The Human Rights Foundation withdrew the Vaclav Havel Prize from Pyotr Pavlensky – the man who nailed his scrotum to Red Square, tried to burn down the headquarters of the successor agency to the KGB and call it “art,” and saw Russia’s top art prize cancelled after he was nominated for it – because he planned to pay the legal bills of a violent group in the country’s Far East.
Audiences Behaving Badly: French Cinemas Yank Horror Film From Screens ‘To Ensure The Safety Of Staff And Customers’
“A number of cinemas in France are cancelling screenings of The Conjuring 2 following troublesome occurrences of ‘loud laughter’, ‘hysterical yelling’ and violent altercations.”
Yes, Broadway is More Diverse, But The Theatre System Still Conspires Against Diversity
“While I marvel at the creative genius that is Lin-Manuel Miranda (and remain as eager as any self-respecting theater lover to snag a Hamilton ticket), I am uncomfortable with how theater makers are reveling in the breakthrough success of a show that succeeded not because of the theater system but in spite of it.”
Philly’s New-Music Orchestra Has New Music Director
“After spending last season trying out candidates, Orchestra 2001 says it has hired a new artistic director: Jayce Ogren. He starts the job at the group’s concerts in late October.” He is only the second director Orchestra 2001 has ever had.
Opera San Antonio Chooses Its New Director
“Enrique Carreón-Robledo has been named the new general and artistic director for Opera San Antonio. He will step into his new role Aug. 1. He succeeds composer Tobias Picker, who left the company in January 2015.”
Some Countries Support Artists Directly (But There Are Tradeoffs)
“Whether or not artistry is a formal profession in the eyes of the state, and what states do or don’t do to support that profession, reflects different agendas within different political systems. While the American model mostly distributes public funding for the arts indirectly, via tax deductions for nonprofit organizations and their donors, many other governments provide substantial direct support to individual artists.”
Two Artists Begin Building Trump’s Wall, And Sending Mexico The Bill
“Covered on one side by a large campaign ad for Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, and studded with wilting fruit, flowers, cleaning items and hardware, their wall was meant to symbolize, Mr. Gleeson said, the economic effects that curtailing immigration and closing borders would have on agriculture, industry and domestic life.”
The Booming Business Of Making Movies (On The Cheap) In Cape Town
“This is the first custom-built, state-of-the-art film studio in sub-Saharan Africa, and it’s rapidly becoming one of Hollywood’s favourite places to shoot. It touts itself as ‘the most successful film studio in the developing world’ – a grand claim that might even be true.”
Alison Bernstein Gave Tens Of Millions Of Dollars To Cultural Initiatives At The Ford Foundation
“She was a lively and curious and wonderfully imaginative person, and this all came across in 10 minutes.”
The Perennial Question: Why Can’t You Listen To The Radio On Your Smartphone?
“Apple remains the biggest holdout. The company did not respond to multiple requests for comment, but critics say it has little incentive to do anything that might undermine Beats One, Apple Music, and other streaming services.”
The Wide World Of Difference In The Words “British Art Fair”
“By Sunday, the third and final day of Shepton Mallet, exhibitors outnumbered visitors and mutterings of “it’s been terrible” and complaints about the poor sales could be overheard above the clutter of unsold porcelain and glass ornaments.”
The Large-Scale Trolling Of The Berlin Biennale
“Their plan to embody and exacerbate the present (DIS calls our period ‘post-contemporary’) is a funeral with neither corpse nor mourners: the curators deliver, under the sign of a provocative ‘re-presentation’ without expertise, an ultimately inaccurate, homogenised and universalist account of what our epoch entails, such that their embodied present is virtually meaningless.”
This English Theater Told A Woman Her Gender Ruled Her Out For Directing A Play
“There was nothing to misunderstand – those are the words they wrote; they wrote that a male was better.”
Scientists Store Music, Books On DNA
In a University of Washington lab test tube, researchers stored an HD video of the song “This Too Shall Pass” by OK Go. They also stored the text of 100 books, and the Declaration of Human Rights in multiple languages.
A-List Art And The Value Of Architecture
While developers do not feel an absolute competitive imperative to have A-list art, many believe that great art can help make an already distinctive building an enduring one (and, one assumes, a profitable one).
For Eid Ul-Fitr, Check Out These Panoramic Photos Of Gorgeous Persian Mosques
Mohammad Reza Domiri Ganji, a physics student turned photographer, is becoming famous for his images of the intricate, geometric, colorful religious architecture of his native Iran. Here are rotating 360-degree views of five spectacular sites.
Don Friedman, 81, Jazz Pianist Equally At Home In Modern Mainstream And Avant-Garde
“Mr. Friedman had a crisp, fluid technique and an adventurous approach to harmony, which made him a desirable sideman over a career that lasted more than 60 years. He worked for decades with the trumpeter Clark Terry, a popular emblem of swinging ebullience, and also commingled with pioneers of free jazz like the alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman.”
Brooklyn Museum Closes As Air Conditioning Blows Out
“‘Our team is working around the clock to replace the damaged systems during this time. All museum collections are being constantly monitored and sensitive materials are being moved to climate controlled spaces,’ the museum wrote in a press statement.”