Obviously, take the lead, realize there’s a problem as standards change. Instead, protests driven by social media are shaming some of the world’s most venerable cultural institutions, and they’re looking pretty bad. But there’s a balancing act to consider, writes Adrian Ellis… – The Art Newspaper
Blog
A Jiffy Lube Owner Talks About His Business’s Relationship With The Arts
Steve Sanner: “Small business owners like me don’t often view the arts as an area in which we can make a real difference. Even our “stretch” sponsorship levels are overshadowed by the huge dollar amounts that wealthy individuals, banks, law firms, and insurance companies can generate. For us, philanthropy is difficult to plan for, so our sponsorship investments tend to come out of our advertising budgets. Therefore, we’re motivated to find ways to drive our business in more immediate, ROI-based campaigns than what is thought a typical sponsorship of the arts might provide.” – Americans for the Arts
Remembering Composer Dominick Argento
Argento was always a force apart. He belonged to no compositional school, preferring a distinctly eclectic language that appealed both intellectually and emotionally to his audiences. At a time when most of the celebrated American composers were based on either the East or West coasts, where they could work together and help promote one another’s music, Mr. Argento lived and worked in Minneapolis throughout his career, teaching composition at the University of Minnesota and working closely for many years with the director Sir Tyrone Guthrie at what became the Guthrie Theater. – Washington Post
Will AI Ever Be Artists? Be Creative? Produce Art? A Philosopher Argues No
“Human creative achievement, because of the way it is socially embedded, will not succumb to advances in artificial intelligence. To say otherwise is to misunderstand both what human beings are and what our creativity amounts to.” – MIT Technology Review
Machines Can Now Write Compelling Fake Stories. Soon We Won’t Be Able To Tell What’s Real
Jack Clark says it may not be long before AI can reliably produce fake stories, bogus tweets, or duplicitous comments that are even more convincing. “It’s very clear that if this technology matures—and I’d give it one or two years—it could be used for disinformation or propaganda,” he says. “We’re trying to get ahead of this.” – MIT Technology Review
Robert Rauschenberg Once Threw His Paintings Into A River Because A Critic Said So
The artist’s 1953 exhibition in Florence wasn’t well-received by the conservative public of the city: one critic was appalled at the art’s “barbaric metaphysics” and another called it “psychological garbage and that it must be thrown into the Arno.” So, when the show was over and Rauschenberg saw how much it would cost to ship the art home to the States, that is what he did. – The Daily Beast
The Troubled Oscars – A Timeline
Have we ever seen a more chaotic lead up to an awards telecast? A host is announced, then revoked. Categories are added, then rescinded. Awards are to be televised, then not. Then televised again. It’s enough to make you think the Academy doesn’t know what it’s doing. At the least, it shows a collapse in confidence. – The New York Times
Explaining ‘The Satanic Verses’ — Any Why We Won’t Be Seeing Anything Like It For A While
“The increasing prominence of radical Islam, or Islam as a political force, is obviously one factor. The other factor, especially in the West, is the increasing emphasis on culture and ethnicity, religion included, as a means of self-definition. … Rushdie’s satirical look at religion comes across quite differently when Islam is conceived of as an identity. What began as a critique of ideas is taken as an insult to a group, and often a marginalised group, at that.” – Aeon
Ah, The Scourge Of Jukebox Musicals… Except… They’re Really Fun!
The critics aren’t wrong: We really do want that crisp, new snap. But Broadway has deep roots in vaudeville — no story, just acts — so audiences are right: We’ll always crave performances that revel in that singing, dancing beat. – Washington Post
Using The Oxford Comma Makes You A Hotter Prospect On Tinder
“On an internet occupied by as many finger-wagging ‘grammar Nazis’ as slovenly texters who prefer emoji to verbal displays of emotion, the Oxford comma has become a cause célèbre. This is especially true on dating apps, where many users have deemed the punctuation mark something they ‘can’t live without’ — a designation that’s put it in the same lofty category as cheese, the beach, and Game of Thrones.” – GQ