“The majority of jobs being created today do not require degree-level qualifications. In the US in 2010, 20% of jobs required a bachelor’s degree, 43% required a high-school education, and 26% did not even require that. Meanwhile, 40% of young people study for degrees. This means over half the people gaining degrees today will find themselves working in jobs that don’t require one.”
Why Crowdfunding Is Not A Good Model For Funding The Arts
“Art and content are not the same. Content is produced with a specific, marketable goal in mind. Patreon turns artists into content-makers whose creativity is moderated by their patrons. Patrons with more money have more clout, and the ability to withhold funding shapes what creators make. In this sense, Patreon reproduces key elements of the old patronage model, in which the power to commission and influence artists rests in the hands of those who can pay.”
Acid-Damaged Renaissance Painting Restored After 10 Years Of Work
“The Adoration of the Shepherds by 16th-century Italian artist Sebastiano del Piombo was removed from a wooden panel with acid in the 1700s and then painted over. Conservators at Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum worked to repair the damage.”
What Misty Copeland Won’t Be Doing When She Retires
“[Choreographing] is not something I see in my future – it’s not something I’m interested in, it’s just not everyone’s path. Just like I’m not interested in teaching or opening a school – it’s just not something I’ve ever been drawn to.”
Not Fade Away: Remembering, And Celebrating, Yehudi Menuhin
“With disconcertingly few exceptions, time erodes the reputations of the famous. Names that were once metaphors for extraordinary skill, physical prowess or moral courage become, at best, only vaguely recalled. That decay, though, is uneven.”
At Cannes, At Long Last, Progress For Women
“After years in which the festival was criticized for favoring male auteurs, this year three female directors have strong films in competition … Even if Cannes’s selection, like the film industry itself, hardly achieves gender parity, there’s been more conversation this year about the challenges of getting more women behind the camera and in front of it.”
Des Moines Paints Over Public Mural Created By Schoolkids
“At one end of the mural that was destroyed was written, ‘Ideas are forever.’ At the other end was, ‘Writing is Sacred.’ Writing, in this case, meant graffiti, Rollins said. It was how the students were getting their voices heard.”
Opera Star Leaves Stage, Founds Political Party And Runs For Parliament
Georgian bass Paata Burchuladze: “I am forced to leave the sweet and good life of an opera career and go into politics. This is not because I’m a good person or politician, but because the country is in a very bad condition. … We will have strong representation in parliament and we will cooperate with all parties. All Georgia is currently on our side.”
Opera Company Fusses To Editor About Review; Editor Kills Review, Says He Hates Reviews Anyway; Critic Quits; Opera Company Says ‘Don’t Blame Us’
The Canadian Opera Company says that all it wanted was two little corrections to Arthur Kaptainis’s review in the National Post of its current production, not for the review to be taken offline. Michael Vincent reviews the emails between the COC and the editor, and finds that things are not that simple.
‘This Isn’t A Condemnation, But A Challenge’ – Anne Midgette On The Canadian Opera/National Post Review-Spiking Affair
“What it shows is a waning understanding of, and tolerance for, not differences of opinion – those rage happily on in every paper’s Comments sections – but the role of criticism and the arts in a society where they have less dominance. [The National Post features editor] will be vilified in the arts community for his comments, but he’s right: newspaper reviews don’t do well online. This isn’t a condemnation, but a challenge.”
Guy Clark, King Of The Texas Troubadours
“‘Stuff that works’ is how Mr. Clark alluded to the rustic images and folk tunes that defined his body of work in his 1995 song bearing that title. ‘Stuff that’s real, stuff you feel,’ he sang in a gruff, half-spoken baritone, ‘the kind of stuff you reach for when you fall.'”
This Artist Was Filming A Crowdfunded Piece On Climate Change In Paris – And Then The Terrorist Attacks Happened
“We all lose when terror and horror descend, but I look at the creative act as an act of resistance to despair and destruction.”
A Texas Community Rallies To Try To Save University Orchestra
“Hardin Simmons has one of the oldest accredited schools of music in Texas … to start cutting the arts at a liberal arts program just seems outlandish.”
