“Shane Jewell, announced today as the new executive director of Orlando Ballet, says he’ll be sticking around. But he’s keenly aware that after a revolving door of ballet executives in the past few years, there’s no reason for Central Floridians to believe him. … [There have been] years of financial crises and leadership changes at the ballet, which has had six executive directors since 2011. It nearly shut its doors for good in 2015.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Glenda Jackson Will Return To Broadway In A New King Lear
The Oscar- and Tony-winning actor, now 82, returned to the stage two years ago, after a 23-year career in the UK Parliament, playing Lear in a modern-dress production at the Old Vic. Rather than bringing that staging to Broadway, she’ll be performing next spring with an entirely new creative team and cast assembled by lead producer Scott Rudin.
Glasgow School Of Art Will Have To Be Partly Demolished – And Fast
Contrary to reports last week that the landmark building by Charles Rennie Mackintosh remained “structurally solid” following the fire that raged through it earlier this month, “Glasgow City Council officials said that their surveys … have shown that there has been substantial movement in the building, meaning a sudden collapse of certain parts of it was ‘likely’.”
We Started A Theatre Company In An Old Bus Station (And No, We’re Not Entirely Bonkers)
Peter Tate and Anthony Biggs write about how they launched The Playground Theatre in a former depot near the recently-burned Grenfell Tower in London, how they decided to configure and equip the empty building, how they connected with audiences in what may be the most diverse area in the entire UK, and how they raised the money to pay for it all.
Founder Of Museum Of Russian Impressionism Flees Russia
“The real estate developer Boris Mints opened the Museum of Russian Impressionism in the former Bolshevik confectionery plant [in Moscow] in 2016. At the end of May, news emerged that Mints and his family had fled to London, reportedly to avoid possible criminal investigation in Russia over bank dealings.”
Germany Increases Arts Budget To €1.8 Billion
“The German parliament has approved a 9% increase in federal spending on culture, bringing the total budget to €1.8bn. Additional funding has been earmarked for preserving and protecting heritage buildings, archive materials and memorial sites. Another priority of the budget is to increase arts offerings and education in rural regions, says the German culture minister Monika Grütters.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 06.28.18
What’d I Miss? News Flashes from the Berkshire Museum & Frick Collection
I leave town for a five-day vacation and news breaks out on several important art-museum stories that we’ve been following (not to mention on several much more important national news stories that … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2018-06-28
A Gala and Denmark in the Berkshires
Members of the Royal Danish Ballet Come to Jacob’s Pillow, as it celebrates its 86th anniversary. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2018-06-28
Weekend Extra: The New One By Scenes
Scenes, Destinations (Origin)
Drummer John Bishop, guitarist John Stowell and bassist Jeff Johnson will soon be celebrating two decades together as the trio they call Scenes. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-06-28
Should An Artist Like Anish Kapoor Be Invoking His Copyright Just Because He Doesn’t Like The NRA’s Politics?
“Whether Sir Anish should leverage a law meant to foster and incentivize creativity and debate to instead silence and censor speech is the question before us. Put another way, does US Copyright law grant a copyright owner the sole and exclusive right to control how their copyrighted work is used?”
Stealing Art Is Easy – Doing Anything With It Afterward Is What’s Hard
“‘The main rule is that it’s not that hard to steal art, even from museums, but it’s almost impossible to translate that art into cash,’ says Noah Charney, a scholar and author who’s published multiple books on art theft. Paintings can be quickly cut out of frames, and small sculptures can be tucked into bags — even jewelry can be secreted away — but finding a buyer for your art or diamonds is often impossible. ‘Criminals don’t understand that, because their knowledge of art crime is based on fiction and films,’ Charney says.”
In His Head, He Was Constantly Panning It: When A New Yorker Book Critic Writes A Novel Of His Own
James Wood: “I find I can’t turn off the critical monitor quite how I would like to. … Perhaps I’ve reconciled myself to that inability, but I’ve come to the conclusion that that isn’t such a bad thing, that maintaining a critical consciousness at least enables me to review myself, edit myself, think twice and three times about everything I’m doing. … I found it to be sort of an intensely self-critical activity. So yeah, I was constantly writing my worst possible reviews.”