ArtsJournal - Newsside

What University Theatre Programs Need To Do For Their Students And Educators Of Color

THEATRE Posted:

There are issues: “Many educators of color find themselves entering or working at predominantly white institutions (PWIs) with little guidance on how to push for change and support their students, while managing to take care of themselves. And there are still cases in which an institution makes a new hire as a Band-Aid solution when they’re called out for problematic practices, as if one person from a marginalized community can somehow suddenly solve the institution’s problems.” – American Theatre

Saving Australia’s Literary Heritage Before It Goes Out Of Print And Gets Pulped

WORDS Posted:

“This is the unfortunate fate of most books, even literary prize-winners. … [That’s] something that Untapped: The Australian Literary Heritage Project is trying to rectify. … Untapped’s mission is to digitise 200 of Australia’s most important [out-of-print] books, preserving them for future generations and making them available through a national network of libraries.” – The Guardian

Why We Should All Love Epigraphs

WORDS Posted:

Thomas Swick: “The epigraph page is like a ceremonial gate ushering us into the realm of the author with his or her beloved quotation from a great mind or celebrated scamp that perfectly reflects, or distills, the essence of what follows. … I am always disappointed when I don’t find one. It’s like looking at a man in a suit who’s not wearing a tie.” (Just as long as it’s not in Latin.) – Literary Hub

Judith Farr, Poet And Emily Dickinson Scholar, Dead At 85

PEOPLE Posted:

“A longtime professor at Georgetown University, [she] published two seminal academic books examining the place of art and nature in Dickinson’s poetry, The Passion of Emily Dickinson (1992) and The Gardens of Emily Dickinson (written with Louise Carter, 2004). Dr. Farr also ventured into the realm of fiction and poetry, penning an epistolary novel about Dickinson as well as a poetry collection of her own, What Lies Beyond (2019).” – MSN (Washington Post)

Taking Stock Of The Destruction At Dobson Pipe Organ Builders

MUSIC Posted:

The factory — where the organs of Verizon Hall at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, St. Thomas Fifth Avenue in New York, Merton College Chapel in Oxford, and the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles were built — burned to the ground last week. While scans of the company’s final design drawings still exist, completely lost are the instrument then under construction (destined for Sydney); all supplies, tools, and treated wood and metal for pipes; and all preliminary and intermediate design sketches and archived photos of every instrument Dobson has built. – The New York Times

Fury Over Choice Of Bosses For Pompidou Center’s Brussels Branch

VISUAL Posted:

A jury made up of museum professionals selected Kasia Redzisz, a senior curator at Tate Liverpool, to be artistic director of Kanal-Centre Pompidou, the museum’s outpost in the Belgian capital. But the museum’s board partly overruled the jury’s decision, appointing as co-director Bernard Blistène, the jury’s runner-up and director of the Pompidou’s Paris flagship until the end of this month. (Senior cultural officials in France must retire after age 65; Blistène is 66.) Art world professionals are denouncing his appointment alongside Redzisz as “an offensive act of sexism and a blatant insult to her expertise and capacities.” – Artnet

Restrictions On Movie Content In China And Hong Kong Put Hollywood In Difficult Position

MEDIA Posted:

“As Hollywood faces a deteriorating relationship with China, it appears committed to keeping the flame alive even if that means going to humiliating lengths. … On June 11, Hong Kong authorities announced that any movie deemed ‘a threat to national security’ would henceforth be banned from distribution. … The policy, which mimics mainland rules that already have stifled the film industry in the country and abroad, is certain to affect Hollywood’s limited ability to exercise free speech when it comes to China, particularly on the documentary front.” – The Hollywood Reporter

More Details About Pretty Yende’s Detention At CDG Airport (She Was Not Strip-Searched)

MUSIC Posted:

“Yende took to social media to share her experience, saying she was ‘stripped and searched like a criminal offender’ during the ordeal, which lasted more than two hours. While she was not asked to remove her clothes, she says, the police told her, without explanation, to take off her shoes and kept her in a cold, dark room. She suggested that she had been singled out because she is Black.” – The New York Times

NEA Expands Access To Millions In Pandemic Relief Funding

ISSUES Posted:

“The National Endowment for the Arts announced Wednesday that it will make $80 million in pandemic relief available to more arts and cultural organizations, including first-time applicants and those that have never received support from the federal arts agency. The relief funds will also support local arts agencies that will distribute the federal dollars to grass-roots organizations in their communities.” – MSN (Washington Post)

Chief Of London’s Barbican Centre To Depart (Is This About The Racism Controversy?)

ISSUES Posted:

“Nicholas Kenyon, the Barbican’s managing director for 14 years” — and, prior to that, controller of BBC Radio 3 and director of the BBC Proms — “is to stand down in September with the move coming shortly after criticism from the organisation’s own staff that it was ‘institutionally racist’. In a statement Kenyon confirmed he would be leaving in the autumn, adding that … he had been planning the move for some time.” – The Guardian

Music As Care

AJBlogs Posted:

Music as Care by Sarah Adams Hoover is a book devoted to “arts in health.” The topic is light years from my area of expertise so I was surprised when Sarah asked me to take a look at it. I am extremely glad she did. – Doug Borwick