“We were all trying to impress him. When it said fortissimo, we got a little out of hand. He said, ‘We all have different levels of fortissimo. Never take the sound past beautiful.’ The entire violin section applauded, which I don’t think I’d ever seen before.” – Dallas Morning News
Author: Douglas McLennan
Italy Welcomed Foreign-Born Directors To Run Museums. Well, That’s Over
Museum boards are being abolished, and the contracts of foreign-born directors seem unlikely to be renewed as Italy’s government rolls back many of the game-changing reforms introduced four years ago. – artnet
Is Art Facing A Crisis Of Beauty?
“I realize that the various arts councils see art as a communications strategy, a way of encoding statements of moral good in visual form. Long ago they surrendered any faith in the aesthetic. What’s so much worse is that many artists seem to share this. But I think I understand. Adorno believed that aesthetic experience was rooted in experiences of natural beauty. If nature is threatened, so too is aesthetic experience. Hence the looming loss of faith.” – Momus
University In Baghdad Survives For 800 Years. Will It Outlive A Planned Restoration?
Now that Baghdad is once more clambering back to its feet after ISIS’s territorial defeat, observers wonder: Can the school regain anything of its past glory or will it – and the city around it – continue their long, slow decay? – Smithsonian
Audience Members Loudly Enjoy Play, Man Shushes Them. But Why?
“I wish I could have told him that his outburst about our outbursts (if gasps and laughs are outbursts) betrayed the DNA of theater itself. Unless he plans on buying out venues to watch plays alone, he’s much better off consuming entertainment in the privacy of his own home. (Seriously, stay away from movie theaters, sir!)” – Los Angeles Times
Inside Portland Opera’s Crisis
One of the biggest missteps was transitioning from a fall and winter schedule to a spring and summer schedule. Implemented in 2014, the transition was an attempt to address the opera’s already unstable earnings. It had the opposite effect. – Willamette Week
The Diminished State Of Art Criticism
“The six most influential art critics, according to the respondents, were all white, mostly men and mostly older. They included one woman, Roberta Smith (The New York Times), Holland Cotter (also NYT), Jerry Saltz (New York magazine), Peter Schjeldahl (The New Yorker), Ben Davis (artnet News) and Christopher Knight (Los Angeles Times). The titles producing the best art criticism, the respondents said, included The New York Times, Hyperallergic, The New Yorker, Artforum, Art in America and ARTnews, all except one based in New York. European writers would maybe have added a few others: Frieze magazine, Art Review, the Financial Times and—for German speakers—the critics in influential papers like the Frankfurter Allgemeine and Die Welt.” – ArtAgency Partners
A Higher Education Crisis
Higher education is in the middle of multiple, massive disruptions—and it isn’t clear that the leaders of the sector grasp the magnitude of the waves of change breaking on their ivy-covered gates. – The Atlantic
Do Our Jobs Define Us?
“A recent study of priorities among young people found that achieving one’s career passion ranks highest of all — more than making money or getting married. Finding a fulfilling job is almost three times more important than having a family, teenagers in the study reported. It is daunting to contemplate.” – The New York Times
How Change Happens – With A Million Tiny Steps
“The unknown becomes known, the outcasts come inside, the strange becomes ordinary. You can see changes to the ideas about whose rights matter and what is reasonable and who should decide, if you sit still enough and gather the evidence of transformations that happen by a million tiny steps before they result in a landmark legal decision or an election or some other shift that puts us in a place we’ve never been.” – Literary Hub