“[Stephen Towns’s] Joy Cometh in the Morning series presents six painted figures, each representing a martyr from the rebellion … In Towns’s vision, each wears a noose around their necks, held in place by one raised fist, a gesture of black power.” An employee at one venue where the paintings were shown objected, “stating that she shouldn’t have to look at black faces with nooses around their necks at work.” Towns immediately withdrew the series from the show, leaving blue tape on the walls where each canvas had been. Cara Ober writes about the debate than ensued.
Author: Matthew Westphal
We Need Great Administrators As Much As We Need Great Artists
Susan Medak, longtime managing director of Berkeley Repertory Theatre, speaking at the TCG National Conference: “At the risk of being run out of this room on a rail, I would argue that great art alone is not going to make the American theatre healthy again. We need great artistic leaders and, more than ever, we need administrative leaders who will help us navigate these uncertain times. … After all, where would Zelda have been without Tom Fichandler, or Joe Papp without Bernie Gersten?”
Oregon Bach Festival Settles With Fired Director For $90,000 (And Non-Disparagement Clause)
“The University of Oregon agreed to pay a $90,000 settlement to fired Oregon Bach Festival Artistic Director Matthew Halls this week, in the midst of a public relations disaster over his abrupt termination in August. Under the terms of the settlement, which the UO released in response to a media request, Halls agreed not to sue the UO, and both parties agreed to make no ‘negative or disparaging’ written or oral statements about each other, publicly or privately, in ‘any medium.'”
Isabelle Faust Upsets Joyce DiDonato For Gramophone’s Record Of The Year Award
DiDonato’s disc “In War and Peace” won the Gramophone Awards’ Recital category and was a favorite for the overall prize, but the winner was a period-instrument recording of Mozart’s violin concertos by Isabelle Faust and the orchestra Il Giardino Armonico. (Giardino also won the Orchestral category with a recording of Haydn symphonies; both discs competed in mainstream categories rather than those limited to period instruments.) Artist of the Year went to conductor Vasily Petrenko.
Brazil’s First-Ever Major Queer Art Exhibition Shut Down In Face Of Right-Wing Outrage
The show at the Santander Bank Cultural Center in Pôrto Alegre, titled “Queermuseu,” had been running for more than three weeks without incident when a self-styled “libertarian” group called the Free Brazil Movement (which was heavily involved in the movement to impeach former president Dilma Rouseff) began vehement protests of the exhibition on social media, argiung that the show promoted pedophilia, bestiality, and blasphemy. (There are no images in the show depicting sex with children or animals.) Santander Bank abruptly shut the show down, not even notifying the curator. Now protesters have been gathering to demand that “Queermuseu” reopen.
Bramwell Tovey Headed From Vancouver Symphony To Boston
Tovey, the longest-serving music director in the VSO’s history, steps down at the end of this season and will become director of orchestral activities for Boston University’s School of Music.
How A Post-Industrial Yorkshire City Became A Hotbed Of Ballet Talent
The secret of Hull’s success is the Skelton Hooper Ballet School, which trained a slew of principals at leading ballet companies in Europe, most notably Xander Parish (now at the Mariinsky) and Royal Ballet director Kevin O’Hare.
Moscow Opens New Starchitect-Designed Park, And After A Week It Already Needs Restoration
Zaryadye Park, designed by High Line architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro and located on the site of the old Soviet-era Rossiya Hotel, isn’t having trouble because of shoddy work. (Not with those architects, nor with the personal interest of Vladimir Putin.) The problem is vandalism: the first day, someone threw an object through the glass roof of the media center and concert hall, and more than 10,000 plants in the park have been trampled or stolen.
MIT Opens Its First Full-Fledged Theater Building
“The urgent need for a new, purpose-built theater space became clear when MIT Theater’s home in the 19th-century Rinaldi tile factory had to be demolished as the Kendall Square redevelopment began in 2016. … Other functions of the theater program were scattered around campus – in Kresge Auditorium, the Walker Memorial, and Buildings 4 and 10. W97 [as the new building is called] both replaces the Rinaldi facilities and consolidates all the other theater activities under one roof.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 09.14.17
Concept Test Kitchen, Episode 1
I’m launching a new experiment with this pilot episode of “Concept Test Kitchen” – a video series presenting interesting frameworks or approaches to arts management (‘recipes for thinking’), so you can share back whether or when they may be useful. … read more
AJBlog: The Artful Manager Published 2017-09-14
Smith Smites: Tom Campbell’s Precipitous Fall from Favor (plus, my I-told-you-so)
Now that we know what the Metropolitan Museum wants in its next director, I’m going to allow myself an I-told-you-so moment about its last director, responding to Roberta Smith‘s recent autopsy of Tom Campbell‘s trouble-plagued tenure. … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-09-14
“The Difference Between Quality Art and Crap” Take Three
Though as usual most of the feedback to my recent blogs comes via private emails rather than public responses, a flurry of interesting posted responses here and via Facebook spurs me to rant some more. … read more
AJBlog: Unanswered Question Published 2017-09-14
Youssou N’Dour on stage & screen, PoKempner photos
Photo-journalist Marc PoKempner‘s images from the Chicago Jazz Fest, as featured in my previous post, and these from Senegalese superstar Youssou N’Dour’s rousing … read more
AJBlog: Jazz Beyond Jazz Published 2017-09-14