Students are actively integrated into a system that collects data about their behavior, quantifies it, and packages it for parents and the school itself. In an era of data rooms and standardized testing, when education has become a rigorous science, ClassDojo may seem like nothing new. After all, students have been ruthlessly quantified since the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. But ClassDojo seeks to create docile bodies in the classroom, and it does this by monitoring and collecting enormous amounts of data on students. – Los Angeles Review of Books
The Brief, Brilliant Filmmaking Career Of Ida Lupino
“In the 1940s she was known as an actress, usually playing good-hearted tough-as-nails dames … But in a brilliant short burst, from 1949 to 1953, she directed six of her seven feature films, co-writing and producing many of them. She was, of course, a woman director in a man’s world, but beyond that her films deserve to be rediscovered because they are so substantial, stylish and bold, … [taking] on social issues that were usually taboo.” — BBC
Americans For The Arts Expands Programs For Cultural Equity And Diversity In Arts Leadership
This year the organization will extend its 25-year-old Diversity in Arts Leadership program beyond New York City to New Jersey and Iowa, launch an Arts & Cultural Equity Fellows program in the Great Lakes region, create an Arts & Culture Leaders of Color Network, and begin a 3-day retreat called the Leaders of Color Forum. — Americans for the Arts
So How Much Money Have England’s Local Governments Cut From Arts Funding?
£400 million over the past eight years, with the reductions hitting hardest in rural areas. “[Local councils] claim dwindling resources from central government have meant they have had few options but to cut services such as culture and prioritise [social] services.” — The Stage
English National Opera Announces Plan To Diversify
Stuart Murphy recalled joining the company and and finding it “really shocking” that 39 of ENO’s 40-strong chorus were white. “We weren’t true to our values, we didn’t represent Britain,” he said. “It just felt strange to me … Young white audiences also think it is weird.” – The Guardian
Your TV Is Now A Computer – And You’ve Lost Control Of It
Analysts estimate that smart TVs now make up about 70 percent of all new TV sales. The television is no longer a mere display, but a full-fledged computer, for good and for ill. And what is a computer now? On the one hand, it’s something companies sell to consumers for money. But after you’ve purchased an internet-connected device of any kind, it begins to generate information that the company can use itself or sell to third parties. – The Atlantic
How The Prado Has Survived 200 Years Of Turbulent Spanish History
When Charles III commissioned the building in the 1780s, he intended it to become a natural science museum; by the time it was ready to open in 1819, his grandson Ferdinand VII decided it was to be a showplace for the royal art collection. Since then, it’s been involved in everything from art education programs for peasants to the country’s civil wars (the Prado’s importance was the one thing every side agreed on). — The New York Times
A Balanchine Original: Patricia McBride Lousada, 89
Ms. Lousada was a cast member of many central works created by Balanchine, including “The Four Temperaments,” which had its premiere on City Ballet’s opening night, Nov. 20, 1946, at the Central High School of Needle Trades. — The New York Times
The Brooklyn Guy Who Transformed Britain’s Dance World Is Still Choreographing At Age 93
This student of Martha Graham came to London in the late 1960s, founded The Place, and started up the UK’s first contemporary dance company, school, and theatre there. And you probably haven’t heard of him. Meet Robert Cohan. — The Guardian
Chicago’s Museum Of Contemporary Art Offers Discount To Anyone Affected By Gender Pay Gap
As of February 24, “anyone who believes the gender pay gap has negatively impacted their earning potential” may pay $12 for admission to the MCA. That’s 80% of the normal ticket price ($15). — Hyperallergic
Museo Del Barrio Cancels Show On Director Alejandro Jodorowsky Over His Boast That He Raped An Actress
The statement in question comes from the director’s 1972 book about his breakout 1970 film El Topo: “After she had hit me long enough and hard enough to tire her, I said, ‘Now it’s my turn. Roll the cameras.’ And … I really raped her. And she screamed … Then she told me that she had been raped before. You see, for me the character is frigid until El Topo rapes her. And she has an orgasm.'” — ARTnews
‘Choreographer To The Stars’ JoJo Smith Dead At 80
“With a career spanning over six decades, Smith’s credits include eight Broadway shows, hit TV shows, feature films and major domestic and international tours (including West Side Story). … Even with high-profile friends like Eartha Kitt and students like Barbra Streisand, Sylvie Vartan, Barbara Walters and Diane Von Furstenburg, Smith was best known as dance consultant for box office smash hit musical Saturday Night Fever (John Travolta). He will also be remembered as the founder of Jo Jo’s Dance Factory (currently Broadway Dance Center).” — Dance Magazine
With A New Sponsor, Could The Booker Prize Kick Out The Damn Americans?
