Author: ArtsJournal2

When The American Museum Of Natural History Reopens, It Will No Longer Be Pay As You Wish

The planned reopening date is September 9, but of course not if infections start to crest again in New York. And, of course, “when it reopens, it will limit capacity to 25% and reduce its operating days to five instead of seven.” Then there’s the little matter of paying what the museum wishes, not what you wish. – Hyperallergic

What Does It Truly Mean To ‘Decolonize’ Dance?

Ask choreographer Sarah Crowell. The artistic director emeritus of the Destiny Arts Center. “The inquiry requires that we look at all levels of society. We have a particular way of seeing beauty that leaves people out. … In dance, George Balanchine had a great deal to do with creating an aesthetic that was seen as valid and the truth. Very slender, prepubescent, long-legged women. They would have to be white females, but it doesn’t cover all white femaleness. To me, the mind of the artist is like all the minds: colonized to think in a particular way. If what is beautiful is white and thin with long legs and very little breasts, then in the ballet world, how do we break that?” – San Francisco Classical Voice

Bidding Farewell To Havana’s City Historian And Conservationist

Eusebio Leal Spengler so loved the old city that he found ways to save it. “Never a priority in the 20th century, old Havana fell into disrepair. By befriending Fidel Castro, Leal began the process of bringing it back. He managed to get the old town designated a Unesco world heritage site, and then gather enough money from Europe to start putting the buildings back together.” (Spengler died on July 31.) – The Observer (UK)

Becoming The Accidental Chronicler Of Four Ridiculously Intense Years

In December of 2015, British novelist Ali Smith proposed an idea to her publishers: Four books in four years, as close to the time news events happened as possible. “I’d try to write one a year, deliver one a year. … If we did it like this, under time conditions, a kind of experiment sourced in cyclic time but moving forward through time simultaneously, it’d surely become about not just how story works but also how form, and society, and contemporary language itself – given that the novel form one way or another is always about all of these things – move and progress over a given time.” Wow, that given time. – The Guardian (UK)

Don’t Treat Women Writers Like Mistresses, Publishers

Novelist Kathleen McMahon says she’s tired of flowers on publication day. “MacMahon says she does not like that writers are treated ‘like show ponies . . . I’m not comfortable with that. I’d prefer to be an equal professional at the table. Everybody is doing a different job. You do your job and I’ll do mine. I sound harsh but I think it actually makes me better to work with . . . I am not trying to make friends with anybody.'” – Irish Times

What Is A Broadway Producer’s Moral Responsibility?

Arvind Ethan David is one of very few Broadway producers of color, and he (famously) gave a TED Talk comparing his path to becoming a U.S. citizen to his path producing the show Jagged Little Pill. After Broadway shut down and after George Floyd was murdered, he had to do something. “As a writer, I needed to write something about this moment. And as a producer, I knew I could put something together. And so that’s how it literally came out that night with a bunch of friends. A bunch of producers of writers, and actors of color, being depressed and angry, and texting each other.” And #WhileWeBreathe was born. – Token Theatre Friends