“Both in and outside Athens, pop-up milongas, like tango dance studios, have gained a popularity that have taken aficionados aback.
London Arts Crisis – Report Says City Is Losing Arts Spaces To Rising Real Estate Prices
The newly published 2015 report estimates London will lose around 30% of its current artistic workspaces over the next four years due to rising rents, which it describes as “a major blow to a city where creativity is a huge part of its reputation and economic identity”.
Iran’s Amazing Modern Art Treasures
As Iran lurches toward reengaging with the world after the end of years of sanctions, a crown jewel waits in history’s shadow.
Why One (Successful) Artistic Director Quit Her Theatre
“I realized in that moment that my craft, my artmaking and the reasons I came to theater in the first place were not present in the room anymore. What was present was worry about making payroll. And that is anathema to creativity. It started shutting down the joy of being an artmaker.”
High School Student Wins $250K Prize For His Video Explaining Einstein’s Relativity
“Chester’s film takes on one of the biggest ideas in science, Einstein’s theory of relativity. With cartoonish graphics drawn by hand and props from everyday life, like a bowl of popcorn and a moving minivan, Chester explains what Einstein’s famous theory is all about — and why it means that people traveling close to the speed of light age slowly compared to people on Earth.”
Prime Minister Trudeau Writes To His Culture Minister About The Arts
Among his priorities: Restore and increase funding for CBC/Radio-Canada, following consultation with the broadcaster and the Canadian cultural community. Review the process by which members are appointed to the CBC/Radio-Canada Board of Directors, to ensure merit-based and independent appointments. Double investment in the Canada Council for the Arts. Increase funding for Telefilm Canada and the National Film Board.
Making Better Babies: The Dream Of Designing Human Beings, From Plato To Nobel-Laureate Sperm Banks To Gene Editing
“For centuries, human hereditary improvement was a problem in social, not biological, engineering: how to persuade or coerce people into marrying to benefit the population as a whole. The obvious analogy was to agriculture and animal husbandry.”
Claim: Ticket Resellers Are A Scourge That Hurts Audiences
“I don’t think parasitic is too strong a word for the secondary ticketing industry. Our view is that this is an industry that’s been allowed to grow on the back of the creative arts without reinvesting anything into it.”
How’s The Art Market? Let’s Do The Numbers
We are in a mature, healthy and broad market in rather rude health, thank you very much. Here’s how it panned out.
How iTunes Is Alienating Music Collectors
“Users interested only in iTunes’ media management features—people with terabytes of MP3s who want a solid app to catalog and organize their libraries—feel abandoned as Apple moves away from local file storage in favor of cloud-based services.”
How Termites Are Teaching Architects To Build More Efficient Buildings
“Mimicking termites’ strategies, architects and engineers can drastically improve energy efficiency in buildings.”
Store Clerk Wins Playwriting Contest
Katherine Soper wrote ‘Wish List’ as her dissertation play at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She will be back at work at Penhaligon’s perfumers on Regent Street, where she has worked for two years, on Wednesday. “I do that part time, and the rest of the time I try and write,” she said.
Dances With Horses: Hoofing It For The Equine Ballet
Herwig Radnetter of the Spanish Riding School of Vienna talks about dressage as an art, discipline and training, relating to his quadraped partners, and white gloves.
Processing Atrocities Like The Paris Attacks, From Afar
“What we should be using as a measure is what we call emotional distance. It has to do with what you hear in the news and the media, and how relevant it is to you, and to what extent you identify. There’s not a general rule to that. … If the victims are people who belong to your social group, who you identify with, it’s one thing. Everyone makes his own emotional distance from traumatic events. Atrocities shortcut the emotional distance – they are universally perceived as something so incongruous that you keep thinking about it.”
The Glory Of Hidden Tracks On Records (Remember?)
“We gained a lot when albums went fully digital, but we also lost a bunch of stuff along the way. Among the things we lost: Record sleeves, media towers, and Tower Records. We have digital equivalents of all these things, so it’s not like we necessarily miss them. But perhaps the one thing we lost that we’ll never get back is the hidden track. It was one of the few things about an album that couldn’t easily be converted to MP3 or Spotify.”
Keeping Kids’ Lives On Track As They Perform In Professional Theater
“Adult actors, cast overseers, teachers, and choreographers make sure no child is left behind when it comes to keeping grades up, feeling protected, and maintaining as much of real life for their young castmates as possible.” A director, choreographer, or touring company manager “must deal with tutors, handlers, and parents as an airport-runway controller would a busy flight plan.”
How We Mourn Our Dead Pets: A Brief History
Jessica Miller looks at pet cemeteries (which go back to 1881), pet taxidermy, mourning jewelry, and the latest technology out of Florida: freeze-drying your departed doggie.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 11.17.15
Learn-Unlearn
What the field needs to learn and “unlearn” about developing arts audiences by Jill Robinson … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2015-11-17
In the wavelength
Audience engagement – it’s a weak strategy. Never mind that it can seem to work. A friend sent me notes from the National Arts Marketing Project Conference, with details of the Cleveland Public Theater, and its impressive season, full of plays on subjects that just seem to scream contemporary relevance. But still they wanted to boost attendance on slow nights. … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2015-11-17
Tom Campbell of Metropolitan Museum Responds to L’Horreur in Paris (with video)
It wasn’t as scary as the sight of heavily armed police in a bullet-proof vests Saturday night at Lincoln Center … But (without giving away the details) it was clear to me, when I entered the garage of the Metropolitan Museum to attend its press lunch today, that security measures there had been tightened. … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2015-11-17
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Should TV Networks Pull Sensitive Shows After A Tragedy?
“We should not be surprised that extremists excoriate pop entertainment and its liberties, that they attack cartoonists and concertgoers at a rock show. Even the frothiest expressions of art have something to say. We should know that; the murderers plainly do.”
Bruce Willis And Al Pacino Are Bombing On Broadway (But Selling Lots Of Expensive Tickets)
“But the greats may find Broadway a bigger challenge than they really want. Making movies is an art but appearing on Broadway a daily dare.”
You Want Numbers? Here Are Numbers! (The Biggest YouTube Music Debut Ever)
“Over three years after her most-recent upload, Adele released the video for her new single “Hello” in the early hours of Friday morning (approximately 12amPT). Within 48 hours, it had been viewed 50 million times, making it the biggest debut of any video on YouTube in 2015 and one of the most-watched music video debuts of all time.”
What Libraries Will Look Like in 2100
“Readers will still make their way to the 3 million libraries to see whatever unique collections they have, but readers will also find in those places much of what they now go there to find: intelligent people engaged in the work of knowledge and the work of community.”