Yes, scofflaw diplomats have been a problem for ages (ask any New Yorker who’s been clipped, or worse, by a UN delegate’s car), but over the past few years, artworks have been disappearing from certain embassies in Cairo, DC, Moscow, and other capitals. Some appear to have vanished without trace, and others have turned up at auction houses. – The Art Newspaper
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Barnes & Noble Is Starting Its Own Book Of The Year Prize
“As one of the first initiatives under the leadership of new CEO James Daunt, Barnes & Noble has announced the shortlist for a new Book of the Year award. Books are nominated by B&N booksellers, who will also choose the winner. Booksellers are ‘voting for the title for which they are most proud to be selling,’ said Daunt,” who launched a similar prize at the UK chain Waterstones in 2012. – Publishers Weekly
DC’s National Symphony Is Launching Its Own Record Label
“In a collaboration influenced by [music director Gianandrea] Noseda’s role as principal guest conductor for the London Symphony Orchestra, the British symphony’s record label — LSO Live — will distribute the NSO’s new label.” The first release, with Dvořák’s Ninth Symphony and Copland’s Billy the Kid, is due on February 21. – Washingtonian
Zadie Smith Is Writing Her First Play, A Take On Chaucer
The Wife of Willesden will be a monologue giving Smith’s modern spin on The Wife of Bath’s Tale from Canterbury Tales. The piece will premiere next year in her home neighborhood, the northwest London borough of Brent, as part of its programming as London’s Borough of Culture. – The Guardian
The Movement To Turn Away BP’s Money Is Giving Britain’s Arts Fundraisers Heartburn
BBC arts editor Will Gompertz: “It has never been an easy task, but … what has become absolutely clear over the past 12 months is that arts organisations have to up their game when it comes to basic due diligence before accepting a sponsor’s money. It is no longer good enough to check the credentials of the sponsoring company. They now have to make sure the personal values of those who run and own it are compatible with their own charitable objectives.” – BBC
Cristian Măcelaru Appointed Music Director Of Orchestre National De France
Best known in the U.S. for his years as assistant and associate conductor and conductor-in-residence with the Philadelphia Orchestra and as music director of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Măcelaru is currently chief conductor of the WDR Symphony Orchestra in Cologne. He succeeds Emmanuel Krivine at the ONF in 2021. – OperaWire
Martin Scorsese’s Cogent Critique Of The Hollywood System
Scorsese isn’t inveighing against fantasy but against a system of production that submerges directors’ authority in a network of dictates and decisions issued from the top down—a network in which the director is more of a functionary than a creator. – The New Yorker
The Paralyzed Dancer Who Chooses to Dance
“I learned that the dancer inside me doesn’t care about this wheelchair. She just wanted to find a way to keep dancing. I think I’m living the life I was born to live. That was an accident, this is a choice.” WWL-TV (New Orleans)
Ready For The National Medal Of Arts, Trump Edition?
Under Trump, the awards stopped: He passed up chances to hand out the medals in 2017 and 2018—the longest drought in the past 35 years. But now, I’m told, he’s poised to announce his first slate of winners later this month. It not only includes names that seem, in part, to be tailored to the president’s personal preferences—namely, the actor and MAGA enthusiast Jon Voight and all five U.S. military bands. But in choosing the winners, Trump appears to have ignored input from the committee that typically recommends artistic luminaries as candidates for the award. – The Atlantic
Sabotage? Andras Schiff Went To Conduct The Montreal Symphony. It Didn’t Go Well
The Hungarian-born pianist, who was scheduled to play and conduct in the Maison symphonique on Oct. 23 and 24, ended up performing only before intermission in both concerts. Schiff withdrew from the second half of the program after an acrimonious rehearsal in which OSM sources say he criticized the players unfairly and even accused them of “sabotage.” – Montreal Gazette