“The anonymous group … pledged to contribute up to $1 million to the Pittsfield museum if its board agrees to pause an auction of 40 works of art at Sotheby’s and to allow outside experts to provide a second opinion on the advisability of the controversial sale. Elizabeth McGraw, president of the museum’s board of trustees, said the offer falls short.”
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Houston’s Theatre District Swamped By Harvey’s Floodwaters
The downtown area that’s home to the city’s flagship performing arts organizations is adjacent to Buffalo Bayou and has seen severe flooding. Here are preliminary damage reports from the Alley Theatre and the venues that house the Houston Ballet, Houston Symphony, and Houston Grand Opera.
Houston’s Major Museums Are Holding Up Against Hurricane Harvey
The Menil Collection, Museum of Fine Art Houston, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, and Houston Center for Photography report no damage to their collections and relatively little to their buildings – so far. The Rockport Center for the Arts in Corpus Christi, alas, hasn’t been so lucky.
Enzo Dara, Great Buffo Bass, Dead At 78
“Over the … four decades of his career, Dara became one of the most famous Italian basses on the opera stage by portraying a small cluster of touchstone roles that highlighted his natural gifts for comedy, rapid-fire patter and innate bel canto technique.”
Moscow’s Pushkin Museum Tries To Crowdsource Purchase Of A Titian
“Previously thought to be a copy of Titian’s Venus and Adonis, experts at the Pushkin say it is the earliest surviving version of the work and now the Moscow museum wants to buy it through crowdfunding. It does not come cheap though – the painting is reportedly estimated to be worth between $10m-$20m.”
We Barely Pause To Look At Art In Museums. So Why Do We Spend So Much Time On Selfies?
“Mobile technology encourages us to forego the Enlightenment Era experience and its accompanying promise of profound self-knowledge. With the invisible audience of social media always lurking in our mobile phones, we are tempted to permanently affix a scrim of personal narrative over the artwork we see and experience. Do art selfies correlate with lower levels of engagement with the artwork?”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 08.28.17
Hurricane Harvey & Museums: Houston MFA, Menil Collection in Relatively Good Shape
This just in from Gary Tinterow, director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in response to my query about how his institution has been weathering the Hurricane Harvey maelstrom: … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-08-28
Brahms and Blood
A few months ago, I wrote about the music that concludes the film A Quiet Passion, and that brought to mind one of the most frustrating endings, musically speaking, that I’ve experienced in a film … read more
AJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2017-08-28
Jazz/Improv Chicago: Wide-ranging talents, free fests, PoKempner pix
Chicago’s jazz/improvised music scene contains multitudes, last week ranging from the wild yet earnest Liberation Music Collective to veteran piano sophisticate Michael Weiss in trio, as two of Marc PoKempner‘s photos document … read more
AJBlog: Jazz Beyond Jazz Published 2017-08-28
Taylor Swift’s New Single Crushes YouTube, Spotify Records
YouTube said Saturday the song’s lyric video broke a record for that site, with more than 19 million same day views. Swift crushed the previous record set by “Something Just Like This” from The Chainsmokers featuring Coldplay, which received 9 million views in 24 hours.
The Smithsonian Plans To Shut Its IMAX Theatre. It’s A Puzzling Decision
The Washington-based Smithsonian has decided to trim its fat by replacing its impressive facility with a restaurant. To little surprise, the decision to give priority to hot dogs over hot docs has not been popular in the educational-film world.
How Books Are Read Is As Important As What’s In Them
“It has long been thought, for instance, that the print revolution of the 18th century resulted in a shift from oral to silent reading, from shared reading to indulging in a book of one’s own, as books became more available to a wider range of people while leisure time also increased. But, says Abigail Williams, such a clear-cut transition is difficult to trace.”