“Emergency evacuation drills, though necessary, are a pain: they seem to always happen when we least expect it and interrupt us when we’re at our most productive. At SIGNAL gallery, the procedure becomes a delight, with artist Madeline Hollander transforming what we’ve all rehearsed with irritation into a mesmerizing performance.”
Category: AUDIENCE
Why Balanchine’s ‘Jewels’ Makes The Perfect Introduction To Ballet
Alastair Macaulay: “Nobody can miss how vividly different its stage worlds are: the green romantic medieval French forest of ‘Emeralds’ (music by Fauré); the red Modernist high-energy American urban world of ‘Rubies’ (Stravinsky); the wintry white (both snowscape and palace) grand imperial Russian classicism of ‘Diamonds’ (Tchaikovsky). What other artist could conjure these three dissimilar realms with such easy mastery?”
A Great Broadway Tradition, Lost: Sneaking In For Act Two
“There was a time when ‘second-acting’ – sneaking into a Broadway theater at intermission before the second act – was as common as the cigarette break in the middle of a musical. It was a time-honored rite of passage, practiced by generations of starving actors and students of the theater. … But today, when security is ultravigilant and shows are under pressure to sell out night after night, the practice has all but gone dark.”
This Week in Understanding Audience: Baby Boomers Reinvent The Movie Experience
This week: Baby boomers are breathing new life into movie theatres… Dance clubs are languishing as millennials stay away… Netflix reveals at what point we get hooked on TV series… How the audience changes when admission is free… The Ticket bots strike again on Broadway.
Does Free Admission To Museum Change Who Comes (Or What They Do?)
“Many of those museums that have altered their admissions models have noticed a shift in visitor patterns. Attendance doubled after fees were waived to England’s national collections in 2001, said the director of London’s Natural History Museum to The Guardian. When the Dallas Museum of Art nixed its $10 admission fee, its annual attendance swelled from 498,000 to 668,000, and the institution saw a 29 percent increase in minority visitors, Fortune reported.”
In Its First Year, LA’s Broad Museum Smashes Projected Attendance Numbers
“The attendance total of 823,216 tripled pre-opening projections and placed the Broad among the top U.S. art museums for annual visitors.
In The Age Of Trump, Can The New African-American Museum Reach The People Who Need To Hear Its Message?
Philip Kennicott: “The basic conservatism of the new museum, its Smithsonian look and feel, and all the trust that name inspires, will help many visitors grapple with the obvious, ugly and manifest truths of racism and its impact on black culture. But … in the years since the museum was authorized by Congress, perhaps the biggest change in American society is how many people have become comfortable with staring at the unpleasant and undeniable and saying, ‘That’s not what I see.'”
The Long Arguments And Hard Work Behind An American Girl’s First Black Doll
“In 1993, the doll company set out to introduce its first black character. All she had to do was represent the entire history of black America.”
How Blockchain Could Be The Next Big Disruption In The $15 Billion Music Business
“Any industry that in encumbered by inefficient intermediaries is in danger of disruption, and the music industry is ripe for it. There are many blockchain oriented startups in this area, but two of them shine through as having a unique, innovative perspective on what should be done.”
Live By The Movie Ratings, Die By The Movie Ratings
The Motion Picture Association of America rates movies – G, R, M-18, etc. But “power creates its own temptation. MPAA itself has been accused of rating independent films more harshly than those produced by MPAA’s own member studios. And this year, a class action lawsuit seeks to force MPAA to use its ratings system to eliminate tobacco imagery from children’s films.”