Category: issues

“The DuSable Museum of African American History, which has the largest collection of African-American historical artifacts in the country, is facing a crisis of underfunding and management at a time when it should be getting ready for the arrival the Obama Presidential Center … First, though, the 57-year-old museum must regain financial and organizational stability in its day-to-day operations. If it can’t, it’s not clear it will survive until 2020, let alone the next decade or two. [Here’s what’s] on the punch list.”

“Featuring an outpost of the Victoria and Albert Museum, a Sadler’s Wells dance theatre and a new home for the London College of Fashion, along with residential towers, the park’s planned arts district, once known as Olympicopolis, in tune with [former mayor Boris] Johnson’s penchant for ancient Greek, has been reborn as East Bank, with the addition of a new base for the BBC Symphony Orchestra and recording studios.”

It may come as a surprise that some, but not all subway performers in NYC subway stations, have passed a rigorous audition process.

Stage director Javaad Alipoor: “The arts world has turned working-class people into a problem to be solved rather than audience members or artists to be developed. Focusing on the poorest in society also dodges the main question we should be asking: why is it not only the super-exploited but the majority in this country who do not engage with subsidised theatre or arts? These are people who fill out football stadiums, comedy clubs, gigs and commercial theatres, often paying more for tickets than is charged by state-subsidised productions. Folk who can afford a big night out, but don’t want to spend it with us.”

“The Kennedy Center’s expansion project, now with a $250 million fundraising campaign, will open Sept. 7, 2019 — more than two years late and $100 million over its original cost. Arts center officials offered the first glimpse of the building Tuesday at a hard-hat tour for community members. Under construction on 4.6 acres south of the original facility, the building will encourage interaction between artists and audiences with glass-walled classrooms and studios, Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter said.”

The site powers sales for many independent venues across the country. Still, much of the website remains down. Eventbrite, the San Francisco-based company that owns Ticketfly, told The Washington Post in a statement that an investigation into the breach is ongoing, but it confirmed that “some customer information has been compromised as part of the incident, including names, addresses, emails, and phone numbers of Ticketfly fans.”

Higher ed is often described as a bubble—and much like the housing market in 2008, the thought goes, it will ultimately burst. But what if it’s less of a sudden pop and more of a long, slow slide, and we are already on the way down? We are living through the greatest time in history to be a learner, with the availability of so many high-quality free materials online. But at the same time, the institutions most affiliated with knowledge and learning are facing crisis.

Wesley Morris: “This questioning of the canon comes from places of lived experience. It’s attuned to how great cultural work can leave you feeling irked and demeaned. For some readers, loving Herman Melville or Joseph Conrad requires some peacemaking with the not-quite-human representations of black people in those texts. Loving Edith Wharton requires the same reckoning with the insulting way she could describe Jews. Bigotry recurs in canonical art. And committed engagement leaves us dutybound to identify it. … Your great works should be strong enough to withstand some feminist forensics. … Insisting that a canon is settled gives those concerns the ‘fake news’ treatment, denying a legitimate grievance by saying there’s no grounds for one. It’s shutting down a conversation, when the longer we go without one, the harder it becomes to speak.”

Not surprising was the finding that museums had larger working capital reserves than did performing arts organizations.  What was somewhat surprising was the finding that smaller budgeted organizations had larger relative cash reserves than did larger budgeted organizations, due in part to their smaller fixed expenses allowing them to be more nimble.

Arquette says he called her to his hotel room and essentially tried to assault her – and when she refused him, he told her she was “making a big mistake.” After she left, “‘Got down the elevator. By the time I got to the bottom, the lobby, I had a completely different career,’ Arquette says. Roles started to disappear, and new opportunities didn’t seem to come.”