The Director Of ‘Oldboy’ Sweeps Through Cannes With A 1930s Korean Adaptation Of ‘Fingersmith’
“Park had finished the book and agreed to the film before he realised the BBC had already made a series based on the source material. He was, he says, “deflated” for a while, but then saw an opportunity: this would be his chance to examine a period of his own country’s history that had always intrigued him.”
The Day GQ Broke The Internet With A New England Patriots (Football) Player Trying Ballet
“We got Nathalia Arja from Miami City ballet to put the Patriots’ monster of a man through some drills that are likely not in Bill Belichick’s repertoire: the plié; the arabesque; the thing where you jump and kick your legs together.”
When Advertisers Troll Bigots By Featuring A Gay Or Interracial Family, Everyone Wins
“By now, this is a familiar template: 1. Brand implicitly endorses a mainstream progressive cause. 2. Small band of monsters reacts predictably. 3. Right-thinking Americans rush to embrace and defend the brand. … No matter how the fracas plays out, everybody wins in the end: The trolls get attention, responders get the warm and fuzzy pleasure of combating hate, and the brand comes out looking like a crusader for justice.”
Milwaukee Art Museum Names New Director
“The Milwaukee Art Museum has hired a new director, Marcelle Polednik, currently the director and chief curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville at the University of North Florida.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 05.17.16
That Sad, Empty,Yet Hopeful Palestinian Museum
You may have seen the New York Times article headlined Palestinian Museum Prepares to Open, Minus Exhibitions in Tuesday’s paper. It told the sad story of a new museum, … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2016-05-17
Chatting with Playwright Rich Orloff … on Relevance.
What is the value of relevance? As an arts marketer, I believe that relevance is the mandatory price of admission to an audience’s attention. That which is irrelevant is routinely ignored or discarded. And for artists … read more
AJBlog: Audience Wanted Published 2016-05-17
Who Are the World’s Most Famous People?
You’d be surprised. Martin Luther King, Jr. is the world’s best-known American, followed by — are you ready? — Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Walt Disney, and Ben Franklin. Those are the top five. How do … read more
AJBlog: Straight|Up Published 2016-05-17
Lookback: relativism and its discontents
From 2006: People are forever telling me that a work of art should be “criticized on its own terms.” (Mr. Parabasis, one of my favorite bloggers, got after me a few weeks ago on precisely… … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-05-17
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Can Redesigning Neighborhoods Save Barcelona From Cars And Pollution?
“The objectives are ambitious; by implementing these strategies at once, the city wants to reduce car use by 21% over the next two years and increase mobility by foot, bike and public transport.”
The International Man Booker Prize Goes To A Book About A Woman Whose Vegetarianism Ruins Relationships (And Her Life)
“The novel had an unusual path to publication. Deborah Smith, a 28-year-old British translator, read a Korean edition of ‘The Vegetarian’ about four years ago when she was studying for her Ph.D., and decided to send a sample translation to a British publisher, who was won over by the first 10 pages.”
The Intertwined Histories Of Jazz And Blues Make Music American (And ‘Americana’)
“Too frequently, there’s a split between musicians who play soulful, bluesy jazz, focused on I-IV-Vs and blues scales, and those who play progressive music, intellectually and aesthetically satisfying but with increasingly tenuous links to the music that birthed it a century ago.”
If You’re Going To Direct A Ballet Company, You Better Know Your Psychology [LISTEN]
The Joffrey Ballet’s Ashton Wheater on running the famous company and what he thinks about ballet audiences.
The British Government Is Threatening The BBC’s Recipe Archive, And The Reaction Is Strong
“There is no rationale for getting rid of such a valuable resource, other than a lack of financial resources and pressure from a zealous government that has an ideological problem with a popular, not-for-profit organisation.”
Can Your Tech Really Ruin Your Museum Experience?
“Most museums, especially art museums, are trying to balance this intent that they have about creating a really quiet or an engaged, almost religious commune with the art — with this real strong need to be relevant to modern audiences, to millennial audiences, to attract new audiences.”