Blog

What Has Come Of The Wallace And Knight Foundations’ Grants To Expand Audience Engagement?

“Wallace has been methodically rolling out its findings in the intervening months, publishing case studies on Ballet Austin’s efforts to expand audiences for unfamiliar works, Seattle Symphony’s efforts in engaging new residents, and the Denver Center Theatre Company’s success in attracting younger attendees. A read of each these case studies underscores the complexity of the engagement challenge. … If it’s more cutting-edge tactical approaches you seek, … turn to the other end of the spectrum, where the Knight Foundation resides.”

Why Did Trey McIntyre Disband His Dance Company At Its Peak? His New Documentary Film Explains (Sort Of)

“‘The art was telling me that things had to change. And they had to change big. Something I created needed to die off. When the company was at its height, when it was at its most successful, I closed it down.’ These puzzling words are spoken by choreographer Trey McIntyre in Gravity Hero, his new documentary, which unpacks the rise and fall of his wildly successful dance company, Trey McIntyre Project.”

Naming Rights Are On Sale At Philadelphia’s Mann Center

The performance center in Fairmount Park, which was built as a summer venue for the Philadelphia Orchestra but has since branched out into other genres and art forms, is trying to bring in the final third of its $43.5 million fundraising goal. (The money will finance new community initiatives, an endowment and cash reserves, and badly-needed repairs.) So naming rights are being made available for everything from individual seats ($500) to the pavilion ($5 million) and even the entire center ($25 million to put your name in place of Mann’s).

Months After His Death, Major Body Of Jack Whitten’s Art Comes Into Public View

Sebastian Smee: “When Whitten died this year, little more than a year after being presented with the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama, almost no one knew about the half-century of sculpture he had under his belt. That’s partly because the sculptures were made, and remained, mostly in his home in a small village on the Greek island of Crete, where he had spent almost every summer since 1969.”

Italian Parliament Members Furious At Mozart Production

“A British opera director has been lambasted by [right-wing] Italian MPs after staging an ‘anti-racist’ performance of Mozart’s The Magic Flute featuring a bulldozer poised to raze a migrant tent camp. Graham Vick, of Birmingham Opera Company and a former director of Glyndebourne, revised the original plot in an experimental production at the Macerata opera festival.”

Rome’s Subway Expansion Keeps Digging Up Ancient Treasures

“The presence of ancient artifacts underground is a daunting challenge for urban developers. For archaeologists, it’s the opportunity of a lifetime. ‘I think it’s the luckiest thing that’s ever happened to me, professionally speaking,’ says Simona Morretta, the state archaeologist in charge of the Amba Aradam site. ‘Because you never get the chance in a regular excavation to dig so deep. That’s how we’ve found architectural complexes as important as this.'”

1,000-Year-Old City Walls Of Kano, Nigeria ‘May Not Survive The Rainy Season’

“The historic walls are under threat as never before from a combination of an exploding population that has put pressure on land and housing, as well as local politics. … Houses and commercial buildings have sprung up on [some] demolished sections or been turned into dumping grounds for rubbish, litter and sewage from the ever more crowded city. Elsewhere, excavators dig into the fortifications for the red iron- and aluminium-rich rock laterite, which is loaded onto donkeys and taken away for use in construction and renovation.”

Writers’ Festival In Australia Under Fire For Disinviting Politician And Germaine Greer

“[Their publisher] said dropping the controversial feminist and the outspoken former New South Wales premier from the September program [of the Brisbane Writers’ Festival] ‘seems counter to the ethos of freedom of speech’. The festival claimed it was merely trying to ensure a balance within the program in one case, and responding to the decisions of a partner organisation in another.” (Greer, of course, had some choice words on the matter.)