With hedge fund the Man Group having announced that it will end its sponsorship of the English-speaking world’s leading literary award after this year, the literati are all wondering what changes might come to the Man Booker Prize — with some observers in Britain who are too chicken to compete worry about over-dominance by writers from the United States wondering if the 2014 decision to include them can be overturned. — The Guardian
Sophie Blackall’s ‘Hello, Lighthouse’ Wins Caldecott Medal; Meg Medina’s ‘Merci Suarez Changes Gears’ Takes Newbery Medal
This is the second Caldecott win in the span of four years for Blackall, whose Finding Winnie took the prize in 2016. Elizabeth Acevedo’s The Poet X was given the Michael L. Printz Award for young adult literature. — The New York Times
#Rentkindalive – When A Live TV Event Isn’t (Mostly) Live At All
“It feels a bit weird to critique what was almost entirely a recorded dress rehearsal. How do you measure three hours of chaotic visuals and middling audio most of us were never meant to see and hear? Mostly in disappointment, I guess, though this is what Fox gave us.” – The New York Times
Auschwitz & the Art of Advertising
Something was horribly wrong with the full-page ad for an upcoming exhibition about the Auschwitz death camp. It appeared yesterday on Holocaust Remembrance Day. — Jan Herman
New Mellon Foundation Study: Leadership In The Museum World Is Getting More Diverse, But It’s Slow
The takeaway: “At a high level, the study has found some meaningful progress in the representation of people of color in a number of different museum functions, including the curatorial. We also found an increase in the number of women in museum leadership positions from 2015 to 2018. Nevertheless, the data also shows that progress has been uneven. While trends in recent hiring are encouraging, certain parts of the museum appear not as quick to change, especially the most senior leadership positions.” Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
A Dismal Trajectory For Investment In American Culture
Tim Schneider: “A sharp fall in public funding for cultural organizations since the 1980s has coincided with a sharp rise in private wealth held by the very few. And rather than being some wacky coincidence, these developments have a direct causal relationship, as many elites have spent billions of dollars on think tanks, lobbying firms, and politicians to enact policies that keepsafe mountains of revenue that once went to public causes, including arts and cultural institutions.” – Artnet
Taiwan Art Fair Points To Enormous Changes In Asian Art Market
“After a week spent in Taipei for the art fair and its orbiting constellation of events, one thing is clear: how these two forces—the dynamism of the regional scene and the growing number of Western galleries prospecting for business—intersect over the coming years will do much to shape the future of art in this century.” – Artnet
Man Wanders Into A Moscow Museum, Takes Painting Off Wall And Casually Walks Out
The work, titled “Ai Petri, Crimea” and painted by Arkhip Kuindzhi in 1908, had been insured for $182,000, according to a spokeswoman for the museum. – The New York Times
Artistic Transgression Is So 1990s
What does transgression mean now – and what are artists transgressing against? Laura Miller: “Much of what transgressive art rebels against is politeness, but politeness has many dimensions. It may dictate that you never swear or discuss sex, religion, or politics in ‘mixed company.’ And it also decrees that you don’t use racial slurs when referring to groups you don’t belong to.” Some (not so great) artists can’t figure out the distinction. – Slate
Can Journalism Survive (As Recognizable Journalism)?
Jill Lepore: “There’s no shortage of amazing journalists at work, clear-eyed and courageous, broad-minded and brilliant, and no end of fascinating innovation in matters of form, especially in visual storytelling. Still, journalism, as a field, is as addled as an addict, gaunt, wasted, and twitchy, its pockets as empty as its nights are sleepless. It’s faster than it used to be, so fast. It’s also edgier, and needier, and angrier. It wants and it wants and it wants. But what does it need?” – The New Yorker
Rewrite The Bible? Well, Yes, Actually
Robert Alter’s method of peeling down to the strangeness of the original in order to reveal another kind of beauty can be bracing, like seeing a familiar painting with its accumulations of smoke and varnish gone. — The New Yorker