“The Labour Party election manifesto … pledges to establish a £1bn Cultural Capital Fund ‘to transform libraries, museums and galleries across the country’. … The manifesto [also] commits to an ‘arts pupil premium’ to fund arts education for every primary school child. This would provide a £160 million annual boost for schools to ensure that creative and arts education is embedded in the system.” – The Art Newspaper
Tag: 11.21.19
The wealth tax and the museum
At Bloomberg, Tyler Cowen has a short post on some unintended consequences of a wealth tax, and his is (let’s say) an unusual take. – Michael Rushton
Monkman Mischief: How Kent’s “Miss Chief Eagle Testickle” May Prank the Met
For me, the most jaw-dropping instance of curatorial (and directorial) trend-chasing was the Met’s announcement that the Canadian Cree artist Kent Monkman had been commissioned by the museum to create two monumental paintings for the museum’s Great Hall. – Lee Rosenbaum
‘This Is One Of The Best Times Ever To Be A Black Creative’ In Theatre, Says One Of UK’s Top Directors
Kwame Kwei-Armah, artistic director of the Young Vic in London (and former artistic director of Center Stage in Baltimore): “People are listening in a way they didn’t 10 years ago, 20 years ago, and history has taught us that they certainly didn’t listen any time before that.” – Backstage
MacArthur ‘Genius’ Tyshawn Sorey Is Opera Philadelphia’s Next Composer-In-Residence
“Although he has never written an opera, his appointment grew out of Cycles of My Being, a set of emotionally complex songs he composed for [tenor Lawrence Brownlee and] Opera Philadelphia exploring the African American male experience.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
Formal ‘Directing Nudity And Simulated Sex’ Guidelines Created For British Filmmakers
“Launched by Directors UK, the professional association for screen directors, the guidelines were, according to the organization, ‘born of the need to set clear and shared professional expectations that apply to everyone involved in making sensitive content, with the aim that they will become standard working practice within the industry.'” – The Hollywood Reporter
‘Climate Emergency’ Is Oxford Dictionaries’ 2019 Word Of The Year
“Defined as ‘a situation in which urgent action is required to reduce or halt climate change and avoid potentially irreversible environmental damage resulting from it’, Oxford said the words soared from ‘relative obscurity’ to ‘one of the most prominent – and prominently debated – terms of 2019.’ According to the dictionary’s data, usage of ‘climate emergency’ soared 10,796%.” (Similarly, Collins Dictionary chose “climate strike” as its Word of the Year.) – The Guardian
Zadie Smith: Art Of The Muse
“The Yoko Years. The Decade of Dora. Accounts of the muse–artist relation were anchored in the idea of male cultural production as a special category, one with particular needs—usually sexual—that the muse had been there to fulfill, perhaps even to the point of exploitation, but without whom we would have missed the opportunity to enjoy this or that beloved cultural artifact. The art wants what the art wants.” – New York Review of Books