I understand the logic of “We’ll take everyone’s money” and the logic of “We won’t take any ethically impure money.” Those are pure. What I question is the efficacy of cherry-picking the ethics of the donors to your arts organization. Do you choose to receive or not to receive donations from particular corners of the philanthropic universe because of the nonprofit’s core belief or your own personal core beliefs? Is your collective conscience bothered before you choose to accept the gift or after there’s a public outcry about it? – Clyde Fitch Report
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Academia’s Itinerant Labor Problem: How Exploitation Of Adjuncts Betrays Students
In the nineteen-seventies, about a quarter of college faculty were on limited-term, adjunct contracts; the majority of professors were tenured or on the tenure-track. Today, it’s estimated that nearly three-quarters of college faculty are adjuncts. – The New Yorker
I Used To Have A Great Sense Of Direction. Then Came GPS… What Skills Is It Safe To Forget?
Instead of looking at what we’re learning, perhaps we should consider the obverse: what becomes safe to forget? As the internet grows ever more powerful and comprehensive, why bother to remember and retain information? If students can access the world’s knowledge on a smartphone, why should they be required to carry so much of it around in their heads? – Aeon
Rushing Restrictive Laws About Internet Content After Terrorist Tragedy Is A Bad Idea
There are vile things on the internet. And after what happened with shootings in New Zealand, there are calls to clamp down on digital content. That may be a bad idea, argues David Sullivan. – Slate
Christopher Knight: LACMA’s New Vision For Itself And Its Building Should Be Rejected
“A ‘yes’ vote from the supervisors means that more than 50 years of the county project to build the last great encyclopedic art museum in the United States is over. It has driven five former LACMA directors, scores of curators and professional staff, countless past benefactors, an array of trustees and untold others in building the institution, virtually from scratch, since 1965.” – Los Angeles Times
This Theatre Asks Audience Members To Help Plan Its Programming
“For the last year or so, the Theatre Royal [in the English city of York] has not only been asking its audience what they think of their shows – it has invited them to make programming decisions themselves.” Visionari, a group of about 20 (old) Yorkers assembled by Theatre Royal, “[have] attended workshops, met everyone from the artistic director to the graphic designer, and taken responsibility for a week-long festival in the studio.” – The Guardian
Eureka!
One professional musician who has long been passionate about connecting with communities is shocked by an insight about most performing arts marketing — and that shock isn’t really surprising. – Doug Borwick
Music from Paradise
It is remarkably little known that the non-Western genre that has most influenced Western composers is not African or Chinese or Indian – it’s Indonesian. – Joe Horowitz
Meet The Woman In Charge Of Dance Theatre Of Harlem
“On this episode of Women in Charge, Allison Benedikt talks to Virginia Johnson, artistic director and founding member of Dance Theatre of Harlem. They talk about how she shifted from principal dancer to founding member to artistic director. Johnson also shares stories about what it meant to grow up as a black ballerina and what progress is being made in the dance culture now.” (podcast) – Slate
Women Dominate Man Booker International Prize Shortlist
Of the six authors and six translators up for this year’s £50,000 award, only one author (Juan Gabriel Vásquez of Colombia) is male. Arguably the most prominent name on the list is Polish novelist Olga Tokarczuk (who took the same award last year for Flights) with Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. – The Guardian