Category: issues

“The more we experience good art the more we learn to like it, whereas bad art has diminishing marginal utility. Of course, many may disagree about the respective quality of the two artists’ work, but personally I find this result encouraging.”

“Which ultimately does more good–an article or monograph that is read by 20 or 30 people in a very narrow field, or a blog post on a topic of interest to many (such as grading standards or tenure requirements) that is read by 200,000? What if the post spurs hundreds of comments, is debated publicly in faculty lounges and classrooms, and gets picked up by newspapers and Web sites across the country–in other words, it helps to shape the national debate over some hot-button issue? What is it worth then?”

“If you were to judge it simply by the weight of public branding, you would think that the corporate community in the United States has stepped up to support charities in a significant way. They haven’t.”

“They’re not bound for extinction, nor are the companies that rose to prominence on the strength of the MOOC hype doomed. But political, regulatory, administrative, and faculty barriers to the kind of unfettered online education that MOOC promoters originally envisioned have proved quite high, and it’s starting to look as if what they have to offer to universities may be technology tools and services that are more helpful than revolutionary.”

“More than eight months have elapsed since [Rocco] Landesman announced that he was stepping down from the nation’s top arts post. … Yet the hunt for a replacement – who must be nominated by the president and confirmed by Congress – seems to have stalled.”

A world-famous event in the ’60s and early ’70s, closed for 20 years due to the civil war, the music/dance/theatre festival held at Baalbek’s famous Roman ruins has been making a steady comeback since it was relaunched in 1996. But with the town being near the Syrian border, and with weapons and refugees passing through daily, organizers aren’t canceling the festival but are moving it to the relatively safe capital.

“During the past few months, leaders at the Arizona Opera, Children’s Museum of Phoenix and the Arizona Theatre Company have announced their departures. The Heard Museum and Phoenix Symphony were both recently led by interim leaders for more than a year, and the symphony’s principal conductor recently presided over his last performance.”

“Responding to the Detroit debacle by regarding art assets as monetizable for the purpose of paying off creditors is not only wrong, it is strikingly venal and cruel. Detroit’s assets need to be understood in terms of what they can do to revive the city, not on what cash they will produce at auction.”

On the face of it, “everybody’s dear Jane” would seem like one of the least controversial choices for bank note prominence: She is beloved by generations, popular yet highbrow, subversive yet mainstream, witty yet accessible; a smart, safely feminist choice, yet in certain lights, an upholder of traditional values.

“Traditional street shows can be a tough sell in today’s era of mystifying televised performances by high-profile illusionists and endurance artists such as David Blaine and Criss Angel.”