Joseph Giovannini: “What we are witnessing is the systematic destruction of an institution whose history has been chaotic, whose architecture has been less than perfect, but that was at the same time on the verge of greatness, had a proper director been chosen to lead its rebirth,” said one prominent Los Angeles museum figure, who like virtually everyone I interviewed asked for anonymity. – LA Review of Books
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American Theatre Leadership Is Diversifying. Will It Help Diversify Audiences?
Recent turnover in some of America’s most important theatres has helped diversify leadership. And there’s work to diversify boards and staff. But there’s a long way to go to expand the audience. – The Stage
Brexit Will Have A Debilitating Effect On British Pop Music
Brexit’s greatest impact on music looks likely to be on the live sector, both on British musicians going abroad, and on foreign artists and fans travelling to the UK. – The Guardian
A Way To Make College A Lot Cheaper?
This is how universities could break the tuition cost curve—by making the price of online degrees proportional to what colleges actually spend to operate the courses. So far, colleges have been more aggressive in launching online graduate programs. But there’s huge potential for undergraduate education, too, including hybrid programs that combine the best of in-person and virtual learning. And yet nearly every academic institution, from the Ivies to state university systems to liberal arts schools, has refused to pass even the tiniest fraction of the savings on to students. They charge online students the same astronomical prices they levy for the on-campus experience. – Huffington Post
Art Gallery Of Ontario Says It Will Sell 17 Works To Diversify Its Collection
The works for sale aren’t unimportant. They’re by Montreal native and Group of Seven member A.Y. Jackson. They will be included in Heffel Fine Art Auction House’s upcoming auctions, beginning in May. “A founding member of the Group of Seven, A.Y. Jackson is one of Canada’s most celebrated and important artists,” the auction house said in a statement. – ArtForum
Beyond ‘The Ring’ And The Machine: High-Tech Opera At The Met And Elsewhere
William Kentridge’s stagings of The Nose and Lulu were, and next season’s Wozzeck will be, packed tight with video imagery. (Yet they’re surprisingly easy for the stage technicians.) The whale boats in Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick couldn’t have existed without 21st-century technology. The animation in Barrie Kosky’s widely-traveled production of The Magic Flute is so intricate that some singers have to be strapped into place. David Patrick Stearns looks into the modern-day wizardry on the opera stage. – WQXR (New York City)
A Vending Machine For Music?
St. Olaf College in Minnesota has one. You can buy violin strings, rosin and reeds. One enthusiastic Reddit user said: “I was there a few weeks ago for a horn audition and actually bought some of the $7 oil!”
425 Years Of ‘Titus Andronicus’ In Popular Culture
“The image of a mother made to eat her children was hard to shake, and a couple of decades after its 1594 premiere, artists had already begun to appropriate — O.K., fine, cannibalize — its plot for uses comic, tragic and savagely satirical. Its blood has spattered everything from bootleg Dutch tragedies to Japanese anime to Game of Thrones. Directors have staged it with almost no gore and with nothing but gore. It has been modernized, musicalized, performed by puppets and adapted to Kabuki. Stephen K. Bannon sent it into space.” – The New York Times
The Answer To Distraction? Slow Art
There’s Slow Food. There’s Slow (Longform) Journalism. Now there’s Slow Art. To get people in the mood for slow art, Christie’s, the V&A and the Natural History Museum have been offering yoga and sound meditation baths before visitors step foot into their exhibitions. But rather than putting them in a trance, it’s all about switching on their senses. – BBC
An Oral History Of The Most Cursed Film Production Ever To Actually Get Finished
Terry Gilliam’s The Man Who Killed Don Quixote “has to be one of the unluckiest passion projects in history: In a three-decade stretch, Gilliam, now 78, endured several financing stops and starts, a rotating cast of committed and uncommitted cast members, and a brutal flash flood that wiped out an entire set. … In interviews, those who had stayed with Gilliam on this ride could be described as the director’s own Sancho Panzas: equal parts loyal and astounded that Gilliam kept pressing on, even under the most challenging circumstances.” – The New York Times