The idea that the world is corrupt and unfair was the subject of medieval morality plays and sermons. They taught a vast population to reconcile itself to misery and subjugation by promising rewards in the afterlife. But in a democracy, everyone is moderately free and potentially subject to rewards in this life, though few receive the rewards they think they deserve. Thus, the perspective of the medieval morality play—that the world is hopelessly corrupt—gets deployed to rationalize injured merit. – American Scholar
Is Art Created By AI Copywritable?
For an artwork to be copyrightable, it must possess some “minimal degree of creativity” and be original to the “author.” This leads us to ask questions that test the boundaries of the traditional legal framework: Can AI generated work be deemed creative, and if so, who would be credited as the creative author? – Americans for the Arts
Love Books But Need Your Social Distance Space?
Rent a bookstore for a date. Yes, an entire bookstore. “The experience is BYOB (and food), but the store provides candles—and, of course, exclusive browsing access. What better way to get to know someone that by judging their taste in books?” – LitHub
A Photographer Who Captured 2020’s Protests, ‘Freedom’ Rallies, And Zip-Tie-Toting State House Assaulters
Rian Dundon: “I’m always trying to do portraits at these events as a way to cut through the visual noise of flags and sign boards etc. It’s easy to lose people to that stuff, and I want to make it clear that these are the individuals who took part in this.” – Oregon ArtsWatch
What It Feels Like When The First Lady Is Touting Your Novel
It’s pretty great, honestly. Ask Angie Thomas. “Had you told little Angie that 20-something years ago, she wouldn’t have believed she wrote something that made it that far — that this little Black girl in Mississippi whose family sometimes didn’t know if they would have food would have a book in the White House.” – The New York Times
A Lawsuit Over Schenkerian Music Theory And A Huge Debate Over How Music Theory Is Taught
At its best, music theory creates simplified models that help us understand how compositions are conceived and constructed while leaving space for the mystery of artistic intervention. At its worst, it reduces composition to a numbers game, and dismisses enigmatic moments—often the most powerful ones—as irrelevant. – Van
A Trump Presidential Library? The Argument Against It
“The danger of Trump using a presidential library to burnish his image is far more serious, with the ex-president and his surrogates still promoting the idea that his electoral loss was somehow fraudulent. That creates an ongoing uncertainty in American public life, which Trump and even more unscrupulous actors will use to further division, inflame tension, exacerbate racism and delegitimize the American democratic system.” – Washington Post
Why “Our Town” Still Resonates 80 Years Later
With the country splintered, its institutions shaken, a book documenting a classic American play affirming shared life experiences and bedrock values seems especially timely. Published Jan. 28, “Another Day’s Begun: Thornton Wilder’s ‘Our Town’ in the 21st Century” is an oral history of a dozen or so recent productions of this famously stoical and spare play. It’s a drama so scrubbed of artifice that the first stage directions in the script are: “No curtain. No scenery.” – Washington Post
Mike Birbiglia On Doing Comedy Over Zoom
“I’ve done about 18 of these virtual shows, and I’ve learned things from them that I thought I had long understood after 20 years of being a professional comedian. People need comedy. At very least, they need to laugh — particularly when life is most burdensome and unwieldy. People need to laugh to be reminded what laughter feels like and why anyone would have laughed in the first place. It’s the defibrillator that sends a shock to the heart to restore a normal rhythm.” – Vulture
New Design For COVID-Safe Pop-Up Theatre
The Vertical Theatre, as it’s called, will be modular, with a capacity of 1,200 to 2,400, seated in small groups separated (if necessary) by clear screens. The structure has a roof, but the sides are open to allow airflow. The UK-based creators hope to have at least one Vertical Theatre hosting shows later this year. – WhatsOnStage (London)
Hey, Joe And Kamala! You Know Who Can Help You Save America? Arts Researchers!
“In addition to being creative thinkers and makers, many artists, designers and architects are also researchers whose work reveals new insights and approaches to solving some of the most complex challenges facing our world. … It is vital that our federal government includes art researchers so that their unique perspectives and voices can help catalyse change for a better tomorrow.” – The Art Newspaper
Did Stock-Trading Redditors Just Save Live Cinema?
Or, if not the entire movie-theater business, at least AMC. The pandemic had made the already-difficult financial situation of the world’s largest cinema chain disastrous. But the same amateur stock-traders on the subreddit r/wallstreetbets who put GameStop in the news this week bought lots of stock in AMC as well. As a Bloomberg columnist put it, “Six hundred million dollars in debt, vaporized by Reddit enthusiasm.” – Slate
Museum Of The Bible Gives 5,000 Artifacts Back To Egypt
“The collection” — which, the museum says, has “insufficient reliable provenance” — “includes manuscripts and papyrus fragments with texts written in Coptic, hieratic and demotic scripts, and Greek. Some of the papyri feature Christian prayers written in Arabic and Coptic or Arabic only.” – Hyperallergic
Botticelli Portrait Is Now Most Expensive Old Master Painting Ever Sold (Except For ‘Salvator Mundi’)
“A sterling 550-year-old portrait by the Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli that was the star lot of Sotheby’s Old Masters sale has sold for $92.2 million, making it the second-most-expensive Old Master artwork to sell at auction, according to the company. The artwork, Young Man Holding a Roundel (circa 1444/5–1510), is one of only three portraits by Botticelli left in private hands.” – Artnet
Cicely Tyson, 96
“Regal in bearing, with willowy beauty and delicately chiseled features, Ms. Tyson was known for embodying women of great poise striving under great pressure. … [Her] electrifying portrayals of resilient Black women — foremost in the 1974 TV movie The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman but also as Coretta Scott King and Harriet Tubman — brought some of the first ennobling portrayals of African Americans to a vast television audience.” – The Washington Post
The Perils Of Our Time Demand An Artistic Response
Deborah Cullinan: “The events of the past year, and the shocking insurrection that took place at the Capitol on Jan. 6, have reinforced the value of art in our society. We have always known that art can be a source of peace, solace and joy in times of struggle. But art also provides the intellectual, economic and emotional healing that will lead our nation forward.” – San Francisco Chronicle
This Was An Odd Year For Movies. The Oscars Should Reflect That
“The kinds of movies that traditionally contend for awards — mid-budget dramas with recognizable stars and respectable historical subjects or social themes — were thin on the ground throughout the year, though a handful did show up on Netflix. The audience and the industry floated in a strange pandemic limbo.” – The New York Times
Biden’s Inauguration Was Driven By Creativity. So Let’s Use That Creativity…
There can be no national recovery, no American Rescue, without the creative economy, and the 5.1 million creative workers who make it up. And right now, many of those creative workers are in dire straits. The impact of COVID has been profound in every state in the country and will continue to be for much of 2021. – Americans for the Arts
Govan’s Folly? Stuck in the LACMA Quagmire
In decades of covering museum buildings, I’ve mostly refrained from “reviewing” a building that hasn’t gone up yet. That’s why I’ve hung back from commenting on the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s capital project-in-progress. But an unsettling (literally) development led me to weigh in. – Lee Rosenbaum
COVID And Theatre: How Half A Dozen Different Countries Are Coping
Here are reports from Taiwan (“Shows go on – with precautions in place”), Italy (“A sharply divided theatre world”), the U.S. (“Struggling on despite lack of leadership”), Sweden and Denmark (“Back to lockdown”), and Greenland (“Cut off from the outside world”). – The Stage