“Wise Children, the company, didn’t exist until nine days before the deadline for registering a National Portfolio Organisation application [with Arts Council England]. … It may be that the company’s success provides a resounding and gratifying riposte to a ridiculous cock-up at Shakespeare’s Globe … But you have to ask: would other bold artists, who hadn’t been blessed with the oxygen of publicity, be successful with a similarly astronomical application?”
Blog
BAM Starts Its First Formal Artist Residencies – And They’re For Dance
“The Brooklyn Academy of Music, in what it says is its first formal relationship with a residency partner, will join forces with the budding Lumberyard Contemporary Performing Arts organization in upstate New York to commission and nurture three new dance works.”
Publisher Withdraws Doctor’s Book ‘Mandela’s Last Years’ After Protests From Widow And Others
“[The memoir,] written by his long-time physician Vejay Ramlakan, discloses intimate details about Mandela’s health and family infighting prior to his death in 2013. … Members of the Mandela family have strongly objected to the book’s publication, slamming it as a breach of doctor-patient confidentiality.”
Protesters Demand That ICA Boston Cancel Dana Schutz Show Because Of ‘Open Casket’ (Which Is Not In The Show)
Evidently believing that Schutz hasn’t been punished enough for having shown her painting of the murdered Emmett Till at the Whitney Biennial, a group of activists wrote in an open letter, “The institution will be participating in condoning the coopting of Black pain and showing the art world and beyond that people can co-opt sacred imagery rooted in oppression and face little consequence … Please pull the show. This is not about censorship. This is about institutional accountability.”
Anger At Black Actor Getting Booted From ‘Great Comet’ To Make Room For Mandy Patinkin
This week it was announced that Patinkin would make a now-rare appearance on Broadway, starring for three weeks in Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812. To accommodate Patinkin’s schedule, the producers cut short the contract of the actor currently playing Pierre, Hamilton alumnus Okieriete Onaodowan (“Oak”). Some fellow minority actors are denouncing the cast change on social media.
Mariinsky Ballet Names Xander Parish Principal Dancer
The 31-year-old Briton “was confirmed last night as only the second foreigner [ever] to be promoted to the top tier of the company, which was previously known as the Kirov.”
Ousted Met Museum Director Thomas Campbell Lands Next Gig: Getty Rothschild Fellowship
“Thomas P. Campbell, who last month ended his tumultuous tenure as chief executive of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, has been chosen as the second recipient of the Getty Rothschild Fellowship … The fellowship supports scholarship in art history, collecting and conservation, offering art historians, museum professionals or conservators up to eight months of research and study at the Getty in Los Angeles and Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire, England.”
Michiko Kakutani, New York Times Book Critic, Steps Down After 38 Years
“Sources familiar with her decision, which comes a year after the Times restructured its books coverage, [said] that last year’s election had triggered a desire to branch out and write more essays about culture and politics in Trump’s America.”
The Essential Michiko Kakutani Reader
“Below are highlights from Kakutani’s tenure at the Times – her reviews of major novels and autobiographies, her obituaries and appreciations, her profiles and essays. Together they represent a vigorously led life of the mind, a crash course in contemporary literature and a tour through the zeitgeist of the turn of the millennium.”
Six Ex-Officials In South Korea Sentenced To Prison For Blacklisting Artists
The six, including former President Park Geun-hye’s chief of staff and culture minister, were convicted of perjury, abuse of power, and related charges for having drawn up a list of cultural figures and denied them state funding and access to programs because they were seen as political opponents of Park.