“The claim is made in a major new report into the impact that being a parent can have on people working in the sector, which also found that around three quarters of survey respondents – 74% – had to turn down work because of having a child.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
How Shows Graduate From Smash Hit To Revolutionary Phenomenon
“Hamilton has managed to grab the greater culture by the lapels and give it a good shake unlike any show since The Book of Mormon. It’s been called historic and game-changing … How does a show make that leap from a simple piece of boffo box office – which only means the show is popular and selling tickets – to the kind of attraction that becomes part of the cultural conversation?”
Tania Bruguera Vows To Return To Cuba Despite Eight-Month Ordeal
“After she was detained by the Cuban authorities and had her passport confiscated, [the artist and activist] suffered harassment, surveillance and physical abuse. Her ‘crime’ was proposing to restage Tatlin’s Whisper #6, a performance piece about free speech, in Havana’s Revolution Square.” She was granted an exit visa to go to London for this year’s Frieze, but warned that she might not be allowed back.
How to Disagree: Amin Maalouf on the Key to Intelligent Dissent and Effective Criticism
“To approach someone else convincingly you must do so with open arms and head held high, and your arms can’t be open unless your head IS high. … The key word is reciprocity.”
Ballet Along The Sides Of A Skyscraper
This week’s viral dance video features two members of the daredevil company Bandaloop making their moves in midair outside the windows of a Shanghai office tower.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 10.15.15
Defending Melissa Chiu
When the Hirshhorn Museum, which has been led for the last year by Melissa Chiu, late of the Asia Society Museum, announced that its 40th anniversary gala would be held in New York, not in Washington, D.C., … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2015-10-15
No hope for Hamlet
Benedict Cumberbatch made me cry at Hamlet. Or, more precisely, at the curtain call, with a beautifully feeling, indignant and compassionate appeal for Save the Children’s work in the Syrian refugee crisis. … read more
AJBlog: Performance Monkey Published 2015-10-15
Dancing as the Leaves Fall
Every autumn, as the leaves change color and begin to consider falling, Fall for Dance defines the verb differently: New Yorkers and savvy visitors buy bargain-price tickets and fall in love with dance—or at least with some of the twenty companies, … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2015-10-15
More on Carmine Branagan’s Departure from National Academy
“You have reached the office of Carmine Branagan, director of the National Academy Museum and School.” So said the voicemail message when I called Branagan’s office about an hour ago. But a highly reliable informed source … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2015-10-15
Weekend Listening Tip: Mays & Stamm
Last weekend, pianist Bill Mays wrapped up a tour of the west with his Inventions Trio, which includes trumpeter and flugelhornist Marvin Stamm and cellist Alisa Horn. Longtime collaborators in several projects, Mays and Stamm … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2015-10-15
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LOVE Conquered All: How Robert Indiana’s Sculpture Went From Artwork To Meme To Icon
“With its four letters stacked in a square and its O at a jaunty angle, [LOVE] is so famous that many millions of viewers may not even realise it’s an artwork at all. But it is an artwork – one that hovers over Indiana’s career like a helicopter, and that has obscured almost all his other work over the past six decades.” (If only he’d copyrighted it.)
Magnetic Poetry, The Populist Product That Began With A Sneeze
“In the late 1990s, you couldn’t hunt for a snack in an American home without coming across a magnetic poem or two. But in the decades since the product first stuck itself to the collective consciousness, fridges nationwide have slowly begun shedding their words. The history of the form itself, though, goes back much farther than Kapell’s sneeze – and the increasingly digital future will likely only widen its reach.”
$300,000 Gish Prize Goes To Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks
The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize goes to “highly accomplished artists … who have pushed the boundaries of their art forms, contributed to social change and paved the way for the next generation.” Among previous winners are Bob Dylan, Frank Gehry, Ornette Coleman, Arthur Miller, Spike Lee, and Maya Lin.
Pond Scum: Thoreau Was A Dishonest, Narcissistic Prig And ‘Walden’ Is ‘Cabin Porn’
Kathryn Schulz: “In [the popular] image, Thoreau is our national conscience: the voice in the American wilderness, urging us to be true to ourselves and to live in harmony with nature. This vision cannot survive any serious reading of Walden. The real Thoreau was, in the fullest sense of the word, self-obsessed: narcissistic, fanatical about self-control, adamant that he required nothing beyond himself to understand and thrive in the world.”