“Theater Latté Da [in Minneapolis] has announced the establishment of the NEXT Generation Commission, designed to support the creation and development of musicals by women and artists of color. The company will award a $20,000 commission to an individual artist or writing team, and provide creative support over an 18-month period.” – American Theatre
How ‘Roleplay’ Reflected Tulane’s Experiences With Assault
“In 2017, 41 percent of female-identifying and 18 percent of male-identifying students reported experiencing sexual assault at Tulane University in New Orleans. Since those stats were released, there have been town halls, support groups, class discussions, consent campaigns, and institutional initiatives. There was also a play, which a group of students [working with the company Goat in the Road Productions] devised in response to the staggering statistics. Roleplay was performed on campus, free of charge, Sept. 5-15.” – American Theatre
Chicago Nonprofit Will Award $900,000 to Artists of Color
“Threewalls, a cultural nonprofit that supports visual artists in Chicago, has announced that it will award $900,000 to artists who identify as African, Latinx, Asian, Arab, or Native American (ALAANA). The organization will grant $300,000 per year for the next three years to artists of color as well as nonprofits that ‘demonstrate alternative ways towards racial equity through the lens of radical imagination and social justice.'” – Artforum
Here’s How Anthony McGill Became The First African-American Principal Of The New York Philharmonic
The clarinetist who played at Barack Obama’s inauguration talks about playing with passion, staying humble, setting goals, giving your all on every occasion, and overcoming negativity. (video) – Forbes
Tyshawn Sorey And The Dawning Of Musical Consciousness
“Besides the physical notation, the sheet of paper or whatever, there’s also the psychological notation. That should also be there—where you can deal with the music on a real level. Whether it’s notated on paper or not. You’re still in the room and you’re still in the music.” – NewMusicBox
Cornel West on the Revolutionary Politics of the Foundry Theatre
“The Foundry was never reduced to a market brand for corporate picking or seduced into the new star on the block for avant-garde propping up. Instead, it put a premium on the blue notes shot through history—the notes of dignity, dissonance, defiance — that constitute the majestic sound of social movements, political struggles, spiritual healings, and psychic breakthroughs.” – Literary Hub
The Reigning Queen Of Queer Cartoons
Rebecca Sugar earned six Emmy nominations before she was 30 for her work on the animated series Adventure Time. Now, on her own Cartoon Network series, Steven Universe, she has an entire squad of non-binary female characters, one gender-neutral hero, and a lesbian wedding, the first on children’s TV. – The Guardian
Ontario Slashes Arts Budget, Leaving Publishers Unable To Pay Writers, Illustrators
Provincial cuts to the Ontario Arts Council will leave small magazines struggling to pay writers and illustrators, silencing important minority and marginalized voices, and putting the magazines’ survival in jeopardy, New Democrat MPP Jill Andrew says. – Toronto Star
The Scary Apocalyptic Literature Of The Nationalist Far Right
Lone wolves, domestic terrorists, white supremacists, and militiamen on the far-right fringes who have long trafficked in an expansive body of published manifestos and propagandist fiction. Theirs is a kind of sick pop culture, constantly updated and running parallel to the mainstream, that fully accounts for apocalyptic race wars and nationalist-driven coups d’etat. Those steeped in this body of literature are primed to expect the moment where their rhetorical “shit” hits the real-life “fan.” – The New Republic
Cookbooks Sell Very Well. Why Aren’t Their Authors Aren’t Making More Money From Them?
