The choreographer created Immediate Tragedy in 1937 as Franco’s Fascist campaign raged on. Before the COVID-19 shutdown, the Martha Graham Dance Company had been working on a reconstruction of the piece, using photos, a written description by José Limón and other archival material. But once the studio was closed and the dancers were quarantined, company artistic director Janet Eilber decided to reconceive the re-creation for multiple dancers working remotely. Gia Kourlas finds out how she and the company did it. – The New York Times
Dance Critic Sally Banes, 70
Banes was the first dance critic to write about the exciting new urban form known as break dancing. Her article “To the Beat Y’All: Breaking is Hard to Do,” in the Village Voice in April 1981, introduced break dancing to readers before there was even a name for hip-hop culture. Fascinated by what she saw, she returned to this genre again and again. – Wendy Perron
Boarded Up Museums Send The Wrong Message
Why did most of New York’s largest museums botch this chance to connect to a younger audience—one that has grown distrustful of their boards, labor practices, executive salaries, and even the art on their walls? Were they too impaired by the prolonged shutdown and associated financial hardship? Or could the lobbies themselves not offer adequate support in these extraordinary times? – Artnet
Kristin Linklater, Revered Vocal Coach For Actors, Dead At 84
“For more than a half-century, Ms. Linklater taught vocal technique to A-list stars like Patrick Stewart, Donald Sutherland and Sigourney Weaver; to students at New York University, Emerson College and Columbia University; and to people far removed from the performing arts who simply wanted to be less timid vocally. … Two books she wrote … have become part of many actors’ kit bags: Freeing the Natural Voice: Imagery and Art in the Practice of Voice and Language (1976) and Freeing Shakespeare’s Voice: The Actor’s Guide to Talking the Text (1992).” – The New York Times
A Fisherman May Have Just Found A 700-Year-Old Statue Lying In A Riverbed
“The mossy and somewhat eroded form of a granite statue of the Virgin Mary and child that could date from the 14th century … was discovered 11 days ago in the Sar River on the outskirts of Santiago de Compostela by an angler looking for trout.” – The Guardian
Humboldt Forum In Berlin Will Open Before Year’s End (They Swear!)
Well … “As long as there are no further pandemic-related hold-ups or lockdowns, the first parts of the complex will open on the ground floor and first floor in December, the Humboldt Forum’s leadership said in a statement. An exhibition on the history of the location and a Berlin city history exhibition will be among the first spaces to open to the public, along with an arcade of museums shops and a restaurant in the Schlüterhof courtyard. – The Art Newspaper
L.A.’s Mark Taper Forum, Ahmanson, and Kirk Douglas Theatres Will Stay Closed Until Late Next Spring
“Center Theatre Group announced on Tuesday that it would remain dark until spring 2021 to help curb the spread of COVID-19 — an unprecedented, more than 56-week closure period. The largest nonprofit theater company in Los Angeles — which stages productions at the Ahmanson Theatre, Mark Taper Forum and Kirk Douglas Theatre — said programming is scheduled to resume in late April.” – Los Angeles Times
Chicago’s Mercury Theater Closes Permanently Due To Corona-Lockdown
“Opened in 1920 as a silent film nickelodeon, the movie theater would undergo several retail business incarnations in the decades that followed. … It ‘reopened’ in 2011 under the current owner/leadership team as an Equity-affiliated commercial theater house, having since produced 25 plays including four world premieres.” – Chicago Sun-Times
‘Live From Here With Chris Thile’, Successor To ‘A Prairie Home Companion’, Cancelled
American Public Media, the Minnesota-based public radio network that produced the shows, announced the layoff of 28 employees and the immediate end of the weekly program that was heard on roughly 600 local public radio affiliates and drew an estimated audience of 2.6 million. APM attributed the decision to “our pressing financial deficit due to COVID-19 and the priorities of our long-term strategic plan.” – Billboard
COVID Could Cost UK’s Arts And Culture Sector $94 Billion And 400,000 Jobs: Study
“The report predicts that the country’s creative sector will be hit twice as hard as the wider economy in 2020, with one in five creative jobs expected to be lost. The loss could have a devastating effect on the economy at large. Before the coronavirus hit, the UK’s creative sector employed more than 2 million people, generating £111.7 billion for the economy, which is more than the combined input of the automotive, aerospace, life sciences, and oil and gas industries.” – Artnet
New Research: Attitudes About Free Speech And Regulation Online
Levels of trust in social media companies to make the right decisions about what people can say or post on their websites and apps are low, with more than 8 in 10 Americans saying they trust the companies “not much” (44%) or “not at all” (40%). – Knight Foundation
In Memoriam: Sally Banes (1950-2020)
A tribute to the brash, quick-talking, brilliant, no-nonsense scholar, writer, colleague, and friend whom I once taught, worked with, and learned from. – Deborah Jowitt
Can This Businessman Turn Old Kentucky Coal Mines Into Arts Centers?
“Could repurposed coal-mining sites in the Appalachian mountains of Eastern Kentucky become an art-world destination and hub for a burgeoning arts scene? That is the ambitious proposition underpinning Somewhere Appalachia, an initiative spearheaded by Brook Smith, a Louisville-based entrepreneur, philanthropist and contemporary art collector.” – The Art Newspaper
It’s Bloomsday… er, Zoomsday. It Reminds What We’ll Return To
When the public again returns to full contact — with embraces and smooches, and eating together — what will matter most is not the freedom to shop without masks, or to fly without fear. What we’ll be hungry for is the strength of culture to pull us together. As with the study and love of a difficult author, those concerts and movies and cultural gatherings will again become the commonality through which we define our lives. “Ulysses” has a fabulous statement along these lines, silently spoken by Stephen Dedalus. – Los Angeles Times
Voice Of America’s Two Top Officials Resign As Trump Ally Take Over Parent Agency
“The resignation of Director Amanda Bennett and Deputy Director Sandy Sugawara was announced as Michael Pack, a conservative filmmaker and supporter of the president, was set to take over as head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media,” which is the agency overseeing VOA. – NPR