“Sometimes you have to set it in the sun a while, and water it, and weed around it. Tend to it. And as it becomes itself you’ll begin to understand the shape it was always meant to take. You don’t have to force it. Just keep writing, and keep thinking about it.” – Howlround
Blog
New Dance Park On The Hudson Announces Its First Spring Festival
In August, Kaatsbaan, the former-farm-turned-dance colony upstate, founded by former ballet star Stella Abrera, hosted the East Coast’s first professional public dance performances since the pandemic began. It will launch a two-weekend festival next May, with performers including ABT, Mark Morris Dance Group, and members of Ailey and NY City Ballet. – The New York Times
The Makings Of A New Theatre Podcast Empire?
“We launched in October, 2019 with 15 podcasts. And here we are, a little over a year later, with almost 100 podcasts. Since the beginning it was very much the plan to have podcasts and record plays, musicals, audio dramas, and soap operas. It was never to replace theater and we certainly never anticipated the pandemic. When you see a show, you want to know more. What is happening behind the curtain?” – Forbes
Vox Media’s CEO Doesn’t Want It To Be Like Condé Nast. He Wants It To Be Like Disney.
Jim Bankoff: “Disney makes money by bringing its properties to consumers in different ways. … We have everything from programmatic advertising to podcasting, to creating TV shows to having a magazine, to affiliate e-commerce to subscriptions. So we have our own way of making money off our creative franchises.” – Vanity Fair
Arts Ed Group Calls For Resignations At Americans For The Arts
In a letter released December 11, members of the Arts Education Advisory Council, an elected advisory board representing arts educators from across the country, outlined a series of demands for Americans for the Arts, including the immediate removal of its most senior leaders. – Hyperallergic
New York City’s Arts Groups May Start Performing Again This Spring — Outdoors
“The City Council passed legislation on Thursday that allows any [city- or borough-] funded artist and cultural organizations, venues or institutions to be able to utilize public outdoor spaces for ticketed events and performances. And any artist and venue can partner with an eligible organization for permits as well.” The program, called Open Culture, begins March 1. – Gothamist
How COVID Changed The Arts In 2020
Artists of all disciplines have readjusted their ways of working, and many are left wondering whether they will have the wherewithal or spirit to continue their craft even after the pandemic abates. Yet with the losses we’ve also seen resilience and creativity that have led to new ways of experiencing culture. – Los Angeles Times
Controversial Korean Filmmaker Kim Ki-Duk, 59, Dead Of COVID
“[He] was known as the bad boy of Asian art-house cinema and made his name with a series of visually stunning but extremely violent films, including The Isle (2000) and Bad Guy (2001). … Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter … and Spring (2003), .. a sharp contrast with Kim’s previous work, was an international art-house hit. Pieta (2012), a story of redemption featuring a loan shark mobster (and more of Kim’s trademark visceral violence), won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Kim’s directing career was derailed in 2018 when three women came forward accusing him and his Bad Guy star Cho Jae-hyun of rape and sexual assault.” – The Hollywood Reporter
How Notre-Dame’s Enormous Grand Organ Was Taken Apart For Cleaning
Amazingly, the 8,000-pipe, five-keyboard instrument escaped serious damage in last year’s catastrophic fire. But all the pipes and mechanisms were covered in lead dust from the collapsed roof, and they require decontamination and repair. The organ’s disassembly was recently completed, nearly two months ahead of schedule (!), and it’s expected to be back in place in April of 2024. (But will it be?) – Smithsonian Magazine
Black Student Expelled From Elite Private School After Mother Objects To ‘Fences’ Too Strongly
August Wilson’s prize-winning play includes heavy use of the N-word by its Black characters, and when Faith Fox found out that her 14-year-old’s class would be studying Fences, she protested to the school repeatedly. (“It wasn’t something that I thought was appropriate for a roomful of elite, affluent white children.”) She says her son was expelled in retaliation for her standing up for what’s right; the school says it was a “termination of enrollment” due to “bullying, harassment and … slanderous accusations towards the school itself” by Ms. Fox. – The New York Times