“In a video recorded during the airport protest Friday, hundreds of demonstrators can be seen participating in a sit-down and heard singing and clapping to an a cappella version of ‘Do You Hear the People Sing?’ from the 1987 blockbuster … Les Misérables.” – The Washington Post
Author: Matthew Westphal
Mural Muddle: San Francisco School Board’s Lose-Lose Decision on Its WPA Art
In a 4-3 decision that’s likely to satisfy no one, the board elected to cover the Life of Washington mural without destroying it. The estimated cost: $875,000. Wouldn’t that money be better spent on education, not obliteration? – Lee Rosenbaum
How The Royal Ballet Trains Pigeons To Play The Title Roles In A Frederick Ashton Ballet
The eponymous avians in Ashton’s The Two Pigeons are meant to be living symbols of the relationship between the two human leads, called the Young Man and the Young Girl. Reporter Jennifer Lu talks with Emma Hills, who trains the pigeons who have been doing the show for a decade, about how she teaches them and what mischief they occasionally get up to. – Pointe Magazine
After Difficult Period, New York Public Radio Has New CEO
Goli Sheikholeslami, who since 2014 has led a major turnaround as Chicago Public Radio (WBEZ), will take the helm at New York Public Radio (which includes WNYC, classical station WQXR, NJ Public Radio, and WNYC Studios, a major podcast producer) in October. She succeeds Laura Walker, who presided over extraordinary growth over more than two decades but came under pressure after a series of accusations and scandals involving longtime radio hosts. – The New York Times
World’s Biggest Movie Industry Is Finally Embracing Sci-Fi
“[Science fiction] isn’t a new genre in Indian cinema, but it has nothing like the profile it has in the West. … While Hollywood has a long tradition of making more naturalistic films about space travel – from 2001: A Space Odyssey, to Gravity and First Man – it’s only now, with the enormous strides in India’s own space exploration, that such films are beginning to resonate with the public.” – The Guardian
Even New Operas Are Still Treating Women As Sacrificial Lambs. When The Hell Will It Stop?
Joshua Kosman: “Here’s my request for today to creators of contemporary opera: How would it be if we had a new work that did not turn on a female character sacrificing herself to redeem a man? … The Bay Area’s operatic stages this month have been weirdly rife with women eager to throw themselves overboard for a man’s sake, and honestly my patience is starting to wear a little thin.” – San Francisco Chronicle
Takis, Sculptor Known For ‘Kinetic Art’, Dead At 93
“A self-described ‘instinctive scholar,’ Takis” — né Panayiotis Vassilakis — “worked primarily in plaster and wrought iron before becoming fascinated by magnetism, electricity and sound — and how those unseen forces animate the physical world and how they might also breathe life into his artistic creations.” – The Washington Post
More Than 70,000 People Used New York City Libraries’ Culture Pass In Its First Year
Of those 70,000, 12,000 signed up in the first week alone. “Cardholders at the Brooklyn, New York and Queens public libraries can gain free admission through the program at participating cultural institutions that include museums, performance venues, botanical gardens and historical societies.” – The New York Times
How Far Are Institutions Obligated To Protect The Art In Their Possession, And What Can The Public Reasonably Insist Those Institutions Do?
Reflecting on the contretemps over the Life of Washington murals at a San Francisco high school as well as the decision by one small Northern California museum to sell much of its art and another to end an exhibition program, Charles Desmarais considers “what I think of as a kind of cultural duty of care — with the avoidance of negligence or harm to works of art maintained by an organization for the public good.” – San Francisco Chronicle
Controversial San Francisco School Mural Won’t Be Removed. It Will Be Hidden By Panels.
In a 4-to-3 vote, the San Francisco Board of Education voted to reverse its earlier decision to paint over the series of 13 Victor Arnautoff frescoes, collectively titled The Life of Washington, at the city’s George Washington High School. Students and activists had complained of the murals’ depiction of Native Americans and of Washington’s African-American slaves, though Arnautoff had maintained that those depictions were meant to be critical of the country’s treatment of those two groups. – The New York Times