“The contemporary attack on liberalism goes much deeper than the ambitions of a handful of populist politicians. They would not be as successful as they have been were they not riding a wave of discontent with some of the underlying characteristics of liberal societies. To understand this, we need to look at the historical origins of liberalism, its evolution over the decades, and its limitations as a governing doctrine.” – American Purpose
A Prominent Journal Implodes. Was It The Editor Or The Field?
A narrative took hold among critics of HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, The controversy, at root, wasn’t just about the journal or its editor, but also the ways in which contemporary anthropology is a morally corrupt, harmful institution in which the powerful prey upon the weak. – Chronicle of Higher Education
Gagosian Gallery Creates Virtual Openings With Celebrities
The new initiative was devised as a way to create buzz about Gagosian exhibitions even as the gallery faces an extended period with limited in-person attendance. The online celebrity programming also helps to keep artists from feeling shortchanged by the moratorium on glitzy opening parties and swanky artist dinners that traditionally help woo collectors. – Artnet
How One Regional Foundation Smartly Diversified Its Support
Seven years into its “racial equity journey,” support for BIPOC organizations has increased 670%, from $75,000 in 2013 to $578,000 in 2020. The foundation’s rapid evolution is an illuminating case study of a regional funder closing the funding equity gap while providing what Foundation president Gary Steuer referred to as “continued support and respect for the largest institutions that have sucked up the largest share of the philanthropic pie—mostly Eurocentric arts groups.” – Inside Philanthropy
A Deacquisition Binge At American Museums?
“During the height of lockdown in April, the Association of Art Museum Directors … loosened its guidelines on how members could use the proceeds of art sold from their collections. Now, … museums in the United States are likely to make more than $100 million through the sale of art this fall, according to an analysis by Artnet News. Some welcome this result as a sign that institutions are taking practical steps to change systems that were long considered intractable; others say it is a troubling indication that museums are taking the easy way out and turning their collections into cash machines.” – Artnet
James Beard, The Great Emancipator Of American Cuisine
“[He] was perfectly cast. Large, broad, and jovial-seeming, a Santa of the buffet table, … the happy stout man showed that you could eat well without being frightened of eating incorrectly. … The role that Beard invented and played was vital in creating a new idea of what American cooking was.” – The New Yorker
Of Curtain Speeches, Raising Support And Being Human
“In all cases, as nonprofits, for Pete’s sake, just do something measurably impactful without resorting to counting the number of butts in seats, how many jobs you provided, and your economic impact on the community at large. If you do, people will get it and support you. If you don’t, you’ll lead the Irrelevance Day Parade.” – 501c3 Guru
How Black Artists Are Investing In The Next Generation
Artists who have benefited either directly or indirectly from the Studio Museum’s famous residency program—as well as from an art market that is no longer undervaluing their work as much as it has in the past—are building spaces of their own to strengthen the infrastructure available to artists of color. – Artnet
The Man Who Would Replace LACMA
“Peter Zumthor, who despises monuments, finds himself responsible for a building intended to anchor a diffuse and sporadically planned city, where the forests catch fire every fall. A year ago, when I visited him in Haldenstein, an ancient village in the low Alps where he lives and has his atelier, it seemed to him as if the project might, at the final moment, fail, and ruin his good name. He was despondent, familiarly so. “Maybe it happens, maybe it won’t,” he told me. “I always get burned.” – The New Yorker
Why Conservatives Should Support Aid For The Arts
Arts audiences are passionate and, especially in turbulent times, hunger for the fulfillment that a transcendent performance can bring. Even skeptics of government funding for the arts should support making those experiences possible again. As no less a conservative than Winston Churchill once said, “The arts are essential to any complete national life. The State owes it to itself to sustain and encourage them.” – Washington Post
The 100 Most Influential Sequences In The History Of Animation
“We chose the deliberately flexible element of a ‘sequence’ because it felt the most focused: It is often in one inspired moment, more so than a single frame or entire work, that we are able to see the form progress. … This list is not intended to be comprehensive. One hundred is a crushingly compact number of slots with which to encapsulate the totality of a medium. That isn’t to say we didn’t try.” – Vulture
Adam Smith On The Perils Of Sympathizing
Sympathy, Smith believed, was inseparable from imagination and from reasoning. We can’t access what other people feel. Instead, we imagine what other people must be feeling, or rather what we believe that we would feel if we were in their position. – Psyche
How Online Theatre And Its Audience Are Changing Each Other
“Our great crisis, the coronavirus, forces us to watch plays alone, in the crannies of our homes, instead of drawing us into proximity with strangers. Our current government, unlike that led by Franklin Roosevelt, doesn’t see a connection between economic privation, social estrangement, and the kind of nourishment that can come only through an encounter with art — and has no sense of responsibility to encourage the flourishing of art and public life. And so, in a very real way, each of us is on her own. The work of playwriting, acting, and theatrical production today might be to reintroduce us to one another, one at a time.” – The New Yorker
Using Limestone Remnants Of Ancient Greek Sculptures To Make New Reproductions: Okay Or Not Okay?
