Borrowing against art poses specific problems because of its portability, its heterogeneous nature and difficulty in establishing a reliable price. And yet, according to a report published last year by Deloitte and ArtTactic, in 2017 the global total of loans outstanding against art was eye-popping: between $17bn and $20bn. – The Art Newspaper
Author: Douglas McLennan
I’m Tired Of New Plays! I Want Something More
“In a word: I’m against the New Play. New Plays take many forms and have been around for years, but they seem especially prized lately. They’re plays with budget-friendly cast sizes, simpler stories with watery stakes, forward-slashes to indicate overlapping, a pretty strict adherence to the fourth wall, “ordinary” unaffected language, and an authorial injunction to either “play it fast” or “respect the beats”—or both. Further, all of the matter onstage is matter of the theatre (i.e. no video, film, poetry, live musical interlude, non-diagetic dance, opera, or lip-sync).” – Howlround
Victoria, BC Performing Arts Groups Scramble After Theatre’s Huge Rent Increases
The symphony has been told its rent, currently $1,850 per day, will go to $2,500 Sunday to Wednesday, $3,500 on Thursdays and $4,000 on Friday or Saturday. Those rates now apply to rehearsal days — currently $800 — too. – The Times-Colonist (Victoria, Canada)
The Oscars Have A Bigger Problem Than Kevin Hart
We’re living in a time of perpetual, distracting, cheap cliffhangers provided by a ratings-conscious president. America’s relationship to many of its long-standing institutions, from the U.S. government to the Olympics, the Super Bowl, the Emmys and the Grammys — it’s all eroding. And maybe inevitable. – Chicago Tribune
Must Visit? National Geographic Puts Dundee’s New Waterfront And Museum On Its Worldwide List
Dundonians are said to have developed “a new kind of swagger” thanks to the opening of its V&A museum, which is hailed as “the crown jewel” of its £1 billion waterfront regeneration. The city was rated number 15 in National Geographic’s 2019 “Cool List,” which it says are the destinations set to “hit the headlines” next year. Other locations to make the top 19 included Oslo, Guyana, Bhutan, Corsica, Eritrea and Uganda. More than 250,000 visitors flocked to V&A Dundee in the space of just months after it opened its doors in September. – The Scotsman
New Yale Review Editor On Art And Politics
“To me, there is something thrilling about thinking through the ideas of our time alongside poems and fiction. Literature, with its idiosyncrasies, its heresies, its visions, can provide a kind of subversive push-pull against what the critic Alexandra Schwartz aptly called ‘the rubbery chew’ of op-ed culture.” – Lithub
New York’s “Fame” High School Removes Nazi Symbols From “Sound Of Music” Production
The principal at the elite “Fame” school, Lisa Mars, ordered Nazi flags and symbols removed from the stage set of the beloved tale of the Von Trapp family, who fled the Nazis from their native Austria as Adolf Hitler took power, students told the Daily News. – New York Daily News
A YouTube Channel To Share And Promote New Opera
On the channel, called MyNewOpera, artists and fans will be able to watch and upload new operas, curate and share their own playlists and view other artists’ playlists. The initiative is the brainchild of UK-based opera production company Tete a Tete, however it is hoped the channel will encourage international collaboration. – The Stage
There’s Really No Such Thing As “Male” Brains Or “Female” Brains
Although there are sex differences in brain and behavior, when you move away from group-level differences in single features and focus at the level of the individual brain or person, you find that the differences, regardless of their origins, usually “mix up” rather than “add up.” — The New York Times
Doing Your Part? The Average American Household Has TV On Eight Hours Per Day
When Nielsen started measuring TV viewership, American households were averaging four and a half hours a day. This figure rose steadily over the course of the century, but the biggest jump came in the 2000s, when it peaked at almost nine hours. Now it’s a little under eight. – The Atlantic