Yearly Archives: 2021
Dutch Government Set To Spend €150 Million To Buy A Rembrandt From The Rothschilds
The Standard-Bearer, once owned by George IV of Great Britain, is one of the very few Rembrandts still in private hands. The Rothschilds are...
Circus Oz, Australia’s World-Renowned Troupe, Is Closing Down
The government agencies that provide 75% of Circus Oz's budget told the company that it must revamp its board and governance or lose funding....
How Our Talent For Charades Facilitated Spoken Language
If words are arbitrary and purely a matter of convention, then how did they come to be established in the first place? In practical...
Detroit Symphony Picks New Chief Exec
Erik Ronmark has spent virtually his entire career with the DSO, having started as a part-time assistant in the music library in 2005. He was...
Why Are DeepFakes So Morally Unsettling?
Deepfakes, for better or worse, are here to stay: apps that make use of this technology are widely available, and will only become more...
Learning Isn’t Enough: Why Robots Will Need Genetic Codes
“I would love to have a robot load up dishes into my dishwasher, and I’d love to have a robot clean my house,” says...
New Report: Who Leads The World’s Ballet Companies
Of 179 artistic directors of major ballet companies, 59 are women (33%), while 119 are men (66%), and 1 is gender expansive (0.6%). Similarly,...
The Power Of A Great Hollywood Actor
The effect that actors have — the source of their power and fascination — is more than just subjective. It’s interpersonal. Watching them act,...
Doom Metal Organist Picketed By French Catholics Who Call Her Music “Satanic”
One critic describes Anna von Hausswolff's music as "where post-rock, doom metal, modern classical and high church music all coexist." Her concert at a...
Hollywood’s Progress In Diversity Hits A Speed Bump
“Diversity” may have become an even more popular buzzword in show business circles since the summer of 2020, but the goal of attaining full...
In Germany, Stage Directors Rule, But It’s The Actors Who’ve Been Keeping The Theaters...
"One of the main reasons theater here has been able to rebound after repeated closures is that Germany effectively has a standing army of...
The First Piece Of Music Created By An AI Was In 1956
Decades before today’s artificial intelligence pop stars, Auto-Tune and deepfake compositions was Lejaren Hiller’s piece, described by the New York Times in his 1994 obituary as...
Now *This* Is How To Design Attractive Affordable Housing
Critic Oliver Wainwright says that the architects of this east London project, called A House for Artists, have found a way to follow local...
Transformative Director Of NYC’s City Center Steps Down After 18 Years
During her tenure, Arlene Shuler has transformed City Center from a mostly rental space for dance companies to a producing house that commissions and...
How “Squid Game” Has Transformed International TV
Better, perhaps, to say that the Korean hit marks a transformation that has been happening for several years now: the gradual acceptance by anglophone...
Research: Why Sustainable Careers In The Arts Are So Difficult
In the interviews taken as part of my research, I repeatedly found financial constraints underpin three problems causing career unsustainability in the arts. -...
Ebook And Audiobook Stats From UK Libraries Have A Few Surprises
The sleeper among audiobooks — ahead of Michelle Obama and Kazuo Ishiguro, behind only J.K. Rowling — is mystery writer Brenda Chapman's Cold Mourning....
The Venue For New York’s Shakespeare In The Park Is Getting Its First Overhaul...
The structure of the Delacorte Theater in Central Park is deteriorating, and the renovation had been expected, before the pandemic, to run from 2020...
Fort Worth Symphony Names Kevin John Edusei Principal Guest Conductor
The 45-year-old German-Ghanaian, now in his final season as chief conductor of the Munich Symphony, joins incoming music director Robert Spano at the FWSO...
Charlottesville’s Robert E. Lee Statue Will Be Melted Down And Made Into New Black...
In a project called "Swords Into Plowshares," the Confederate monument that was the excuse for the deadly Unite the Right rally in 2017 will...
Carnegie Hall Starts A Streaming-Video-On-Demand Network
The $7.99-a-month service, called Carnegie Hall+, isn't all, or even mostly, performances at the New York venue itself (where video recording is unusually expensive):...
Britain Makes Masks Mandatory For All Indoor Venues
With infections of the Delta and Omicron variants rising, the government has instituted what it calls "Plan B": audiences and staff at theatres, concert...
Filmmaker Lina Wertmüller Dead At 93
A protégée of Federico Fellini, she won critical acclaim internationally for such films as The Seduction of Mimi, Love and Anarchy, and Swept Away;...
Brooklyn Museum Gets A New President/COO
Trueblood, who starts early next year, previously served as chief of staff at the American Civil Liberties Union and as director of White House...
Welcome To Selfie Wrld – Unique Pix That Aren’t
Selfie Wrld is a chain with 30 franchises from Anchorage to Tampa. Because the props encourage certain poses, your selfies might be identical to...