“There is no shame in being a minor writer. Some of my favorite writers were, in their day, considered minor writers: Nathanael West, Charles Bukowski, Mikhail Lermontov, Blaise Cendrars, Flann O’Brien, and even Gertrude Stein. It is an honorable way to make a living. Certainly I’ve done less damage to the forests of America than my better-selling peers. And while a major writer can be reassessed and reduced in stature in posterity, for a minor writer, there is only potential upside.”
Author: Douglas McLennan
Why Academia Has A Problem With Beauty
That academics encounter beauty in their private lives as a mystifying or corrupted alien force was a cliché by the time Stanley Fish cast his eye on the faculty parking lot. Yet the inconsistent treatment beauty has received in scholarly research demands explanation. In the humanities, beauty is ignored or seen as a vague embarrassment, and in the social sciences the topic is treated only superficially. If beauty remains a serious subject of study anywhere, it is in the sciences, certain corners of which have enlisted beauty as an organizing ideal.
Report: Arts Organizations Are Severely Undercapitalized
Not surprising was the finding that museums had larger working capital reserves than did performing arts organizations. What was somewhat surprising was the finding that smaller budgeted organizations had larger relative cash reserves than did larger budgeted organizations, due in part to their smaller fixed expenses allowing them to be more nimble.
He Strolled Into Art Museums All Over Europe And Stole Liberally. And Then…
For over six years, Stéphane Breitwieser, an ordinary Frenchman with an extraordinary love of art, trolled museums and private collections across Europe, helping himself to the pieces that caught his eye. He amassed a private collection of his own, to the tune of 239 pieces of art and priceless artifacts from 172 institutions totaling over a billion dollars. He was one of the most prolific art thieves in modern history.
Could Pro Sports Offer Some Lessons For The Ailing Gallery System?
“It’s not just because of my brain’s well-documented penchant for drawing outlandish parallels that I bring up sports here. As preposterous as it would have seemed to me when I was a disaffected art kid growing up in Midwestern (American) football country, professional sports at least offer food for thought, if not a full game plan, for how the gallery sector could claw its way out of this mess.”
Houston Grand Opera’s Heroic Post-Flood Story Is One Of Resilience
Recently, I found myself blinking back tears while chatting with a colleague as I was summarizing the story I had seen at the Houston Grand Opera’s Resilience Theater. It really was a beautiful story about, and told by, people who had refused to accept the risk of losing the place that they call home.
Assessing The State Of NY City Ballet After Peter Martins
City Ballet — still the world’s most valuable company for the excellence of its classical-modernist repertory — is in remarkably good shape. Had Mr. Martins resigned a decade or two earlier, the same could not have been said. Just what happened to make the difference in the years 2008-18? There are multiple answers. Dancers have learned again to step off balance into space and to embody their music rather than merely to follow it; and a number of excellent new ballets have revitalized the company’s sense of mission.
What We’re Losing In The Algorithm Society
There is a convincing case that when it comes to overseeing the use and abuse of algorithms, neither the European nor the American approach has much to offer. Automated decision-making has revolutionized many sectors of the economy and it brings real gains to society. It also threatens privacy, autonomy, democratic practice, and ideals of social equality in ways we are only beginning to appreciate.
Woody Allen To Direct At La Scala
The programme, which opens on December 7th, will include the veteran US director’s riotous rendition of Gianni Schicci, set in New York’s “Little Italy” in the 1930s. Allen’s version, which was a hit in Los Angeles in 2015 with Spanish legend Placido Domingo in the title role, will play in Milan in July 2019.
Prominent Longtime Canadian Classical Music Critic Calls It Quits
“I will add that I’ve enjoyed my years as a critic and journalist writing about music and musicians. It was fun while it lasted, and the free tickets were much appreciated! But at the same time, the precariousness of the work has taken a toll. For the last decade, the life of a freelance critic has become an increasingly difficult and frustrating struggle – and the end-result of the struggle was not any kind of advancement to a more secure, ongoing situation, but just more struggling.”