The story goes that in 1496, when he was a young unknown, Michelangelo (or his dealer) took his new sculpture of Cupid, buried it to age it, and sold it to a Cardinal as an antiquity. He did get caught, but …
Renovation Of Berlin’s Pergamon Museum Will Be Four Years Late And At Least 100% Over Budget Because They Found Something Weird Underneath It
“The estimated cost of renovating Berlin’s Pergamon Museum has rocketed to €477m, almost double the initial estimate of €261m. The German government has warned that the full reopening of the museum will be delayed by four years until 2023. The reason for the delay is the discovery of a vast …”
Has The Global Literature Movement Homogenized Writing?
“World literature’s most outspoken critics, such as Gayatri Spivak, Emily Apter, and Aamir Mufti, have warned that any attempt to take on such an immense array of cultures and texts will always flatten and homogenize them, smoothing a rich array of particularities into a Eurocentric monoculture. This is a fair concern. But lately the strongest work in the field of world literature has done the opposite.”
Did Nicholas Serota Build A Tate Museum Only He Could Run?
“The Tate trustees are searching for Serota’s replacement. But Serota is irreplaceable. In his 28 years as the Tate’s director, he has created the world’s most successful Modern and contemporary art museum, rebuilt Tate Britain, opened and is expanding Tate St Ives, has plans for Tate Liverpool, and tours Artist Rooms to 34 partner museums. He has displayed the collection in new ways and curates superb shows. On the business side, Tate generates more non-government revenue than any other national museum in the UK. Serota is charming, decent and a witty (without a note) speaker. It is not just that he has a range of qualities rare in the world, let alone the world of museums; only he has the stature to run what he has wrought.”
Criterion Collection Launches Streaming Service To Show The Good Stuff Netflix Doesn’t
FilmStruck, a joint venture of Criterion and the cable channel Turner Classic movies, will concentrate on foreign and independent features and documentaries as well as titles from the two partners’ libraries. “It won’t be a clearing house; the keyword here is ‘curation,’ with new titles rotated in and out each week.”
Another Arts Journalism Boundary Broken? PR Firm Launches Visual Art Journal
Adam Abdalla, principal of the firm Cultural Counsel and founder of the new online publication, called Affidavit, talks about its content (critical and personal essays rather than news), potential conflicts of interest, and the editorial team.
Are College Museums Getting Too Big And Active? Are They Hogging Too Much Art?
“Public or private, rural or urban, college museums are tackling ambitious projects like never before, promoting academic curators – who were once part of a sleepier, insular art world – to be lead actors on the cultural stage. But not everyone agrees that school museums should compete with their mainstream counterparts or that students necessarily benefit more from having art of such magnitude as opposed to more modest collections.”
A Foundation Funding A Critic At A Major Paper? Here’s An Ex-Globe Editor’s Perspective
“Diligent Globe editors from the top of the masthead down have committed to find ways in which to perpetuate and preserve arts coverage in some serious, rigorous form, while also endeavoring to protect the institution’s larger mission, preserve jobs, and find novel solutions to emerging problems. This Rubin association certainly fits that last category.”
Composer Michael Torke Had Huge Success In His 20s. Now He’s In His 50s And It’s A Different World
“There was a lot of attention towards me. I’m in my 50s. I’m not quite one foot in the grave, but it does kind of feel like it’s all over. I’m glad that the royalties will pay my bills and that I have enough new work, but boy, it sure seems like a different world we’re living in.”
Fifteen Unsung Heroes Of Arts Administration
“Unsung heroes of arts administration are the individuals who keep the trains running on time, who will never be handed the microphone at the annual gala to “say a few words,” who won’t have the opportunity after a career in the cultural sector to give a curtain speech, or even make the announcement asking us to silence our cell phones. Those veterans and rookies for which we all know full well that the show would not go on without them. Those people who make our workplaces more pleasant, including those who might secretly keep watering the office fern no matter how hard we try to kill it.”
Just How Did Buffalo’s Albright Knox Museum Raise $100 Million In Three Months?
With Jeffrey Gundlach’s help, the Albright-Knox has completed what may be the fastest capital-raising campaign in US museum history. In less than three months, it amassed more than $100m—a rate of more than $1m a day.
French President Says Louvre Must Protect Artifacts In War Zones
Last year, President Hollande asked the president of the Louvre, Jean-Luc Martinez, to prepare a report for protecting heritage in areas of conflict after the destruction of the ancient site of Palmyra in Syria by Isis last year. Martinez subsequently devised a 50-point plan, including establishing a single European database of seized or stolen cultural property. In 2018, Louvre is due to start moving more than 250,000 works of art and artefacts from Paris to the 23,500 sq. m, €60m store in Liévin, a move which has enflamed some of the museum’s curatorial staff.
Here’s A First: A Pre-Broadway Tryout In Newfoundland – And In This Case, It Make Sense
After all, the new musical, Come From Away, is set there – at Gander airport, to which 38 flights were diverted on 9-11-01, leaving an out-of-the-way little town to host several thousand confused and scared passengers for five days.
‘A Subsidised Critic Is The Thin End Of A Dangerous Wedge’
“The danger, in such a situation, is not that the critic will give a soft ride to her fellow beneficiaries.” Longtime Guardian theatre critic Michael Billington explains where he feels the dangers do lie.
Natalie Babbitt, 84, Author Of Young-Adult Classic ‘Tuck Everlasting’
“Mrs. Babbitt wrote or illustrated more than two dozen books, among them Kneeknock Rise (1970), a recipient of the Newbery Honor. But she was best known for Tuck Everlasting, a volume that became required reading in many schools and a favorite of children and parents alike. Novelist Anne Tyler once described it as ‘one of the best books ever written – for any age.'”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 11.01.16
Co-Creation in Dance
by Clara Pinsky, Program Coordinator; Krissie Marty, Associate Choreographer; Allison Orr, Artistic Director
Forklift Danceworks … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2016-11-01
Communicating Across Borders
Babel (words) by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet at Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2016-11-01
[ssba_hide]
Ex UK Culture Minister: The Arts Suffer From Too Much Lefty Politics
Ed Vaizey, who was removed from his position as arts minister by prime minister Theresa May in July, said: “Let’s not beat about the bush: the arts are relentlessly left wing. As the former [London] mayor’s head of culture once said: there is no pro-fox hunting play. Indeed, there are no plays about over-powerful trade unions letting down their members. As a Remainer [myself], there is no pro-Brexit play attacking unaccountable Brussel’s bureaucrats building a European superstate. There’s no play exposing the corruption and abuse in a country like Venezuela – why not?”
Why Is The Quality Of Canadian TV So Bad?
“What’s exceptionally frustrating, especially in the matter of television in Canadian culture, is the lack of emphasis on quality. Said it before and saying it again: We make an awful lot of TV in this country and we are, frankly, accepting of a great deal of mediocrity. Money is thrown at all manner of drivel.”
How/Why Music Can Help You Work
People’s minds tend to wander, “and we know that a wandering mind is unhappy,” Dr. Sood said. “Most of that time, we are focusing on the imperfections of life.” Music can bring us back to the present moment. “It breaks you out of just thinking one way,” said Teresa Lesiuk, an assistant professor in the music therapy program at the University of Miami.
Producers Of Broadway’s Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet Of 1812′ Offer To Settle Lawsuit Over Credit
Five little words – “the Ars Nova Production of” – ahead of the show’s title in the Playbill led to an ugly dispute that got into both the press and the legal system, and now the show’s producers want to make it go away.