“It’s not a festival in the same way a live festival is, since the conditions are completely different, our ability to present work in so many of the ways we normally do is nonexistent, our audiences can’t come out and be with us in public…I mean, most of the people who work at the festival have long careers in performing arts. We’re used to creating work for crowds of people to experience in close quarters. But it didn’t feel right to not do anything.” – Broadway World
Blog
What Do Famous Artists Owe Their Fans?
As the famously passionate fans of the Harry Potter franchise rise up to express raging disappointment at the bigotry espoused by its creator, and the surprisingly passionate fans of Live P.D.—who launched vicious attack campaigns on journalists and critics calling for its cancellation—just rage, there’s another question beyond the right and wrong of all this. It’s the question of what, exactly, fans are owed from the culture they support—and what are they willing to accept in order to keep enjoying it? – The Daily Beast
Institutions, Sure. But How Do We Put Artists At The Center?
How do we sustain the infrastructure to make the kind of highly professional theater that we have come to revere without pushing the actual artists to the fringes of that ecology? How can we reimagine the American theater to acknowledge who our “first responders” are: actors, directors, playwrights, designers, composers, musicians, in all their plurality and diversity? Should we be asking our artists in this pandemic to make home videos that extol our work when we took them off the payroll the moment the pandemic hit? – Clyde Fitch Report
What Do Museums Have To Do With Police Brutality?
“Police shootings? I can’t imagine what special insight a museum director brings to the subject. But if you’re going to talk about them, at least say something smart.” – National Review
Oscars To Have 10 Best Picture Nominations, Set Inclusions Standards
Starting with the 94th Oscars ceremony, the Academy will return to a guaranteed 10 best picture nominees, as was the case for the 82nd and 83rd ceremonies, before it shifted to a system that could yield anywhere from five to 10 nominees. This aims to maximize the diversity of the films that are nominated for the Academy’s highest honor. – The Hollywood Reporter
LA Says Museums Can Reopen. Museums Say Not So Fast
Southern California museums are navigating complicated health and safety protocols while also seeing to the regular work of preparing new exhibitions, caring for art, managing employees and communicating with the public. – Los Angeles Times
How Museums Can Take Advantage Of Lockdown
Museums have an opportunity to make a contribution to civic discourse that plays to their intrinsic strengths. It is obvious that many of our political and civic institutions have failed in the promotion of the interests of humanity and the planet. We are entering a period where questioning the status quo ante and its values and priorities is of existential importance. – The Art Newspaper
Unions Set Conditions For Reopening Theatres. But It’s Unlikely To Happen Anytime Soon
“Clearly, we’re not bringing anybody back to work anytime soon in person, based on those guidelines,” Aurora Managing Director Julie Saltzman Kellner told The Chronicle by phone. “To be honest, we weren’t anyways. They are really similar to the guidelines we had set out for ourselves, in terms of when we imagined we could produce again.” – San Francisco Chronicle
When Will It Be Safe To Return To The Dance Studio?
Put simply, dancers who aren’t ready to go back shouldn’t have to. As desperately as we miss dancing, we have to put our health—and the health of our communities—first. But as artists who often lack employment protections, it may feel risky to draw a line in the sand. – Dance Magazine
Won’t Artificial Intelligence Be Immortal?
It is common to assume that an AI could achieve immortality by creating backup copies of itself and thus transfer its consciousness from one computer to the next. This view is encouraged by science-fiction stories. But is it right? – Nautilus