“The expectation of unpaid internships is a barrier for young people from distressed communities to gain work experience and subsequent entry into the performing arts administration workforce. So, internships are primarily going to people of a certain socioeconomic class, and those young professionals are coming out of the experience with an upper hand against their competition. And we wonder why there is a lack of diversity in performing arts administration.” – HowlRound
Godfrey L. Simmons Jr.: Vision and Mission
“Godfrey L. Simmons Jr. has built a career making room for others. In 2012 he co-founded the community-minded Civic Ensemble in Ithaca, N.Y., and he will next take the reins as artistic director of a theatre with a similar community profile, HartBeat Ensemble in Hartford, Conn., which has an affiliation with the University of Connecticut. We spoke to him recently about his work and his plans for the theatre, at which he’ll start on Dec. 1.” – American Theatre
This artist brings Native folklore to life with artwork you can touch
“With wall-sized scrolls of coloring-book panels, [RYAN! Feddersen] shares her modern take on traditional Native American Coyote stories. (Coyote is addicted to technology; Coyote gets caught up in Russian propaganda online.) In the lore of the Interior Salish peoples, she explains, ‘When Coyote is killed at the end of the story, all it takes is a scrap of bone or fur to bring him back to life.’ An enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation (her heritage includes Okanogan and Arrow Lakes), Feddersen sees a connection between Coyote’s immortality trick and contemporary Native American identity. ‘As long as we continue to wield our creativity,’ she says, ‘our culture will stay alive.'” – PBS NewsHour
UK Report: Traditional Music Manager Role Has Become Unsustainable
As managers assume a greater variety of responsibilities, the longstanding earnings model – a 20% commission – is viewed by many as “anachronistic and unfit for purpose”. – Arts Professional
Production Company Pulls Out Of Iconic Seattle Festival
Bumbershoot, the Labor Day arts festival is almost 50 years old. But it’s changed significantly over the years and in its latest configuration began to resemble just another generic expensive music festival. AEG, the producer, says it won’t continue to produce it. – The Stranger
The Director Of The Planned CGI James Dean Movie Says It’s Not A Gimmick
The director says, “At the end of the day, what we really want people to know is the movie is about love and friendship, the veterans that served in the Vietnam War and especially the dogs that were with them. … We never want to lose that emphasis and this [social media reaction] becomes a distraction of what the story is about.” Unh hunh. Who could have predicted this backlash? (Hint: Almost anyone.) – The Hollywood Reporter
Should The LA Phil Take Over The Ford Theatre?
On the agenda for Tuesday’s Los Angeles Supervisors board meeting: Having the L.A. Philharmonic take over the outdoor Ford Theatre. According to the supervisor who made the proposal, “It is the most wonderful, intimate summer night venue. … You’re outside, the hills are beautiful, but you’re not in a great, great, great big Bowl — which is fine for a whole lot of stuff.” – LAist
Zadie Smith On The Tyranny Of Algorithms That Narrow Our Taste
“The key with the unfreedom of the algorithm is that it knows everything and it feeds back everything. So, you can no longer have this bit of humanity which is absolutely necessary — privacy: the sacred space in which you do not know what the other thinks of you.” – Toronto Star
Trust Science? We Need To Know Why
The idea of a monolithic Scientific Method is mythical but it is based on a genuine historical insight. From the early seventeenth century to the present, there are long chains of divergent development connecting the initially imprecise ideas of those we call the “founders of modern science” to the diversity of methods now used in various fields of research. – Boston Review
Record LGBTQ Representation On US TV Series This Year
That means 90 of the 879 series regular characters on ABC, CBS, the CW, Fox and NBC this season are LGBTQ, up from 75 last season. (Additionally, there are 30 LGBTQ recurring characters on broadcast this season.) The 10.2% number, up from last year’s 8.8%, follows records highs in 2016, 2017 and 2018. And it stands as a new record high in the 24 years that GLAAD has tracked LGBTQ representation on the small screen. – Los Angeles Times
Australia Revives Old Small Rural Halls To Create Performance Network
The idea is simple: by showing the communities who manage the halls that live music is an option, a touring circuit will slowly be carved out, which, in turn, will help provide space for music across the country to flourish and grow. Critically, it will also show bigger acts that these rural areas are worth visiting and have the infrastructure to host them. – The Guardian
Curtis Institute Screwed Up Responding To Sexual Abuse Charges. Now It Has Hired Investigators
A leading expert in the field said Curtis needs to do more: “The problem here is, what the public needs is full transparency. Frankly, I would be very concerned if my child were attending the Curtis Institute right now,” she said. Violinist Lara St. John, who made the charges, on Thursday said that the fact that there would be an investigation had her feeling hopeful. – Philadelphia Inquirer
