“To see Shakespeare as a court official working to please his political masters is not to reduce him to the level of functionary or propagandist. It is to marvel anew at the ways in which he could use even such humbling demands as sources of imaginative energy. … We begin to see a Shakespeare for whom the distinction between freedom and necessity is scarcely relevant. Here is Shakespeare as an opportunist in every sense, a political operator taking advantage of a shift in power and a voracious artist for whom the need to please new masters is not a restriction but a creative stimulus.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
A Tale of 11 Cities: New Data-Driven Assessment Of The Nonprofit Arts Sector
“Last week, the [Greater Philadelphia] Cultural Alliance released 2015 Portfolio: Culture Across Communities, An Eleven-City Snapshot – a data-driven assessment of the nonprofit arts sector with particular attention to post-recession recovery and persistent fiscal challenges. … The cities represented in the report include: Bay Area (San Francisco and San Jose), Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Twin Cities and Washington, D.C.”
BBC Is Bringing The Proms To Australia
In the first time the festival will be presented outside the UK, “the BBC Proms Australia debuts for a limited season in April. For four days from April 13-16 at Melbourne’s Hamer Hall, what’s been described by the BBC as a ‘taster’ festival will offer a series of back to back concerts featuring some of Australia’s top ensembles and artists.”
Are Symphony Orchestras Really In Trouble? No, Not Really, Says ICSOM Chair
Bruce Ridge: “I think sometimes the negative perception can be a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. … The true story to be told is how resilient our orchestras have been. We’ve emerged from the recession with tremendous growth in many places. … The arts in America generate over $135 billion in economic activity every year and support over four million full time jobs for Americans. Often lost in this discussion is that art is good business.”
The Hustle Of Publishing Arts News In The Postprint Era: The Case Of The Brooklyn Rail
“The Rail, which reaches about 20,000 readers a month in print and an additional 200,000 online, is among a group of niche publications that have found ways to defy a media industry increasingly preoccupied with greater scale. For these publications, serving small, often highbrow readerships, it is not possible to follow the prevailing model – gathering audiences of millions, or tens of millions, to be sold for pennies to advertisers or converted to subscribers.”
Big Changes Coming To The Barnes Foundation: Revamped Teaching And More Outreach
It’s about more than just the new chief curator. Now settled in its new home in Center City Philadelphia, the foundation “is poised to roll out an expansive plan embracing multiple ways of thinking about art, teaching art, and bringing art to the broader community … At the same time, the foundation will be seeking to raise an additional $100 million in endowment funds to help bankroll the new initiatives.”
Melissa Mathison, 65, Screenwriter Of ‘E.T.,’ ‘Black Stallion,’ ‘Kundun’
“[She] specialized in stories revolving around children. But, as she often said, she made a point of not condescending to them. ‘I go to movies with my children and see fat kids burping, parents portrayed as total morons, and kids being mean and materialistic, and I feel it’s really slim pickin’s out there,’ she [said] in 1995. ‘There’s a little dribble of a moral tacked on, but the story is not about that.'”
Why Humans Need To Believe (What Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, And Even Stephen Jay Gould Get Wrong)
Despite Gould’s split-the-difference approach – science and religion as “non-overlapping magisteria” – “The fact is that religion and science do overlap in people’s minds, in their life choices, in the difficult moral challenges society faces. To strictly deny the power of religion in the world, with billions following a diversity of faiths, is also terribly naïve. The difficult question that needs to be asked is why so many people across every culture need to believe. What is religion providing that so many need to embrace?” Astrophysicist Marcelo Gleiser has some ideas.
How To Live A Lie: Accepting Morality And Free Will Even If You Don’t Believe They’re Real
“The philosopher Michael Ruse has argued that ‘morality is a collective illusion foisted upon us by our genes.’ If that’s true, why have our genes played such a trick on us?” Philosopher William Irwin considers the options of what he calls fictionalism – religious, moral, or free will – and compatbilism.
The Rumors Are True: Sergei Polunin And Natalia Osipova Are A Couple, And They Claim Ballet Companies Won’t Let Them Dance Together
The two stars, “who have electrified the dance world both on-stage and off thanks to a series of scandals, have announced they are to perform together for the first time in the UK, as they make a surprise move into contemporary dance.”