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One Of London’s Grand Victorian Performance Halls Reopens After £18.8M Restoration

The Alexandra Palace, designed by the architects of the Royal Albert Hall, opened on a north London hilltop in 1873 — and burned down 16 days later. It was rebuilt in 1875 and was very popular but never made money; it “suffered more false dawns and setbacks in its 145-year history than almost any other playhouse in the country” and served a number of undignified uses over the decades. It’s now back in service as a performance venue for the first time in more than 80 years, refurbished and modernized to seat an audience of up to 1,000. — The Stage

Violinist And Teacher Nina Beilina Dead At 81

A former student of the legendary Soviet violinist David Oistrakh, Beilina was a highly-regarded musician in the USSR when she emigrated in 1976. “Despite the rave reviews Ms. Beilina received for her debut, her career in the United States did not soar. Like other Soviet musicians who emigrated, she had trouble adjusting to a system where the government was not overseeing every aspect of her career.” She did develop a devoted following as a teacher at the Mannes College of Music in New York City, where she also founded the Bachanalia Festival in 1988. — New York Times

Can We Talk Openly About How Hard It Is To Keep An Independent Dance Company Running?

Ryan P. Casey: “I know I’m not the only company director to have funded gigs with my personal savings, spent thousands of dollars on largely unsuccessful APAP showings, received rejections for grant applications that took hours to complete, or lost money on events I produced. But watching ensembles such as Trey McIntyre Project, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet and now Jessica Lang Dance announce their final bows in recent years has made it clear that we’re all waging similar battles, and they’re not going to be won alone.” — Dance Magazine

The Fraught Role(s) Of Native American Arts And Artists In Modern-Day America

“Native people frequently note that the word ‘art’ is virtually unknown in indigenous languages. Today, making a living as an artist is mediated by market forces with demands of its own. At stake are complex dynamics that weave together identity and culture with non-Native expectations about value based on authenticity. This inevitably involves stubborn stereotypes born from lack of knowledge. It also means that the Native artist, no matter the genre or medium, wittingly or unwittingly is cast in the role of educator.” — Los Angeles Times

$100,000 Grawemeyer Award To Joël Bons For Concerto For Cello And Asian Instruments

“Nomaden, which was written for the French cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras and the Atlas Ensemble, a group of 18 musicians from Asia, the Middle East and Europe, had its premiere at the Cello Biennale in Amsterdam in 2016, where it was received enthusiastically. It pairs its cello soloist with musicians who play instruments from China (erhu and sheng), Japan (sho and shakuhachi), India (sarangi), Turkey (kemenche), Armenia (duduk), Iran (setar) and Azerbaijan (tar and kamancha).” (includes audio) — New York Times

Cornwall, Long Neglected, Needs A Literature Of Its Own

And outsiders can’t really do it justice. “There are recent novels set in Cornwall, but they tend to be about a romanticised past (Poldark casts a long shadow) or sell a fantasy of the place to tourists, making life there sound quaint and trivial. The fantasy is damaging because, behind the veneer of Seasalt clothing and Doom Bar ale, the reality couldn’t be more different: not only is Cornwall the most remote county in England, in terms of geography and transport links, but it is also one of its poorest, with a high suicide rate to boot.”

Now The Artist Who Was Going To Whitewash A Banksy Says That Would Bring It Too Much Attention, So He Might Not

Ron English, who bought Slave Labour for $730,000, said he was going to whitewash it to protest the idea that street art can be bought and sold. That didn’t work so well: “‘My phone has not stopped ringing,’ he said, listing off the various offers and ideas that he has since fielded. Whitewash the mural at my gallery, one person said. Charge admission, someone else suggested. Do it on pay-per-view, advised a third.”

Fame Is Fickle, But This Art Show Helped Rediscover A Child Star

Whoa: “Researchers preparing for an exhibition on Victorian attitudes to childhood, called Seen and Heard, have found that Connie Gilchrist, the forgotten young musician in painter Frederic Leighton’s canvas entitled *The Music Lesson, was once the toast of England and appeared in many Christmas pantomimes in the West End of London as well as in countless burlesque shows” – oh, and she ended up as the Countess of Orkney. Not bad for a child born in a horrific Victorian slum.