Studies suggest that bored people score higher on creativity tests. As our distractions have multiplied, our minds have less opportunity to wander. Thus… – Medium
Opera Australia Lost A Big Pile Of Money Last Year
“Opera Australia has posted a $7.1 million trading deficit for the year ended December 2020, or almost $6.5 million after bequests are included. … The company received $11.4 million in ‘absolutely critical’ JobKeeper subsidies in 2020. ‘If we hadn’t had that $11.4 million, we would have been potentially looking at a $20 million trading loss, and that would have meant us having to take more drastic action,’ says [outgoing CEO Rory] Jeffes.” – Limelight (Australia)
Saudi Arabia Aims Its Cultural Diplomacy Blitz At Greece
“The major partnership,” announced in May, “will include funding for archaeological preservation of the historic Al Fao region in the southern part of Saudi Arabia, and an exchange of expertise on heritage and museums, archaeology, antiquities, cultural festivals, and modern culture. … Previous partnerships with France, Germany, and the U.K, took place before the murder of [Jamal] Khashoggi. Yet Greece seems to be moving ahead despite calls to boycott the kingdom.” – Artnet
Carolyn North, Still Dancing At 83
In her life, North, “the Bay Area-based dance therapist, writer, and flutist, has talked her way into a summer dance intensive camp, having had little formal dance training; sung in a gospel choir; played flute professionally; worked as a midwife; learned to play bass bamboo flute while living in India; written and published 11 books; birthed three children; founded Daily Bread, a food recovery program; taught dance healing techniques to professional and novice dancers; and produced Musings on the Passing Scene, a series of bi-monthly articles.” And she’s never stopped moving her body. – San Francisco Classical Voice
Tenor Russell Thomas ‘Plays’ It Forward
Thomas, named artist in residence at the Los Angeles Opera and about to star in the new LAO COVID-safe performance of Oedipus Rex, says about his also new Russell Thomas Young Artists in Training program, “The most exciting project is the academy for young singers, because being a singer is so expensive and I was lucky when I was younger that people invested their time and energy in me. Setting up a program like this, we can find and nurture young singers through the early stages of their careers who wouldn’t be able to afford it.” – San Francisco Classical Voice
Luis Biasotto, Argentine Dancer And Choreographer, Dies Of COVID At 49
Biasotto was the co-founder of Grupo Krapp with his longtime artistic partner, Luciana Acuña, who wrote, “Luis moved comfortably in the abyss. The emptiness, besides giving him panic, gave him peace of mind. A brave being, by nature. A contemporary hero out of a Marvel comic book. To rehearse with Luis was not being able to stop admiring him, to be surprised at every moment, to burst out with laughter and to be certain of sharing the world with a being from another planet.” – Dance Magazine
Millennials Are Killing Off The Philly Accent
“Linguists trace this shift to Philadelphia’s elite schools. Any way of speaking that falls outside the norm is viewed negatively in certain settings, so students at these schools may feel pressured to adapt the less noticeable mid-Atlantic accent. … If the trend continues, the classic Philly accent could become extinct within two decades.” – Mental Floss
Disney Is Rebranding Villains And Trying To Pretend That’s Feminist
It seems good at first, right? Adding dimension to villains! “In theory, this is a positive shift, Disney’s attempt to offer its young audience lessons that aren’t so dependent on innate goodness, or telegraphing that goodness with physical attributes. But as this novelty has jelled into a house style, the unofficial ban on old-fashioned evil starts to feel a little like an unholy cross between bothsidesism and aggressive branding. After all, why should any Disney characters inspire fear or apprehension, when they can be turned into franchise-friendly dolls?” – Slate
Gallery Assistants Aren’t Earning A Living Wage
Perhaps not a shocker, but in a 300-gallery survey, results painted “a portrait of an industry beset with income inequality.” Assistants’ top pay was about $35,000 a year, or $17 an hour – not a living wage in New York State. And that also means no overtime, no health benefits, no maternity leave, nothing that one might think galleries would offer during and after the pandemic. – Artnet
Violetta Elvin, Royal Ballet Prima Ballerina, 97
Elvin, a Russian dancer who also performed with the Bolshoi, “gave London audiences one of the first tastes of Russian style. … Elvin created roles in Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella (Summer Fairy, 1948), Daphnis and Chloe (Lykanion, 1951), Homage to the Queen (1953), and Birthday Offering (1956), as well as Roland Petit’s Ballabile (1950).” – Gramilano
Preserving The Jail Where Oscar Wilde Was Imprisoned
The prison was closed to the public in 2013 on “health and safety grounds,” but actors including Kate Winslet, local politicians, and more want to preserve the area, and turn the prison into a museum. Will Reading let them? – The New York Times
Long Discreetly Camouflaged, Lesbians In Ballet Are Starting to Find Themselves And Each Other
Gay men aren’t as ubiquitous in that world as some civilians think, but they’re not rare. Yet gender norms in classical ballet are even more rigid for females than for males, and queer women in the profession have tended to feel very isolated indeed. That, however, is something that the hiatus and the move online caused by the pandemic have started to change. – The New York Times
As Travel Resumes, Can Italy Make Tourism Any Less Destructive?
“While the return of tourists is essential, local politicians and leaders in the cultural sector are emphasising the need to rethink how visitors interact with heritage. But how far, during the enforced hiatus in tourism, have they actually rethought their strategies to manage visitors and their experience more effectively?” Venice and Florence have some ideas. – Apollo
Louvre Will Get New Department Of Byzantine And Coptic Art, Says New Director
“If that department comes to fruition, it would signify a break with the Louvre’s [outgoing] president, Jean-Luc Martinez, who had deemed its formation unnecessary, and a willingness to expand the ways the museum presents religious art.” – ARTnews