Armenian pottery has become synonymous with Jerusalem, so it’s a shock to learn that the city’s ceramic tradition, beyond major monuments such as the Dome of the Rock, is just 100 years old and that it was inspired by a single Turkish-Armenian master craftsman. – Times Of Israel
Author: Douglas McLennan
The Seattle Man Who’s Memorizing Joyce’s Unreadable Finnegan
At 25, he picked up Finnegans Wake and tried to read it. He did not get far. He was stopped by a 100-letter word in the middle of the first page. How do you read a 100-letter word, he wondered? “But I’m in music school at the time, practicing the piano every day, and I realize the only way to read a 100-letter word is to practice it like I practice the piano. – The Stranger
Galleries And Museums Are So Crowded Now The Experience Is… Not Artistic
Venture to many blockbuster exhibitions, particularly on a weekend, and you’ll often be met with overwhelming crowds. Is there a surfeit of public interest in art? Are galleries packing in the crowds to maximise profit? And how best to meet the growing demand for public art without turning museums into amusement parks, complete with heavily managed queues? – The Guardian
Study: Calling To Thank Donors Doesn’t Result In Them Giving More
About 28% of the donors to the public TV stations who got thank you calls gave to the same charity within the next year. And 28% of the donors who didn’t get the calls did as well. Likewise, about 31% of the donors to the national nonprofit gave to that group again, whether or not someone called to thank them for their first donation. – The Conversation
What I’ve Learned About Arts Journalism In The Past Decade
Diep Tran: “When I was first hired at American Theatre, I thought arts journalism was two things: reviewing shows and interviewing celebrities. But as I’ve grown in my career, I realized that it has become something else for me: Journalism is an act of service. The theatre industry, like most industries, is notoriously tight-lipped in many sensitive areas: compensation (or the lack of it), race and power dynamics, and sexual harassment, to name just a few. Those in power would rather you, the reader and the viewer, look at the art and not look too closely at what’s going on behind the curtain.” – American Theatre
What Mr. Rogers Tells Us About Generation X
“How is it possible that those of us raised on — or perhaps more accurately, raised by — Mister Rogers could have turned out to be so disengaged and sarcastic? Well, for starters, maybe because we are not as disengaged as we’re often described. (We are definitely as sarcastic.) But I think it’s also because the lessons Mister Rogers imparted are often placed, especially on the internet, into a general kindness and goodness box that doesn’t fully capture what he accomplished.” – New York Magazine
What Broadway 2019 Looked Like
In some years, narratives emerge, about innovation or stagnation, retrenchment or inclusion, celebrity, politics, source material. But 2019 seemed especially all over the map. Shows were big and small, hopeful and cynical, wired and tired. If you believe in theater as relational to real life, then life in America right now is fractured, disordered, with occasional dance remixes. – The Guardian
How NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts Became So Big
During its 11-year run, “unadorned” has been the name of the game at Tiny Desk Concerts, whose appeal lies in the nakedness of its setup: no backing tracks, no Auto-Tune, no frills. The resulting performances — each taking place at Boilen’s actual desk inside NPR’s Washington, D.C. headquarters — offer viewers an intimate look at artists both emerging and major. – Billboard
Tommasini: Upgrade Of NY Philharmonic’s Theatre Experience Could Be Transformative
” ‘Amenities’ seems inadequate to describe how transformative the improvements could be for performers and audiences. I’d argue that the physical details of a concert hall are crucially important for classical music, more so than for other performing arts. With theater and dance, there’s much to watch and stories to follow. Opera is in this category. But an orchestra doesn’t offer the same kind of visual stimulation.” – The New York Times
Bravo To The Turner Prize For Declaring Four Winners
“The Turner has always been premised on there being a winner. The award garners publicity, feeds the bookies and, apparently, generates discussion. It is all, supposedly, good for the climate in which contemporary art gets talked about. But artists whose works and attitudes have nothing to do with one another are often pitted against one another for no good reason.” – The Guardian