Inspired by ‘hacks’ in the technological sector which often brings together experts in disparate fields to work together to solve a presented problem, usually in a limited amount of time, San Diego Opera’s Opera Hack partnered participants with local universities and tech companies to come up with creative solutions to scenarios presented by San Diego Opera. Forty multi-disciplinary experts from around North America submitted sixteen proposals to a panel of tech and theater-based advisors. – Mowdy
We Need New Art Institutions
“I don’t think we need “new” art. The arts professionals that have been protesting in the streets and sending out declarations on social media are calling for institutional changes, not new aesthetic movements. They want to cut through the pieties that circulate in academia and arts institutions about art as a calling because they are struggling for survival in a milieu that pays lip service to high-minded values but is perversely unequal in its distribution of resources.” – Hyperallergic
Arts Festival Sues San Francisco Over COVID Rules
Originally posited as a “suit over artistic freedom,” the case quickly turned into a question of equal protection (performances vis-a-vis church services and political protests), and then into a debate over logistics. – San Francisco Classical Voice
Why Comedy Should Be Treated As The High Art It Is
“Crafting laughs is the most high-stakes form of creation. It is intrinsically difficult, as ‘funny’ varies from person to person in a way that ‘sad’ or ‘romantic’ just doesn’t. Plus, it is a medium that demands success, because a failed gag is excruciating, like OK-ish results in other artforms never will be.” – The Guardian
Poet Diane di Prima, Feminist Beatnik, Dead At 86
“[She] dropped out of college to join the poetry swirl in New York’s Greenwich Village in the 1950s. She arrived in San Francisco in 1968, too late for the North Beach Beats, but she established herself as a singular force, a feminist in a poetry culture that was overwhelmingly male. Her publishing career spanned more than 60 years and 40 books.” – San Francisco Chronicle
A Brief History Of Fights Over Museums Selling Off Art
“Deaccessioning is hardly new in the art world, however, and neither are the debates surrounding it. Below, a look back at some of the most notable deaccessioning plans from the past five decades.” – ARTnews
A Third Of U.S. Theatres Surveyed Fear They’ll Go Out Of Business In 2021
“Only 23 out of 60 are confident that they will not need to close before the pandemic runs its course. You read that correctly: Almost as many theatres surveyed think they’ll need to close next year as think they will not need to consider closing at all.” – American Theatre
Hay Festival Director Suspended Following Employee Grievance
“Peter Florence, the founder and director of the Hay festival, has been suspended from his position after allegations of bullying from a staff member. … Finance director Tania Hudson has been appointed interim chief executive of the festival in Florence’s absence, alongside international director Cristina Fuentes La Roche.” – The Guardian
British Columbia Scores Record Number Of TV, Movie Projects During COVID
B.C. has 61 entertainment projects in production this month, according to Creative B.C., which markets the province to Hollywood. That compares with around 40 projects that were shooting in B.C. just before the novel coronavirus pandemic. – The Hollywood Reporter
NY Museums Reopened. But Are They Sustainable At 25 Percent?
