The Lyon Académie de Musique officially went bust on New Year’s Day 1693, but it was back in business two years later. “How did Académie musicians transform hardship into productive creativity?” writes musicologist Natasha Roule. “How did they assert their relevance in the local community? What worked — and what didn’t? The answers to these questions could fill a book, but we can break them down into three key takeaways.” – Early Music America
How The First Bestseller List Was Invented
It was called Bookman, started in 1895, and was the only place you could see which books were selling. “Once invented, the best seller could be discussed in literary journals, trade publications, social circles, and book clubs, solidifying a popular conception of what it meant to be a best seller and what it meant to read one.” – Lapham’s Quarterly
How Spain’s National Dance Company Made It From COVID Lockdown Back To The Stage
Marina Harss: “When the Compañía Nacional de Danza took the stage at the Festival Internacional de Música y Danza de Granada in southern Spain on Wednesday, it was in many ways like any other dance performance. … [Yet] it was the culmination of months of careful planning, involving the development of protocols, testing and a careful, minutely orchestrated return to the studio.” – The New York Times
Charismatic Leaders, For Good And Evil
Anyone concerned with the question of charismatic political leaders necessarily stands in the shadow of Max Weber, the great German sociologist who wrote sketches of the subject not long before his death, a century ago, from a case of pneumonia brought on by the Spanish flu. For Weber, charisma was one of three basic forms of political authority, along with traditional rule based on custom and rational rule based on law and bureaucracy. – The Point
Rick Brettell, Texas Art Critic, Museum Director, Fundraiser For The Arts, 71
In 2014, he secured $17 million from Mrs. O’Donnell to create the institute of art history. In 2017, UTD partnered with the late Margaret McDermott to create the Richard Brettell Award in the Arts, which, every other year, bestows $150,000 upon an artist “whose body of work demonstrates a lifetime of achievement in their field.” – Dallas Morning News
Hollywood Finally Gives In – Will Release Big Movie Outside US First
Warner Bros. finally acknowledged reality: The U.S. is simply not ready for big films to return, and the country has lost its position as the most important movie market in the world. – The Atlantic
How The Influential New-Play Conference PlayPenn Blew Up
PlayPenn doesn’t have new leadership yet, but its old leadership is gone. Earlier this week the organization’s board accepted the resignation of its founding artistic director, Paul Meshejian, and dismissed associate artistic director Michele Volansky, after a firestorm on social media, amplified in the Philadelphia press, brought to light longstanding practices many artists and former staff identified as racist and exclusionary. – American Theatre
Do Ballerinas Really Need To Be So Extremely Thin?
“Dancers are harming themselves trying to achieve the look. The continued preference for ultrathin bodies seems particularly out of step with current cultural conversations around body positivity and acceptance. What would it take for ballet body standards to change?” After all, writes Garnet Henderson, they’ve changed before. – Dance Magazine
A New Idea For Artist Resale Royalties Contracts
Joseph del Pesco, International Director of KADIST: “Sales of art in the US reached $29.9 billion in 2018 … Imagine if just 2 percent of that $29.9 billion did some good. That’s 600 million dollars reaching charitable organizations, about four times the yearly budget of the National Endowment for the Arts. Now imagine if that $600 million was controlled by non-profits run by artists …” – Artnet
Illegal Trade In Antiquities Is Not As Big As We Think It Is: Study
“A new report [by the RAND Corporation] claims that … the true size of the market in illicit antiquities may be ‘much smaller’ than is regularly reported. Perhaps more controversially, the report claims that ‘fuelling this disconnect between reported looting and assumed markets for these goods is the problem that bloggers, journalists and advocacy groups, although often producing high-quality research, are rewarded for sensational headlines and claims that bring attention to their issues and readers to their pages or sites’.” – The Art Newspaper
Another Step In New York Times’ Turn Toward Hollywood
“In a move expanding the news outlet’s presence in Hollywood, The New York Times has named Caitlin Roper executive producer for scripted projects. Roper, who has been a senior editor at The New York Times Magazine since 2016, will develop Times stories for film and TV, ‘developing and producing alongside Hollywood producers using our stories as the launching point for fictional projects.'” – The Hollywood Reporter
Public Art In An Activist Time
“I think that’s an exciting direction for public art to take, for people to feel a sense of authority and ownership over their shared space and what it should look like. We have a city full of blank walls, of boring, drab streets, of spaces where we could have more public conversations. We have a city full of brilliant artists who want to contribute to those conversations, and a city full of activists who have messages to share, so this is a really exciting moment during which people are taking to the streets and just making art.” – SpacingToronto
Warning: 90 Percent Of Canada’s Live Music Venues Could Shut Forever
According to the Canadian Independent Venue Coalition, which has launched an online campaign to support Canadian venues, without government support, more than 90 per cent of independent venues are at risk of shutting down forever. – CBC
How Long Can New Orleans Survive Without Its Music?
Many New Orleans artists make at least 50 percent, and some as many as 75 to 100 percent, of their income during festival seasons. “New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Essence Music Festival, Voodoo Festival, those big events provide a big source of income and opportunity for our artists,” she says. “They sell at the festival, yes, but they make contacts that might give them commissions for the rest of the year.” But now, of course, there are no festivals, and tourist attractions like jazz bars have all gone dark. – Slate
What It’s Like Going To Disney World Right Now
The bus from the airport to my resort gave me plenty of time to contemplate my life decisions. An air-conditioned trip through a hot zone of the worst disease outbreak in a century will concentrate the mind, even if television screens and the voices of cartoon characters are constantly attempting to break that concentration. – The Atlantic
How The Motivations Of Philanthropy Have Changed
Return on investment (ROI) logic has become a dominant motif of much of philanthropy today. Many contemporary philanthropists perceive themselves as social entrepreneurs, doing well by doing good. Their giving philosophies reflect the practices of global finance as well as the manner in which they made their fortunes. – Aeon