“If I took the same interest in controlled substances that I do in books, I’d probably be in some 12-step program. Fortunately, while books are habit-forming they remain legal and there’s no evidence, no matter how musty, that they’re bad for the health.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
To Fight NYC Library Budget Cuts, A 24-Hour Read-In
“Not typically ones to raise their voices, librarians staged an overnight read-in on the steps of the Brooklyn Public Library on Grand Army Plaza to criticize the city’s plan to close 40 branches by month’s end, and to reduce hours and employees at those that remain. The event’s slogan: ‘We Will Not Be Shushed.'”
A YouTube Project Helps Guggenheim Connect With Artists
“Beginning Monday anyone with access to a video camera and a computer will have an opportunity to catch the eye of a Guggenheim curator and vie for a place in a video-art exhibition in October at all of the foundation’s museums” via a project that’s “open even to entrants who don’t consider themselves artists.”
Tony Awards Make Good TV (If You Don’t Know Theatre)
“That I have seen none of your Tony-nominated productions does not impede my enjoyment of the television show that celebrates them. Possibly, it makes it more enjoyable, because I can take it as a series of discrete emotional moments, musical numbers and jokes, unfettered by liking or not liking a particular production. I am happy for everyone who wins.”
Once Again, The Tonys Exalt Commercialism, Not Art
“For the third year in a row the best musical award went not to the work that deserved it but to the one with the greatest box-office potential on the road.” And “just look at the acting victories. Hollywood dominated in a way that befits a season that confirmed again and again the equation of solvency and mega celebrity.”
Our Wrongheaded Pigeonholing Of ‘Young Writers’
“The trouble, perhaps, is that this definition of ‘young writer’ … muddies our understanding of how truly original, enduring fiction comes to be written. Worse, it threatens to infantilize our writers, reducing them to the condition of permanent apprentices who grind steadily toward ‘maturity’ as they prepare to write their ‘breakthrough’ books.”
Cruise-Ship Auctions Spawn Legal Mess Over Authenticity
Several lawsuits brought by disenchanted buyers accuse “Park West [Gallery] and its founder, Albert Scaglione, of selling fake, forged and overpriced artwork and using phony appraisals and certificates of authenticity. Scaglione denied the allegations and said the negative publicity is killing his business.”
Missing From Drama Training: Career Advice, Development
“What these artists desperately need are the skills, support and confidence that will allow them to develop as independent artists, make their own opportunities and help broaden the theatre ecology. Otherwise, their training isn’t an investment: it’s just a waste.”
David Hockney On Empowerment Via iPad
“The 72-year-old Yorkshireman thinks that the iPad’s ability to share images will also have profound effects, both artistically and politically. ‘As it empowers more and more people to distribute their own images it weakens the older suppliers of images and perhaps governments as well.'”
Patrons, This Is Your Moment To Step Into The Void
“As the coalition sharpens its axe” for funding cuts, “let us remember that most of the world’s great works of art are the fruit of spendaholic patronage by magnificos who knew how to tell the accountants where to go.”