“Janet Archer, the chief executive of Creative Scotland, has resigned from her post” – effective immediately (and with six months’ severance pay) – “after a turbulent six months following uproar in the cultural world over its long-term funding decisions.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Indian Court Rules That Actors Can’t Be Held Liable For Their Scripted Dialogue (Yes, This Had To Be Ruled On)
India’s broad defamation laws allow complainants to file civil or even criminal charges for insulting the feelings of religious groups or communities as well as individuals. Repeated suits along these lines have been brought against the producers of the hit Netflix India series Sacred Games. In one of the latest, concerning an epithet a character uses to describe the late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, “the Delhi High Court on Monday said actors cannot be held liable for the lines they read from a show’s script.” (The court also asked the complainant to demonstrate why his lawsuit was in the public interest at all.)
Young Chinese Conductors Are Finally Getting The Chance To Lead Major Chinese Orchestras
“Aged 36, Jing [Huan] is part of a new breed of foreign-trained conductors, as China hopes to gain recognition in the field after winning global fame for its soloists, including piano and string virtuosos. After long relying on Western conductors, a growing number of symphony orchestras around the country are now entrusting the baton to a fresh generation of Chinese musical directors.”
Christine Nöstlinger, 81, Prolific, Award-Winning Children’s Author
“[Her] more than 150 books — including works about an oppressive ‘cucumber king’ who lords over a cellar and a ‘factory-made boy’ who always goes to bed on time — earned her some of the highest honors in children’s literature, … sold millions of copies and were translated into 30 languages.”
Can Boston Re-Establish Itself As The Big Pre-Broadway Tryout Town?
“Composer Richard Rodgers, of Rodgers & Hammerstein fame, used to say he wouldn’t open a can of tomatoes without first bringing it to Boston. … It’s been a long time since the Hub had that kind of clout. But now a major new player, the UK-based Ambassador Theatre Group, and Emerson College are pouring millions of dollars into making the Emerson Colonial Theatre a venue for pre-Broadway tryouts.”
As Arts Philanthropy Pivots To Addressing Social Issues, How Do Big, Lumbering Legacy Organizations Keep Up?
Mike Scutari considers the issues involved in general and looks at how one particular old behemoth, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is working with a charitable trust on a residency program for artists in such underserved New York communities as East Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant.
How Two Major Ballet Company Bosses Are Trying To Change The Culture Of Bullying And Passivity
Judith Mackrell talks about counteracting the powerful forces of discipline/submissiveness, competition, ego, and tradition with Royal Ballet artistic director Kevin O’Hare (“We had issues with one guest coming in recently who was behaving in ways that we aren’t used to any more”) and Scottish Ballet artistic director Christopher Hampson (“We have 40 dancers, and there are still about 15 who would rather I shouted at them and tell them what to do.”).
How Instagram Is Messing Up The Dance World’s Value System
Theresa Ruth Howard: “There are the … dance feeds that I find myself simultaneously intrigued and horrified by: the hyper-elastic, hyper-extended, gumby-footed girls always at the barre doing developpés to six o’clock. There are the multiple turners, the avid stretchers and we can’t forget the endless balancers. … This is a slippery slope. Surfing Instagram is like watching the virtue of dance as a high art deteriorate in real time. Who and what goes viral is a reflection of a newly-forming value system. With each ‘like’ and ‘follow,’ we vote on the future of our field.”
Secrets Of The Mummies: 2,500-Year-Old Embalming Workshop Discovered In Egypt
“A mummification workshop and adjoining burial shaft as well as five mummies, their bejewelled sarcophagi, figurines, and a gilded silver and onyx mummy mask were all unearthed at the [Saqqara] site, which archeologists say provides a wealth of new knowledge about the mummification process.”
Design For Emanuel Church Shooting Memorial Revealed
“As envisioned by the architect Michael Arad, who also designed the National September 11 Memorial in Lower Manhattan, sections of the church’s parking lot would be transformed into two meditative spaces, one a stone memorial courtyard, the other a grassy survivors’ garden. Together they would speak to the suffering and resilience of a church that has outlasted two centuries of persecution through its practice of faith and forgiveness.”