“Perth’s Fringe World, which opens on 15 January, attracted criticism and protests earlier this year over its longstanding sponsorship by fossil fuel giant Woodside. In a bid to head off disruption of next month’s event, the organisers – not-for-profit company Artrage – have included in the festival’s main contract the stipulation that ‘the presenter and the venue operator must use its best endeavours to not do any act or omit to do any act that would prejudice any of Fringe World’s sponsorship arrangements’. … [Performers] said the clause effectively amounted to a gag order, curtailing comment on anything from climate change to local politics.” – The Guardian
Blog
Why Play Is Essential To Ideas
Because thinking minds are different from evolving organisms and self-assembling molecules, we cannot expect them to use the same means—mechanisms like genetic drift and thermal vibrations—to overcome deep valleys in the landscapes they explore. But they must have some way to achieve the same purpose. As it turns out, they have more than just one—many more. But one of the most important is play. – Nautilus
City Of Austin Radically Reimagines Its Arts Funding
Under the new system, recipients of cultural funding needn’t be non-profit organizations or individual artists. Now “businesses and unincorporated groups” are also eligible to receive money from the city. – Sightlines
By The Numbers: What Theatre Looked Like In 2019
“A bright spot in the report indicates that the U.S. professional not-for-profit theatre field attracted an estimate of 38 million audience members to 180,000 performances of 21,000 productions in 2019, and more than one million Americans subscribed to a theatre season that year.” – American Theatre
The Complications Of What Tolerance And Respect Mean
“Today many regard tolerance not as the willingness to allow views that some may find offensive but the restraining of unacceptable views so as to protect people from being outraged. Regarding tolerance as the demand of those who might be offended, rather than as a permission for those who might offend is to turn the idea on its head.” – The Guardian
Should A Museum Diversify By Selling Some Of Its Best Art?
“MOLAA’s collection is, to be charitable, spotty. But the bizarre claim that certain first-rate artists are “overrepresented” in the collection, which chief curator Gabriela Urtiaga offered to The Times as a rationale for trying to unload 59 works, mostly graphics, does not inspire confidence in upgrading it.” – Los Angeles Times
All The Ways Senator Mike Lee Is Wrong In Blocking A National Latinx Museum
“There is a vacuum when it comes to the representation of Latinos in U.S. culture and that vacuum gets filled by figures like Trump, who regularly vilifies Latinos, describing Mexican immigrants as criminals and “rapists.” As I’ve written in the past, the cultural arena offers little to counter to these depictions: it’s either a steady diet of stereotype (maid and drug trafficking roles in Hollywood movies) or just straight-up invisibility.” – Los Angeles Times
Queering The Christmas Pantomime
“Madre Goose tells the story of an LGBTQ+ community of activists rallying against gentrification and materialism. All the wacky costumes, silly characters and daft jokes are as you’d expect from panto, but it has punk songs, psychedelic green-screen backgrounds and embraces inclusivity.” – The Guardian
‘Burroughs and the Dharma,’ the Real Story
James Grauerholz: “William was not a Buddhist: he never sought or found a “Teacher,” he never took Refuge, and he never undertook any Bodhisattva vows. He did not consider himself a Buddhist, nor — for that matter — did he ever declare himself a follower of any one faith or practice. But he did have an awareness of the essentials of Buddhism, and in his own way, he was affected by bodhidharma.” – Jan Herman
Consolidation: Major Broadway Theatrical Licensing Agency Is Sold To Competitor
In the letter, Dramatists Play Service says that the move was partly inspired by the challenges facing the theater business posed by coronavirus. It’s a public health crisis that has brought Broadway and other centers of the live events industry to their knees, dramatically reducing the fees that can be garnered for licensing plays and musicals to theater companies around the world. – Variety