Rachel Moore: “Performing arts organizations experienced a steep learning curve that dictated a digital competency most probably never aspired to. Whether this new learning is the catalyst for widespread embrace of a technological revolution remains unclear: Was digital production simply a bridge to mitigate a difficult year? Anchoring the digital strategy of many organizations lies an unexamined assumption that digital work exists only until they “return to normal” and are back to the business of traditional live performance.” – C-Suite Quarterly
Classical Music Broadcaster Martin Bookspan, 94
“Known for his distinctive delivery during his 60-year broadcasting career, Bookspan served as a host and commentator for live broadcasts of the [Boston Symphony], Boston Pops, the New York Philharmonic and the American Symphony Orchestra under its founder, Leopold Stokowski. He was also the lead commentator for Live from Lincoln Center on PBS for the show’s first 30 years, until 2006.” – The Berkshire Eagle
Charles Grode Shares the Impact of Collaboration
The President & Executive Director of the Merit School of Music shares about the importance and impact of collaboration between arts organizations. – Aaron Dworkin
And The Oscar Goes To South Dakota
South Dakota’s tourist attractions featured heavily in parts of Best Picture winner Nomadland, and now the (iconic to some) Wall Drug and Reptile Gardens are seeing an uptick in tourism. – Rapid City Journal
What It Feels Like To Finish A Project During The Pandemic
Just ask novelist Ali Smith, who finished the last of a four-book sprint during the first lockdown: “I felt the usual failure … Knackered. Curious as to whether the book would hold water, and as for the series: no idea. Hope, despair. All these feelings passed in the 30 seconds it takes to toast something that’s done with a single measure of single malt, then I emerged from my room into the very real, visceral confluence of hope and despair happening to us all in life in Covid lockdown.” – The Guardian (UK)
James Prigoff, Who Documented And Championed Street Art, 93
Prigoff was a the co-author, with Henry Chalfant, of Spraycan Art, “a foundational book in the street-art field that featured more than 200 photographs of colorful, intricate artworks in rail tunnels, on buildings and elsewhere — not only in New York, then considered by many to be the epicenter of graffiti art, but also in Chicago, Los Angeles, Barcelona, London, Vienna and other cities. It included interviews with many of the artists and even captured some of them in the act of creating their work.” – The New York Times
A Humble Alley Boasts Hollywood History
Can tourists gain more appreciation of the real Hollywood – could the city do more (a lot more) to help them leave invigorated, and not disappointed? Check out the alley: “So many visitors to Hollywood would love to know about this unnamed space — where, in the early, exhilarating, madcap days of moviemaking, three of the greatest Hollywood stars of all time shot parts of three of their greatest films.” – Los Angeles Times
Reimagining Black Life And Death Onscreen
The Oscar-nominated short film A Love Song for Latasha, says filmmaker Sophia Nahli Allison, was one way of figuring how to deal with the aftermath of a violent death, from the people who best knew the murdered teen. “So often we hear from elders, adults, or community activists, and I’m always really curious as to how our children process this moment. How did the young Black girls, the young boys that knew Latasha—how were they affected by this? And I really believe in collaboration to inform the process, to help inspire the visuals, and I wanted to share their truth, their memories, as a way to fill in this archival gap.” – Slate
The Grammys Overhaul Again, Eliminating Secret Committees
The scandal-plagued Recording Academy is making the change after decades of complaints. Instituted in 1989, “the committees’ work began to be seen as evidence of a problematic system in which insiders rewarded their friends and punished their enemies. More recently, a number of high-profile Black artists — among them Drake, Frank Ocean and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs — have suggested that Grammy nominations are tainted by institutional racism.” – Los Angeles Times
The Pivot To YouTube
For Oscar-winner Brie Larson, who won for Room and has since played Captain Marvel in the eponymous movie and Avengers: Endgame, it’s not as if she needed a new revenue stream. But her weekly chats with herself, which now have hundreds of thousands of subscribers, are a form of self-care. – The New York Times
Evaluating Eli Broad In Los Angeles
He was a friend and foe to museums, writes Christopher Knight. And Carolina Miranda writes, “Over the course of his life, he helped bring to fruition — in whole or in part — designs by an array of award-winning international design stars, including Richard Meier, Renzo Piano, Diller Scofidio + Renfro and, most famously, Frank Gehry. Or perhaps most infamously.” – Los Angeles Times
Jhumpa Lahiri On Living In Linguistic Exile, And Translating Her Own Work
That would be the book (Dove mi trovo, or Whereabouts) she wrote first in Italian and then translated into English – her first novel written that way since she began her decades-long love affair with the language, and with Rome. – The Guardian (UK)
Holbein Left A Clever Clue In A Portrait Of Henry VIII’s Wife
Which wife? Well, for centuries, everyone thought it was Catherine Howard (the second of the beheadeds in the old rhyme). Instead, thanks to Hans Holbein’s clue (and an art historian’s tenacity), we now think the portrait is of Anne of Cleves (the second of the divorced wives, or in this case, annulled). – The Observer (UK)
Directing Isn’t Easy At The Best Of Times
But for an Asian American director during the pandemic, kicking off Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month via an online platform, it’s a whole new (basket)ball game. – Oregon Artswatch
Europe Has A Banksy Of Potholes
The Lyon-based artist Em Emem (a pseudonym, of course) uses mosaics to fill in gaps in street infrastructure, but also to make them gorgeous. “‘I’m just a sidewalk poet, a son of bitumen,’ he says. His work involves filling potholes and cracked walls on city streets with beautiful mosaic designs, a process he calls ‘flacking’ – a play on the French word flaque, meaning puddle or patch.”- The Guardian (UK)
Olympia Dukakis, 89, Star Of Screen And Stage
Dukakis was well-known as a working actress in the theatre when she took a role as the mom in Moonstruck. Then she won an Oscar for that role, and then she was in Steel Magnolias, Tales of the City (four series over several decades), and so much more. She never gave up theatre, though, and even played the (lightly renamed) Prospera in The Tempest in 2014. – The New York Times