Banksy’s elaborately orchestrated send-up of the auction market — contriving to have his $1.4-million Girl with Balloon self-mutilate at the fall of the hammer on Friday at Sotheby’s London — is the subversive gift that keeps on giving.
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Jonas Kaufmann vs. the Orchestra of St. Luke’s
It was a weird evening at Carnegie Hall. Rarely have I listened to an orchestra with such discomfort. Never have I responded to a tenor with such gratitude.
Chicago Lyric Opera Orchestra Musicians Go On Strike
According to the orchestra’s statement, while the Lyric’s budget grew from $60 million in 2012 to $84 million in 2017, the weekly salary for musicians increased an average of less than 1 percent annually and, when adjusted for inflation, decreased by just over 5 percent since 2011. The orchestra is represented by the Chicago Federation of Musicians.
This Theatre Runs A Name-Your-Own-Price Subscription Model, And It Works (So Far)
For its first five seasons, the Ubuntu Theater Project in Oakland sold tickets at $15 to $45 a seat, with some pay-what-you-wish seats available for low-income audience members at the door. “But all that wasn’t inclusive — or radical — enough for Ubuntu. So last summer, the theatre adopted a pay-as-you-can subscription model, guaranteeing tickets to its seven shows for a single amount named by the ticketholder.” Says marketing director Simone Finney, “This is what we’re about as a company, and if we were gonna fail, we should fail on things that are ideologically exciting.”
Museums Are Increasingly Being Monitored For Curatorial Diversity
In the wake of #OscarsSoWhite, #BlackLivesMatter, and discussions of gentrification and cultural appropriation, issues of museum diversity, or lack thereof, has become increasingly common.
Daniel Radcliffe Is Playing A Fact-Checker On Broadway, So He Spent A Day Being One At The New Yorker
The magazine’s chief of fact-checking, to Radcliffe: “You have to project confidence, so the person doesn’t start quarrelling with everything that you ask.”
Radcliffe: “I’m more nervous about this than I am about going onstage tonight.”
Berlin Used To Be A Magnet For Artists. Now They Can’t Afford To Live There
Since the 1990s, Berlin has served as a magnet for artists drawn by cheap rents, large empty buildings, a vibrant subculture and a hip, liberal atmosphere. It ranks as the most important centre for art production in the world after New York. Olafur Eliasson, Ai Weiwei and Alicja Kwade are among the prominent artists with studios here. But for the past ten years, the city has been in the grip of a property boom, with spiralling price increases threatening its allure for artists. In 2017, Berlin had the fastest-growing real estate prices in the world, up 20.5% in a year, according to the property consultancy Knight Frank.
E-Tickets, Drinks At Your Seat, And Phone Booths Turned Into Listening Stations: What The Milwaukee Symphony’s New Hall Will Offer Its Audience
“Construction crews are working prestissimo on converting the former Warner Grand Theatre into a state-of-the-art performance venue for symphonic music [to open in September 2020]. … [And] management is using the fresh start to plan future user experiences. Experiences-plural is deliberate: They plan to appeal both to concertgoers who want to leave the outside world behind and immerse themselves in music, as well as folks who wants to stay wired and connected.”
Study: Having Books In Your House While Growing Up Conveys Long Term Benefits
Growing up with few books in the house was associated with below-average literacy rates, while he presence of around 80 books raised those rates to the mean. Literacy continued to increase with the number of reported books up to around 350, at which point it flattened out.
Inside The Capital Of Toddler YouTube (Oh Yes, It’s A Thing)
“Sesame Street has more than 5 billion views on YouTube … but ChuChu has more than 19 billion. Sesame Street‘s main feed has 4 million subscribers; the original ChuChu TV channel has 19 million — placing it among the top 25 most watched YouTube channels in the world.” Alexis Madrigal travels to ChuChu headquarters in Chennai to find out how they do it — and talks to a scholar of children’s media about the pluses and pitfalls of their style of video.