“On one level, social media has created a new point of entry to the global drag scene, opening doors for a broad spectrum of talented visual artists who might otherwise be excluded—queens isolated in small towns, barred from clubs because of their age, or too shy or unwilling to navigate the jungle of nightlife. But for some, the growing presence of Instagram queens seems to be skewing public expectations for drag toward looks and fashion, and away from rich traditions of performance (including lip-synching, stand-up comedy, and dance), activism, community building, and so on. And in an industry where low-pay and high-expenses renders money rarely the object, any threat to long-held tradition is deeply felt.”
Author: Douglas McLennan
How Ivan Fischer Reinvented The Orchestra
“A perfectly normal orchestra? That was not what he wanted. Ever. In fact, the young Iván Fischer found the notion radically impossible, was already fed up with his international career almost before it had begun. Aloof, austere and proud was how he came across to the established orchestras – worse even, they thought him listless and officious. And so he formed an orchestra of his own. Nearly 35 years later, the Budapest Festival Orchestra counts among the best in the world – a small miracle.”
Our Great Modernist Landscapes Are Under Threat
Just as chokers and platform sandals are cool again, designers are expressing renewed interest in successful 1990s postmodern landscapes, like Wagner Park or Pershing Square. Despite their significance, these parks are now threatened by thoughtless development.
How Berkshire Museum Leaders Got To The Idea Of Selling Art
The story told by the newly released papers, which were made public on Monday, starts in April 2016. That’s when the board of the Berkshire Museum was presented with a detailed report from TDC, a group of museum consultants in Boston. In their “summary of capitalization needs,” TDC concluded that the museum needed about $2 million to pay down debt and about $6 million to improve the facilities. They also penciled in about $23 million in permanent endowments, a sum much greater than the museum’s existing $7.3 million endowment. Altogether, they concluded, the museum needed “an additional $25.61 million in new funds” to “stabilize its operations on multiple dimensions.”
In A Surprise, Scottish Government Boosts Arts Funding Substantially To Offset Lottery Declines
Creative Scotland’s budget will increase by £6.6m each year for the next three years, specifically to support the Regular Funding programme, and the Scottish Government will contribute £10m to the delivery of a new ‘Screen Unit’.
Conductors Do More Than Wave Their Hands (But What, Exactly?)
The person who stands before a symphony orchestra is charged with something both impossible and improbable. The impossible part is herding a hundred musicians to agree on something, and the improbable part is that one does it by waving one’s hands in the air.
Instapoets Are Having A Moment. Should We Take This Seriously?
The last time poetry saw this kind of action was with the cable knit sweater-clad poet and singer-songwriter Rod McKuen, who sold millions of books and millions more albums in the late 1960s and early 1970s with titles like “Listen to the Warm” — far outstripping the reach of not only an artist like Leonard Cohen, but most popular novelists of the time. (There were dusty McKuen books and records in my house growing up.) The backlash then makes today’s seem gentle
How’s A Critic Supposed To Review Work By Compromised Artists?
How do we write about the work these figures create? To what degree do we acknowledge the actions of the creator, and what bearing should that have on how we consume, experience, dissect, and analyze art? The questions cut across all disciplines.
The End Of The Old “Hemp House” Theatres
While there is nostalgia around this important piece of theatre history, everyone—including the stagehands—has come to realize that more and more touring companies are not familiar with the hemp-and-sandbag system and have very little if any experience working in it.
Why Did Amazon Studios Pass On All Its Women-Led Comedies?
As more and more content platforms flood the landscape, Amazon, in a state of turmoil, is in the midst of an identity crisis. Might it behoove the company in the meantime to land on one that doesn’t, at least from the outside, seem so egregiously dismissive of women?