Category: AJBlogs

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Max Facts: How Hollein Straddles the Divides Between Contemporary/Historic, Tech/Traditional
When I interviewed him more than a year ago over lunch in New York, Frankfurt museum director Max Hollein and I were obsessed with technology. I was then working on this Wall Street Journal article … … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-03-24

Nuzzling Brussels: The Musical Instruments Museum Tweets Through the Tears
Horrified, as we all were, by the news from Brussels, I surfed yesterday to the website of a museum there that I’d always wanted to visit — the Musical Instruments Museum. My jaw dropped when I saw … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-03-24

Despite AA – Don’t Avoid People, Places & Things
The National Theatre and Headlong’s production of Duncan Macmillan’s new play, People, Places & Things, has got a well-merited transfer to the West End at Wyndham’s Theatre, with … read more
AJBlog: Plain English Published 2016-03-24

A Closer Look At Max Hollein, New Director in San Francisco
Yesterday the trustees of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco announced that they had selected Max Hollein, currently director of the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, as their new chief. I’d say that was a good … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2016-03-23

Fine with Hollein: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Snare an International Standout as Director
The last time I interviewed Max Hollein, 46, who has just been named to become the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco’s new director (effective June 1), he was in New York for the November … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-03-23

Snapshot: Pilobolus’ Walklyndon
Pilobolus Dance Theater performs an excerpt from Walklyndon, choreographed in 1971 by Robby Barnett, Lee Harris, Moses Pendleton, and Jonathan Wolken. … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-03-23

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Committing to Engagement
In Engage Now! I discuss the importance of making a public commitment to engagement. When new communities meet representatives of arts organizations they often assume the intent of the latter is to get them to … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2016-03-22

MoMA’s Degas Monotypes Press Conference: My Cantankerous Cameo (with video)
I’ve already awarded myself the Hilton Kramer Award for Old Fogey-ism. Lately, I’ve been feeling more and more like the Helen Thomas of art journalism. Thomas, UPI‘s (and later,Hearst Newspapers‘) veteran White House correspondent, … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-03-22

It’s Spring
The temperature doesn’t feel like spring, but tell that to the backyard apricot tree. See what it did overnight. Soon, the orchards around here will all be in full bloom. I hate to leave them… … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-03-22

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The Value of Intrinsic Value in the Arts: A Guest Post by Carter Gillies
In recent years an artist named Carter Gillies has written to me with some regularity in response to Jumper posts. I have always valued his letters, which are invariably insightful, provocative, warm, and encouraging. Recently, …read more
AJBlog: Jumper Published 2016-03-20

Historic days for US and Cuba, accompanied by jazz
Congratulations to the U.S. and Cuba for advancing our long overdue reset. It’s about time. Jazz at its best has linked our nations for decades, through the tangled history of corrupt dictatorship and revolution, missile crisis, failed invasion, bad relations and … read more
AJBlog: Jazz Beyond Jazz Published 2016-03-21

Taking Folk Dancing into Today’s World
Tina Croll + Company performs in New York with Zlatne Uste Balkan Brass Band. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2016-03-21

Thad & Mel: The Tradition Continues
You may recall that a couple of weeks ago the Rifftides Monday Recommendation was an  album of recently discovered recordings by the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra. This evening, the PBS NewsHour closed with … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-03-21

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How Korea Spreads Its Visual Arts — And Diplomacy
Like many good articles, the one I wrote on Korea’s investment in having its visual arts seen in this country for The New York Times‘s recent Museums section began years ago with a conversation. It… … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear ArtsPublished 2016-03-20

The Weight of Failure
Gravity is greater on Planet Freelance than on Planet Employee, and failure is heavier for a freelancer than for a company employee. During 20 years of employment in organizations and … read more
AJBlog: Field Notes Published 2016-03-17

The Importance of Play
Failure and success tend to go hand in hand. One can’t experience one without the other. Failure is how we learn, how we grow, how we change, and ultimately, how … read more
AJBlog: Field Notes Published 2016-03-17

The dominant problem
Most of us would admit that our work comprises a complex bundle of interconnected problems. Each day we attack the particular problems in front of us (or the problems that pop up or pop into … read more
AJBlog: The Artful Manager Published 2016-03-17

Teaching controversial topics in class, and guns
At the Chronicle of Higher Education, Erik Gilbert writes that academics should calm down about college campuses being moved by legislation to allow the concealed carry of firearms. He concludes: People who are terrified by … read more
AJBlog: For What It’s Worth Published 2016-03-17

