Anthony Tommasini says new recordings are vital, no matter how many we’ve got from the past: “New takes on standard repertory works — if not as essential as recordings of works by living composers or of overlooked scores from the past — can enrich and enliven the art form. It’s empowering for performers and audiences alike to have recordings of these scores by artists we can hear today.” – The New York Times
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Ballet, Too, Must Move Past Its (White, Imperialist) Roots
Says one artistic director, “Addressing this issue can’t happen by simply replacing white bodies with those of color. ‘The storylines have to change,’ Vilaro says, noting that some narratives told onstage still uphold the stereotypical racial tropes.” That means new works, new narratives, and company-wide discussions about tough topics. – Dance Magazine
What’s Going To Happen To This 10,000-Member Writers’ Association If It Can’t Get Itself Together About Racism?
The RWA is still embroiled in an ongoing and, it seems, widening scandal about its leadership. Karen Grigsby Bates says of the organization for the most lucrative sector of publishing: “If they don’t adjust to change and format themselves so that the people that they want to reach, that they need to reach feel included and welcome, they will find that they have a much smaller organization, if they have an organization at all.” – NPR
How To Vote For An Oscar Script
Actually, no one truly knows how to do it. “It’s also a real evaluative mystery. How do you know good writing that, as a moviegoer, you can’t see and, as Academy voters, you’re not obligated to read?” – The New York Times
Even Comic Book Characters Created In 2011 Need A Makeover After *That* Decade
Marvel’s Miles Morales – the star of Into the Spider-Verse and a lot of comics, books, animated series, and a game – needed help as the decade went on. See, “despite Marvel’s financial interest in expanding the diversity of its characters during and after the election of President Barack Obama, they initially charged very few writers and editors of color with the creation and development of these characters.” (Things have been improving, but there’s a ways to go.) – Los Angeles Review of Books
January Is A Terrible Time To Make Resolutions
We know it’s a little late to tell you this, but it might be time for take-backs – and a plan to make those resolutions during a better month (especially for those in the Northern Hemisphere). “Spend the early parts of January getting back into the flow of things. You’ve got all year to make yourself better.” – Fast Company
Hi, It’s 2020, Why Are Women Having To Prove Women’s Stories Are Valuable … Again?
Seriously, WTF, 2020 awards season? Last year, 2019, was “a year in which a slate of female-driven and directed movies topped the box office – Hustlers, directed by Lorene Scafaria, raked in over $156m this fall – or received critical acclaim and attention (Lulu Wang’s The Farewell, Marielle Heller’s A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood). And yet the pillars of acclaim in the industry – awards, at once irrelevant and its own cottage industry of symbolic importance – still almost never reward female-directed films, or films about women at all.” – The Guardian (UK)
After 15 Years, The New York Musical Festival Has Shut Down For Good
Debts, staff resignations, and what the board described as a “national arts funding crisis” meant that the festival – which premiered more than 400 musicals in the summer, some of which made their way to Broadway – not only shut down immediately, but also declared bankruptcy. The artistic director and other staff had been working without pay since August and said they were not informed in advance of the board’s decision. – The New York Times
How Social Media Killed The Paparazzi
Celebrities didn’t vanquish the paparazzi so much as figure out how to undercut them — and the publications they fueled. In the end, the solution was so straightforward. Celebrities simply became their own paparazzi, posting all manner of details and footage of their daily lives on social media, and effectively put real paparazzi out of business. – Buzzfeed News
English Funding Directly To Artists Has Declined. Here Are The Consequences
In 2001, the newly-unified Arts Council England (ACE), with plentiful government and lottery arts funding, made the expansive claim of making artists central to arts policy. The individuals strand of the ‘brave and radical’ Grants for the Arts (GftA) programme promised artists ‘the chance to dream without having to produce’. It initially went a long way to doing that, as 40% of the value of grants went to 3,279 artists, who had a success rate of 52%. More than half were newcomers to Arts Council funding. From 2003-2008 almost 6,000 artists shared some £39m, with almost a quarter of grants for R&D. But austerity and scarceness of arts funding changed all that. – Arts Professional