Major publishers will do right by their cookbook authors, who are usually already established, but there’s a larger set of small publishers who work with newer writers. “With these smaller publishing companies, there isn’t always an advance, and if there is, it’s often less than $10,000. Royalties aren’t always offered, and most expenses aren’t covered. … Authors are occasionally asked to sign nondisclosure agreements before even viewing a contract.” – The New York Times
Sales Tax Hike For Arts And Parks Is The Major Issue In Charlotte’s Upcoming Elections
“Over the next few weeks voters will face a deluge of information aimed at swaying them for or against a quarter-cent sales tax hike in Mecklenburg County. The controversial measure would bring an additional $50 million annually to fund the arts, education and parks in the region.” – Charlotte Agenda
New Trend On Instagram: Getting Real (Yes We Hear Your Skepticism)
Celebrities have always used their social-media accounts as confessional booths, but at some point in the past year Instagram stars began interrupting their otherwise aspirational feeds with a very specific type of revelation—posts that could be described as the “getting real” moments. – The New Yorker
Penguin Random House Defends Author Against Plagiarism Claims In Dr. Zhivago Book
Published in September, Lara Prescott’s The Secrets We Kept tells of how the CIA planned to use Doctor Zhivago as a propaganda tool during the cold war. But Anna Pasternak revealed in the Sunday Times that she had sent a legal letter to Prescott, claiming that the novel features “an astonishing number of substantial elements” copied from Pasternak’s 2016 biography Lara, which is about Olga Ivinskaya, Pasternak’s lover, muse and inspiration for his character Lara. – The Guardian
David Henry Hwang And Jeanine Tesori Turn ‘The King And I’ On Its Head
“In [Soft Power], a stand-in for Hwang named DHH is hired by a Chinese producer to try to stage a theatrical production in Shanghai. Then, after a stabbing that mirrors Hwang’s own, he falls into a coma and imagines a full-blown future production of a Chinese musical about an intrepid Chinese producer who meets Hillary Clinton and teaches lessons from the communist perspective about screwed-up American democracy. There’s also, of course, a ‘Getting to Know You’-style lesson scene, but about learning to distinguish tones in Mandarin.” – Vulture
Lebanon’s Economy Has Collapsed. Some Artists See Opportunity
One small silver lining is that artists feel less pressure to churn out commercial material, freeing them up to experiment. “We are not expecting anything,” he says. “There are no big returns from the market during a time of economic collapse, which makes everyone feel more free to create and do as they want.” – artnet
The World’s Largest Collection Of Contemporary South African Art Belongs To — Nando’s (Yes, The Grilled Chicken Chain)
With more than 22,000 works hanging in the chain’s roughly 1,300 restaurants, Nando’s is arguably the best place in the world to check out work by contemporary South African artists. And the chain’s Creative Block program, run with the Spiers Art Trust, may be the largest corporate art initiative anywhere. – The Art Newspaper
Kyle Abraham Wants To Show Us A Misty Copeland We’ve Never Seen Before
The MacArthur-winning modern choreographer is creating a new solo on the star ballerina for the opening of this year’s Fall For Dance festival in New York. Brian Seibert talks with the two of them about working with each other for the first time. – The New York Times
England’s Arts Funder Is Now A Target Of Climate Activists
A collective called Culture Declares Emergency argues that the new funding strategy proposed by Arts Council England “neither addresses the urgency of the climate and ecological emergency nor grasps the chance to trumpet boldly the pivotal role arts and culture play in bringing about societal changes needed to avert disaster.” – Arts Professional
What A Conductor Really Does Up There
Anne Midgette: “No figure in classical music is more iconic than the conductor, or more misunderstood. … No job in music is harder to quantify, and no job is, when it’s done well, more important. So here’s a brief look at the function of the conductor.” – The Washington Post
Abstract Expressionist Painter Mary Abbott Dead At 98
“[She] painted bold, colorful works, often inspired by nature or music, and traveled in the same circles as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and other artists who were redefining painting in the years after World War II. … [But her] vivid description [of Pollock] conveys what women trying to make a name for themselves in that world were facing.” – The New York Times
Minneapolis Institute Of Art Selects Its New Director
“The Minneapolis Institute of Art named an art expert with a entrepreneurial past Tuesday as its next director and president: Katherine Luber, of the San Antonio Museum of Art. … Luber, who has led the San Antonio institution for eight years, possesses not only a Ph.D. in art history but an M.B.A. and experience launching an organic spice company.” – The Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
Curious: LA Phil Names A New Executive Director But He Declines To Talk About It
The orchestra names Chad Smith new chief executive of the orchestra, succeeding Simon Woods. “In a sign of how awkward the upheaval has been, and how quickly the change of leadership was put into place, Mr. Smith declined to be interviewed, which is rare for the incoming chief executive of a major orchestra.” – The New York Times
Study: Inventors Are More Productive When They’re Geographically Clustered
Inventors are significantly more productive when they are working in larger geographic clusters. The study finds that when inventors move from a smaller to a large cluster, they experience increases in both the number of patents they generate and the impact of those patents, based on their subsequent citations. – CityLab
What Effect Do Morals Have On Our Political Leanings?
Peter Ditto created a survey website to learn to what extent different moral frameworks shape outlooks on political questions, and indeed the greater world. His findings were compelling, but likely unsurprising if you’ve ever had an irreconcilable political squabble at the dinner table: it’s our moral filters, not facts or rational thinking, that mould our ideological outlooks. – Aeon
Jessye Norman’s lost Isolde – and so much else
The process and the permanence of recording never seemed to entirely sit well with her. There are some likely treasures out there somewhere that we’ve never gotten to hear. – David Patrick Stearns