Earlier this month I highlighted three factors fueling a growing international interest in community engagement and the arts: economics, demographics, and funders’ demands for much broader community impact than is typical with Eurocentric arts organizations. It seems like a little expansion on these existential threats to the status quo might be in order. – Doug Borwick
Author: Matthew Westphal
Andy Martin Flies High
The jazz bands of the United States military services have long histories of impressive achievement. Let’s see and hear the veteran Los Angeles trombonist Andy Martin with the US Air Force’s Airmen Of Note in a 2012 concert in Washington, DC. – Doug Ramsey
Maya Turovskaya, ‘The Soviet Susan Sontag’, Dead At 94
She co-wrote the famous documentary Ordinary Fascism, which was seen by millions of ordinary Soviet citizens (and got past the censors because it was, on the surface, about the Nazis), but she spent most of her career as a widely admired theatre and film critic, “writing cultural criticism that was erudite and cleareyed — and that managed not to outrage the Soviet authorities.” – The New York Times
You Know The Straw Man Fallacy — Here’s The Burning Man Fallacy (Which You’ve Definitely Seen In Action)
“It is not composed simply of a single distortion, but rather a slew of mischaracterizations bent on representing one’s opponents in the worst light. … In deploying the burning man fallacy, one not only stuffs an opposing figure with straw, but then proceeds to surround it with more tinder and additional flammable material, with the intention of committing the view at issue to the flames, along with whole traditions, movements, and ways of thinking.” – 3 Quarks Daily
The 25 Years And Seven Serious Tries It Took Terry Gilliam To Make His Don Quixote Film
There were the NATO jets overflying the filming location. The prostate infection that took out the lead actor. The woman who claimed she could get financing from the deposed president of Tunisia. Another lead actor who died just before filming was to start. The Portuguese producer who rescued the project and then sued to kill it. Bilge Ebiri talks with the director about the very long, very strange journey. – New York Magazine
‘Seismic Shift’: American Children’s Books Have Rapidly Become More Diverse
“Campaigners have hailed a ‘seismic shift’ in US children’s publishing after statistics showed that the number of kids’ books featuring African-American characters has more than doubled over the last 10 years, and the number featuring Asians more than tripled.” – The Guardian
A Deaf Actor In The RSC’s Mainstage Shakespeare
Charlotte Arrowsmith, who’s played Cassandra in Troilus and Cressida, Curtis in The Taming of the Shrew, and Audrey in As You Like It, writes about integrating sign language into her performances, communicating with her colleagues, and what mainstream theatres need to do to accomodate deaf actors. – Arts Professional
NBA Teams Are Creating Dance Squads For Dancers Over 50
This season, the Washington Wizards introduced the Wizdom, a 20-member squad, all women 50 and older, who dance during timeouts. The crowd loves them. And a dozen other teams in the league have similar squads of older adult dancers. – The Washington Post
Why Arts Orgs’ Boycott Of Sackler Money Makes A Difference
Philip Kennicott: “What matters is that sometimes lightning strikes, and there is hell to pay, and suddenly a name is blackened forever. That kind of justice may be terrifying and swift and inconsistent, but it sends a blunt message: When the world finally learns that what you have done is loathsome, it may not be possible to undo the damage through the miraculous scrubbing power of cultural detergent.” – The Washington Post
Are We Now To Subject Every Major Arts Donor To A Moral Purity Test?
Mark Lawson: “What would count as an acceptable way of having become rich enough to have some spare to dish out to the arts? Sponsorship by BP and Nestlé has been questioned because of environmental or ethical concerns about the nature of the patrons’ business. Airlines, which have consistently been generous to the arts, are now on the wrong side of history, as, in a post-crash era queasy about capitalism, are most makers of money. … And if the funding of buildings and exhibitions is subject to ethical scrutiny, then why not their content as well?” – The Guardian