2,600 years ago, the world’s largest Doric temple to Zeus stood in southwestern Sicily, and its façades incorporated 38 towering statues of Atlas, seeming to hold up the roof the way the Titan held up the sky. All but one of those statues have long since fallen to pieces, but the monument’s director wants to use pieces of the ruins to reproduce eight of the ancient Atlas figures and incorporate them into a contemporary sculpture. Archaeologists are appalled. – The New York Times
Boston Symphony Gives Andris Nelsons Evergreen Contract
“The Boston Symphony Orchestra and music director Andris Nelsons have agreed to a three-year contract extension, … ensuring he will lead the symphony through the 2024-25 season and possibly beyond: An evergreen clause allows his commitment to stretch well beyond the new term. … Nelsons has signed a similar contract extension with the BSO’s sister orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig.” – The Boston Globe
Paris Opera Ballet Finally Starts Reconsidering Blackface And Other Racial Issues
Following a manifesto signed by nearly one-fourth of its employees, the world’s oldest ballet company, and perhaps its most tradition-bound, has invited a pair of outside experts to write a report and make recommendations about matters onstage (eliminating blackface, dying tights to match dancers’ skin tones, reworking the traditional ballets blancs that use only white tutus) and off. – France 24 (AFP)
Jérôme Bel: The Dance World Is Going Through A Major Change
Jérôme Bel has been impressed with the activist streak of younger artists. “They want to work without travelling the globe in the way my generation did,” he says. “The dance community is going through drastic change right now. It’s for us to adjust in order to remain in sync with a world in need of transformation.” – The Guardian
Study: Demand For Diverse TV Programming Outstrips Supply
The study highlighted that audience demand for shows with diverse casts rose 113% from 2017 to 2019. Last year, the level of demand for shows with diverse casts was 17 times greater than the demand for the average U.S. TV show (it was eight times higher in 2017). – Los Angeles Times
What The Anti-Smoking Campaigns Can Teach Us About Regulating Social Media
The comparison is more than metaphorical. It’s a framework for thinking about how public opinion needs to shift so that the true costs of misinformation can be measured and policy can be changed. – MIT Technology Review
Nobel Literature Prize Has A Scandal-Plagued Few Years. Look For A “Safe” Choice This Year
The prize has been mired in scandal since November 2017, when the Swedish Academy, which selects the winner, was caught up in sexual abuse and financial misconduct allegations, which resulted in the conviction of Jean-Claude Arnault, husband of academy member Katarina Frostenson, for rape in 2018. The following January, Frostenson left the Academy after she was found to be the source of leaks of previous winners. The Nobel was postponed in 2018 in the wake of the controversy, but found itself fiercely criticised again over its choice of Peter Handke as winner in 2019. – The Guardian
What Small Movie Theatres Discovered After They Reopened
“When we opened in June I had the No. 7 theater in the country. I thought that was cool.” Yet in subsequent weeks, attendance wasn’t enough to justify keeping the lights on. After just a few weeks back in business, Chris Johnson had to make what he refers to as a “heartbreaking” decision: He closed down his theaters. He doesn’t know, realistically, when he’ll be able to welcome customers again. “We found there was a core audience who came out right away and was very excited, but those were the only ones who came out,” he said. – Variety
Led Zeppelin Wins Copyright Case Over “Stairway To Heaven”
The Supreme Court “denied a petition aimed at reviving the case, ending six years of litigation that the song’s writers, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, plagiarized the song’s iconic intro from the 1968 song “Taurus” by the group Spirit.” – Variety
London Nightclub Sues City Over COVID Lockdown: What’s The Scientific Basis?
Simpson Millar said the government had not provided any evidence to support the restriction, which “seems to lack any obvious rational or scientific basis”. Critics have said the measure is not only damaging to the hospitality sector but may actually be counterproductive, due to the large number of people gathering in the streets or homes after 10pm, or crowding onto public transport at the same time. – The Guardian
Is NYC’s The New Museum “A Sweatshop”?
A former finance director says Ms. Phillips told her to mislead the museum’s board about a cash shortfall. Art handlers say they were forced to work overnight at times to meet onerous deadlines. A former exhibitions director says that when the museum could not locate a work of art, its top officials suggested just making a copy, without telling the artist. – The New York Times
How Reading Habits Have Changed During COVID
While it’s still relatively early to see the influence of the coronavirus and the lockdown on creative industries, there were some striking patterns in media consumption in the early part of the pandemic. – The Conversation