The document is the original printer’s manuscript of the Book of Mormon, sold to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the church most people know as “Mormon”) by the Community of Christ, the Independence, Missouri-based denomination formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Guggenheim Museum Gets Pushback After Withdrawing Three Works Protested By Animal-Rights Activists
Claiming that it had received threats of violence well beyond what it had encountered in the past, the Guggenheim pulled three pieces from its exhibition “Art and China After 1989: Theater of the World” – only to come under a new round of criticism from artists, curators, and PEN America for capitulating to “heightened political sensitivities that have been amplified by social media.”
Gisèle Casadesus, Dean Of France’s Classical Actors And Matriarch Of Its Great Performing Arts Dynasty, Dead At 103
Daughter of conductor Henri Casadesus and harpist Marie-Louise Beetz, mother of conductor Jean-Claude, composer Dominique, painter Béatrice, and actress Martine Casadesus, Gisèle joined the Comédie-Française in 1934 at age 20, where she played 120 roles over almost three decades. Afterwards, she had an extensive career in both theater and film; her final screen performance, at age 96, was with Gérard Depardieu in the 2010 film La Tête en friche. (in French; Google Translate version here)
Joffrey Ballet To Move Into Chicago’s Lyric Opera House
Just as the two companies have opened their first major collaboration, “the Joffrey Ballet and Lyric Opera of Chicago announced Friday that the dance company will move its season residencies from the Auditorium Theatre to the Lyric Opera House, beginning in fall 2020.”
Opera Australia Threatened With Fines For Hiring Too Many Foreign Singers
In the perpetual tug-of-war between hiring the best artists available from anywhere and helping Australian singers make a living in their home country, the balance has swung to the former, with the number of non-Australians in leading roles in the company having tripled over the past seven years. So a government report has recommended docking funding for Opera Australia by up to $200,000 if it doesn’t maintain an “appropriate balance” of Australian and foreign singers.
Afghanistan’s Cinema History, Some 7,000 Films, Saved From The Taliban
“When the Taliban charged in to Afghanistan’s state-run film company in the mid-1990s intent on destroying all the movies, Habibullah Ali risked everything to save them. He hid thousands of reels of footage showcasing Afghanistan’s rich cultural history … Two decades later those reels, which include long-lost movies and documentary images of Afghanistan before it was ravaged by violence, are being made available to watch again through digitisation.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 09.26.17
Zero Sum Funding?
The pursuit of grants, sponsorships, and donations is a central focus of all nonprofits – the arts no less than any other type of tax exempt entity. It keeps us up at night, permeates our dreams … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2017-09-26
Tom Petty at the Hollywood Bowl
Last night, Tom Petty concluded a lengthy tour with the third of three shows at the Hollywood Bowl. The tour was designed to look back at 40 years with his band, The Heartbreakers, and … read more
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2017-09-26
Writer on a Rampage
In a tribute to the late German author Carl Weissner, who wrote experimental fiction in both English and German in addition to translating more than 100 books by dissident American and British authors, … read more
AJBlog: Straight|Up Published 2017-09-26
Why Founders Leave, And Sometimes Shut Down, Their Dance Companies
Dance Magazine’s Nancy Wozny talks to Trey McIntyre, Liz Lerman, and Sandra Organ Solis about how they made their fateful decisions and what they went on to do.
This Ballet Company Is Creating An Entire Program From Scratch In Two Weeks
“Choreographers Javier De Frutos, Craig Revel Horwood, Ivan Perez and Christopher Wheeldon have teamed up with all-male dance company BalletBoyz for its new show, Fourteen Days. The choreographers will each work with different composers and given just 14 days to work with the BalletBoyz ensemble to create a new piece.”
The Two Years Year That Changed Alexander Calder’s Life And Made Him The Sculptor We Remember Today
In the late 1920s, “Calder’s figure sculptures had already gained him a reputation as a troubadour of the giddy high spirits of the Roaring Twenties on both sides of the Atlantic.” (For example, the pictured sculpture of Josephine Baker from 1929.) “What changed? In the years 1930 and 1931 Calder made two life-changing decisions: He became a married man and an abstract artist.”