Buoyant about Met Breuer: My Q&A with Metropolitan Museum President Daniel Weiss – Part II
The last of the Metropolitan Museum’s “Five-Year Strategic Goals,” listed in the Mission Statement of its latest annual report, is to “to enable greater transparency, efficiency, collaboration and communication” … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-03-17

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Failure is an Option?
When conducting recent audience research with colleagues last year, we were stricken to hear from local teens that failure isn’t an option for them. With such a concentrated focus on … read more
AJBlog: Field Notes Published 2016-03-16

Who is Allowed to Fail?
A few weeks ago I helped one of our community chefs fill out a $5,000 loan application to kickstart his own business. I emphasized to him that his proposal would … read more
AJBlog: Field Notes Published 2016-03-16

Diversity and Genuine Engagement
In February Malesha Taylor posted “Is Your Theatre Only ‘Diverse and Inclusive’ Twice a Year?“, a meditation on diversity initiatives, outreach, and inclusiveness, on HowlRound. There were so many spot on observations it’s hard to … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2016-03-15

Critical Takeaways From The Taft’s Daubigny Show
“The puzzle I had was, how did an artist who grew up studying Rembrandt and observing the landscapes of Corot and Rousseau end up painting like an Impressionist?” That is Lynne Ambrosini, the director of collections … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2016-03-16

When Lloyd Met Shoemake
Yesterday’s post about Charles Lloyd’s birthday brought this communiqué from vibraharpist and pianist Charlie Shoemake. Thought you and your readers might get a chuckle out of this 1957 photo of Charles Lloyd and Charlie Shoemake … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-03-16

At 79, Charles Lloyd Is At A New Peak
This is a busy week for birthdays. We can’t observe them all, but yesterday Quincy Jones’s 83rd was a must, and today is saxophonist and flutist Charles Lloyd’s 78th. More or less coincidentally with his … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-03-15

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In a Risk-Averse Society, Failure is Our Way Forward
Classically trained artists and performers are typically possessed of levels of discipline, rigor and tenacity that are object lessons in the pursuit and achievement of excellence. Their training implies … read more
AJBlog: Field Notes Published 2016-03-15

Scarcity, Abundance and Finding Your Own Way to Fail
“Let’s run an experiment and see what happens.” I say these words at least twice a week with complete freedom. Not just the freedom to take the risk, but … read more
AJBlog: Field Notes Published 2016-03-15

Buoyant about Met Breuer: My Q&A with Metropolitan Museum President Daniel Weiss – Part I
After many months of trying to extract detailed information from the Metropolitan Museum’s press office about its operations at the Met Breuer (opening Mar. 18), my dogged persistence was rewarded last week with a brief … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-03-15

Hiphop footnote
Hiphop and arts organizations … Suppose the Kennedy Center, instead of naming Q-Tip as its Artistic Director for Hiphop Culture (see my last post), had named Kanye West instead. Or Jay-Z, or Dr. Dre. … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2016-03-15

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Worstward Ho! Is That How You Spell F-A-I-L-U-R-E?
“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.” —Samuel Beckett (Worstward Ho) The above quote from Beckett’s penultimate novella has become a popular battle cry of enlightened arts leaders. … read more
AJBlog: Field Notes Published 2016-03-14

Lessons from Failure
Failure is one of our key opportunities to learn from experience. In many respects, we learn more from our failures, those efforts that did not work, than we do from … read more
AJBlog: Field Notes Published 2016-03-14

“Unfinished” Business: Reflections As the Met Breuer Opens to Public
In my experience, whenever a critic writes a review, some observations have to be left out. There’s no room; they don’t fit thematically without great, leaping transitions, or some other reason intrudes. … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2016-03-14

No more pocket versions of To Kill A Mockingbird
The estate of Harper Lee has decided to end its relationship with Hachette publishers, which was licensed through HarperCollins to produce a mass-market paperback edition of To Kill A Mockingbird. HarperCollins will continue to produce … read more
AJBlog: For What It’s Worth Published 2016-03-14

All in the acting
You might think someone who had spent a hefty proportion of their evenings in the theatre, at the movies, in front of TV dramas or news broadcasts of politicians might have a few ideas … read more
AJBlog: Performance Monkey Published 2016-03-14

Quincy Jones’s Birthday
Quincy Jones turns 83 today. His story has had many chapters since his early days in Seattle and his apprenticeship in Lionel Hampton’s trumpet section. Jones went on to lead an important big band, score … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-03-14

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