Blog

Why Music Competitions Are Still Relevant

Even today, where all you need is a social media account to be able to reach a potentially large audience, music competitions offer way more than just visibility. It’s like opening a window to let fresh air circulate: you need talent to travel, to become aware of what’s out there and to meet fellow musicians to work with. Plus, many competitions offer inexperienced players the chance to attend masterclasses led by world-class artists, and this is something not even a million Instagram likes can give you.

Why Kerry James Marshall Says He’s Done Making Public Art

“I’ve done about all the public art I think I really want to do,” the 63-year-old South Side artist reiterated in a phone interview Sunday evening from the Bronzeville studio where he has continued to work even as prices for his paintings have climbed into the stratosphere. “The work I do now, I want to be less accommodating and less compromising … There’s too many contingencies that go with public art, and there are more compromises than I think I’m going to be willing to make from here on out.”

Can You Be A Professional Ballerina AND An Economics Major At The Same Time?

When I left NYCB I was looking at my decision as very black and white: either dance or school, with nothing in between. I imagined I’d go into a career completely separate from the ballet world. It would have relieved some of the pressure to have known that you can marry the two. Sometimes it’s a bit of a struggle, or even entertaining, to run from coding school to rehearsal, put your pointe shoes on, and be up and moving. But it is possible.

Google CEO Talks About What’s Next

There’s still that optimism. But the optimism is tempered by a sense of deliberation. Things have changed quite a bit. You know, we deliberate about things a lot more, and we are more thoughtful about what we do. But there’s a deeper thing here, which is: Technology doesn’t solve humanity’s problems. It was always naïve to think so. Technology is an enabler, but humanity has to deal with humanity’s problems. I think we’re both over-reliant on technology as a way to solve things and probably, at this moment, over-indexing on technology as a source of all problems, too.

Steppenwolf Launches New Resource: List Of New And Lesser-Known Plays That Require Diverse Casts

The list, called The Mix, “Steppenwolf compiled a list of over 150 potential nominators and ultimately received plays from nearly 100 theater professionals, including playwrights, directors and theater administrators. … The shows are inclusive of (but not limited to) race, ethnicity, gender, varied physical or cognitive ability, size, sexual orientation and generation. The company hopes that the peer-developed resource will fortify efforts of building equity in theater.”

Artists Re-Envision Norman Rockwell’s ‘Four Freedoms’ To Reflect Today’s America

The people depicted in Rockwell’s famous series of paintings — as per the expectations of the time and the artist’s own lived experience — were almost all lily-white New Englanders. Reporter Laura M. Holson talks with artists who are restaging those images, often with the cooperation of the Rockwell Museum, with a more variegated cast of characters.

V&A Museum Offers Special LGBTQ Tours

“Taking place on the last Saturday of each month, the tours are free to all and aim to uncover the queer histories of the objects in the museum’s collection.” For instance, the Flemish sculptor Giambologna’s marble of Samson slaying a Philistine (both unclothed) with the jawbone of an ass — an artwork that ended up in the possession of King James I’s boyfriend.

Why Four Of The World’s Earliest Books Inspire Awe

So why are these four books so special? It has to do, I think, with the concept of the original—a concept we have almost entirely lost touch with. The Beowulf Manuscript is not just composed of words that serve as the basis for every translation of the epic poem. It’s foremost an object, the only one of its kind. It is not merely a representation of a story; it is the story.