“There’s a residual idea in classical music — actually, in many artistic fields — that we’re supposed to seek perfection: do something as well as it possibly can be done.” But what about the notion “that music is a daily need, and that making music and having it around and getting it out to people is more important than making it perfectly”?
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
What Does Ben Bernanke’s Taste In Art Tell Us About Him?
Yes, the Federal Reserve board has its own art collection. “Rather than being predictable, Mr. Bernanke’s stylistic choices at the Fed changed three times during my years at the Fed. His willingness to try different styles and periods of art was indeed the mark of a man who could be creative, innovative and flexible.”
Rocco Landesman On Skid Row
“It’s not every arts institution where the person in charge can tell a visiting federal agency head, as [the president of Skid Row’s Inner-City Arts] told Landesman, ‘Our street dwellers are very proud of this place. We never get broken into, knock on wood.'”
A Lost Original Shakespeare Play Is Real, Arden Declares
“[F]or most of the three centuries since its debut, Double Falsehood; or, the Distrest Lovers has been ridiculed as a hoax or just disregarded. Yesterday that changed when The Arden Shakespeare … published Double Falsehood, endorsing its credentials and making it available in a fully annotated form for the first time in 250 years.”
Signature Theatre Gets New Home, Just Not At Ground Zero
The 42nd Street space still has “three theaters of varying sizes; an open lobby with a cafe and a bookstore; and the prominent [Frank] Gehry as designer.” It’s also “budgeted at a mere $60 million and is actually under construction, in contrast to the planned arts center at the World Trade Center site, which increasingly seems like a pipe dream.”
Tech Worry: Preserving Authors’ Digital Archives
“Electronically produced drafts, correspondence and editorial comments, sweated over by contemporary poets, novelists and nonfiction authors, are ultimately just a series of digits — 0’s and 1’s — written on floppy disks, CDs and hard drives, all of which degrade much faster than old-fashioned acid-free paper.” The technology ages faster, too.
Sony Pictures Chief To Cinema Chains: Sell Healthier Food
“Delivering his remarks at the ShoWest convention in Las Vegas, [Michael] Lynton cited skyrocketing childhood obesity rates before noting, ‘adding healthier options to your existing menu is the right thing to do for our industry, for audiences and for our country.'”
Will Kids Get The Bard Better If They Don’t Have To Sit Still?
“Exercises devised by the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Globe theatre in London will see children aged 11 to 14 mirror the methods of professional actors at rehearsal” instead of reading the plays at their desks. “Written and oral assessments developed alongside the lessons will show how well students have understood the texts.”
His Work Too Expensive, Artist Offers Print Subscriptions
Philadelphia artist Andrew Jeffrey Wright “has launched a low-cost subscription series for fans who pay a yearly fee for what he has to offer. Beginning in January, his ‘patrons’ have been getting one of every colorful screen print he produces for the calendar year 2010 – more than 12 prints, guaranteed.”
Royal Opera House To Premiere Anna Nicole Smith Opera
“The work, by composer Mark-Anthony Turnage and writer Richard Thomas, will be ‘a major event in the UK arts calendar’ the ROH said. Thomas was a co-creator of the controversial production Jerry Springer: The Opera.”