Author: Douglas McLennan

How The Museum Field Is Dealing With Repatriation Of Culture

Chip Colwell: “As a museum curator and scholar of the repatriation movement, I am stunned by the pace of these unfolding events, which seemed unlikely not long ago. I now understand that the repatriation battles are not isolated to a few museums wrestling with their colonial legacies. These clashes are fueling a war over the rights of former colonial subjects and the future of museums.” – The New York Times

Absurd? Why Would LA County Museum Of Art Spend $650M To REDUCE Its Gallery Space?

Christopher Knight: “What was once a project designed to add nearly 50,000 square feet of critically needed gallery space committed to showcasing the museum’s impressive and still-growing permanent collection of paintings, sculptures and other global works of art has been turned on its head. Now, rather than enlarge the capacity, the scheme is to reduce the existing gallery square footage by more than 10,000 square feet.” – Los Angeles Times

Can The Shed Mitigate The Corporate Wasteland Of Hudson Yards?

Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Rockwell Group, the Shed is meant to be the cultural giveback that compensates for the vulgar mess of the larger Yards project. Looking a bit like a bubble-clad airplane hangar, it sits on the southern edge of the Yards with two distinct elements defining its architecture: a boxlike form projecting out of the bottom of a high-rise residential tower, and a canopy with translucent plastic side panels, mounted on wheels and rails, that opens onto a public plaza. – Washington Post

The Young Orchestra Exec Who’s Turned Her Orchestra Into A Growth Industry

When Aubrey Bergauer arrived in 2014, the California Symphony was on the brink of financial collapse. Now, ticket sales have increased by 70 percent, concerts are frequently added to keep up with the demand, and the number of donors has nearly quadrupled. As orchestras around the country deal with aging audiences and search for ways to stay relevant—with midsize symphonies facing greater financial challenges than their big-city, big-donor counterparts—the California Symphony has succeeded by taking bold risks without compromising its musical integrity.” – Southwest Magazine

Nancy Pelosi Has Stepped Into The Role Of Supporter-In-Chief Of The Arts

Peter Marks: “In the absence of a White House that welcomes the nation’s preeminent composers, painters, scholars and singers to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue — and let’s face it, many of them would probably say no thanks — Pelosi seems more and more inclined to cast herself as the ceremonial head of state for the arts.” – Washington Post

The Next DJ: Mixing Code That Mixes Music That Makes You Dance

It’s “live coding” and it’s already happening. “The code on display is used to control software algorithms. The musician synthesizes individual noises (snare hits, bass blobs) on their computer, then instructs the software to string those instrumental sounds together based on a set of predefined rules. What comes out bears the fingerprint of the artist but is shaped entirely by the algorithms.”  – Wired