Category: issues

How long should you look at a painting for? Where are the best seats for ballet?

“A handful of artists have done significant work in more than one field, and their ability to do so without apparent strain is one of the enduring mysteries of art.”

The Tel Aviv Suburb of Holon was “once known for crime and middle-class flight.” But with “a dozen new museums, libraries, theaters and other cultural centers – all focused on the city’s unique rebranding around kids culture and digital arts – Holon has become an international model for urban renewal, drawing 400,000 tourists last year.”

“California Institute of the Arts’ long-awaited state-of-the-art performance space, the Wild Beast, is up and running.” The new building, designed by architects Craig Hodgetts and Ming Fung, “can be used for classes, rehearsals, recitals or professional shows – for anywhere from a dozen students to 1,000 audience members, depending on how it’s configured.”

“[S]uppose you learned that politicians were devising policies that might, as a side effect of their enactment, nullify the law of karma. Bad deeds would no longer lead to bad outcomes, and the fragile moral order of our nation would break apart. For tea partiers, this scenario is not science fiction. It is the last 80 years of American history.”

The “income and donations we have all become adept at gaining” have been wasted even in the lovely, spacious Duveen galleries of Tate Britain, where one has to sidestep strange pieces of rope, sandbags and eviscerated mattresses to reach the main collection.

Museum directors are “bracing themselves for drastic cuts in arts funding to be announced next week (on 20 October). Cuts of 25% to 30% are bound to have an impact on museums and non-profit galleries–with expectations that there will be redundancies, fewer exhibitions and programmes, reduced opening hours and smaller acquisition budgets.”

“Big changes have loomed for the historic Lincoln Theatre since January, when the New World Symphony sold the 75-year-old building to a real estate investment and management company planning a high-end retail conversion.”

Nat King Cole was every bit as skilled at the piano as at singing. George Gershwin was a bona fide painter. Samuel Barber didn’t just compose the song cycle Dover Beach; he sang it. And who would have guessed that ’60s action star Clint Eastwood would end up as a genuine cinema auteur?

“Universities in fact bear a considerable responsibility for the brain drain away from the humanities. By raising the cost of education to stratospheric levels, we oblige students to seek a higher return on their investment. It is this sort of economic calculation, I suggest, and not some alleged generational change, that is driving students in droves towards preprofessional degrees.”