Want To Learn More? Trust More
We learn more by trusting than by not trusting. Moreover, when we trust, we learn not only about specific individuals, we learn more generally about the type of situations in which we should or shouldn’t trust. We get better at trusting. – Aeon
The Mysterious Alchemy Of How We Generate New Ideas
“It’s not at all obvious how to go about thinking up some new twist on these things—the transformation from test-taker to theorem poser and then theorem prover is difficult to articulate. My ideas have always felt contingent and magical to me. I don’t think I’m alone, at least as far as the magic goes.” – The New Yorker
There Were Women Authors In England Centuries Earlier Than We’d Thought
The first female writers in the kingdom have generally been thought to be Marie de France in the 12th century and Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich in the 14th. But scholar Diane Watt argues in a new book that there were Englishwomen producing serious prose and poetry as early as the 8th century — and that much of their work was “overwritten” by men. – The Guardian
Inside China’s Sprawling Movie City Sets
Hengdian World Studios, built in the 1990s on farmland in China’s southeastern Zhejiang Province, claims to be the world’s largest outdoor film studio and features full-scale replicas of the Forbidden City and Beijing’s Old Summer Palace, along with dozens of palaces, gardens, and streetscapes. – Wired
No One’s Buying Mark Halperin’s Book. His Publisher Says Its “Cancel Culture”
“In this guilty-until-proven-innocent cancel culture, where everyone is condemned to death or to a lifetime of unemployment based on an accusation that’s 12 years old, is criminal,” Judith Regan says. – Washington Post
Armenian Monuments That Stood Centuries Are Completely Wiped Out
The scope of the destruction is stunning: 89 medieval churches, 5,840 khachkars and 22,000 tombstones, the report said. The annihilation of cultural heritage dwarfs the more widely reported and condemned razing of sites by Islamic State in Syria and the Taliban in Afghanistan. – Los Angeles Times
The Trance Effects Of Arts
Effervescence is generated when humans come together to make music or perform rituals, an experience that lingers when the ceremonies are over. The suggestion, therefore, is that collective experiences that are religious or religious-like unify groups and create the energy to sustain them. – Aeon
Washington DC Is Getting A Museum Devoted To Language
Planet Word isn’t the first to tackle language and reading in a museum format — there’s Mundolingua in Paris, as well as language museums in Toronto and the Netherlands, among others — and it’s not the first to use high-tech games and displays to engage visitors in its subject. But it’s the rare museum that combines both. – Washington Post
The twenty-five record albums that changed my life (18)
I’ve never bought a copy of Rolling Stone. but I did buy The Rolling Stone Record Review, a mass-market paperback that came out in 1971, and I read it until the glue dried up and the pages fell out. The first record that one of that book’s reviews made me go right out and buy was this one. – Terry Teachout
Literature’s Cult Of The Sad, Suffering Female
Leslie Jamison considers “the enduring appeal of the afflicted woman — especially the young, beautiful, white afflicted woman: our favorite tragic victim, our repository of rarefied, elegiac sadness” — and considers other approaches, both those of other sorts of women writers to suffering and those to life and its misfortunes that don’t focus on despondence. – The New York Times Book Review
Everything It Takes To Put On, And Get Through, Philip Glass’s ‘Akhnaten’ At The Met
Says Anthony Roth Costanzo, who plays the title role, “It brings you back to the most fundamental things about your technique. And if your house is not in order, you’re not going to get through it.” Joshua Barone looks at preparations for the challenging three-hour opera, from designing and assembling the “weird fever dream” costumes and sets to teaching the chorus to juggle to waxing off all the star’s body hair to conductor Karen Kamensek’s karate chop.” – The New York Times
Philip Glass Has Zero Interest In A Legacy (But Lots Of Interest In ‘Selling Out’)
“If the question is whether, a century from now, his operas will get new productions, his symphonies will circulate more frequently, or pianists will take on his études, Mr. Glass couldn’t care less. ‘I won’t be around for all that,’ he said. ‘It doesn’t matter.'” As for commercial versus noncommercial work? “My attitude has been that they’re both the same. Why is it better to get a check every week from a university than to get royalties? Of course I’m a sellout. What else would I be?” – The New York Times
Ceiling Caves In During West End ‘Death Of A Salesman’, Five Injured
Shortly after the start of Wednesday evening’s performance of this production — well-known for casting Black actors as the Loman family — audience members began to hear dripping water. About half an hour in, the sound got louder and then a portion of the ceiling crashed into the auditorium. The 1,200-seat Piccadilly Theatre was quickly evacuated, the show was cancelled, and star Wendell Pierce met the audience outside to apologize. – WhatsOnStage (UK)