“No surprise that first-rate nonfiction films such as Davis Guggenheim’s Waiting for Superman, Charles Ferguson’s Inside Job and Amir Bar-Lev’s outstanding film The Tillman Story made the cut; ditto Alex Gibney’s stellar Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer … [and] Exit Through the Gift Shop, by the enigmatic graffiti artist Bansky.”
Tag: 11.19.10
Is Ballet Really Dead? Dancemakers Respond to Jennifer Homans
“[In] her book, [Homans] argues that ballet companies have become ‘museums for the old,’ that too many dancers have traded artistry for ‘unthinking athleticism,’ that choreography ‘veers from unimaginative imitation to strident innovation.’ Do professional dance makers and observers agree? We asked a few for their reactions.” (Readers chime in as well.)
More Arts Groups Look At Variable Pricing
“It’s called dynamic pricing, and audiences attending concerts, recitals, and dance and theater events presented by the organization this season may have noticed the difference: The actual ticket price may be lower — or, in some cases, higher — than the one printed in their season brochures.”
San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum Fights For Financial Survival
“The Asian Art Museum here is facing a financial crisis, the latest–and one of the largest–in a string of museums to suffer from problems amid the weak economy.”
Virginia Opera Fires Its Music Director
“Virginia Opera, a scrappy regional company that’s been bringing productions to three cities in Virginia for decades, has fired its founding music and artistic director, Peter Mark, after 36 years of service. The announcement came Thursday after weeks of acrimonious debate that divided the opera’s board and much of its audience.”
“Free” As A Business Model? I Don’t Think So
“In just a few years, we’ve seen incredible innovation in terms of delivering content in sophisticated ways, with new technology and rights holders working in partnership, and we’ve discovered that people are willing to pay for the really good ones – and this is just the beginning. I believe it’s detrimental to suggest that creators should be defeatist and not participate in this evolution – that what they’ve created has no value so they may as well give it away.”
As Goes The Detroit Symphony…
“Anyone close to the classical music world in the US is watching closely how the dispute plays out in Detroit because of its fundamental, almost existential, nature. At stake is not only the future of this orchestra. Also in question is the traditional focus of classical orchestras on stage performing and recording, and the very survival of America’s big-city ensembles. It is feared that where Detroit goes first, other cash-strapped cities may follow.”
Boston’s New Museum Of Fine Arts Wing Helpfully Reveals Museum Weaknesses
“MFAB’s new American wing helpfully exposes the cracks in traditional thinking about American art. Maybe those fractures will give the museum some good ideas on how to represent art’s 20th century.”
Covering The News As A Video Game?
“At the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Digital Media Program, we are researching newsgames, the application of games to journalism. Newsgames reinvent journalistic principles through their design, using current events, infographics, puzzles, community action and more.”
Will Depending On GPS Use Make Part Of Our Brains Atrophy?
“Those who used spatial navigation strategy — the non-GPS method — had increased activity in a part of the brain responsible for memory and navigation called the hippocampus. The study indicated that who used GPS-like stimulus-reponse could be at risk for showing atrophy of the hippocampus over time.”