“Theaters across the country may offer various accommodations, including captioning devices and sign interpretation. But the Kennedy Center is one of the few to add another layer to its live sign-language interpretations by hiring theater-savvy directors who are deaf — that’s the crucial part — to oversee them.” Sarah Kaufman visits a rehearsal to see the artistry and ingenuity at work, especially in tackling the tricky problem of repeated song lyrics. – The Washington Post
Category: AUDIENCE
UK Museum Attendance Up Six Percent After A Couple Down Years
Attendance dropped by 1% in both 2017 and 2016, and by 0.5% in 2015. But new figures from the national tourism agency show a decisive turnaround, with attendance across 444 museums and art galleries growing by 6% on the previous year. – Arts Professional
Why Is There So Much Weird Stuff In English Cathedrals These Days?
Rochester Cathedral has mini-golf (okay, an “educational adventure golf course’). Norwich Cathedral has a “helter-skelter” (a tarted-up sliding board), ostensibly so that visitors can get a better look at the exquisite medieval ceiling before sliding down. Derby Cathedral got in hot water last year when its free movie series got a bit too racy. What’s going on? Well, last fall the Archbishop of Canterbury said that people should “have fun in cathedrals,” but, in fact, some serious structural and governance issues are in play. – The Economist
YouTube Powered Brazil’s Turn To The Hard Right
“Members of the nation’s newly empowered far right — from grass-roots organizers to federal lawmakers — say their movement would not have risen so far, so fast, without YouTube’s recommendation engine. New research has found they may be correct … [and] a New York Times investigation in Brazil found that, time and again, videos promoted by the site have upended central elements of daily life.” – The New York Times
It’s Fine – It’s Great, Actually – To Take Photos In Museums
Don’t get distracted by your feelings about obnoxiousness. Well … a little, maybe. “It’s easy to see why phones can be annoying. They represent a sort of loud carelessness, the idea that someone isn’t really paying attention, isn’t really experiencing the thing that’s in front of them.” But: “The important thing about art is just that you experience it, not how, and for many people, taking photos on your phone is a natural extension of that experience.” – The Guardian (UK)
This Public Radio Station Created A Journalism School… For Its Listeners
Roughly 100 people, most of them St. Louis Public Radio members and supporters, paid $120 to attend. They visited St. Louis Public Radio’s community room in the city’s downtown Grand Center neighborhood to participate in evening sessions hosted by journalists from outlets across the region. Topics included serious issues like media literacy and libel law and lighter fare like food reporting and TV weather coverage. – Current
Prejudging The Movies – When The “Buzz” Gangs Up
“Today, the forces of entertainment marketing, social media and grievance culture are increasingly colliding, with the casualty being the movies themselves. Why wait to actually see “The Irishman,” Martin Scorsese’s long-gestating project about Jimmy Hoffa and the mob, when you can start fact-checking it months before it opens?” – Washington Post
Manchester’s Leading Theatre Builds A Pop-Up Stage To Take Plays To City’s Neighborhoods
“The Royal Exchange is one of Manchester’s best known theatres, the venue resembling a lunar landing craft located inside The Great Hall on St Ann’s Square. … The Den is a lightweight, 180-seat portable auditorium designed to be built and dismantled … by members of each host community who will become its ushers, its box office, technical team and audience.” – BBC
More Than 70,000 People Used New York City Libraries’ Culture Pass In Its First Year
Of those 70,000, 12,000 signed up in the first week alone. “Cardholders at the Brooklyn, New York and Queens public libraries can gain free admission through the program at participating cultural institutions that include museums, performance venues, botanical gardens and historical societies.” – The New York Times
The Most Visited Single-Artist Museum In The World? It’s Not The Van Gogh Museum Anymore
“The art collective teamLab’s new, immersive museum in Tokyo attracted more visitors than the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam last year, and twice the combined number of visitors to the three Dalí museums in Spain. … In its first year of operation, teamLab Borderless in Tokyo attracted 2.3 million visitors in total. A further 1.2 million visitors enjoyed the collective’s temporary immersive light experience in Japan’s capital.” – Artnet