouinard to CalArts is a program for which 50 artist-alums are creating new works, typically in editions of 10 to 20, and produced by Lisa Ivorian-Jones. The pieces will be sold to raise scholarship funds for the school, in order to support a new generation of would-be artists who might not be able to afford CalArts’ tuition, currently at $50,850.  – W Magazine

Ambitious Major Triennial Canceled In Beijing Over Coronavirus Fears

The CAFA Art Museum (CAFAM) in Beijing announced its decision to suspend the inaugural edition of its CAFAM Techne Triennial, an ambitious exhibition of media art scheduled to open on February 20. More than 130 artists and collectives planned to exhibit their work in the museum’s 5,000-square-meter space, including Alex Da Corte, Wang Gongxin, Hito Steyerl, Tauba Auerbach, Zhang Peili, and Hans Haacke. – Hyperallergic

We Think Poverty And Opportunity Are In Cities. Here’s Another Way Of Looking At It

Newly released Index of Deep Disadvantage looks at poverty and disadvantage across all the nation’s counties and 500 of the largest US cities. The index was based on three categories of data: income, health, and social mobility. While the most advantaged communities in the U.S. rank alongside the most developed parts of the world, those struggling the hardest measure up with countries like North Korea and Bangladesh. From among the list of 100 most disadvantaged communities, 80 are rural. – Daily Yonder

Study: Diversity In US Publishing Industry Hasn’t Changed In Four Years

The authors welcomed a drop in the proportion of white executives from 86% in 2015 to 78%, “since true change in company culture almost always requires buy-in from the very top”. But the numbers of white people in editorial roles increased from 82% to 85%, “so, even though more diverse books are being published now, it’s fair to assume that the majority of them are still being acquired and edited by white people”. – The Guardian

$50 Million Gift Revives LACMA’s Stalled Building Campaign

The pledge raises the total commitments to $640 million. The $50 million from Keck is the second-largest private pledge to the project, after a $150 million pledge from entertainment mogul David Geffen in 2017. Casino and hotel magnate Elaine Wynn, co-chair of LACMA’s board of trustees, in 2016 also pledged $50 million. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has authorized $125 million in taxpayer funds for construction of the new building. – Los Angeles Times

Boris Johnson Review Of BBC Funding Will Blow A Budget Hole

The review comes at a perilous time for the BBC, with insiders and industry observers worried that the broadcaster is facing an existential crisis. As well as a hostile government, which is skeptical about the BBC’s funding model and unhappy with its coverage on Brexit, the broadcaster is dealing with a tsunami of disruption from U.S. streaming services and having to make savings £800M. Head of news and current affairs Fran Unsworth told staff this week that she can’t remember another time in her 40-year BBC career when the broadcaster has been so under threat from external forces. – Deadline

How Schoenberg Evolved Away From Tonality

Schoenberg and beauty are words that rarely occupy the same sentence. Arguably the most influential composer of all time, his fame derived from his abolition of tonality—the harmonic system of the previous centuries, in which melodies and harmonies relate to the tonic (the home) of a given key. While detractors still demonise him for having destroyed music, the largely self-taught Schoenberg saw his work as a logical evolution of tradition. Frustrated that tonality seemed exhausted and had reached its limits (in other words, what did classical music have to say after Wagner?), Schoenberg felt that he must transcend its constraints. – Standpoint

Ratmansky: A Choreographer Intensely Grounded In Music Unhooks From It

“I am discovering the possibility of the choreography coexisting with sound, maybe not being as dependent as I usually am. That opens a field I haven’t really explored. But I don’t have the courage to fully go there; it’s just testing how it feels. In some places the choreography is parallel, not connected, to the music.” – The New York Times