“National Gallery of Art Director Earl ‘Rusty’ Powell, whose tenure has been marked by the collection’s growth, the renovation of nearly every space and a startling lack of controversy, will retire in early 2019 after more than 25 years in charge. … Next year, the trustees will begin the process of finding a successor for the longest-serving director in its 76-year history.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
A Year After Bankruptcy, New York’s Big Apple Circus Is Back
With $8 million in debt, the beloved one-ring circus had seemed like it was finished for good, but – after an auction and a switch to for-profit status – it’s back in its old digs at Lincoln Center. Alexis Soloski paid a visit.
Is Ireland Trying To Eliminate One Of Its Orchestras By Attrition?
RTÉ, the national broadcaster, has let 20 positions in its two ensembles – the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra – remain vacant, and sources say one in five posts will be unfilled by next summer. Critic Michael Dervan is one of many observers wondering if the RTÉ is trying to merge its orchestras without admitting to it.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 11.07.17
Community Knowledge
It’s no secret that I advocate for arts organizations addressing community interests. (Well, duh!) And, in order to do that, we have to know what those interests are. (Again, duh!) On my website I address … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2017-11-07
About that Arts Council England economic report
I’ve been away from the blog for a while, but I just can’t keep myself away from economic impact studies of the arts. The latest is from Arts Council England – you can read the … read more
AJBlog: For What It’s Worth Published 2017-11-07
“Tepid Investigation” by the AG: Judge Permits Berkshire Museum Sales
It seems that the Attorney General Office’s intervention in the Berkshire Museum case was too little, too late in the view of Judge John Agostini of Berkshire County Superior Court. He ruled this afternoon … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-11-07
Why The Museum Of Ice Cream Isn’t Really A Museum – And Doesn’t Entirely Work For Its Real Purpose
Alexandra Lange makes the case that the MoIC, which opened in Manhattan a year ago last summer, actually functions as a playground. The problem is that, by intent or not, it has become a phenomenon like Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Rooms.
Mir-Anon: Inside The Support Group For Ex-Employees Of Harvey Weinstein
Yes, that’s short for Miramax Anonymous. Says one longtime “member,” “When you weren’t feeling terrorized, the people you were meeting were extraordinary. And the glitz and glamour of the lifestyle would make you forget about the horrors.”
Nancy Friday, Best-Selling Author On Women’s Issues, Dead At 84
“[She was] a dissatisfied daughter of the sexual revolution whose best-selling books” – My Secret Garden and My Mother/My Self – “aimed to liberate women from embarrassment over their erotic fantasies and from fraught relationships with their mothers.”
‘Sex, Spies, And The National Anthem’ – The Scandal That Nearly Brought Down The Boston Symphony
“BSO founder Henry Lee Higginson poured all of his soul and much of his fortune into seeing the orchestra flourish. But his ambition for it to rival the best European orchestras remained out of reach until he lured the German Kaiser’s favorite conductor to Boston” in 1912. Five years on, no less than Teddy Roosevelt declared, “Muck ought not to be allowed at large in this country!”
Residents Of North Philly’s Most Troubled Neighborhood Are Putting Their Story On Stage
“Mike Durkin stands on Kensington Avenue, handing out fliers for a play he wants the neighborhood to help him write. It’s called The Old Man and the Delaware River, an adaptation of the celebrated Ernest Hemingway short novel, The Old Man and the Sea. … In Durkin’s version, the old man is the people of Kensington and the struggle is the opioid crisis.”
They’ve Finally Figured Out What Killed Chopin – By Examining His Pickled Heart
“The great Polish composer and pianist Frédéric Chopin had a morbid fear of premature burial. ‘The earth is suffocating,’ he told one of his sisters as he lay on his death bed in 1849. ‘Swear to make them cut me open, so that I won’t be buried alive.’ … His heart was removed and later stored in a jar of cognac, then interred in a church pillar in Poland. Now scientists have taken advantage of Chopin’s morbid desire.”