“At the start of the Cold War, a prominent group of women, who had worked their way up in broadcast media in the 1930s and ’40s, were poised to use the new medium of television to create the kind of inclusive, intersectional content that is only today finding traction. Then, the blacklist, a vicious, hearsay-riddled manifest of Hollywood talent with ties to Communism, silenced their creative output. It effectively turned back on the dial of progressive representations on TV by decades.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
The Gender Gap In Top Orchestras Is Still Too Wide
“Quartz at Work examined the instruments played by the musicians of the world’s 20 greatest orchestras, as ranked by the UK’s Gramophone magazine [in 2008], to understand how gender shapes their composition.” The findings? Not only are the musician ranks as a whole predominantly male (69%), but with some instruments, the divide is much larger.
It’s Not Only Denise Scott Brown: The Great Female Architects Overlooked In Favor Of Their Husbands
“Scott Brown is not alone. A deeply institutionalised invisibility cloak has long obscured the women in successful architectural partnerships, whether it’s MJ Long’s work on the British Library, a project usually credited to her husband Colin St John Wilson, or Su Rogers and Wendy Foster’s work on early projects with their husbands, Richard and Norman.”
Ambient Literature: The Latest High-Tech Hack Of The Reading Experience
“Using data from your smartphone such as weather, location and time, the programme interacts with the reader to tell the narrative in a unique and individualised way. No two stories will ever be the same experience. The technology enables the narrative to sync to the reader’s surroundings. So if it’s raining in real life, it will start raining in the story, if you’re sitting in a cafe, the action will take place in a cafe.”
Trying To Give Kids The Opera Bug Really, Really Young
“Welcome to London’s Royal Opera House, where Opera Dots, a workshop for toddlers, aims to build a future fan base, one hop at a time. Beneath an elegant iron-and-glass ceiling, a group of young guests giggle on a multi-colored play mat as they mimic a costumed performer singing and dancing her way through Hansel and Gretel. Some of the children do boisterous impressions of a scary witch, luring the innocent pair into her house of sweets.”
Takehisa Kosugi, Fluxus Composer-Violinist-Sound Artist, Dead At 80
“In 1960, Kosugi cofounded Group Ongaku, a Tokyo-based collective widely considered the first improvisational music ensemble formed in both the country and the world. … After allying himself with the Fluxus movement and participating in Happenings, he toured in a Volkswagen van from Rotterdam to the Taj Mahal as part of the Taj Mahal Travelers. With the group, he sketched out hallucinogenic, highly processed jams with an electric violin, radio oscillators, and his voice. … Between 1995 and 2011, Kosugi was the musical director for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.”
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum To Sell Three Paintings
The works to be auctioned at Sotheby’s next month — A Street (1926), Calla Lilies on Red (1928), and Cottonwood Tree in Spring (1943) — are expected to bring in well over $21 million to the Santa Fe museum’s acquisitions fund.
After A Year Of #MeToo, How Much Progress Has Theatre Made?
Says Vicky Featherstone, artistic director of London’s Royal Court Theatre, the first in Britain to completely revamp its policies for handling harassment allegations, “What we’ve uncovered is absolutely monumental and I feel we’re further away than we’ve ever been from getting to a place of truth or change. It’s really distressing.” On the other hand, four out of five theatres in the UK have overhauled their policies, and some actors say they feel a real change in the audition and rehearsal rooms.
Smithsonian To Go Ahead With This Weekend’s Saudi-Sponsored Festival Despite Khashoggi Disappearance
“Saudi Aramco donated $175,000 for the Arab Culture Weekend and other family programs at the Freer and Sackler galleries, the Smithsonian’s Asian art museums. The event opens amid an international backlash against Saudi leaders following the Oct. 2 disappearance and alleged killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The writer was last seen entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.”
Now Recruiting: A New Company Of ‘Monuments Men’
“A former Gulf War tank commander is recruiting experts to form a specialist unit” — called the Cultural Property Protection Unit — “that will protect cultural heritage in war zones, similar to the role carried out by the famed Monuments Men who saved artistic treasures from the Nazis during the Second World War. … The new unit will draw on members of the [British] Army, Navy, RAF and Royal Marines. Civilians who want to join will have to enlist in the Army Reserves.”