“Thomas Jefferson, Architect: Palladian Models, Democratic Principles and the Conflict of Ideals … at the Chrysler Museum, in Norfolk, Va., is one example of how some museums are working to incorporate the impact of slavery in exhibitions and permanent collections in a way not commonly done even a decade ago. … Other museums are also grappling with how they can rework or revise their collections, even in small ways, to acknowledge the role of slavery in the art itself or people represented by the art.” – The New York Times
Author: Matthew Westphal
An Art Program in Los Angeles Proposes Ways to Address Homelessness
“The Goethe-Institut has partnered with the Los Angeles Poverty Department in organizing Worlds of Homelessness, a weeklong interdisciplinary series of events featuring artists, architects, advocates, and performers.” – Hyperallergic
We’re In A Golden Age Of Invented Languages, And We’re Learning A Lot From Them
“Conlangs” (constructed languages) are hardly new: Esperanto and Volapük were created in the 19th century; Tolkien claimed he wrote his Middle Earth books so that someone would speak the Elvish tongues he invented; Klingon was completed in the 1980s. But over the past 30 years, conlangs have exploded (aided greatly by the Internet connecting the nerds who do the constructing). Some of these languages are being used in neurolinguistic research, and one has been developed as a useful lingua franca for Slavs. – Slate
The twenty-five record albums that changed my life (16)
The first Wal-Mart outside Arkansas opened in 1968 in Smalltown, U.S.A. Its record section had three bins of classical albums, many of them from Victrola, RCA’s budget line, which featured reissues from the golden age of 78s. For me that meant, first and foremost, the man B.H. Haggin called the greatest of all orchestral conductors. – Terry Teachout
At Age 87, Elaine May To Return To Film Directing
The news came from actress Dakota Johnson, who is to star in the feature, titled Crackpot; the item was buried deep in a news-and-gossip column at the trade website Deadline. The project could be a long-overdue bit of justice for May from Hollywood. – Slate
Meet Colombia’s Grand Entrepreneur Of Graffiti
“Where the average eye sees empty and drab building walls, [Camilo Fidel] López, the founder of the graffiti artists crew Vértigo Graffiti, sees blank canvases, opportunities to colorfully further the cause of social justice, whether in his home city — the Colombian capital, Bogotá — or the rest of the world. … Not a graffiti artist himself, Mr. López plays multiple roles: art director, business manager, promoter, negotiator, lawyer, entrepreneur, festival producer, even tour guide.” – The New York Times
Anna Deavere Smith Hands Over The Docu-Play That Made Her Famous — And For Which She Did All The Interviews — To Another Actor
A revival of Fires in the Mirror, Smith’s 1992 solo show about the riots in Crown Heights, Brooklyn and the tension between Caribbean Blacks and Hasidic Jews there, is opening in New York next week. For the first time, all 29 parts are being played by another actor: Michael Benjamin Washington. Salamishah Tillet interviews both of them about the handover. – The New York Times
After 48 Years, Guardian Theatre Critic Michael Billington Is Retiring
Says Billington, who began at the paper in 1971 and has written roughly 10,000 reviews, “I shall shortly be 80 and, with the years, the stress of writing to a deadline doesn’t get any easier. Giving up will be a wrench but I feel now is the right time to do it.” (And yes, the paper will hire a successor.) – The Guardian
Look Out, Akhnaten — Your Famous Son Is Getting An Opera Of His Own
As Philip Glass’s work about the monotheist pharaoh gets a major revival at the Met, news comes that a new opera on the life of King Tutankhamun is set to premiere late next year in Cairo. The libretto is co-written by the famous archaeologist Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s former minister of antiquities, with the score by Italian composer Lino Zambone. Performances are planned to mark the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo. – The Art Newspaper
Annie-B Parson Talks About Choreographing David Byrne For Broadway
“Often when I work with directors, or when I’m directing myself, what you think at the beginning often changes. That’s fair and normal. But with this show [American Utopia], the ideas David first presented me with have not changed. … I’ve worked with him for so long that I can literally get in his body.” – Vulture