“Pupils are being denied careers advice at a time of record youth unemployment, schools are scrapping projects to help the neediest children catch up on their reading, and teachers of music, art and sport are losing their jobs, a Guardian investigation into the impact of cuts on education reveals.”
Tag: 12.27.11
Massive Layoffs At Royal Danish Theatre, Opera, Ballet
Faced with a loss of 100 million kroner (roughly €13.5 million) in funding over the next four years, the Royal Theatre is eliminating 100 positions, including five senior management and 35 artistic jobs. At least three productions will be cut from the 2012 schedule as well.
Battle Of The Buffet: How People Strategize At Salad Bars
“Look behind the salads, sausage rolls and bite-size pizzas and it turns out that buffets are a microcosm of greed, sexual politics and altruism – a place where our food choices are driven by factors we’re often unaware of.”
Why UK Businesses Are Stepping Into The Arts Funding Breach
“‘Firstly, the reputation of being a good corporate citizen; secondly, people ascribe the quality of one organisation to the other.’ A bit like being a strait-laced banker who starts dating a bohemian artist, the firms hope that some of that coolness will rub off on them.”
Dostoevsky, Faith, Atheism, And The Archbishop Of Canterbury
Dr. Rowan Williams says that the Richard Dawkins school of militant atheism sees religious faith as “a rather second-rate theory to explain why the world is the way it is or a second-rate psychological crutch for people who can’t bear the weight of reality … I turn to Dostoevsky and think, well that sounds more like what I think faith is than what Richard Dawkins thinks faith is.”
Gospel Music Catches Fire In Brazil
“Brazil is known as the land of samba, bossa nova and funk. But increasingly, the artists topping the charts wield not just guitars and tambourines but also copies of the Bible.”
Of Group Dynamics And Bad Decisions
“We prefer being in groups of others who are similar. We like people who agree with us on issues, we even like people who imitate our own body movements. So, enjoying being in a group isn’t always the same thing as creating the most effective group.”
Censorship And The British Stage
“For any British person under the age of 50, the idea of theatrical censorship is totally alien. … But it’s salutary to be reminded that, in Britain, it was only the Theatres Act of 1968 that finally put paid to a system of censorship that existed here for over 230 years. While we rejoice in our current freedom, we should be wary of a creeping caution that exists in the UK and other western democracies.”
The Rise And Fall Of Vachel Lindsay
“[In] the 1920s he was arguably the most visible poet in America, whose performances were witnessed, and applauded, by thousands.” His work was anthologized and taught in schools well into the 1960s; since then, his reputation has plummeted and his memory has faded. What happened?
Jazz Saxophonist Sam Rivers Dead At 88
“Joy was the word that resurfaced again and again when musicians and friends remembered Sam Rivers, a saxophonist, flutist and composer whose long list of credits included work with the legendary Miles Davis … Dizzy Gillespie and Cecil Taylor [as well as] blues musicians T-Bone Walker and John Lee Hooker.”