The good news: “When an expanded Buffalo Albright-Knox-Gundlach Museum opens in 2021, visitors will see their own reflections in a kaleidoscopic network of mirrored glass suspended over the center of the campus.” The bad news: “But before experiencing Common Sky, a monumental sculpture by Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson that will enclose a new public gathering space, … the gallery’s buildings will close for at least two years.” – The Buffalo News
Author: Matthew Westphal
Conductor Daniele Gatti And Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Settle Lawsuit Over His Firing
“After the dismissal of Daniele Gatti as Music Director of the Amsterdam based Concertgebouw Orchestra, following allegations of sexual harassment, both parties had ‘constructive consultations’ and have agreed to issue the statement below.” (The statement says nothing about Gatti’s departure as such, let alone the reason for it.) – Pizzicato
New Tolkien Biopic Disowned By Tolkien Estate
“On Tuesday morning, the estate and family of Tolkien issued a terse statement in which they announced their ‘wish to make clear that they did not approve of, authorise or participate in the making of this film'” — titled Tolkien and starring Nicholas Hoult and Lily collins as Prof. and Mrs. T. — “and that ‘they do not endorse it or its content in any way’.” – The Guardian
UK Museums To Compare Detailed Visitor Figures With Those From Other Leisure Outlets
“A consortium of 18 organisations, including the Tate group of galleries, the British Museum and Imperial War Museums, has contracted market researchers DJS Research for a major project that will assess visitor experience, satisfaction and attendance over the next four years” — and will compare the findings with similar data from such attractions as theme parks. – Arts Professional
Soprano Heather Harper, 88
“She graced the concert and opera stages of the world in roles that ranged from Ellen Orford in Britten’s Peter Grimes – where her sympathy for the character drew a near-definitive portrayal – to the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier.” – The Guardian
Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Extraordinary Female Iranian Artist, Dead At 96
Are These Two Guys In India Building The World’s Largest Public Library?
That’s how they’re describing it, but not really — it’s more like the world’s largest poetry-in-the-subways-and-streets project, and it’s called StickLit. – The Guardian
Raggin’ the Classics
Electronica artist Max Cooper and I launch a new project this spring, a collaboration called Glassforms. We overlay electronic sounds — onto piano music by Glass. There have been Glass remixes before; Glassforms is something else. – Bruce Brubaker
John Cameron Mitchell’s New Podcast Has A Galaxy Of Stars And A Singing Brain Tumor
Anthem: Homunculus “is not the first podcast musical to be released. And though it contains a love ballad from a brain tumor to its host, it may not even be the strangest. But it is probably the most ambitious and, with a cast that includes [Patti] LuPone, Glenn Close, Cynthia Erivo, Marion Cotillard and Laurie Anderson (as the tumor), certainly the starriest.” – The New York Times
‘A Republic Of Readers’: Mexico’s New Chief Literary Minister (Yes) Is A Bomb-Thrower Who Aims To Transform Its Book Industry
The Fondo de Cultura Económica is a huge government-funded publishing house, influential throughout the Spanish-speaking world, and its boss basically is Mexico’s minister of literature. And the man whom populist president Andrés Manuel López Obrador chose for the job, famous radical author Paco Ignacio Taibo II, “is a full-time provocateur … imagine a somewhat younger Noam Chomsky being appointed US Secretary of State, and you’ll get the drift.” – The Nation