Over a month after most of New York’s most prestigious museums reopened to the public, they are experiencing an existential crisis, fueled by the state-mandated reduced capacity of 25 percent. While the public face of New York City museums welcomes back these visitors with a smile and the promise of a safe experience, administrators behind the scenes anxiously wonder how long they can feasibly stay at that meager occupancy without making significant cuts to staffing or programming. – The New York Times
Unpacking The New Stack Of Boxes At University Of Chicago
This is a bold building by, and for, bold thinkers — even if we don’t know yet whether it is truly meets the test of form that follows function. – Chicago Tribune
Strand Bookstore Puts Out SOS, Is Overwhelmed With Support
Owner Nancy Wyden said “the call for help produced a boom in business on Saturday: a single-day record of 10,000 online orders, so many that the website crashed. That day was also the best single day in the month of October that the flagship store, near Union Square, has ever had, and the best day ever at the Strand’s Upper West Side branch, which opened earlier this year. In the 48 hours since the plea went out, the store processed 25,000 online orders, compared with about 600 in a typical two-day period.” – The New York Times
Pathbreaking Set Designer Ming Cho Lee Dead At 90
As his biographer puts it, “In the 1960s and ’70s Lee radically and almost single-handedly transformed the American approach to stage design.” His work for spoken theater, dance, and opera won him numerous awards, including two Tonys and the National Medal of Arts; he had an equally great impact during his 48-year career teaching stage design at Yale. – The New York Times
African Activist Arrested For Trying To Take Asian Artifact From Louvre
Just a week after he was given a fine but no jail time for attempting to take pieces of African art from another Paris museum, Mwazulu Diyabanza — who calls his acts political protests demanding the return to Africa of artworks looted by European colonizers — was stopped by Louvre guards after lifting and carrying off a sculpture. In a video of the incident, Diyabanza declares, “I came here … to take back what was pillaged from Africa.” The sculpture is from the Indonesian island of Flores. – Artnet
Eight Small Theaters Sue New York State And City For Right To Reopen
“The lawsuit, filed Friday in Federal District Court in Manhattan, argues that the orders shutting down theaters ‘shock the conscience and interfere with plaintiffs’ deeply-rooted liberty and property rights, including the right to work, right to contract, and right to engage in commerce.’ The theaters filing suit … have 199 seats or fewer, and most of [them] are commercial operations.” – The New York Times
The End Of Fashion Photography As We Know It
The fashion world is in crisis: It is producing too much, moving too fast, and, with worrying frequency, offending consumers due to an inability to pivot convincingly from a position that champions a censoriously narrow vision of beauty. Brands are closing, and magazines are folding or becoming fully digital. Can the fashion photograph, of the sort that has littered bedroom walls and been reposted again and again on Instagram or Tumblr, survive? – The New York Times
Indigenous Musicians Take On Bolsonaro In Brazil
The sociopolitical perspective driving Kaê’s music connects with a recent cultural movement gaining popularity among urban Indigenous artists, known as Indigenous futurism. Kaê says it is about “daring to envision ourselves in the future, and using new technologies to enhance Indigenous visibility”. – The Guardian
Online Learning Platforms Report 400 Percent Enrollment Increases
While these more traditional education platforms have seen huge spikes in users and funding during the pandemic, consumers have also demonstrated a growing appetite for online classes geared toward entertainment and enrichment. MasterClass is adding more content, while Airbnb and Instagram Live have emerged as learning hubs, with influential instructors teaching everything from dance to poetry writing to cocktail making. – Fast Company
Alarming Preview: Sotheby’s Hawks Baltimore Museum’s Clyfford Still & Brice Marden
Sirens (coming from the street) were heard wailing at the beginning of Sotheby’s Virtual Preview of Highlights from Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary Art — a fleeting but thematically appropriate soundtrack. – Lee Rosenbaum
Lear Lite
Shakespeare’s writing — all of it, poetry and plays — was repulsive to Tolstoy, who claimed in a pamphlet that whenever he read Shakespeare he was overcome by “repulsion, weariness, and bewilderment.” Orwell disagreed mightily: “Finally the most striking thing is how little difference it all makes.” – Jan Herman
Farther along
It’s just short of seven months since the death of my beloved wife, and not until recently did I feel that I was starting to become myself again. Sometimes the pain of Hilary’s loss takes me by surprise and I find myself crying — but not often. – Terry Teachout
Seattle Chamber Music Society Says Its Online Festival Went Surprisingly Well
What, cheerful classical music news right now? Yes. Adding comments such as “filled my life with joy,” hundreds of patrons responded to a survey about the Chamber Music Society’s Virtual Summer Music Festival. The festival “rated 8.4 on a scale of 10. It brought in 389 new ticket purchasers (32% of patrons) and 92 first-time donors, many international patrons, and 300 more subscribers than usual — likely because there were no constraints on the size of the concert-hall space.” – Seattle Times
The Arts Bailout In The UK Gives Hope, And A Few More Months, To Some
The bailout came to more than 2,000 arts organizations and venues in Britain (and U.S. arts groups are feeling quite jealous). But: “For many, the joy might not last long. The terms of the grants state that they must be spent by Mar. 31 next year. After that, on Apr. 1, if institutions can’t operate profitably with social distancing limiting numbers, many will again face the prospect of layoffs or closing.” – The New York Times