This isn’t great, since each musician needs rather a lot of paperwork – and it’s possible, though unclear, that their instruments may need a deal too. “The new agreement means British orchestras may choose to reduce the number of European countries they visit to cut down on administrative costs.” – The Guardian (UK)
The Royal Shakespeare Company Attempts A Return Of A Midsummer Night’s Sax Comedy
Swinging the Dream, a 1939 musical that flopped after 13 performances despite (or because of?) having a cast of 150 and three bands. It’s being revived, rewritten, and live-streamed during the pandemic. – The Guardian (UK)
Operas Have Tried Everything During The Pandemic, Including Opera-By-Mail
And that’s actually been great. For instance, once an opera in L.A. might have reached a thousand people in a sold-out night; during the pandemic, more than 22,000 watched the same opera online. “The experimentation afoot within companies like On Site and festivals like Prototype signal a new, vital place for experimental approaches to opera — which now feel like survival strategies for the art form itself.” – Washington Post
Yes, Things Might Look Up, But It Will Be A Long Slow Recovery For The Arts
For a broad chunk of the population, turning off that switch might not be as simple as being told it is okay to do so. Some local museum officials I’ve talked to think it might be 2023 or 24 before they return to pre-pandemic revenue levels. – Chicago Tribune
Why Are A Bunch Of Teens Convinced That Helen Keller Wasn’t Deaf-Blind?
Blame TikTok and the pathologies of social media in the age of fake news. A couple of (so-called) satirical videos were posted last year on the app; teens picked up on them and made their own vids joining in; as #helenkellerisfake and #helenkellerhateclub got millions of views, the facts that Keller was world-famous for what she achieved and died only 53 years ago got lost. (“Whaddya mean, this blind and deaf chick went to college and wrote books and flew a plane? Puh-leeze lol lol.”) Now that the grownups have found out about this nonsense, though, the pushback has been righteous. – Newsweek
What Dallas Black Dance Theatre Learned About Virtual Performance And Charging For It
Dallas Black Dance Theatre envisions and is now developing a full complement of virtual activities. These include conservatory-level dance training at the same professional level as in-studio classes, student matinee/field trips, lecture/demonstrations, in-school dance residency programs, community outreach, and touring programs made available to presenters, as well as a home-school education program for those looking to incorporate dance into their curriculum. – Wallace Foundation
We’ve Become Much Nicer At Waging War
We have, in fact, become nicer and less violent as individuals. We may have domesticated ourselves by our choice of mates and by breeding out those who are most violent, or killing those who are most violent among us, like the way wolves have been domesticated into friendly dogs who sit on your lap. We may have become nicer as individuals, but we’ve also become better at organizing and using purposive violence. That’s the paradox. We’ve gotten better at making war even as we’ve become nicer people. – Nautilus
What Does It Actually Mean To Live In The Now?
The singularity of the now might appear to be a deep and profound insight. It’s the springboard for various more practical strategies for achieving enlightenment and self-enhancement. But the claim that it is always now is so trivial that it can’t support any interesting inference, and there are other ways of justifying these same strategies and practices. – Aeon
Connecting Learning Music With Medical Workers
In a six-week pilot collaboration between New England Conservatory and Massachusetts General Hospital this fall, the Boston Hope Music Teaching Project connected teaching fellows from NEC with frontline health care workers for weekly private music lessons. The goal wasn’t to teach them skill or technique, but to provide a refuge from day-to-day life on the COVID ward. – Boston Globe
Record Streaming Music In 2020
The year 2020 ended up setting a streaming record in America, increasing 17% for the year to end with an unprecedented 872.6 billion streams. – Variety
The Dance Of Everyday Life
“The way we move has changed in the past year, indoor spaces seeming claustrophobic and our outdoor spaces not vast enough, backyards and gardens reinvented into havens. We’ve become resourceful and grateful for the places we occupy and with whom.” – The New York Times
Claim: Our Music Theory Education Is Racist
“When we restrict ourselves to Western art music, we forgo the opportunity to speak about basic yet essential musical elements such as groove, timbre, improvisation, and post-production in styles where these are powerfully foregrounded. Today’s leading theory texts cover more or less the same material as those we used as students. Why then do we as a discipline remain so averse to change?” – NewMusicBox
The Ballet World In Degas’s Paintings Was A Mean, Sordid Place
“In Paris, its success was almost entirely predicated on lecherous social contracts. Sex work was a part of a ballerina’s reality, and the city’s grand opera house, the Palais Garnier, was designed with this in mind. A luxuriously appointed room located behind the stage, called the foyer de la danse, was a place where the dancers would warm up before performances. But it also served as a kind of men’s club, where abonnés — wealthy male subscribers to the opera — could conduct business, socialize and proposition the ballerinas.” – CNN
‘One Of Last Great Shared Texts In Our Culture’ (And It’s A 70-Year-Old Comic Strip)
“In a highly polarized culture … [it’s] the most recent and arguably final example of a great American work of art loved broadly and without reservations by the masses, the elite, and everyone in the so-called middle. Is Peanuts the last American artwork with universal appeal? And what is the spiritual message it conveys that engenders that appeal?” – Literary Hub
How To Use Boredom To Your Benefit
Technology might have moved on, but the role of boredom in motivating change is no different for us in the 21st century. Yet not all change is equal. – Psyche
What New Anti-Money-Laundering Rules Will Mean For The U.S. Art And Antiquities Market
One of the provisions added to the National Defense Authorization Act for 2021 makes antiquities dealers subject to the Bank Secrecy Act. One of the key rules requires identifying the individuals behind LLCs — meaning that it will be much harder to buy and sell items anonymously. There’s a strong likelihood that the law will be applied to the larger art market in the next few years. – Artnet
How Pete Docter Is Healing Pixar After #MeToo And #TimesUp
Things might have seemed iffy for the multibillion-dollar animation powerhouse after its founding creative director, John Lasseter, abruptly left in 2017 amid allegations of grabbing and kissing unwilling women. Disney, Pixar’s owner, turned to Docter, who had been at the studio his entire adult life and directed Monsters, Inc., Up, and Inside Out — and was then in the middle of making Soul. In the three years since, he’s calmed things down, ramped business back up, and brought in a younger, more diverse set of artists and writers. – The Hollywood Reporter
‘Obscenities, Inanities And Treason’: A Critic On The Riot At The U.S. Capitol
Philip Kennicott: “The whole drama, the body language, the flags and the onslaught, was borrowed from other dramas — genuine displays of revolutionary fervor against autocrats, authentic acts protesting illegitimate governments. But [this] was a charade. Not civic or selfless, but corrosive, destructive and illegal. … One moment in today’s appalling mayhem was telling. As they filed through Statuary Hall, some of Trump’s thugs snapped selfies of themselves, as if they were merely tourists.” – The Washington Post
After 40 Years Leading San Francisco Ballet, Helgi Tomasson To Step Down
Since being named to the position in 1985, Tomasson, 78, has been hailed for his success at combining excellence in the classical ballet repertoire with a spirit of artistic innovation and the development of new work. Tomasson alone has created more than 50 dances for the company, as well as commissioning work from a wide range of contemporary masters and developing artists. – San Francisco Chronicle
Getting the Question(s) Right
As a blogger, I think I’m supposed to begin the New Year with reflections and projections. But the traumas of 2020 are still too fresh and the way forward is too murky. What I will do is suggest that at least one question I’ve seen raised about the nonprofit arts industry in 2021 is the wrong one. – Doug Borwick