With no live concerts since March and no prospect of restarting them soon, the orchestra commissioned Muhly to write a work specifically for virtual performance. The result is Throughline, “a piece of big-girl music that has big-girl stuff in it” (as Muhly put it) that involves the orchestra and all eight of the creative partners Esa-Pekka Salonen engaged when he was appointed SFS music director. – The New York Times
Blog
15 Past Presidents of AAMD Sign Letter Calling for Baltimore Museum to “Reconsider” Planned Sales
Can you stop a speeding freight train before it crashes? (Update: in this case, turns out the answer is yes.) – Lee Rosenbaum
What Will The Opus 3/San Francisco Conservatory Deal Mean For Classical Music?
Any such acquisition would be without precedent, but the size and history of Opus 3 makes the announcement headline news not only in the world of music and art but also among business executives and attorneys. Few details are contained in the original announcement and the source of financing what must be a multimillion-dollar acquisition remains confidential — at least for the time being. – San Francisco Classical Voice
‘Unmitigated Disaster’: Why Vice Media Appears Headed Toward A Bad End
“After being perceived as the red-hot center of Millennial-based media culture for the past decade or so, Vice’s place is harder to pinpoint now. Some of it is still edgy and provocative. But increasingly the impact of its work feels more like the proverbial trees falling in the forest. … Top executives at Vice tell you the present is pretty damn fabulous, while the best is yet to come. Former employees — or at least those willing to speak out despite confidentiality provisions in their contracts — say Vice is an unmitigated disaster.” – Air Mail
Who Gets Credit For Art Created By AI?
Researchers at MIT Media Lab and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development are wondering how people decide who gets credit for art that was created using artifical intelligence. After all, there would have been many different people involved in producing and selecting the original art used as the AI’s training data, in creating the program, and in curating the final output. In a recently published paper they showed that who gets credit for AI-generated art all depends on how we think and talk about the role of AI. – Forbes
Why Comedy Should Be Treated As The High Art It Is
“Crafting laughs is the most high-stakes form of creation. It is intrinsically difficult, as ‘funny’ varies from person to person in a way that ‘sad’ or ‘romantic’ just doesn’t. Plus, it is a medium that demands success, because a failed gag is excruciating, like OK-ish results in other artforms never will be.” – The Guardian
Brussels Re-Closes Its Museums As COVID Cases Surge; Other European Museums To Follow
Museums and galleries around Europe are bracing for further restrictions as the infection rates rise to their highest levels yet. Institutions in Wales have been closed as the country implemented a two-week national “firebreak” lockdown that began October 24. Meanwhile, museums and galleries in Northern Ireland were asked to close on October 16 for four weeks. – Artnet
Poet Diane di Prima, Feminist Beatnik, Dead At 86
“[She] dropped out of college to join the poetry swirl in New York’s Greenwich Village in the 1950s. She arrived in San Francisco in 1968, too late for the North Beach Beats, but she established herself as a singular force, a feminist in a poetry culture that was overwhelmingly male. Her publishing career spanned more than 60 years and 40 books.” – San Francisco Chronicle
How One Artistic Director Came To Grips With Equity
In 2012 after the murder of Trayvon Martin my only employee at the time, a Black male, called to tell me that he was scared to leave his home, but didn’t want to let me down by not showing up to work. I told him to please take care of himself and to not worry then hung up. That conversation was a turning point for me. – WESTAF
What Carlos Acosta Wants For Birmingham Royal Ballet
Well, besides getting through COVID (and he has things to say on that, too). “I want to challenge the perception that ballet is for white people, this is for old people. … We are in Birmingham, with its own demographic, and we have to keep that in mind when commissioning. I want to highlight how important the city has been to the U.K. Heavy-metal music was born here, Led Zeppelin came from here — we’ll do those ballets! But this art form was born centuries ago, and we have a responsibility to cultivate that side, too.” – The New York Times