How The Old Vic Has Reinvented Itself After The Kevin Spacey Era

“We needed to devise a way of working that didn’t rely on either a subsidy or the star power supplied by Spacey. What producing model would allow the Old Vic, a £13 million turnover break-even business, to continue generating its own work, and to stay solvent?” Old Vic executive director Kate Varah writes about how she, artistic director Matthew Warchus, and their colleagues found the way.

‘Enough Is Enough’: Gustavo Dudamel Makes Strongest Statement Yet About Venezuelan Crisis

After years of strenuously avoiding any public statement about the ever more dire political situation in his homeland, the star conductor last week gave a strenuously evenhanded plea for both sides to settle their differences – whereupon both sides attacked him. Now, after a young musician was shot while protesting, Dudamel has directly called on “the President of the Republic and the national government to rectify and listen to the voice of the Venezuelan people. … Democracy cannot be built to fit the needs of a particular government or otherwise it would cease to be a democracy.”

This Is The Most Powerful Woman In The New York Art World, Says The New York Times

“At 63, [she] has been running an art museum in New York longer than anyone except Glenn Lowry at the Museum of Modern Art. … She is one of only two directors in the city who has overseen the construction of a brand-new building. … And she is now in the midst of an $80 million capital campaign to double her museum’s size, a project notable at least so far for its sotto-voce nature, in sharp contrast to the expansion Mr. Lowry is overseeing.

David Lang Creates A Symphony For 1,000 Broken School Instruments

“The School District of Philadelphia has over 1,000 broken musical instruments, from flutes with bent keys to trombones missing slides. Some of their fixes are easy, others complex, yet due to funding cuts in the city, the district doesn’t have a budget for either.” But a Temple University professor had an idea for making music with them as-is, using that as a way to raise money to start fixing them.

End Of An Era: Brooklyn Academy Of Music’s Longtime Executive Producer To Retire

“It is time for the next wave to roll in at the Brooklyn Academy of Music: Joseph V. Melillo, who has helped shape the academy’s cutting-edge aesthetic for more than three decades, will announce on Friday that he plans to step down as executive producer at the end of 2018. Mr. Melillo, 70, is the last link to the organization’s impresario and visionary leader, Harvey Lichtenstein.”

Top Posts From AJBlogs 05.04.17

Cost disease in the arts: what does it mean?
Professor William Baumol, one of the greatest living economists, has died at the age of 95. … Readers of artsjournal.com know him best for his conception of cost disease, done jointly with William Bowen. … Let’s expand on that a bit, and ask what it means for arts policy. … read more
AJBlog: For What It’s Worth Published 2017-05-04

Defying Trump, Bipartisan Deal Would Boost Funding for NEA and NEH (with strings attached)
The strong efforts of arts-and-humanities advocates appear to have (at least temporarily) overcome the pernicious, fallacious notion that the National Endowments of the Arts and Humanities are preserves of the elite and therefore unworthy of government support. But … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-05-04

Schmooze & Peruse: My Storify on the Frieze Art Fair in New York
I thought I’d give it another try by attending the preview for Frieze Art Fair (to May 7), but I still find that, for me, art fairs are a a good way to network with art-world luminaries but a poor way to view and absorb art. … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-05-04