“No joke: Circus scholar Janet Davis counts some 85 circus schools and training centers scattered across the country, where everyone from bona fide big-top and art-house pros to curious civilians and energetic youngsters learn the ropes, high wires and German wheels of circus yore. … And roving troupes and single-ring spectacles abound.” Journalist Holly Millea visits the very last performance of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Xtreme as well as several of the new-style circus spectaculars (a group in which, interestingly, she has included Elizabeth Streb’s dance company). Millea even tries out a trapeze class.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Even After ‘Moonlight’ Won Best Picture, It’s Still Hard To Get Queer-Themed Movies Made
“Moonlight grossed $65 million worldwide on a $1.5 million production budget, but the consensus still seems to be that financiers don’t see an audience for these films beyond the LGBTQ community. When they don’t see an audience, they don’t see a profit.” Vanity Fair talks to half a dozen LGBTQ filmmakers about the struggles they continue to face.
Here’s One Retiring ABT Principal Who’s Not Leaving By Choice
“Veronika Part, the Russian-born ballerina who has been a principal dancer with American Ballet Theater since 2009, will retire from the company at the end of this season because her contract was not renewed for another year.”
Does The ‘Scaffold’ Controversy Demonstrate That Museums Are Colonialist By Their Very Nature?
“We asked several American curators to consider the controversy‘s lessons for the larger museum world. Their e-mail responses, which have lightly edited for clarity, set a new tone for how cultural institutions can work with local indigenous communities.”
Edward Albee Wanted His Unfinished Plays Burned, And His Executors Will Probably Do It
“The executors have made clear they plan to honor Albee’s desires, even when they might be controversial. … Now at stake, at a minimum, are the latest drafts of Albee’s final known project, Laying an Egg, about a middle-aged woman struggling to become pregnant.”
Here’s Some Good News! California Gives Big, Long-Term Boost To Arts Funding
Gov. Jerry Brown and the state legislature have increased the annual budget of the California Arts Council by $6.8 million to a total, for 2017-18, of $19.48 million. And the extra funding is not one-time; it’s permanent.
When Arts Institutions Stagnate, Some Like To Blame The Board – And That’s Unfair, Says Anne Midgette
“Boards are less a problem than a symptom of a larger, systemic issue: a pervasive loss of creativity in large performing arts institutions. I’m not the only one to notice that our largest performing arts institutions have become fundamentally inartistic bureaucracies … Companies have to work so hard to maintain their status quo, to keep the funding coming in and the performances going on, that many of them have lost sight of a truly creative approach. They don’t have the time or resources to break the mold.”
The Met Has Put Off Building A New Wing For Leonard Lauder’s Cubism Collection – So Will He Still Donate The Paintings?
“Hanging over the Met’s decision this year to postpone its new $600 million wing for Modern and contemporary art – as well as the museum’s recent management turmoil – have been nagging questions: Is Mr. Lauder’s gift, valued at more than $1 billion four years ago, now at risk? If the Met takes too long to resurrect the project or ultimately scales it back, might Mr. Lauder take his collection elsewhere?” Lauder says definitely not, but the donation contract does have a completion date.
New Mexico Philharmonic Names Its First Music Director: Roberto Minczuk
“Minczuk was appointed music director of the Theatro Municipal Orchestra of São Paulo earlier this year. He is also the music director laureate of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra in Canada and conductor emeritus of the Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira in Rio de Janeiro. He recently completed a 10-year term in Calgary, becoming the longest-running music director in its history.”
Jan Fontein, 89, Former Director Of Museum Of Fine Arts, Boston
“Dr. Fontein, a renowned Asian art curator and historian who restored the MFA to solid financial footing when he took over after a period of internal strife at the museum, … ushered the institution into the modern era of museums as cultural marketplaces, overseeing the fund-raising and creation of the I.M. Pei-designed west wing that included expansive shops, restaurants, auditoriums, and galleries.”