The second half of the book in particular — originally published, and still sold in Britain, under the separate title Good Wives — “is, for the most part, incredibly dull; most of it is left out of film interpretations. And yet,” argues Hillary Kelly, “it needs to be reckoned with if we’re going to assess what it means for young girls to read Little Women today. … It is obsessed with wifely duty — deferential to patriarchy and dismissive of female ambition of any variety other than the maternal. … It’s downright strange that intelligent women would call a book that disposes of its protagonists’ dreams in order to settle them into lives darning socks ‘required reading’ for young girls today.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Gallerist Phyllis Kind, Who Created A Market For ‘Outsider’ Artists, Dead At 85
“What started as a print shop devoted to Old Masters quickly became, under Phyllis’s leadership …, a hotbed for vanguard art in [Chicago], promoting artists — grouped together under the names the Hairy Who and the Chicago Imagists — who were mining comic books, Pop art, and Surrealism to make graphically punchy, bawdy, psychedelic, and psychologically charged pictures.”
‘She Changed My Life. Twice.” — Jerry Saltz Pays Tribute To Phyllis Kind
“[She was] possessor of one of the sharpest bullshit detectors I’ve ever experienced.” Saltz recounts two occasions from his ne’er-do-well younger days in which Kind got him to straighten up and fly right. (And it kinda worked, for a while.)
Irvin Mayfield’s New Orleans Jazz Orchestra Misdirected, Misspent Public Funds: Audit
The report fleshes out details of the alleged activities for which trumpeter Mayfield and orchestra CEO Ronald Markham face wire fraud, money laundering, and other criminal charges. The audit found that Mayfield spent $28,000 of NOJO money at the Ritz-Carleton in New York and that he and Markham diverted earmarked state and city money into NOJO payroll and operations.
Bronx Museum Of The Arts To Open Manhattan Satellite
“The new site will be a hub for participants in the institution’s flagship emerging artist program, Artist in the Marketplace (AIM), which provides professional development resources — such as art law education, help with financial planning, and writing workshops — to emerging artists in New York City.” The 4,800-square-foot space is on the second floor of a former manufacturing site in Tribeca.
Sometimes We Just Have To Let An Arts Institution Die: Arts Council England Report
The study, titled “What is Resilience Anyway?”, says, “For the sector as a whole to be resilient, all the organisations within it do not necessarily need to survive in their current form … a more resilient sector might allow more organisations to come to a natural end.”
Justin Peck Will Choreograph Spielberg’s ‘West Side Story’ Remake
Peck, the New York City Ballet dancer and choreographer who won a Tony this year for his work on Carousel, will create the dances for the film, which will be directed by Steven Spielberg to a screenplay by Tony Kushner.
Tampa Bay’s Florida Orchestra Extends Music Director’s Term
“This week the orchestra … extended [Michael] Francis’ contract another three years, pushing his commitment through the 2023-2024 season. It’s a major step for the fourth music director in the orchestra’s history, coming on the heels of a record-breaking 50th season.”
12th-Century Statue At Santiago De Compostela Defaced By KISS Fan
In early August, an unidentified culprit painted the rock band’s name and a cat face (or, alternatively, the face of a band member) on a sculpture that had just undergone a five-year restoration at the medieval pilgrimage center.
Mexico City Now Has A Full-Size Replica Of The Sistine Chapel Ceiling
Miguel Francisco Macias, a retired graphic designer, spent 18 years reproducing Michelangelo’s frescos for his neighborhood church, whose ceiling is almost exactly the same size.