Category: issues

“Women are under-represented in decision-making positions in the German arts and earn less than men for equal work, according to a new study commissioned by the government and conducted by the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin.”

“A nearly century-old law that turned New York bars into no-dancing zones, prevented singers like Billie Holiday and Ray Charles from performing and drew protest from Frank Sinatra, is finally set to be struck down.”

Nick Denton: “The headlines are shocking – unless you read Gawker before it was shut down … Those first accounts of sexual harassment – even if anonymous or thinly sourced – give confidence to victims that they are not alone. Gossip, though it draws those motivated by envy and resentment, is also a tool of the powerless.”

Founded as an arts school in 1936, LaGuardia was immortalized in the 1980 film “Fame.” Alumni include a galaxy of stars such as Liza Minnelli, Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Vanessa Williams and Jennifer Aniston, along with top artists, composers and musicians.

“In past months, religious nationalists in the Hindu-majority country have stepped up a campaign to push the four-century-old Mughal monument to the margins of Indian history. One legislator recently kicked up a national storm when he labelled the tomb ‘a blot’. Resentment at the fact the country’s most recognisable monument was built by a Muslim emperor has always existed on the fringes of the Hindu right. But those fringes have never been so powerful.”

“The resurgent white supremacist movement has been appropriating medieval (or medieval-flavored) motifs in the public eye this year, taking up the ‘Deus Vult’ slogan (or ‘God wills it,’ purported to have been chanted by medieval Crusaders) and the so-called Celtic Cross. … Should historians take responsibility for the abuse and exploitation of the past by amateurs, or even by those within their own ranks? Is scholarship doomed to be complicit in the violence done in its name?”

“This is a rare opportunity for a national organization to re-think policy and protocol and move in new directions while solidifying its deepest commitments. It isn’t very often, that a new important organization leader gets the chance for a kind of clean break with the past operation, and the opportunity to mold a new future. Not jettisoning the past, but aligning it with a new future. A new location and a new staff are a big deal.”

“This latest round means not a reduced staff of reviewers but no critics at all at major city papers. That’s a watershed. The arts here in North Texas, for instance, have been blossoming the past decade, while arts coverage has gone the other way. Fort Worth is the home of the internationally-known Cliburn competition and Kimbell Art Museum — that’s pretty unusual for a city its size. Yet the local paper now has no arts critics on its staff.”

“We’ve heard about theater critics being laid off, we’ve heard about newspapers cutting back on the space they’re willing to devote to arts coverage. It seems like that’s something we hear from theaters across the board in Michigan.”