Category: AJBlogs

Contemporary Photography, Old Masters and Me
Everywhere you look in art fairs, galleries, and many museums, you’ll see contemporary photography – it’s often more interesting than other forms of contemporary art, at least to the public. A few years ago, however, I discovered … read more
>AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2017-10-02

How Might the Guggenheim Museum Have Dodged the Pit-Bull Onslaught?
The short answer to my headline is: by realizing in advance that works predicated upon artist-inflicted cruelty to animals are morally repugnant and have no place in a museum display … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-10-02

Can’t anyone here play this game? (second post)
Promised followup to my last post. About things badly done at the gala season opener of the National Symphony on September 24. Because there are so many fumbles when classical music is presented to the the world. We need to do better! … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2017-10-02

 

Hyde Park Jazz Fest, summer’s last dance (photos)
Chicago’s Hyde Park Jazz Festival in the first days of fall (Sept. 23 & 24th) which were unusually hot, is an exceptional event, curated for creative artistry, local and otherwise, drawing a highly diverse crowd Late afternoon … read more
AJBlog: Jazz Beyond JazzPublished 2017-10-01

From Belgium, A Love Supreme
A Love Supreme by Salva Sanchis, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker/ Rosas comes to the U.S. A Love Supreme. (L to R): Thomas Vantuycom, Bilal El Had, Jason Despilieux, and José Paulo dos Santos. Photo: Maria … read more
AJBlog: DancebeatPublished 2017-10-01

The Aspen Pipeline
Today, a man elected last November is othering United States citizens, POC in Puerto Rico. We should stand up to that because it’s important to call out our outrage—even though he won’t be likely to … read more
AJBlog: The Bright RidePublished 2017-09-30

Patti Smith in All the Poets
FOR the last few months I’ve been doing a series on musicians and their interest in literature and writers for the Los Angeles Review of Books. So far, all of these have been strong … read more
AJBlog: CultureCrashPublished 2017-09-29

Hear me talking to you (cont’d)
I’ve started a podcast about theater in America, a collaborative venture with Peter Marks and Elisabeth Vincentelli called Three on the Aisle. To listen to the first episode, go here. Here’s the press release, which … read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2017-09-29

CultureGrrl Video: My Opinionated Tour of the Embattled Berkshire Museum
Having written extensively and critically about the Berkshire Museum’s deaccession plans, I thought I ought to revisit that embattled institution in person. I’d been there twice before, decades ago, … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-09-27

Deciphering Codes, Or Not
Sarah Michelson premieres a new work at Bard College’s Richard B. Fisher Center.
If a friend tells me he or she is going to see a particular choreographer’s new work, I nod my head; I have a vague idea of what it’ll be like. But suppose the choreographer named is Sarah Michelson. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2017-09-28

Can’t anyone here …
Early this month I got crazy email from the Met Opera. They were promoting their new season, opening with a new production of Bellini’s Norma. … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2017-09-28

Other Matters – Language: So …
Increasingly, radio and television newscasts include stories in which anchors interview correspondents in the field. That is part of a pattern: reduced news budgets, smaller staffs and greater dependence on the survivors … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-09-28

 

CultureGrrl Video: My Opinionated Tour of the Embattled Berkshire Museum
Having written extensively and critically about the Berkshire Museum’s deaccession plans, I thought I ought to revisit that embattled institution in person. I’d been there twice before, decades ago, before … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-09-27

 

Zero Sum Funding?
The pursuit of grants, sponsorships, and donations is a central focus of all nonprofits – the arts no less than any other type of tax exempt entity. It keeps us up at night, permeates our dreams … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2017-09-26

Tom Petty at the Hollywood Bowl
Last night, Tom Petty concluded a lengthy tour with the third of three shows at the Hollywood Bowl. The tour was designed to look back at 40 years with his band, The Heartbreakers, and … read more
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2017-09-26

Writer on a Rampage
In a tribute to the late German author Carl Weissner, who wrote experimental fiction in both English and German in addition to translating more than 100 books by dissident American and British authors, … read more
AJBlog: Straight|Up Published 2017-09-26

 

So You Think You Know Zurbarán?
The Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University is currently exhibiting Zurbarán: Jacob and His Twelve Sons, Paintings From Auckland Castle, a noteworthy exhibition for a couple of reasons. First, the paintings are totally fresh to the … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2017-09-25

Higdon on Cold Mountain
Opera lovers can be forgiven for imagining the works they love were born in a flash of inspiration.  Sometimes the journey is a bit more arduous. The UNCSA Composition Department met with Jennifer Higdon via … read more
AJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2017-09-25

 

Guest Columnist: Ken Burns’ Vietnam
Much of the nation has been debating the latest Ken Burns documentary, which I – the son of a Marine officer nearly killed in 1967 – have not yet had the stomach to watch. … read more
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2017-09-21

Upstairs & Downstairs at the Royal National Theatre
It’s said … that the auditorium of the 1,100-seat Olivier Theatre (upstairs at the Royal National Theatre) is modelled on the amphitheatre at Epidaurus. … read more
>AJBlog: Plain English Published 2017-09-21

Pete Turner, Eminent Jazz Photographer, Dies
Pete Turner, the photographer whose work became cover art for dozens of memorable jazz albums, has died at 83. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-09-21

 

What Museum Visitors Want to Know
Museums are mysterious to many people outside the art world (and maybe to people in the art world, I don’t know!). That’s why I highlighted Ask A Curator Day here last week, and why I … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2017-09-20

Recent Listening In Brief: 3 Trumpets Redux
Dick Titterington, The 3 Trumpet Band Live at The 1905 (Heavywood) … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-09-20

Jazz community upends Englewood’s bad rep
The 18th annual free Englewood Jazz Festival in south side Hamilton Park last Saturday (9/16) affirmed the best of Chicago’s grassroots culture, … read more
AJBlog: Jazz Beyond Jazz Published 2017-09-20

The Artistry of Siegfried Tieber, Magician
The other night I was invited to a private session at the Magic Castle in Hollywood with a young magician. Siegfried Tieber — his real name, apparently, with no relation to … read more
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2017-09-20

 

Evaluating Engagement: Outcomes
Evaluation of any kind is a challenge for nonprofit organizations generally and for nonprofit arts organizations in particular. Resource constraints and focus on mission, sometimes at the expense of critical management issues, make evaluation … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2017-09-19

The Maltese Icon–No, Not That One
If you’re an art-lover (and writer) headed toward Malta, as I was last June, the first artwork that comes to mind is Caravaggio’s masterpiece in the Valetta cathedral, The Beheading of St John the Baptist. … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2017-09-19