“Since its release in 2017, TikTok has become a wildly popular global platform for dance, especially among teens, with tools that make it easy to film yourself dancing to music, integrate special effects and share the results. … In recent weeks, the app has attracted a small but growing contingent of professional dancers in their 20s and 30s, who … are tapping into its joys and questioning how TikTok might shape the future of their field.” – The New York Times
Blog
Furloughed Met Opera Musicians Worry About Making It Through The Pandemic Shutdown
“The performers … feel abandoned by the Met. … The sense of drift has been compounded by what musicians call a lack of communication and leadership from the Met’s management. Music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin has sent the group hopeful video messages, but updates from [general manager Peter] Gelb and the house’s human resources department have been practically nonexistent.” – Van
Steppenwolf Announces New Online Productions As It Cancels Stage Plays Until October
The offerings, open only to subscribers, include a “virtual reading” of a new adaptation of Chekhov’s Seagull (available May 14-27); a radio-play version of Arthur Miller’s The American Clock, directed by Austin Pendleton and featuring John Malkovich, Joan Allen, and Laurie Metcalf (June); and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s In the Red and Brown Water, directed by Tina Landau (July). – Chicago Tribune
Germano Celant, Curator Who Launched Italy’s Arte Povera Movement, Dead Of COVID At 79
“In 1967,[he] wrote a lasting page in art history when, as a 27-year-old curator in Genoa, he mounted an exhibition of five young Italian artists making provisional assemblages of humble materials, which he grouped under the term Arte Povera (‘poor art’). These artists, including Alghiero Boetti, Jannis Kounellis and Luciano Fabro, bridled against the conventions of the Italian academies (and American Pop art), and made a virtue of simple everyday objects: melted wax, rusting iron, fallen leaves, ground coffee, even horses munching hay.” – The New York Times
PA Governor Freezes All State Arts Grants For Rest Of Year
“Facing his own burgeoning budget problems, Gov. Tom Wolf has directed some state agencies to rescind grant money previously awarded to arts groups. The decision surfaced Monday when numerous cultural organizations received an email from [the] executive director of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts … [saying that] “the PCA can no longer guarantee completion of processing for current year grant awards.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
Beijing Reopens Forbidden City, Museums, Parks
“The Forbidden City, past home to China’s emperors, is allowing just 5,000 visitors daily, down from 80,000. And parks are allowing people to visit at 30% of the usual capacity. … Large-scale group activities remain on hold and visitors must book tickets in advance online.” – AP
This Theatre Festival Moved Itself Online Without Cancellations Or Posting Old Shows
Kate Craddock, founder and director of the Gateshead International Festival of Theatre in northeastern England, “is keen to point out this isn’t just about taking a stash of pre-recorded work and sticking it online. Rather it’s a ticketed and carefully curated festival [May 1-3] that aims to connect audiences and artists from across the globe in real-time theatrical encounters, one-on-one experiences, workshops and panel discussions. There’s even a virtual cocktail lounge for small talk and martinis.” – The Stage
How Reopening Hollywood Might Look
The LA Times looks at what a new Hollywood might look like when it reopens. On the table: everything. How movies are shot, how they open in theatres (if they do), what movie theatres might look like. Everything. – Los Angeles Times
Words Fail: Have You Seen The Literary Magazine “Taco Bell Quarterly”?…
“We are the literary magazine for Taco Bell literature. I also say celebrating the Taco Bell arts and letters. We’re not a gimmick, we’re not a viral sensation. We are real fiction, real essays, real poetry, real art, inspired by Taco Bell.” – Vox
A New World Without Shopping Malls?
More than 50% of malls anchored by department stores could close permanently by the end of 2021. Of the roughly 1,000 malls still in operation throughout the U.S., 60% are anchored by department stores; of those, 19% are rented by J.C. Penney, 18% by Macy’s, and 20% by other stores including Lord & Taylor, Nordstrom, and Dillard’s. – Fast Company