The Harder They Fall is "righteous and rowdy" - and has a Black British musician director who says that his music and films come from the same place: "When I’m writing and these words are coming out, so are melodies and song and score." - The Guardian (UK)
Claire Lilley, who placed 18 sculptures for the London Frieze Sculpture show this year: "I love how we as humans occupy the same space as sculpture. I’ve seen people press their entire bodies against sculptures and hug them." - The New York Times
That seems wild, since this year's version was recent - and grim. "The Oscars’ class of 2020 included plenty of good films ... seen only on small screens, unleashed upon an isolated and atomized populace, in the middle of a brutal pandemic winter." - Vulture
The activist artist says she accepted a position at Harvard after telling the regime, "Look, you want me to leave, well now you have an opportunity. ... But I’ll leave on the condition that you release , and I handed a list of several people." - Hyperallergic
"It is a measure of Professor Bunnell’s success that today photography is unquestionably accepted as both a fine art and a discipline worthy of historical scholarship. Things were different in the late 1950s, when he entered college." - The New York Times
Rock musician Dave Grohl speaks for pretty much every performer: "You wake up every day, cross your fingers that they’ll open a door, turn on the lights and we’ll have a ... show. It’s not guaranteed." - Washington Post
Fiona Lamptey's vision: "I really want to bring back our stars, like people that have to leave their home to go make a film that feels aspirational, or ambitious, and that they can get paid for ... those projects that kind of feel big for the U.K." - Variety
It was a particularly bad evening for the actor who had recently been diagnosed with epilepsy: "I was onstage, and I forgot my lines, I forgot where I was, and I thought, I can’t do this anymore." - Irish Times
Star power, a lot of hustle, and some luck. Ask Phoebe Robinson: "Her career models have shifted from comics like Wanda Sykes to multihyphenates like Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling." - The New York Times
IATSE stagehands at the Kennedy Center voted to strike if a deal couldn't be reached - but at the last minute, the venue and stagehands hammered out a long-term deal, and Hadestown can go forward. But it was painful for everyone. - Washington Post
Some things went better, including a lot of pivoting to digital, but "Before the pandemic hit India, the annual India Art Fair took place in Delhi. 'We were at an all-time high,' said its director, Jaya Asokan. ... Just weeks later, everything ground to a halt." - The New York Times
Conductor Theodore Thomas' first concert in Chicago was predicted to be "one of the most notable events in the history of music in Chicago." Sure, except with no music: "By curtain time, Crosby’s, and much of the city around it, would be ash and ruin." - Chicago Sun-Times
If British musicians can't travel to Europe easily and often, Dame Sarah Connolly says, their ability to be seen and to network will decline quickly and decisively. "How can we compete with our German, French, Portuguese, Austrian friends if we are not known?" - The Observer (UK)
Jackson, a professor at Arizona State and a veteran arts administrator, "is a recognized expert in creative placemaking, a process that leverages arts, culture and design to spur economic development in communities and promote social change." - The New York Times
