“When the American Library Association introduced the Caldecott in 1938, the United States was an industrial giant but still a cultural stepchild of Europe. … So librarians wanted to jump-start American creativity by limiting Caldecott eligibility to American citizens and permanent residents just as they had done for their literature award, the Newbery, over a decade before.” Needless to say, the situation has changed. – The New York Times Book Review
Tag: 12.12.19
Queering Theatre Criticism
“Linnea Valdivia discusses the weight of reviews in theatre, the failure in arts journalism to approach queer stories with respect and empathy, how a critic should react if they misgender an artist, and more.” – HowlRound
Researchers: Humans Had Language Millions Of Years Ago
Authors argue that the anatomical ingredients for speech were present in our ancestors much earlier than 200,000 years ago. In fact, they propose that the necessary equipment—specifically, the throat shape and motor control that produce distinguishable vowels—has been around as long as 27 million years, when humans and Old World monkeys (baboons, mandrills, and the like) last shared a common ancestor. – The Atlantic
BP To Arts World: Stop Judging Us By Our Past
“Speaking at a public forum in Westminster this week, [BP’s UK chief] Peter Mather said ‘the most important debate of our generation’ – climate change – was best served by BP continuing to sponsor major institutions like the British Museum, National Portrait Gallery and Royal Opera House, rather than ‘demonising’ the company for its contribution to carbon emissions. … ‘If I come back in five years and we’re just doing the same thing in oil and gas, then I think might have lost our licence to operate in this [arts sponsorship] space.'” – Arts Professional
Unique Red Granite Bust Of Ramses II Discovered In Egypt
“An Egyptian archaeological mission from the Ministry of Antiquities has unearthed a red granite royal bust of King Ramses II emblazoned with the Ka, a symbol of power, life force and spirit. The discovery was made during excavations on privately owned land in Mit Rahina village in Giza, after the landowner was caught carrying out illegal excavation work at the site.” – Archaeology News Network
The Black Ballerina Who Was Told To Wear Blackface For ‘La Bayadere’
When she was an 11-year-old performing as a local dancer filling in at a Mariinsky Ballet performance in LA, Dana Nichols didn’t know she would be asked to perform in blackface until just before the dress rehearsal. “All I could manage to say was, ‘Do I need this?’ I became that thing in the room that no one had ever had to confront. Our chaperones exchanged glances and finally responded with an uncomfortable ‘Yes.’ One woman laughed nervously as she indicated that I still had to wear the makeup because my brown skin was many shades lighter than the color of the bodysuit and the paint selected to cover our skin.” – Dance Magazine
A New Opera Company For Orange County? Not Likely
LA Opera continues to stage traditional and spectacular productions, Long Beach Opera forges ahead in its scrappy and innovative way, San Diego Opera provides yet another outlet for listeners. The market for opera in Southern California may already be saturated, and it may be a settled question: asking for a fully-staffed, active and sustaining professional company in Orange County that consistently delivers top-quality, fully-staged productions before packed and enthusiastic houses? It may be too much. – Voice of Orange County
Actor Danny Aiello, 86
He memorably portrayed blue-collar heavies and hotheads in films such as “The Godfather: Part II,” “The Purple Rose of Cairo” and “Do the Right Thing,” and played against type as a middle-aged mama’s boy in “Moonstruck.” – Washington Post
How Awards Distort Our Movie And Music Culture
Awards are, it must be said, an absurdity. It is not only possible but crucial to insist on the importance or value of art without giving it a trophy. For the many who are interested in the arts, both mass-marketability and the potential for conferred prestige (i.e. awards) should be irrelevant. If those markers are your interest above the work itself, you can turn to metrics, algorithms, and trending topics, which have robust and widely-available platforms for consumption and analysis. Instead, in discussing and deciding what’s available to watch, what’s worth or not worth watching, and how movies are shaping our society, we must try to de-emphasize the validating mechanisms the industry itself provides. – The Daily Beast
Cost Of The Edinburgh Fringe Is Shutting Out Working Class Artists
“So, who can afford to perform at the Fringe regularly? Who can absorb a grand loss every year? Who can work unpaid for 17 weeks at a time? The answer is people who already have money. People who have the financial resources to take that hit year-in and year-out while they build a profile, while they experiment, while they get better at their job. Not me, and not any of my fellow working class artists – that’s for sure.” – The Stage