“Opening safely is a very complex project that involves countless new procedures and equipment, all of which require extensive training. This is something we cannot and will not do casually or quickly.” – Los Angeles Times
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The First Published Black Composer Went Into Print In 1551
His name was Vicente Lusitano, he was son of a Portuguese father and African mother, he worked in Italy and (later) Germany, and his first book of motets contains daring chromaticism and dissonances that precede Gesualdo by decades. His place in European music history was obscured not (or not only) by racism: it was a case of sharp aesthetic disagreement with, and professional enmity from, an influential colleague. – Van
Quixotic: Renegade Design Competition Reimagines A New LACMA
Of the 28 proposals submitted, the jury — which included a retired LACMA curator — selected six as the “leading ideas.” The winning studios will each receive $1,500 prizes. Nan Goldin declined to say who is funding the competition: “It’s the same anonymous donor who has bankrolled the ads that we’ve taken out.” – Los Angeles Times
There’s A Brilliant Ballet Choreographer At Dance Theater Of Harlem. Why Isn’t The Rest Of The Ballet World Using Him?
Robert Garland, the company’s resident choreographer and director of its school, “for all of his talent, is still one of the most underused choreographers working today, which is odd in a time that diversity has come to matter so much to the ballet world,” writes Gia Kourlas. “Why isn’t [his] phone ringing off the hook?” – The New York Times
Learning How To Do The Arts In A Post-COVID World
One challenge is figuring out how to monetize the digital experience for an audience that’s bathing in a glut of free content. Another is figuring out how to create an experience that’s satisfying online, by organizations that have been trying to do this for some years already. – Vanity Fair
Per Olov Enquist, One Of Sweden’s Greatest Modern Writers, Dead At 85
His enormous body of prose fiction, poetry, stage dramas and screenplays (including the Oscar-winning Pelle the Conqueror) won him virtually every major Nordic literary prize other than the Nobel. As he once told an interviewer, “Every time I feel depressed that I’m not doing anything, I look at this bookshelf [of my work] and say to myself, ‘Well, that is seven meters and I have done a little bit, so I can die.'” – The Washington Post
We’ll Have To Learn New Ways To Use Public Space
As a post-lockdown city edges into view, we’ll have to develop new ways to use the places we share, from public restrooms to restaurants, classrooms, hallways, subway cars, and sidewalks. Prodded by fear and guided by tape, we will develop new social dances that resemble the formal ballroom steps of yore. – New York Magazine
Discovery At World’s Oldest Temple Suggests Prehistoric Humans Understood Geometry
“[Archaeologists’] study of the three oldest stone enclosures at Göbekli Tepe” — a site in present-day Turkey whose monoliths are thought to be 11,500 years old — “has revealed a hidden geometric pattern, specifically an equilateral triangle, underlying the entire architectural plan of these structures. … Thus, thousands of years before the invention of writing or the wheel, the builders of Göbekli Tepe evidently had some understanding of geometric principles and could apply them to their construction plans.” – Haaretz (Israel)
Texas Arts World Confused And Uncertain About Governor’s Reopening Orders
“The governor proclaimed that all retail outlets, as well as restaurants, movie theaters, museums and libraries, are free to reopen May 1 — but with occupancy no greater than 25%. That’s expected to expand to 50% by May 18. Debbie Storey, president and CEO of the AT&T Performing Arts Center, which is home to five resident companies in the Dallas Arts District, summed up what many were feeling. ‘It didn’t specifically give us permission to open,’ Storey said, ‘so we’re still trying to assess what this means for us, and what it might mean on May 18.'” – The Dallas Morning News
Alamo Drafthouse Won’t Reopen Texas Theaters This Weekend Despite Governor Approval
“Opening safely is a very complex project that involves countless new procedures and equipment, all of which require extensive training,” said a statement from company management. “This is something we cannot and will not do casually or quickly.” (Meanwhile, here are the precautions one arthouse cinema in Tulsa is taking as it prepares to reopen in May.) – Variety