“Culture has taken the coin toss as an impartial way to select between two possible outcomes. It implies fairness—there isn’t anything that coin tossers can do (besides cheat) to favor one outcome. No agency appears to intervene in the decision, and thus the human actors committed to it can comfortably distance themselves from the result. Indeed, in popular culture, the coin toss has become a way to shed moral responsibility for an outcome.”
Turning A Moscow Subway Train Into A Rolling Museum
“From now through June, subway riders on the [Moscow Metro’s] popular Koltsevaya Line (Circle Line), which makes a loop around the city center, can expect to see a variety of [20th-century Russian] artwork on display from the Tretyakov State Gallery.”
Turkish Soap Operas, And Their Women, Cause Controversy All Over The Muslim World
As the shows become ever more popular internationally, some women viewers see the female characters as empowered and inspiring – and those viewers become more willing to speak up for themselves. Others see the same shows as reinforcing traditional norms (women as caregivers dependent on men) and punish female characters who stray from those norms. And what do the men think? (Well, the photo at left is of a poster for one of these soap opera that’s been egged.)
Patricia Racette Moves Into Stage Directing
Long admired for her acting abilities, the soprano will direct her first opera production, of La traviata, at Opera Theatre of St. Louis in May 2018.
How To Take (And Absorb) Corrections In Class Without Becoming A Self-Loathing Wreck (#AdviceForDancers)
“Class can be a whirlwind of information. Your teacher throws out multiple corrections at once – often in the middle of a combination – and as much as you want to apply them, they don’t always stick. Though some are notes you’ve heard time and time again, you get too overwhelmed trying to fix all of them to correctly incorporate any of them.”
What One Learns From Analyzing Ten Years Of NY Times ‘Modern Love’ Columns
“A typical ‘Modern Love’ column is no more representative of how the average person falls in love than Romeo and Juliet. … Still, the column can reveal a lot about our cultural attitudes toward romance and heartbreak. As graduate students in economics and computer science, we decided to use statistics to analyze every ‘Modern Love’ column published over the past 10 years – with the goal of identifying patterns in how romantic narratives take shape.”
Plenty Of Famous Composers Are Fathers, So Where Are The Mothers?
This isn’t just a problem in composition – but, as other arts start to figure out how to support primary caregivers and their creativity, new music can get it together too.
The Ukrainian Dancer Who Has Become An Actor And A Star On (Of Course) ‘The Americans’
Irina Dvorovenko plays a Russian woman who finds herself depressed and lonely in the U.S. It’s a big difference from being a principal for American Ballet Theatre, but not so different from her youth: “Ms. Dvorovenko, born in 1973, grew up in Ukraine with dancer parents and studied gymnastics before entering ballet school at 10. For her, the show’s time period has brought back a flood of memories. Many have to do with hunting for food. (In the transcript of our interview, that word comes up 21 times.)”
Harvard Makes Big Changes In Its Music Studies Programs
We’ve always had gaps in our education, and I think it’s a little disingenuous to say, “Well, what about Schubert?” What about Tony Conrad? I teach the survey now, and I have never pretended to “cover” things. You don’t cover things when you do a survey, and I tell the students that: we’re going to talk about things that interest me – that’s one thing we’re going to do – and the other thing we’re going to do is learn some music that you might find interesting or appealing – or not. But coverage cannot be the goal, and was never the goal.
How Big Is The Online Art Market?
Despite a relative slowdown in the global art market, the online art market grew by 15 percent, to $3.75 billion, last year, according to Robert Read, head of art and private clients for Hiscox. The online art market’s share of the total art market also grew last year, from 7.4 percent in 2015 to 8.4 percent. While that may seem small, it is roughly equivalent to e-commerce sales’ share of the total retail market, which reached 8.3 percent last year, according to the U.S. census.
Report Card Time: Here’s How Our Children Are Doing Studying Music And Art
The arts assessment measured students’ knowledge based on their ability to understand and interpret historical pieces of art and music. One question, for example, asked eighth graders to identify the instrument at the beginning of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” (It’s a clarinet.) The report also looked at their creative abilities. In one exercise, students were asked to draw a self-portrait, which was then scored for attention to detail, composition and use of materials.
Lindsay Pollock Steps Down As Editor Of “Art In America”
Under Pollock’s leadership, Art in America instituted regular features such as artist-designed covers and mini-profiles of up-and-coming artists. She also expanded the magazine’s international coverage, publishing regular reports from far-flung parts of the world in the “Atlas” column.
Gustavo Dudamel Makes Rare Statement On Venezuela And Gets Criticized From All Sides
“Opponents of the Maduro regime, which is trying to starve the country into submission, have accused Dudamel of targeting the opposition by failing to name the government as the cause of present miseries. Supporters of the Government are calling him a turncoat. Debate is raging across social media.”
Youth Shelter In Oregon In Oregon Refuses Donation By Portland Gay Men’s Chorus
“What’s more shameful is that Hearts With A Mission is so fearful of being perceived as endorsing — what?” the Medford Mail Tribune wrote in an editorial. “The existence of gay men? The performance of choral music by gay men in a church sanctuary to benefit a charitable organization?”
