“People trust books. When they read books by experts, they often assume that they’re as serious, and as carefully verified, as scientific papers — or at least that there’s some vetting in place. But often, that faith is misplaced. There are no good mechanisms to make sure books are accurate, and that’s a problem.” – Vox
Tag: 06.04.19
Why Is Public Funding For The Arts So Problematic?
After 70 years, most people still don’t live within easy reach – in any sense – of the artistic riches enabled by Arts Council funding. After 70 years, most artists still earn very little for their creative work. Changing both situations involves redistribution, and that necessarily has losers as well as winners. One criticism that can be fairly made of Arts Council England is that it has not used the increases it gained in the past 25 years to change the underlying principles or pattern of its support. – Parliament of Dreams
Steppenwolf Theatre Brings Back The *Real* First Queer Candidate For President (Sorry, Mayor Pete!)
Back in 1992, the drag queen Joan Jett Blakk ran a campaign (“Putting in the camp, taking out the pain”) for president on the Queer Nation Party line. Now Tina Landau and playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney (who also stars) have created a play titled Ms. Blakk for President — “part campaign rally, part nightclub performance, part confessional — and all party!” – American Theatre
Jesse Rosen To Step Down As Head Of League Of American Orchestras
“By September 2020, I will have been at the League for twenty-two years and CEO for twelve,” Rosen said in his remarks to delegates during the League’s 74th National Conference in Nashville. “I’ve had an enormously fulfilling experience, but it’s time to begin thinking about the next chapter. ” – Broadway World
Why Are Book Subtitles Getting So Long?
“I don’t feel respected as a reader when I feel like the subtitle was created not to give me a feeling of what kind of reading experience I may get, but for search engines.” – Washington Post
Busting Genre: Blurring The Ingredients In “Classical” Music
“We’re trying to create a balance between things we know are really good and things that we maybe aren’t sure about but don’t ‘fit in’ to the typical new music ideal. It’s tricky — there are just certain kinds of music that neither of us has any experience evaluating. We’ve had to draw some boundaries based on logistics and our own level of knowledge.” – San Francisco Classical Voice
Bringing ‘The Healing Power Of Dance’ To Women’s Prisons
Lucy Wallace, who has degrees in dance and psychology, brings her Dance to Be Free program of classes and workshops to 13 prisons in eight states — on a budget of $100,000 a year.- The Chronicle of Philanthropy
How Russia’s ‘Documentary Theatre’ Company Exposes Injustice
Founded in 2002, Teatr.doc assembles scripts from documents and participant testimony from important incidents in contemporary Russia. Writer Verity Healey reports on the company’s latest project, Torture, “about the physical and psychological methods officers from the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) used on a group of left-wing young men prior to the 2018 World Cup.” – HowlRound
EO Wilson At 90: Still A Provocateur
Contentious or not, Wilson’s books have mostly addressed one theme: that we must know natural history and evolutionary theory to fully understand humanity’s future on the planet. In his 1986 manifesto Biophilia, for example, he suggested that humans have an innate biological need to be in nature and to “affiliate with other forms of life.” – Wired
Christopher House Steps Down As Artistic Director Of Toronto Dance Theatre After 25 Years
The news, rumoured for months, was confirmed by the company Tuesday as it announced details of what will be House’s final season at the head of one of Canada’s oldest and most respected contemporary dance troupes.
– Toronto Star