“The city council’s homelessness strategy for the next five years explicitly includes a commitment to increasing access to arts … [as part of] what is described as a jigsaw of homelessness support approaches.” Says one arts executive involved, “Funding to local government to help tackle homelessness was reduced, so for the first time the city council said they couldn’t solve it on their own – and we were there to offer a solution.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Renoir Painting Stolen From Vienna Auction House
Shortly after 5 p.m. on Monday, three men dressed in ordinary clothes entered the Dorotheum auction house, walked up to Renoir’s Golfe, mer, falaises vertes, took it out of its frame, and walked right out. Said a police spokesman, “It was very quick. Nobody noticed.”
‘Growing The Southern Theater Canon’: Alabama Shakespeare Festival Launches Major Commissioning Project
“The Alabama Shakespeare Festival will commission 22 plays in the next five years, with more than half of the commissions set to go to female playwrights and playwrights of color. Rick Dildine, the artistic director of the [festival], … emphasized that the plays will focus on ‘transformative moments in the South that caused important and lasting changes to its people, culture and land.'”
Songs Sung By Auschwitz Inmates Discovered
University of Michigan musicologist Patricia Hall was doing research in the archives of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum when she found handwritten arrangements of popular German songs — titles such as “The Most Beautiful Time of Life” and “Sing a Song When You’re Sad” — assembled for prisoners to perform for their SS captors.
UK Parliament To Investigate ‘Class Ceiling’ In Arts
“A parliamentary inquiry has been launched to explore the lack of working-class performers, writers and musicians in the entertainment industry. … Topics such as arts education, access to training, low and no pay and recruitment will be covered in the wide-ranging review, which has been launched in response to the idea that social inequalities and class are often forgotten in the debate around diversity.”
Creative Industries In UK Now Worth More Than £100 Billion Annually
“According to figures published by the Department for Digital, Media, Culture and Sport (DCMS) on Wednesday, the value of the nation’s creative sector has almost doubled from £66.3bn in 2010 to £105.5bn [in 2017], and increased significantly from 2016’s figure of £94.8bn. TV, film, advertising, radio, photography, music, museums, art galleries and digital industries make up this sector.”
West End’s Top Ticket Prices Up By A Fifth, Though Lowest Prices Are Down 10%
“The average top-price ticket across all West End shows is £117.52, up 19% compared with 2017. This is the first time the average top-price ticket has exceeded £100, since The Stage started surveying in 2012. … For the first time in six years, The Book of Mormon has been overtaken as the most expensive seat across the entire West End by Hamilton, which has top-end tickets costing £250.”
Statue And Tomb Of Immanuel Kant Vandalized With Pink Paint In Russia
The monuments are in the city of Kaliningrad, Russia’s Baltic Sea coast exclave tucked between Lithuania and Poland. Before World War II, Kaliningrad was the German city of Königsberg, where Kant made his home. Leaflets scattered near the statue denounced the German philosopher as a traitor to Russia, presumably because he is a reminder of Kaliningrad’s German past.
Take A One-Woman Drag Show About Machismo And Consent. Now Have A Man Perform It. What Happens?
At the Edinburgh Fringe this past summer and currently in London, Los Angeles actor Natalie Palamides performs her solo show titled Nate, in whch she plays an unrepentantly dopey douchebag. For two nights this week, Palamides had the show’s director, Phil Burgers (who performs as a clown under the stage name Dr. Brown), stepped in for her while she called out directions from just offstage. Did the gender swap change everything about the show? Brian Logan went to find out.
This And That
Saxophonist, bandleader, arranger, composer and educator Bill Kirchner sent a message today about making members of a new generation aware of Paul Desmond. And as I was later auditioning recently-arrived recordings for possible review, up popped a track from pianist Lisa Hilton’s Oasis CD.