Once A Decade: Granta Picks The 21 Young American Writers To Watch
The literary magazine has a stellar track record picking writers. Rather than make a yearly list, Granta picks looks over the course of a decade to choose writers it thinks will make an impact.
Ta-Nehisi Coates’s ‘Between The World And Me’ To Be Made Into Theater Piece
“Mr. Coates’s fiery work – which made him the National Book Award winner and a Pulitzer Prize finalist [and, arguably, earned him a MacArthur ‘genius award’] – will be adapted into a multimedia performance, with excerpted monologues, video projections, and a score by the jazz musician Jason Moran. Portions of Mr. Coates’s letters to his son would be read aloud, while narratives of his experiences at Howard University and in New York City could be performed by actors.”
Ah, Where Are The Avant-Garde Art Movements Of Yesteryear? (A Trip Down Memory Lane)
With Jerry Saltz just having ruminated on “The Avant-Garde That Lost By Winning,” what about the ones that simply lost? Alex Greenberger and Andrew Russeth offer “an unabashedly opinionated deep dive into the terms, artists, and movements that may once have seemed destined for the canon but that now chart as footnotes, as well as many that have returned to the forefront.”
How Playwrights Have Been Putting A Spotlight On Gun Violence In America
“Cite the numbers, and the problem instantly becomes too vast to grasp: More than 33,000 people killed and upward of 78,000 wounded by firearms each year in the United States … This is where the stealthy power of theater has an advantage, at least theoretically. … News reports arrive after the fact, but theater can meddle with time and dimension, showing us the before, the during, the yet to come.” Laura Collins-Hughes surveys the plays that have been exploring the issue.
The Star Ballerina Who’s Making A Real Career As An Actress
Irina Dvorovenko retired from ABT in 2013, and since then she’s had roles in two major dramatic television series. She tells Gia Kourlas how it happened.
What Other States Can Learn From Rhode Island’s Arts Incentives
“While Rhode Island may be the smallest state in the country, [it] has become a powerhouse when it comes to attracting artists and art lovers to its shores. And the method by which state leaders have leveraged Rhode Island’s tax code to benefit the creative community could serve as a model for other states looking to cultivate a stronger arts economy.”
Agent Who Conned Friends Into Investing In Non-Existent Play Pleads Guilty To Larceny
Roland Scahill claimed to have purchased the rights to soprano Kathleen Battle’s life story and that he was producing a one-woman show starring Lupita Nyong’o about Battle’s firing from the Metropolitan Opera.
What The Two French Presidential Candidates Propose For The Arts
“[Emmanuel] Macron … has declared his intention to maintain the cultural budget in exchange for greater efficiency. He wants all schoolchildren to have access to cultural and artistic education, and has proposed a €500 annual ‘culture pass’ for young people. … [Marine] Le Pen, meanwhile, … has made no overall budget commitment. However, as part of her focus on French patrimony, she wants to increase funds for heritage and conservation by 25%. She also wants to stop the sale of national buildings and palaces to foreigners and the private sector.”
Ban On Indian Movie For Being ‘Lady-Oriented’ Overturned
“Lipstick Under My Burkha, a drama that explores the sexual awakenings and personal struggles of four small-town Indian women, was initially denied classification [by the Central Board of Film Certification] … On Wednesday an appeals board overturned that decision, saying … ‘There cannot be any embargo on a film being women oriented or containing sexual fantasies and expression of the inner desires of women.'”
Brand-New Music Director Quits Oslo’s Opera House Because He (And Everyone Else) Can’t Get Along With Artistic Director
“Karl-Heinz Steffens announced that he’s already decided to leave his post next year. Steffens was popular and had been viewed as a unifying force in an organization riddled with conflict, but he claims he simply hasn’t found a good tone with the Opera’s incoming and embattled Artistic Director, Annilese Miskimmon.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 04.26.17
A failure of SHIFT — there wasn’t much buzz
Why I’m writing these posts about SHIFT, a festival featuring orchestras from around the U.S., coproduced in Washington by the Kennedy Center and Washington Performing Arts, with all tickets affordably priced at $25): … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2017-04-26
Out-of-Towner Downer: Metropolitan Museum Considers a Xenophobic Admission Policy
Saul Steinberg‘s famous New Yorker cover portraying how Manhattanites view the rest of the world came to mind when I read Robin Pogrebin‘s NY Times article about the Metropolitan Museum’s tentative (to my mind, wrongheaded) proposal to discriminate against out-of-towners in charging admission fees. … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-04-26
Sotheby’s Pumps A Nascent Market
It may have been just a matter of time: today Sotheby’s announced an inaugural sale of contemporary African art, saying that this market in recent years has undergone “a long-overdue correction.” … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2017-04-26
How Charles Lloyd stays marvelous
During the 50 years since his breakthrough album Forest Flower (released in February 1967, recorded live at the Monterey Jazz Festival the summer before) … saxophonist-flutist Charles Lloyd has been unusually popular for an adventurous jazzman. … read more
AJBlog: Jazz Beyond Jazz Published 2017-04-26