“For me, his work stands with Bach, Mozart, Debussy, Ellington and Stravinsky in achieving that rare fusion of heart and mind. … His meticulous craftsmanship and ear for orchestration, harmony, melody and rhythm resulted in music that was perfectly balanced; as with all master composers, every note was there for a reason. Change one note, one rhythm, one rest, and there is diminishment.” – The New York Times
Blog
Re-imagining Manhattan Without Cars
The Brooklyn Bridge, for example, was originally built for trains, bicycles and pedestrians. More than 400,000 people a day on average once crossed it. Then it was “modernized” for cars. Now it handles less than half that number of people. As recently as the 1950s, overnight street parking was still illegal in New York. Some 11,000 miles of New York City streets are now given over to parked cars, 10 times the space devoted to bike lanes. – The New York Times
Venice, Toronto, Telluride And New York Film Festivals Join To Form ‘A United Platform’
“The prominent fall events, all positioned six weeks from each other, [will] collaborate rather than compete in a spirit of post-pandemic solidarity. The statement announcing this alliance provides scant details of what concrete form it will take. … But what appears clear is there will be a truce when it comes to the usual frenzied jockeying for world premieres.” – Variety
The One Kind Of Print Ad That’s Keeping Small U.S. Newspapers Afloat
“Government-required public notices have been published in newspapers since colonial times. … But the advent of websites operated by federal, state and local governments gave politicians a money-saving opening to redirect public notices to their own sites. Overwhelmingly, that simply hasn’t happened: … newspapers have managed to retain nearly all their public notice business. And for many, it has become indispensable to survival.” – Poynter
What Does The Public Want From Art In A Post-COVID World? Here Are Five Takeaways From A Massive New Study
“In what’s billed as one of the largest arts and culture studies ever done in the US, the new report Culture and Community in a Time of Crisis has surveyed some 124,000 people to take a look at their thoughts on the role of culture in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results don’t look good, but it’s good data to look at, to get a sense of the challenges the sector faces.” – Artnet
How To Make Performance Venues Safe In A Time Of Contagion: A Roadmap
For months now (starting before COVID), American Repertory Theater head Diane Paulus and professor Joseph Allen of Harvard’s Chan School of Public Health have been working on this issue, and they’ve now put a guide online for other venues’ use. “Although the Roadmap for Recovery and Resilience for Theater is not meant to be comprehensive or prescriptive, it offers several insightful factors to consider.” – Dance Magazine
ArtPrize 2020 Is Cancelled As Entire Staff Is Furloughed
What’s more, says artistic director Kevin Buist, “It’s not clear if there will be an event in 2021, and if there is, it’s not clear who will run it.” The largest contemporary art exhibition in the U.S., which takes place over three weeks in 160 spaces in Grand Rapids, Mich. and features two $200,000 grand prizes (one given by a jury, the other by public vote), ArtPrize typically draws about half a million visitors. – Artnet
Rodin Museum In Paris Will Sell Bronze Casts To See Itself Through COVID Crisis
“A measure of relief may come from a century-old system set up by Rodin himself allowing the museum to sell up to 12 replicas of select sculptures every year. The bronzes are cast in special workshops in a process overseen by the museum and bought by art galleries, private collectors or other museums. Rodin’s priceless originals are mainly carved out of marble.” – Yahoo! (AP)
Germany’s Largest Cultural Institution Is Dysfunctional And Should Be Dissolved: Commission
Never heard of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation? It’s the body that manages Berlin’s Museum Island complex and all the other state-run museums in the German capital, along with the Berlin State Library and archives. It is notoriously big, slow, cumbersome, and inflexible — and it can be stingy with building maintenance, too. A German federal government commission is now recommending that the Foundation be broken into four separate parts and its funding be overhauled. – Deutsche Welle
An Academic War On Free Speech?
There are four problematic recent norms in academia: first, an academic career depends on personal and political matters; second, compliance is rewarded over scepticism; third, academic complaints are increasingly anti-intellectual; and fourth, logic and evidence are subordinated to feelings, even in the hardest of hard sciences. – The Critic