Caroline Miller “becomes the ballet’s seventh leader in five years. The leadership turmoil has been accompanied by significant financial struggles, even as the ballet seeks to raise millions for a new headquarters.” Christopher Barton “replaces veteran leader David Schillhammer, the only executive director the Philharmonic has ever known. The Phil has an unblemished record of balancing its budget but is in the midst of a large fundraising campaign to renovate its new home.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Gyula Kosice, Pioneer Of Kinetic Art, Dead At 92
“Always at the forefront in plastic and sculptural movements, Kosice was the first artist to ever use water and neon gas as part of an artwork in 1946. … Among his most impressive pieces, Kosice was the creator of hydraulic sculptures which used water and light as their fundamental elements.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 06.07.16
Are You Getting Enough Bang for Your Buck?
In the National Center for Arts Research’s Edition 3 report on the health of the U.S. arts and cultural sector, we include insights on trends as well as updates on seven performance indices … If we look across two of these indices — Response to Marketing and People per Offering – together they tell a story about supply, demand, and the tension between marketing and engagement. … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2016-06-07
A plan for diversity
in this post: Why diversity means more than simply selling tickets to diverse people. And why that might be impossible to do. And then – most happily – a bigger, more productive way to get diversity. … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2016-06-07
Tuesday Recommendation: Ted Gioia’s New Book
Ted Gioia, How To Listen To Jazz (Basic Books). Opposite the contents page of this concise book is a quote from Duke Ellington: “Listening is the most important thing in music.” It seems an obvious … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-06-07
Ten years after: on the giving of prizes to artists
From 2006: Of the giving of prizes there is no end, and it’s hard to think of a single one, however ostensibly prestigious, that hasn’t been devalued by the promiscuity and/or lack of discrimination … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-06-07
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The Latest Theory On How Consciousness Evolved: TMI (Literally)
“The theory suggests that consciousness arises as a solution to one of the most fundamental problems facing any nervous system: Too much information constantly flows in to be fully processed. The brain evolved increasingly sophisticated mechanisms for deeply processing a few select signals at the expense of others, and … consciousness is the ultimate result of that evolutionary sequence.”
How To Get Better At Witty Comebacks And Bons Mots
The secret, as it turns out, comes from improv.
Using Astronomy To Date A Sappho Poem
In one of her rare surviving works, “Sappho describes a night when the moon, and the star cluster Pleiades, set before midnight on the island of Lesbos. Now, in the tradition of trying to paint a biographical portrait of Sappho from her work, a group of astronomers and a physicist at the University of Texas, Arlington have attempted to seasonally date ‘Midnight Poem’ using these bits of data.”
Why Algorithms Can’t Replace People In Coming Up With Successful Television
“In some ways, it’s a counter-intuitive argument: Regardless of what you think of Netflix or Amazon’s core business, their studios have produced some of the best television in recent years.”
Amsterdam To Tourists: Go Visit The Hague For A Change, We’re Drowning Here!
The Dutch capital’s huge success as a vacation destination “has spawned eye-poppingly long queues outside the biggest attractions … so much so that Amsterdam officials recently decided to ‘make some savings’ in its marketing budget … [and] Mayor Eberhard van der Laan has appealed directly to visitors to seek accommodation in other often overlooked cities such as Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht.”
Thais And Cambodians Start Social Media War Over Traditional Dance
“In a drama of epic proportions, Thailand and Cambodia are feuding once again after simultaneously claiming ownership of the traditional elaborate masked dance known as Khon in Thailand and Khol in Cambodia.”
14,000-Year-Old Cave Paintings Discovered In Spain
“Archaeologists in Spain have come across an extraordinary series of Paleolithic-era paintings in Basque Country’s Atxurra cave that they estimate date as far back as 14,000 years. The 70 or so animal drawings lie nearly 1,000 feet underground, which made access difficult when archaeologists first found the site in 1929 and during excavations carried out by José Miguel de Barandiarán five years later.”